Each week I’ll try and post quick links to things that I’ve seen, read or just sparked my interest in the previous week. Mostly gardening, cooking and environmental stuff but not always.
Each week I’ll try and post quick links to things that I’ve seen, read or just sparked my interest in the previous week. Mostly gardening, cooking and environmental stuff but not always.
A brilliant little mix & match guide for making raw energy balls, from our new cookbook ‘Energy Bites’. These were the first type of energy balls that I ever made and they’re still my favourite snack! Incredibly quick and easy to make, really good for you and very tasty too. Yay!
This guide will get you started on a simple dried fruit and nut version. Choose one ingredient (or a combination of ingredients) from each column and whizz in a food processor until sticky. Shape into balls and roll in yummy stuff like chia seeds, cacao powder, bee pollen or crushed nuts. Firm up in the fridge for 1 hour (if you can wait that long!) and then eat. They freeze really well too. Simple…
The article in the Sunday Times about the site has generated a huge amount of media interest.
It has been a great morale boost for all of the allotmenteers and we’ve come out fighting. Well, when in a corner there aren’t many other options.
I’m learning social media as I go, but the first step has been to create an online petition and in just 6 hours, there are 93 supporters. How fabulous is that?
We will be on the new tonight. If you are in the London area or watch via the internet, then its ITV London News at around 1820.
If you would like to support the campaign, here’s the link:
Each week (no quick links post last week due to Christmas etc. so I’ve incorporated items from last week here too) I’ll try and post quick links to things that I’ve seen, read or just sparked my interest in the previous week. Mostly gardening, cooking and environmental stuff but not always.
This soup takes me back to right around this time last year when I was living on a farm in no man’s land Australia. The family I was living with ate a lot of meat and I am not the biggest of meat eaters, especially when dinner was the cute little goats or lambs you cradled earlier…it just wasn’t happening! I made huge batches of soup to freeze and defrost when it was necessary – and this one was my favourite! I was inspired from an old cookbook I found on the property which I think was called ‘Bowlfood – Soups’ but I’ve adapted the recipe quite a bit to my taste.
Caramelized Onion and Parsnip Soup
Ingredients
3 tb. margarine ( I used two margarine and one olive oil)
Each week I’ll try and post quick links to things that I’ve seen, read or just sparked my interest in the previous week. Mostly gardening, cooking and environmental stuff but not always.
Each week I’ll try and post quick links to things that I’ve seen, read or just sparked my interest in the previous week. Mostly gardening, cooking and environmental stuff but not always.
As I was peeling parsnips for dinner last night I was reminded of watching “Hugh’s War on Waste” that was on BBC TV earlier in the week.
The programme highlighted the statistic that as a nation on average we throw away the equivalent of a days food per week per household. Quite a shocking statistic, and one that I am determined won’t apply in this house. I feel that we are already pretty good in terms of making sure we don’t throw away anything that is still good to eat, but there is always room for improvement and I’ve therefore signed the pledge at http://wastenotuk.com, I encourage you to do the same.
I think what shocked me more though was the further statistic that supermarkets reject over 40% of produce grown by farmers each year for being the wrong shape or colour. Parsnips were the example used in the show, and the shocking story of one struggling farm that has 20 tonnes of parsnips rejected by Morrisons every week because they don’t fit the supermarkets exacting standards. (Here’s what Morrisons had to say)
Cosmetically, this is the supermodel of parsnips, but it has no flavourNow I mostly grow my own veg, at the moment I have a gap in my parsnip supply due to poorly timed seed sowing on my part.
My first sowing have all be harvested and although I have plenty of parsnips growing, but they’re not yet ready to harvest, so I had to buy some this week.
They are cosmetically very pretty – unlike the ones I normally grow, which tend to be a bit misshapen and odd looking, however they have absolutely no taste to them. My first harvest of parsnips this year from the allotment were sweet and very tasty, despite their outward appearance, the ones that I bought from the supermarket to supplement the allotment supply are not.
Now I know that won’t come as a surprise to many other allotment holders or those that grow their own veg, and I’m sure that it is as much to do with the time from harvest to plate that is as important, as well as the growing conditions, than how the parsnip looks, but for heavens sake why does cosmetic appearance matter? It’s taste that counts.
Electronic Scrapbook 