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Seasonal Eating – March
Continuing my ongoing series on eating and canning seasonally, what’s new for March? As the weather is still treacherous, only robust stuff is coming into season. Thankfully there’s more to choose from this month: * New this month *Asparagus Green Cabbage Fingerling carrots Peas Scallions / green / spring onions *Spinach Turnip Greens – turnip…
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Food sovereignty
I heard a recent report on NPR news in which the reporter reeled out the usual trite comments about how bad the economy is, and concluded by saying that this is causing problems for the restaurant industry because eating at home is becoming “the new normal”. This casual, throw-away comment rocked me on a very…
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A food challenge
I have started a food challenge. The challenge is to reduce the distance our food travels, a concept known as food miles. How am I going to do this? I have already started by filling my freezer with meat from a local farmer. As much as possible we will be eating locally and ethically raised…
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Seasonal Eating – February
Here we are, in the spiteful last days of winter. Surely not much can be in season just now? Actually… no. Not much. February is pretty much the same as January, so pull up your stock pot, make a hug pot of stew or soup, and hide from the snow 🙂
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Seasonal Eating – January
As we pull out of the depths of winter, there is relatively little that is in season just now, mainly root vegetables. But if you ever wanted an excuse to pickle carrots, now is the time to do it. IN SEASON IN JANUARY Green cabbage Carrots Peas Scallions / green onions / spring onions Turnip…
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Eating seasonally
in the developed world we have the unparalleled privilege of being able to eat pretty much any fruit or vegetable irrespective of season. The downside to this is that the out-of-season produce has to be shipped to us from halfway around the world at great financial and fossil fuel cost. We, the developed world, need…
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Unitaskers
What is a “unitasker”? It is a gadget that does only one thing. That they are generally only advertised in late night infomercials should give you a hint as to how useless they usually are. While I generally agree with Alton Brown that the only unitasker in your kitchen should be the fire extinguisher (which…
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Cherries
Cherry. Wikipedia will tell you the dry facts, but it won’t tell you how you get that burst of sweet, dark fruitiness when you bite into them, or how well they go in desserts, jams, or pies, or how you almost start to salivate at the mere word. There is one downside. They are intensely…
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Build in flavour
While making a turkey pot pie with the last of my Christmas leftovers, I realised an important point. Dishes like pot pies rely on building in flavour at every step of the recipe – you simmer the chicken (or turkey carcass in this case), then use the broth to cook the veggies. This builds flavour…
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Red beans and rice
So you have taken care of your leftovers in a frugal manner and are looking for a dish which can soak them up and turn into something really tasty as well as being laughably cheap? Red beans and rice! A Creole favourite, it uses simple basic ingredients which you should already have in your pantry…