Just Shopping

When we moved back to England two years ago, I was keen to become an ethical shopper. Using farmers' markets, and seasonal eating, were two of my goals. But I soon found out that farmers' markets are really expensive. And, the children won't tolerate eating root vegetables all winter. They want peas and beans, and they won't eat cabbage or leeks. So, it is not easy.

The questions that compete for my attention and exhaust me, when I do the weekly shop include:

is this locally produced?

if not how far away is it from?

if it is from the developing world, is it fair traded?

is it cheap/reasonable?

is it on special offer?

is it packed in too much packaging?

is the glass bottle more environmentally friendly than the plastic one, given that both can be recycled?

if it is an animal product, was the animal well-treated?

is it healthy?

does it contain natural ingredients?

is the two for one deal really money-saving? If so, can we eat two of these packs before they go off (if not, you have just wasted stuff)

is the larger size really more economical than the smaller size, and if so ditto to the above - can we use that much before it goes off?

I end up weighing these factors against each other - so for example, I will buy the New Zealand lamb over the British, if it is on special offer - and I'll buy the yoghurts with loads of plastic wrapping, if the two for one deal is on - yes, money does usually end up winning the day.

Trouble is, I want to be an ethical shopper. But, it just costs more. And I feel as though I should be spending less on our food, not more. Aren't we meant to be good stewards of our money? And isn't it wrong to spend more money than necessary on food when other people are going hungry? But then again, I want to be good to the environment, not see food-producers exploited, and eat healthy food, and not eat chickens that lived in a battery, and so on. This is why I say, it is murky!

In our home group discussion on this subject last week, we also learned some surprising facts that threw more spanners into the works. For example, New Zealand lamb actually has less of a carbon footprint than British in spite of the long journey to get here - because British lamb has had more energy spent on feeding and raising it in our cold climate. So one of my food lynch-pins - "local is best" turns out not to be true. But on the other hand, British farmers need all the support they can get, so maybe it is true. But on the other hand, if we all stopped eating NZ lamb, would that damage their livelihood? Which is more important, the carbon footprint of the food, or the livelihood of the British farmers? Or the NZ farmers? Help!

Our conclusion as a group was, there is no set of clear principals, but, it is all just - murky.

We did agree that in spite of all of us being on a tight budget, we should be prepared to spend more money on some things, and in particular, our meat - buying it from local butchers, and so maybe we will eat less of it, but, it will be healthier. And we should eat seasonally - meaning that local vegetables bought when they are in season, are bound to be the healthiest and cheapest option. And, there is nothing wrong with having some frozen peas in the freezer! And, buying tea from India is fine but it should be fair traded, because we can't grow it here. But just because something says it is fair trade does not mean that it always is - so, we should try to be up on these things.

Shopping ethically is unfortunately complicated, more expensive, and more time-consuming. But for the sake of the planet, justice, and our own health, it is worth it. So, we should try.

Rookie Gardener

So I have tried to "put my money where my mouth is," inspired by Barbara Kingsolver, and started growing vegetables! (One of the Great British Traditions...) Our kind friends Simon and Andrea have two allotments just near our house, and they gave me some space in one of them to have a go. It has been so fun. I am growing tomatoes, peas, carrots, courgettes, squash, spinach, red peppers, herbs and lettuce. Well, so far they are all just babies, but I am quite optimistic.

Allotments are large spaces given over to strips of plots for growing stuff. They are owned and rented out by the local council, and if you rent one, it is a serious business - you have to keep it cultivated and tidy, and not be noisy and so on. Each person has their own shed complete with tea kettle and tools (I'm guessing), and they do take it quite seriously.



This is my little section. OK it looks a bit messy, but, they all do:

My courgettes, so far, my proteges.

My peas, small but perfect...

Ten Reasons To Take Up Vegetable Gardening:
1. Producing some food (even if only a bit), as well as just consuming, seems to be a good thing to do. Makes me feel I am doing my tiny bit.
2. It it is great excuse to be out of doors in the fresh air for a couple of hours.
3. It is a great way to be on my own for a while, in the peace and quiet, but not "inside my head," as it is physically busy and requires some thought but not too much. ie, it is the perfect escape!
4. It is exercise. I need it.
5. I can grow my favourite veggies.
6. It will save me money, a bit, when I actually harvest something.
7. Working with the earth to make it produce green shoots, leaves, flowers and fruit, being part of creation, working with the creator, is all just very satisfying.
8. Having young plants to tend is like having a hundred beautiful babies to look after, although thankfully different, as they don't cry, and they don't have names. But going to check on them, water them, remove insects and encroaching weeds, and look for their new leaves, does satisfy that nurturing impulse.
9. For me, it is a new thing to learn, a new if small challenge, which I enjoy.
10. It is great to take the children there and let them learn about growing things. They enjoy it too, so far!

I really can't recommend it enough...

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - Barbara Kingsolver

Two of my favourite topics combined - yay! Food and the environment. So now I have another hero, Barbara Kingsolver. Actually, I have loved her books for years - you all know The Poisonwood Bible which stands out from the rest. If you haven't read it, you must. Just recently I read her latest book, Flight Behaviour, which is a wonderful read, and I think second best to Poisonwood Bible. Talking to a friend about that book, she asked me if I had read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and raved about it - so I got hold of a copy, and it is so far amazing.

