The Reluctant Ordained » Food

Snow ‘n’ Sloe

admin — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 17:35:19 +0000

A perfect occasion for a quiet wander in the snow and to gather a few of the last remaining sloes. They are now happily married with some of our apples to top off a warm cake, great to munch in front of the fire!

Harvest Festivities

admin — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 16:09:45 +0000

This was shown at the harvest service, someone commented that it always seemed to be sunny in the vicarage garden.

Food for the millions

stubiedoo — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 09:33:09 +0000

…and not just for the starving either. Last night on BBC2 Jimmy Doherty investigated ways of feeding the planet for the future, staring in Brazil, he visited farmers trying innovative ways of providing food from fields growing soy on an unbelievable scale to farming caipon, a native species of crocodile. I must admit being rather nervous at watching a program of Doherty’s because the last one I tuned into was his attempt to make at home the convenience foods made for mass markets. Bread was the subject, unless he was being sarcastic, he seemed to suggest that all the additives and huge amount of sugar, yeast and oil in supermarket bread was a fantastic innovation. There was no discussion of the taste or healthiness. So I was a little nervous, although he is known for being an advocate for sustainability… However there were certainly some positive aspects to last nights investigation, not least the preservation of rainforests by those farmers who not so long ago were cutting down trees for grazing land, are now re-planting. It seems those of us who want to offset our carbon emissions are paying these sort of people to let trees grow on their ranches. There was of course no discussion about eating less, local food for local people or population control but I really shouldn’t have expected it. The most enduring memory is the apple he cut to demonstrate how much of the earth we can grow food on – quite an alarming picture!

cheese-burger a day

stubiedoo — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:55:34 +0000

Well according to those who know these things, we should all be eating more! MORE !!!

I can’t help but think this is just another little ruse to get people spending a little more – after all any economic activity is good for the economy, even gym memberships! Those who need to eat more will already know about it or are ill, those who know how many calories they take in a day won’t need to worry. Most of those who follow this advice will probably be those who don’t need the extra food! It amounts to a cheese-burger a day, apparently. If I ate one a day i’d need new clothes pretty soon, not to mention a bypass! I could cycle each day down to the local ‘ahem’ burger joint, but that would probably negate the calorie intake, so I would have to have two, one for the cycle ride and one for me. What a waste of time/effort/money*

*Delete as you find appropriate!

Various Items of Food

stubiedoo — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:35:54 +0000

Well it is our harvest on Sunday.

The grain has been milled into flour, if all goes well… by tomorrow I should have a (literally) home grown loaf!

The Chillies are now chilli marmalade, some others are almost chilli jelly.

Fairtrade cadbury’s is just mmmmmm….

Grain Mill

FairTrade Cadbury’s Dairy Milk

Chillies

Elderberry wine

stubiedoo — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:21:14 +0000

fermenting

There really isn’t very much to see, smells good though, actually it smells like a pub after a heavy night of drinking, (yeasty, alcohol-ness) which is about right I guess. I didn’t add any extra yeast it just got going on its own. According to calculations from many and various places it should be ready about this time next year.

See you then! ( oh, and bring a partridge to roast.)

Harvest – Progress

stubiedoo — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:20:01 +0000

I have separated the ‘wheat’ from the ‘chaff’, just be letting the wind do its thing, you really have to do it to understand the phrase in Psalm One

But now I have a nice four ounces of wheat grain, there is probably just over that left to harvest eight ounces will make one loaf, just perfect!! Our theme for the harvest is ‘Bread for the Journey’ Hopefully if the bread works we will distribute it as people leave.

Straw and Chaff

Wheat Grain

Preparing for harvest

stubiedoo — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:15:17 +0000

Sheaf of Wheat

This is the first harvest of some wheat I grew this year as an experiment. I only grew a small patch, so harvesting when each stalk was ready was easy. It’s drying at the moment, but when ready I’ll be preparing it and grinding some flour. When all is harvested and prepared I hope to have enough to bake a loaf for our harvest festival, big enough for everyone to have a small piece to take away -a la ‘Blessed Bread’ in the orthodox tradition and talk about bread, the process, food and time. I might even use this reflection as a bread blessing.

Maundy Thursday

stubiedoo — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 07:44:29 +0000

We met with the young people, walked, talked awhile, then shared some food.

Not too dissimilar to that last Passover of Jesus, so I wrote this in the style of John Bell and Graham Maule

Eh, Jesus?

Do we care about a chicken or not?

stubiedoo — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:34:05 +0000

So do we care about Chickens or not, Free range eggs are into the basket from the Office of National Statistics, but so is Rotisserie Chicken one of the worst offenders when it comes to cheap mass produced chicken at a ridiculously low price!! See Hugh’s page on Chicken welfare!!