We like our food to be local, fresh and sometimes wild and this means that our diet changes a lot throughout the year. We shall be demonstrating our kitchen during times of the year when the UK is at its best for home grown produce, May-October. Although of course you can store many things, (or you might be lucky enough to have a polytunnel!) by now, April, this store cupboard is rather bare and most new veggies haven't quite come into season. We are getting acquainted with weeds this spring to wild add fresh leaves to our rocket salads.
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| My Parents vegtable garden - we're lucky to have land! |
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| LOVE ground ivy |
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| Rubarb brains! |
The Meat Debate
Pedallers Kitchen mostly produces vegan food and we see the huge inefficiencies in the heavily meat based diets commonly eaten today and the cruel conditions in which many animals are kept. We are also keen to show that you don't need animal products to make very tasty food. See Veggies website for more info on going Vegan:
However, we are not vegans and personally, after 10 years of vegetarianism, I now see animals and therefore meat consumption, as a small, but important part of a sustainable future. When animals are reared respectfully and consumed minimally, we believe they are an important part of human/land systems. For us, eating local comes first, and Britain isn't so suitable for mass production of most types of legumes.
This may well be discussed in more length in future posts!
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| Sweet Cicely - Sweet, aniseedy aromatic plant |
Spontaneous recipes
We like to approach food in a flexible way, not sticking to one recipe but more having general template recipes which can be adapted to suit what you have and what looks good. Our culinary adventure over the last years has taken us through times of eating almost entirely 'skipped' food (food reclaimed from a landfill bin) for which flexibility is Key. See link below to a few early recipes by me.
Growing your Own
We are lucky enough to be living with some seasoned organic growers, from whom we are learning, which gives us access to fresh veggies right here at home. The quicker you can get food in from the garden and onto your plate the more flavour and goodness you get for yourself. While it may not be possible, or preferable, for everyone to grow their own on a large scale, most people have space for a few herbs or salad leaves and we recommend you give it a go and see how you can taste and feel the difference!
We are lucky enough to be living with some seasoned organic growers, from whom we are learning, which gives us access to fresh veggies right here at home. The quicker you can get food in from the garden and onto your plate the more flavour and goodness you get for yourself. While it may not be possible, or preferable, for everyone to grow their own on a large scale, most people have space for a few herbs or salad leaves and we recommend you give it a go and see how you can taste and feel the difference!
Sweet Cicely can be added to stewed fruit to reduce the amount of sugar needed, perfect as the rubarb comes into season. It was also a good addition to a moroccon style tagine I made with the final Pumpkin of last year.
Eating Weeds
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| Wild Sorrel |
We are taking full advantage of Spring to learn more about how much of what's out in our gardens we really can eat. I have been amazed by reading about the nutritional value of many bemoaned weeds which grow prolifically. However, although most are quite palatable, I have not been blown away by many of their flavours. Besides wild Sorrel, I have also eaten the cultivated variety and the woodland variety, and they all have a distinctive, tangy flavour which is most delicious.
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| Seems sensible to eat it when there's THIS much! |
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| Ground Elder - A staple of the Romans. |
Despite most having a somewhat bland flavour, we feel that 'weeds' can add lots of goodness for no money and are therefore a great thing! You may also combine harvesting your food with clearing your garden,killing two birds with one stone. They may take a while to harvest, but if you compare that to the time saved on 'weeding', digging,cultivating, sewing seeds and then nurturing its a pretty good food return for energy expended.
