Good Food is Everybody's Business
All about growing and making good food, including gardening, foraging, gleaning, processing and cooking.
Someday I hope to have my own chickens, but until then I’m satisfied with knowing my eggs come from happy hens. And although I may not know them personally, sometimes now when I crack an egg I’ll send out a silent thanks to the animal it came from.
In the supermarket a variety of fruits and vegetables are available year-round, but this is more a reflection of our world economy than our ability to grow these foods locally. In Montana it’s the time for rhubarb, wild mushrooms, and salad greens, root vegetables, herbs, and a few tomatoes. Now is the best time to save by celebrating the seasonal.
This week, I’m finally getting serious about budget-tracking! Fed up with my attempts at calculating the cost of my meals, I invested in an electronic kitchen scale. Suddenly it’s simple to weigh in metric when a recipe calls for it, and I don’t have to guesstimate the amount of nuts or berries to add when they list the amount in pounds instead of cups.
Tom Baker (yes, that IS his last name) is an artisan baker and uses a wood fired “Earth Oven” to bake bread. He runs his business Loaf, a bakery and cookery school, from his home in Stirchley, Birmingham, UK.
Spring is a tough season to try to subsist on garden vegetables, but it IS possible to do pretty well with salad greens and herbs.
Certainly there’s a certain level of satisfaction in preparing food for oneself. But in preparing and sharing it with others the experience is unparalleled, the satisfaction far greater.
Last Sunday, as we sat down to dinner, we realized that three family businesses were responsible for most of the food on our plates. Here is our “tip of the hat” to these fine folks!
For the past two weeks I’ve gone from a selective omnivore to very selective, teetering in on the brink of vegetarianism. I’m not sure yet which way I’ll fall, but I’ve made a few important decisions to ground me for the time being. One thing is for certain: meat matters. To what extent does it matter? It’s a complex and personal question that each of us must decide for ourselves. If you’re looking for answers, Eating Animals is a good place to start.
