The Real Bread Campaign

Nothing is closer to our hearts than the salty, saccharin, fizzy, marshmallow soft, rainbow-hued memories of food that map our life experiences when viewed through the skewed kaleidoscopic, synergistic interactions of a cocktail of non-nutritional food additives: preservatives, colourings, flavourings, thickeners, emulsifiers and stabilisers, our generations, X and Y, have been inadvertently ingesting for several decades (not to mention our dose quotidienne of dishwashing liquid and toothpaste residue).

Under parental guidance, we have been brought up inured, our indifference possibly symptomatic of the neurotoxic effects of our formative diets, to off-the-shelf, pre-prepared, convenience ingredients, just-add-water-ready mixes and quick frozen meals. "Can't cook", we enthusiastically relinquish our own skills as means to culinary sufficiency and pride ourselves in exercising our uninformed consumer choice "don't cook!".

Here in the UK there is a current TV advertising campaign announcing that "Blue (Smartie) is back". If like me you immediately rushed out in a fit of nostalgia and bought a box of this crunchy, sugar-coated, chocolate confectionery only to discover that the colour of ALL Smarties is now disappointingly wishy washy (!!!) one is forced to acknowledge the creeping suspicion as to why is it that food industry giants are now removing additives in products aimed at children in a bid, as they claim, to improve their "nutritional quality"? If these additives are non-nutritional then one can extrapolate that the only reason they are doing this is in fact to reduce the toxicity of their products. Is it just possible that those kids who started frothing at the mouth, threw themselves on the floor and gnashed at people's ankles at the mere sight of additive inoculated food were not just simply more badly behaved than we were?

Since it is still considered okay for these additives to be in food aimed at adults, it is time we big kids make our own unadulterated food using ingredients of integrity. No need to to write to your local MP or quit eating altogether in protest, simply baking your own bread is grass roots activism at its most nutritious and delicious. Spend your money judiciously (food manufacturers and retailers, for all they call themselves market leaders, will bend themselves over backwards to meet customer demand) and tuck into some top nosh you made yourself with your own two hands.

I baked the white bread wheat sheaf loaf as part of The Hornbeam Centre's "Rise Up: A celebration of bread" Lammas celebration. As part of the day's events there was a truly inspirational talk by Andrew Whitley, an organic baker, who explained, as a cause of the disingenuous practices employed in the industrial manufacture of bread and the farming of wheat for bread flour production, why he had initiated The Real Bread Campaign. It is not every day that one has the opportunity to experience an eureka moment - I came away from his talk vowing to start eating real bread on a regular basis and to take the time to teach myself how to bake it. Watch this space.

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   Bramble Jam

The best thing about going brambling early in the season is the fact that there is blossom and green, reddening and fully ripe, swollen black berries to be seen growing in juxtaposition – a scratch and sniff Adriaen Coorte still life. 4 Real.

The best thing about brambling is that you don't have to read the label to check whether they are airflown, or organic free range. And there is no packaging!

Here you have it, our bramble walk in Epping Forest preserved in a darling jar of jam to save for a wintry day. The rest of it went down nicely baked in an apple and bramble pie.

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    Queer Socks

I followed the, stoical guidance of Pam Allen’s ‘Knitting for Dummies’ no-frills Basic Socks pattern for my first attempt at knitting in the round. And, true to the pattern, they be socks*. Odd socks of course.

To be frank I am chuffed. What I like about the socks is that they are substantially more 3D and constructed than my earlier scarf projects. Seeing a sock literally grow on the end of your knitting sticks is entrancing. In gas bill terms, since they are as thrifty as boiling a kettle filled with just enough water for the number of cups of tea required, one can never have too many woolly socks for pootling about in. Me thinks I’ll be knitting more.

*For those techie knitters out there I used 4x50g balls Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Chunky, shade 023 - Red Ink and Debbie Bliss merino dk scraps for the heels.

At the same time as I was working on the Basic Socks I ploughed through making this pair in Regia 4ply sock wool that I’d been given by a well-meaning mate as encouragement. I followed the free pattern that came with the wool.I was frustrated by the yarn repeatedly petering out and having to start new lengths, holding the loose ends for a round or so to maintain the tension and prevent holes forming! In truth I was underwhelmed by the colours and combination thereof and the ONLY thing that kept me going to the end was the prospect of learning how to graft the toe.

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    Maison Grenouille et Chez Crapaud

Living near the supposedly longest (but not the largest) daily outdoor market in Europe I am dismayed to see the number of unmarked pallets being collected by the street refuse service along with all the other cardboard and plastic packaging, rotten produce and detritus of the market. Living just a hare's breath from Britain's largest waste incinerator I am even more alarmed by the fact that if this waste stream is not being dumped in landfill it is being incinerated, contributing further to the accumulation of greenhouse gases both in the atmosphere and in my lungs.

