I write this from my desk in Geneva. I am sitting at a desk with a computer. I am wearing shoes (ish) trousers (ish) and a shirt, freshly ironed i might add. Looking to my left i see Graham, he is sitting at his desk, but it's not his beauty that steals my attention. Through the window, there is the gardens of the Palais de Nations, it was bequeathed to the UN by a wealthy sod back in the day when wealthy sods existed and did things like that. It is a well manicured green space, it used to be open to the public for them to roam free and visit the library, now it's not so open. Since 2001 and the government conspiracy to .. oh hold on, wrong blog.. Anyway, since then, it's been closed tighter than Merkel's purse strings.
Above the greenery fly some raptors, i believe they are black kites, so i have been reliably informed, very big and graceful. The lake is a dominating feature today due to the clouds, it's always a beautiful colour, even on a cloudy day. It's blues and greens look like the coast of Gozo. Behind the lake rise hills, behind the hills rise mountains, and behind them all lies Mont Blanc, as the name suggests, there is snow it's peaks all year round, and it's quite a sight.
If office work was this, sitting here, looking at inspiring videos on vimeo, or catching up on films, tv series and stand up that i have been meaning to watch for months, then i could do this. But barely.
Each morning i have to sit on the window sill, take off my shoes and socks and soak up the sun, i have come to realise i am solar-powered.
My life has been very changeable of late. I waltz to the music of life alone once more..
I have jumped ship from the meat eaters to the vegan ship, it's a lovely ship and i will try hard not to convert you....I am trying hard also not to be self-righteous..
I do however feel amazing. I drink super greens before each meal (chlorellla/spirulina/barleygrass/wheatgrass), I have a smoothie for breakfast each morning, and salads with various pulses and beans the rest of the day. I snack on nuts, and i have stopped eating sugar.
I don't feel like i have had to give up anything. The things that i used to eat, just don't appeal to me anymore, the thought of having coffee, alcohol, cheese, doesn't do anything for me. It's a strange situation.. until you try it, you can't understand. You just don't understand *runs into the corner crying*.
I have 8 days left here, which i will spend swimming in the river, which is lovely. Running, which makes me fell good. Eating, which i still love. Exploring all that Geneva has to offer, which is exciting.
Everything is a blessing. Just sometimes they are in disguise..
Friday, July 6, 2012
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
The teachings of Mr Saucy Squirrel
This post today is high-tech on the down-low. The low-down on the upcycle. Use, abuse, and reuse.
Cycle, recycle, upcycle, unicycle. Nuts roll. Nuts rule.
In the last month, the two in the bush (craft) as the proverbial saying goes, weren't worth the one in the hand. So I quit. Much to the disbelief of all working there, just plain quit it.
I have spent the last few months learning a bit of carpentry, making things out of pallets, the first of my objets d'art was a blanket chest/coffee table for my sister/brother-in-law.
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Next, I began finding pallets everywhere so I carried on, for some inspiration, check out www.instructables.com. Feeling inspired but without more customers, I had to find a space and fit something into it, so I made a shelving unit to put my books on, and an Adirondack chair for my parents' patio.
With my Kindle it make sit easy not to read real books, but after the few months of reading the Kindle, the initial novelty has worn off, and i am happily balancing the both. The Kindle and an amazing site called http://www.gutenberg.org/ has introduced me to books, i've never thought of reading, currrently on my Kindle is the Scarlet Pimpernel, Madame Bovary, and the Allan Quartermain series...
Today having to look after my little brother who was 'ill', I decided to have a nice freshly made coffee. Obviously a coffee needs something sweet, so just as the coffee is bubbling, out come freshly baked dark chocolate and almond cookies.
Orders now being taken for cookies and chairs... bookshelves and biscuits...
Cycle, recycle, upcycle, unicycle. Nuts roll. Nuts rule.
In the last month, the two in the bush (craft) as the proverbial saying goes, weren't worth the one in the hand. So I quit. Much to the disbelief of all working there, just plain quit it.