Anyone who read The Dirty Life, about a couple who take up farming, will love this one as well.

Barbara Kingsolver and her family move from Tucson, Arizona, to southern Appalacia to farm their land there, because of the realisation that living in the middle of the desert means that every drop of food and water that crosses their lips has been driven, trucked or flown a very long way to sustain them there. The cost in energy and the damage to the planet for humans to live in Tucson is massive (there are some statistics) and they made a decision as a family to live where their food can be and is grown.

The book tells how they spent a year trying to live on food that is grown around them - food that they know exactly where it comes from and who grew it. They have their own farm and they grew a lot themselves; the book has seasonal recipes for cooking when you have a glut - though I wish there were more recipes in it.

Among the points the author makes in the introductory chapters are two that struck me. One is that by eating locally-produced food you are saving so much of the energy that goes into transporting it (she refers to "oily food.") Another is that regions where people have a strong food culture depending on local produce usually have the most delicious diets, and are the healthiest. She mentions Italy, France, Japan, among others. So she sees a need for the US to develop its own new culture of food based on traditional and local foods. Of course Britain does not get a mention - we do have traditional foods but I am not sure they live up to France and Italy's...! But nor has our diet become as badly commercialised as in the US, yet (thinking of portion size and additives).

I am enthusiastic about the idea of becoming a "locavore". I even talked with a friend about sharing their communal allotment this year!! It makes so much sense. However there are a lot of problems associated with it and I have some reservations. One is, growing your own food, canning food, and cooking everything from scratch is very time-consuming. Two, buying vegetable and meat from farmers' markets (which are everywhere now) is extremely expensive and we are living on a limited budget. Three, so many things have to be imported - can I manage without not only coffee but tea as well? Chocolate? Bananas? Wine? Pasta? Rice? Will potatoes be enough?? And a related point, don't countries depend to some extent on other countries buying their produce? If the UK stopped importing tea, wouldn't India have a financial crisis? So how can this theory be completely right? Of course Fair Trade is a good way to go and might be the answer to that. But it is complex: the carbon footprint is still there.

So, I will end up with some compromise version as usual and maybe just make myself feel a bit better... But, it will be a way to make myself try some new recipes and lose some weight... and, every little helps, right? And maybe if everyone did that little bit, it would make a difference.

As usual, I'd love to know anyone's thoughts...

What goes into a chicken pie?

Yesterday as I was making a chicken pie for supper, the time went by more than usually fast - because my mind was occupied thinking about the people who made a contribution to that pie. Took me on quite a journey...

It started with blending the pastry in a mixing bowl given to me in Zimbabwe - where I went to set up home with the contents of a three ft by two ft trunk... hence my first flat was extremely bare... A good friend from All Nations Christian College was working with her parents and siblings in Zimbabwe, running a lovely orphanage in a farming area outside Harare. Through Cheryl, I got to know her family, and her sister Gerrilyn was getting married to a pastor called Winston, so as she was starting over, she gave me some of her cooking equipment including these bowls, two floor rugs, some curtains and a sofa set. She basically saved me from living on a bare wooden floor! Although the sofa set got left behind in Zimbabwe, everything else is still in my possession, and I use those mixing bowls virtually every day, fifteen years later, and think of Gerrilyn every time. She and her husband now pastor a church in the US.

Rolled out the pastry on a glass board given to us for Christmas once by fellow-Uganda missionary Thom Froese, picked out for us at Game in Kampala... very handy and also used often... and I also appreciate Thom every time I look at the sepia photos of Paris on them...

Cooking the filling, I was thinking about Robyn, who gave me the recipe and promised me that her whole family even both daughters love this pie and eat every scrap... Robyn was a friend I made through the children's school, Ambrosoli, in Kampala - she is South African, we used to talk about books together a lot, and she then went and immigrated to Tasmania - really! - as her husband is a forester and works there now. We keep in touch a little bit, and it's true, I do love her pie.

Once the pie was out and looking pretty good, I must say (!), I couldn't help thinking about Florence, our helper in Uganda... this was one of the recipes I taught her to make, and, she used to make it perfectly every time. It was such a blessing and so blissful, to say to Florence in the morning, "Could you make us one of those chicken pies today?" - and to get home in the afternoon to find it ready and waiting for supper... Heavenly. I think of Florence almost every day - I don't miss her help as much as I did in the beginning, but, some days I would almost pay for her ticket just to have her here with her steady, unflappable, gently smiling manner, ready to do anything, at her own pace, but, she would get it done. I loved Florence! She would sympathise with me when I was flustered, tell me I needed a rest if I looked tired, tell me things were not my fault, tell me I had been working hard, agree with me that life is difficult, tell me my children were so good, and basically, she was on my side at every point.

So my mind travelled as I cooked, from Zimbabwe to the US to Uganda to Tasmania and back to Uganda again. And, the pie was pretty good. I can pass on the recipe to anyone who wants it - it is easy I promise!