It doesn't take a large leap of the imagination to see that REUSE, REUSE, REUSE is the operative solution to this improvidence.

If only the council deployed one of the Bulky Items Collection trucks from their fleet to collect these pallets and distribute them among the 38 allotment sites in the borough or, if goodwill is deemed too expensive, to a depot where a commercial initiative can be run to redistribute the pallets to local haulage / distribution / storage firms.

• Firstly the council would benefit as it wouldn't have to pay for the disposal of the pallets as waste.
• Secondly in comparison to transporting them to waste processing sites, the transportation of the pallets would be minimised as they would be distributed within the borough.
• Thirdly folks on the allotments would find numerous applications for this wood source thereby reducing loss of viable wood and since not many people have access to the means to transport pallets they will be much appreciative of the fact that these heavy, bulky items are delivered to site.

Inspired by the Amphibian Ark Global Campaign and their efforts to redress the amphibian extinction crisis I built this vegetable planter with integral frog shelters for Doris, a friendly neighbour of mine so that she can grow tomatoes in her garden in a spot where she can protect them from voracious slugs. I have published an Instructable of the step-by-step construction of this combination vegetable planter / frog shelter here.

But remember, if you plan to build something similar FOR BOTH THE WELL BEING OF THE FROGS AND YOURSELF YOU ARE COMMITED TO USING ORGANIC METHODS OF GARDENING. THAT MEANS FOR INSTANCE USING ORGANIC COMPOST, NOT USING TOXIC SLUG PELLETS (usually Metaldehyde or methiocarb) OR CHEMICAL PLANT FOOD OR WEED KILLERS . YOU CAN FOR INSTANCE USE A LIQUID SEAWEED PLANT FOOD SO LONG AS YOU DILUTE IT CORRECTLY.

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    Hot Happy Buns

What beauties!
Recipe makes 12 buns:
450g strong plain white flour
25g fresh yeast or 15ml (1 level tablespoonful) dried
5ml caster suger to activate yeast
250ml combined volume of tepid milk and water, mixed
5ml salt
2.5ml each ground mixed spice, cinnamon, nutmeg
50g caster sugar
50g butter, melted
1 egg, beaten
100g currants
80g sultanas
shortcrust pastry

For the glaze:
30ml each milk and water
30ml sugar

To prepare the glaze: Combine all ingredients in a saucepan over a gentle heat until the sugar has dissolved.

To make the buns:
Mix 100g flour with yeast, sugar and warmed liquid; leave until frothy (dry yeast approx 20min, fresh yeast approx 30min).
Sift remaining flour, salt, spices and sugar into a bowl.
Rub the butter into the dry ingredients.
Combine yeast mix, beaten egg, fruit and dry ingredients into a fairly soft, pliable dough.
Knead.
Allow to rise, then knock back and cover and place in the fridge over-night.
Remove from fridge, shape into buns, allow to come to room temperature and to rise.
Decorate with shortcrust pastry.
Bake at 200'C until golden (10-12min.
Glaze and place on cooling rack.

NOW GO AND BAKE!

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    Gong Xi Fa Cai

This New Year glutinous rice, or sticky, cake or Nian Gao was purchased from a market stall holder, at the Section 17 Market, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

The wrapped cake initially appears quite hard and waxy. But, when cut into slices, thin enough for them to appear translucent, dipped in egg yolk and coated in flour and fried, it transmogrifies into a saccharin-sweet, sticky, gooey substance which the only thing in western cooking that approximates it is a pan-fried jelly baby.

A good Nian Gao is judged by its stickiness, the more gooey the better. During the Lunar New Year celebration it is offered to the Kitchen God to ensure that he doesn’t give a bad report to the Jade Emperor about the householders’ behaviour; as his mouth is stuffed with sticky cake, he is prevented from speaking.

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   Isn't She A Beauty?

I found this whizzy little machine in Vintage Heaven on a last minute pre-Christmas trip to the flower market on Columbia Road, E2. Sadly, in this time of record fuel prices and increased duty and tax on fuel, replacing my recently defunct electric beaters with this vintage Prestige, woman-powered hand whisk probably won’t make a dent in the inexorably fattening profits of the oil and gas giants and subsequent financial windfall for the Treasury.

At least I will feel a little better, within the paradigm of a belated New Year’s resolution, that I am doing my collective bit which is more than the government's inept fuel and tax policies are doing for the environment (or the pensioners, least we forget them).

There is nothing left to be said but to whip up a lemon meringue pie, now that’s true ‘Labour’ in the old sense of the word.

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