I have spent the last few months learning a bit of carpentry, making things out of pallets, the first of my objets d'art was a blanket chest/coffee table for my sister/brother-in-law.
.JPG)
Next, I began finding pallets everywhere so I carried on, for some inspiration, check out www.instructables.com. Feeling inspired but without more customers, I had to find a space and fit something into it, so I made a shelving unit to put my books on, and an Adirondack chair for my parents' patio.
Today having to look after my little brother who was 'ill', I decided to have a nice freshly made coffee. Obviously a coffee needs something sweet, so just as the coffee is bubbling, out come freshly baked dark chocolate and almond cookies.
Orders now being taken for cookies and chairs... bookshelves and biscuits...
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
two in the bush(craft)
Who needs a gas stove, ovens, work tops and hoods?
Give me the woods anyday of the week.
Mr Saucy Squirrel returns to his home in the woods, this time the Cotswolds is his temporary abode, and cooking for bushcradt survival school is his new vocation.
The Bushcraft Company is a fairly new bushcraft skill school. They do courses from Archery to Blowpipes, from tree climbing to spear throwing..
This last week saw the Cotswolds holding the field cook 'training', training in inverted commas as it seemed to be 15 people playing in the woods.
My favourite part of the course was the pit oven. We had a haunch of venison, chopped up into man-sized chunks, marinated in rosemary and garlic, and wrapped in foil. Some igneous rocks were put in a huge fire for a few hours, meanwhile a 1 foot square pit was dug. The pit was then lined with the hot hot rocks, and the venison was put on top, covered again with hot stones, and finally smothered in a bit of earth.
Fast forward two hours, and we were scraping away the dirt, pulling out the still warm rocks, and lovely steaming chunks of juicy venison. After resting for 20 mins, we tucked in, hot, juicy, tender and meaty, this was truly one of the loveliest meals i've ever eaten.
Smoking. I have to say, I enjoyed it. Rotten oak logs, smoking the parnassed rainbow trout, hanging off a fresh hazel line-sounds a little pompous, but there's nothing wrong with some pomp now and again.
After a few hours smoking (and cooking) the trout were ready, cooled and kept till morning, we made some lovely kedgeree, with our own smoked fish. Having said this, Team Beta smoked their trout using implements of the modern age, and their trout, was a lovely yellow smoked fish. But i still liked our primitive methods, using just the implements of the woods.
Armed with knife and axe, the squirrel is heading back to the woods...
Give me the woods anyday of the week.
Mr Saucy Squirrel returns to his home in the woods, this time the Cotswolds is his temporary abode, and cooking for bushcradt survival school is his new vocation.
The Bushcraft Company is a fairly new bushcraft skill school. They do courses from Archery to Blowpipes, from tree climbing to spear throwing..
This last week saw the Cotswolds holding the field cook 'training', training in inverted commas as it seemed to be 15 people playing in the woods.
My favourite part of the course was the pit oven. We had a haunch of venison, chopped up into man-sized chunks, marinated in rosemary and garlic, and wrapped in foil. Some igneous rocks were put in a huge fire for a few hours, meanwhile a 1 foot square pit was dug. The pit was then lined with the hot hot rocks, and the venison was put on top, covered again with hot stones, and finally smothered in a bit of earth.
Fast forward two hours, and we were scraping away the dirt, pulling out the still warm rocks, and lovely steaming chunks of juicy venison. After resting for 20 mins, we tucked in, hot, juicy, tender and meaty, this was truly one of the loveliest meals i've ever eaten.
Smoking. I have to say, I enjoyed it. Rotten oak logs, smoking the parnassed rainbow trout, hanging off a fresh hazel line-sounds a little pompous, but there's nothing wrong with some pomp now and again.
After a few hours smoking (and cooking) the trout were ready, cooled and kept till morning, we made some lovely kedgeree, with our own smoked fish. Having said this, Team Beta smoked their trout using implements of the modern age, and their trout, was a lovely yellow smoked fish. But i still liked our primitive methods, using just the implements of the woods.