You're on a what?

I could put it down to my age - having passed 45 - or to my tablets - or to my rather sedentary job - or to the fact that I have been allowing myself to eat whatever I wanted for the last six months... Whatever the cause, I am afraid I have started to... bulge. Like when you are blowing up a new balloon and it holds its tension until suddenly, one lump pops out, and then it all gives way and the balloon fills with air. So my waist skin, jaw skin, upper arm skin, and other bits too, managed to hold the surface tension for quite some time, until suddenly... plop... I started to, frankly, bulge.

The day that I had to rush out of work at lunchtime to buy the next size up of trousers, because my tummy was so uncomfortable in my normal ones, that was the day I realised something had to be done.

I have never worried about my weight or really thought about it, and I have always eaten pretty much whatever I felt like. So for me to embark on a diet was a bit of a shock. But luckily enough, I came across an ad on facebook for a book entitled The Gabriel Method - the revolutionary DIET-FREE way to transform your body. Excellent! It promised you can lose weight without dieting, eating whatever you want!

So I bought the book, and in a few nutshells, this is what it says:

• Weight is all in the mind - either your body reacts to stress by staying thin ( ready to flee), or by gaining weight - (storing up fat for future shortage) - so you have to persuade your mind that you need to stay thin for your own good, and that, there is no shortage to fear, so no need to store fat. 
• So, brainwash yourself by listening to Mr Gabriel's CD at bedtime each night, whilst visualising yourself as a thin person, saying to yourself "Thin is good, thin is OK, thin is safe," and such.
• If you diet as in, deny yourself any food at all, your brain will think that your body is being deprived of something it needs, so, your body will start to store fats from what you do eat. So the key is to eat what you want, so that the body feels safe. (sounds good so far...)
• Eat plenty of healthy food with all the vitamins you need, seeds, nuts, fruit and veg, etc, so that your body is in fact getting everything it needs - so that it will have a sense of well-being and not need to store up fat or urge you to eat more. This way you will slowly stop craving unhealthy foods, sugar etc to give you energy you were lacking.
• Then some stuff about your Chi which I skipped over...
• The some advice about eating flaxseed every day for Omega 3, eating brown sugar and flour instead of white, avoiding processed, prepacked food, eating "live" fresh organic food, avoiding toxins and additives...
• Then two more chapters which I skipped over...

I concluded that the book is a bit of a mixture, and that while it has some good ideas, as a whole it is not for me...

So I am trying a hotch-potch approach, and if it works, I will call it the Button Method.

We have always eaten a balanced diet with plenty of vegetables, but now I am intentionally eating some healthy things every day, like a piece of fruit, a handful of sunflower seeds, and adding milled flaxseed to almost everything I cook. I am also calorie counting... I have never calorie counted in my life. I honestly never knew how many calories were in anything. So it has been quite interesting finding out. For example, I now know that a banana has 95 calories in it, while a bowlful of apple crisp has 350!!

But sticking to the 1800 calories a day is really not at all hard. It mainly means not eating between meals, and not blowing out on crisps or loads of biscuits. One choccie biscuit or other treat in a day seems to be no problem. 

Now I need to add in some exercise, I suppose. Sadly, Billy Blanks and Tae Bo went out the window months ago. I can't imagine having the energy to jump around the sitting room right now... Maybe just walking Frodo a bit more briskly is all that's needed.

Well, here's to fitting back into those old trousers... 

Strawberries and Cream...

My non-British friends may or may not know this, but if you were asked to epitomise an English summer, you would probably say: strawberries and cream, garden parties with Pimms and lemonade, Wimbledon on the TV, cricket (for some), picnics in the park/countryside, family days on the beach...

Nothing beats an English summer. But this year something has gone wrong...! Honestly, my first English summer for years! Worse than usually wrong, that is. OK, we always get quite a lot of rain, but this year, we have had a LOT a lot of rain. The wettest summer since records began 100 years ago. Flooding all over the country. Nine out of ten cricket matches, parties, BBQs, and open air concerts cancelled because of... the rain.

(not my pictures, I am glad to say)

Gloucester has thankfully escaped scenes like these...

Tewkesbury, just a few miles north of us, earlier in July

 According to the weather-men, the problem is the Gulf Jet Stream, which normally sweeps down and  around the Atlantic Ocean bringing us warm sunny summer weather on its right shoulder - but which has this year dropped south by a very long way, leaving us on its left shoulder and therefore in the rain and cold. For weeks. Temperatures of 12 to 15 degrees when it should be high 20s. These graphics I stole from Google give the idea:

I really needed the sunshine too... but, it looks as though this weather pattern is going to be with us until at least the end of July. Possibly until September. Aaaaaaggghhhhhh!!!

But we are trying to be British and stoical and making the best of it. The evenings are still light until nearly 10.00 pm, so that helps. Walking with Frodo come rain or shine also helps. Alex has managed to play a few cricket matches:

And yesterday Alex and I went strawberry-picking, and today we all feasted on meringues, strawberries and clotted cream... mmmmmmmm...