A spot of tree maintenance, guerilla style

There’s a small triangle of sloping ground near my folks’ house, between the railway station and the access path, where several trees have been planted. Not sure how long the trees have been there – at least a few years – and the staking hasn’t been removed. It’s really started to bug me that the straps are digging into the trees, and will eventually kill them off. So when we were over yesterday for the last time before the folks move house, I had a last chance to help the trees out.

Cbeebies ‘I can cook’ rocks!

After the last few posts about the World Food Summit, I thought I’d blog about something closer to home. I can cook is a BBC programme* that shows young children cooking. They cook real food in a cheerful kitchen and then eat it. Simple!

There are many things to like about the show: 5 kids and the presenter make the same dish so you can see that each of them makes it in a different way; and each kid is praised for the work they’re doing. They use raw egg in some shows, and use blunt-nosed kitchen scissors in others. The recipes are child-appropriate, although one minor worry was the fish triple decker smothered in a layer of ketchup, with its salt and sugar content. (Ha! I should talk … my daughter mainlines the stuff)

I’m most impressed with the I can cook garden, where they take the kids out to collect an ingredient. Am envious of their nice raised beds and greenhouse.

Today’s recipe was for savoury bites. The daughter and I had just made scones, so it was interesting to show her that some of the recipe was the same, and how they used chives instead of sultanas and sugar. I really like their way of describing mixing the fat and flour as tickling the flour.

Our scones turned out well, using rice milk and stork instead of cows’ milk and butter. Taste great with home-made jam, too.

Search for I can cook on BBC iplayer

* It’s actually an Endemol programme for the BBC, but I won’t quibble.

More overseas development aid required to eradicate hunger

The Food Summit’s ended, and FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf is disappointed that targets and deadlines haven’t been set. There are some important results, though; and more of that later.

A well-fed food activist, hostile to new technologies

Am I a well-fed food activist who’s hostile to new technology? I ponder this as I drink wine poured from from a screw-top bottle into a blue plastic camping mug…

I’m probably not helping my cause by also pointing out that Nigel Slater’s lentil and sausage stew is a one-pot meal that’s simpler to make the the usual way I make the dish. The old recipe calls for a glass of red wine (which is why I’ve got some left over on a Monday night) and also needs the lentils cooked seperately from the sausages.

In other news, Nick Herbert’s piece against Meat Free Mondays in the Guardian includes straw men, sleights of hand and bizarre assertions. That’s the shadow secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs talking, so hold onto your hats after next year’s election. The only glimmer of hope is that some of that portfolio is a devolved matter.

Personally, I’m all for reducing the amount of meat in my diet; but not eating meat on Mondays? What about the left-overs from a Sunday roast? I guess that’s me being a well-fed food activist who’s hostile to new technologies like prepared meals…

Why I chose Good Energy renewable electricity

Very glad we changed our electricity to Good Energy as part of our 10:10 pledge. (yes, yes, I know we should have got 100% renewable electricity earlier but we were so busy cycling and working the allotment. OK?) Latest news on their blog is an open letter to the Prime Minister regarding his forthcoming visit to Copenhagen.

This is in contrast to our old electricity supplier (Eon) who increased the amount we were paying by direct debit when we were a hundred pounds in credit. Oh … and they want to build 4 new nuclear power plants. I think we’re better off without them on a micro- and macro level. *waves*

Woooooh!

scary neeps

The daughter asked why I was making a scary face, and why didn’t I make a happy one instead.

How food shapes cities

Interesting new video on TED: Carolyn Steel on How food shapes cities gives a historical view of the forces that have shaped cities.

The talk compares the ordinary urban landscape, where more and more of us are living, with the extraordinary landscapes of industrial farming. We then jump back to C17th, where a city’s food was obvious to the inhabitants from the bustling outdoor markets, and because of limited refridgeration and limited mobility of produce. With the advent of trains in the mid C19th, cities started to become decoupled from geography and this process continued with the car in C20th.

Food has gone from the core to the periphery, from the social to the private, and from the personal to the anonymous.

She refers to Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s fresco The allegory of good government (1338-1339) but illustrates this with a picture of his Effects of good government on city and country. Looks like they’re both in a series of frescoes in Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, so they’re connected.

Looks like the council library has a copy of her book The Hungry City.

Mushrooms

In other news, my homepage seems to have got stuck at Paul Stamets’ TED talk on 6 ways mushrooms can save the world. I thoroughly recommend it if you have 18 minutes to spare and like watching super geeky presentations.

A new bell for the bike!

Several months ago I cycled to a Transition Edinburgh Pentlands meeting in Oxgangs. Whilst I was in the meeting, the bell from my bike was nicked. In fact it was the top half of the bell that was nicked, but that’s functionally the same as losing the whole bell. Since then, my daughter has been asking incessantly why I don’t get another bell and why it was taken.

At the Painting Edinburgh Green festival this weekend, I stopped by the Greener Leith table and was given a bike bell. Very gratefully recieved!

I’m just off to pick the daughter up from nursery. No doubt I’ll have to explain how I got the bell back…

Rhubarb and ginger jam FTW

An unexpected first prize in the other jam category with my rhubarb and ginger jam! I am very chuffed with that.

The 'other jam' category - looks like two other entries had already been removed

A colleague gave me a 1970’s recipe and I modified it to include real ginger rather than powdered stuff, which added a nice warmth to the jam. I also used an unrefined sugar and dropped the amount in the recipe, which gave a more rounded sweetness and not too prominent. And I simmered the jam until the rhubarb stalks disintegrated into their fibres. (You need to do quite a lot of simmering ‘cos rhubarb has very little pectin in as it’s a stalk not a fruit.)

We got to the hall quite late and so didn’t have much time to wander round to see the other exhibits and chat to friends. Caught a glimpse of David Somervell, who’s recently been featured in an article in the Guardian newspaper, and am very happy to see someone who’s working professionally to reduce CO2 emissions and also living the life.

She who knits and the daughter entered the tombola and won a huge book on Italian Cooking — Italia in Cucina published by McRae books. A quick skim shows it’s got a wide range of dishes made with simple ingredients, the instructions are clear and the photos are good. The organisation of the book makes no mention of the rhythm of antipasti, primi piatti, secondi piatti e contorne. Nevertheless, it’s got several recipes for gnocchi and for minestrone so I’m happy.

what we came away with

my rather weedy garlic is at the front; the winner looked so good