Armed with knife and axe, the squirrel is heading back to the woods...
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Oh the weather outside is frightful...
Well January came and went, in a whirl of italian delicacies.. sunny wintry days should always begin with a cherry jam filled brioche and a coffee... they should always include some porky deliciousness of prosciutto, pate and of course my all time favourite-porchetta..
I enjoyed some lovely cheeses, all the pecorinos, from fresh, just out of the sheep, to the wizened old crumbly cave stored lumps enfused with a flavour and stench to rival an old bishop.
Road trips were a plenty, calling in some old haunts, and some new ones. Montepulciano was a lovely hill top village and the day was beautiful, the wine and cheese tasting was plentiful, and there were more leather boots than you can shake a stick at.
After a lovely month in Florence, I travelled back and spent 36 hours in london. I visited the Hunterian museum (a walk from Covent Gdn) which was one of the strangest collection of articles i've ever seen. It cannot be explained, it must be seen to be believed.
I also visited the Natural History Museum, for the first time. I saw a dinosaur and a blue whale and a wooly mammoth and and and....
I was startled and amazed by the big mammal/dinosaur skeletons. but i couldn't help thinking about what the chops/bacon/sausages/fillet would be like from many of the animals.. I think vegan Paul is lost forever...
On returning to the UK, i had a job interview in Oxford for a bushcraft company, and i had to do a short presentation. I talked about the relationship between food and farming, meat and death.
The more awareness people have of the relationship between meat and death, the more open the state of animal welfare will be. The more open the nature of animal welfare is, the better quality meat we will all be able to enjoy, and the more small specialised farmers will be able to viably sustain themselves.
On the subject of meat. I tasted possibly the nicest sausage i've eaten recently. It was from a butcher in WK, and it was pork and black pudding, it had the lovely twang of black pudding, but with the lovely soft texture of a good sausage. I recommend it highly!
Finally, away from the subject of meat, my cake of the month has to be the raspberry and white chocolate blondie at Sweetpea in WK. If you are unlucky enough to live somewhere other than WK, then i suggest you make the trip, from Meols, London or Nepal. It's worth it.
I enjoyed some lovely cheeses, all the pecorinos, from fresh, just out of the sheep, to the wizened old crumbly cave stored lumps enfused with a flavour and stench to rival an old bishop.
Road trips were a plenty, calling in some old haunts, and some new ones. Montepulciano was a lovely hill top village and the day was beautiful, the wine and cheese tasting was plentiful, and there were more leather boots than you can shake a stick at.
After a lovely month in Florence, I travelled back and spent 36 hours in london. I visited the Hunterian museum (a walk from Covent Gdn) which was one of the strangest collection of articles i've ever seen. It cannot be explained, it must be seen to be believed.
I also visited the Natural History Museum, for the first time. I saw a dinosaur and a blue whale and a wooly mammoth and and and....
I was startled and amazed by the big mammal/dinosaur skeletons. but i couldn't help thinking about what the chops/bacon/sausages/fillet would be like from many of the animals.. I think vegan Paul is lost forever...
On returning to the UK, i had a job interview in Oxford for a bushcraft company, and i had to do a short presentation. I talked about the relationship between food and farming, meat and death.
The more awareness people have of the relationship between meat and death, the more open the state of animal welfare will be. The more open the nature of animal welfare is, the better quality meat we will all be able to enjoy, and the more small specialised farmers will be able to viably sustain themselves.
On the subject of meat. I tasted possibly the nicest sausage i've eaten recently. It was from a butcher in WK, and it was pork and black pudding, it had the lovely twang of black pudding, but with the lovely soft texture of a good sausage. I recommend it highly!
Finally, away from the subject of meat, my cake of the month has to be the raspberry and white chocolate blondie at Sweetpea in WK. If you are unlucky enough to live somewhere other than WK, then i suggest you make the trip, from Meols, London or Nepal. It's worth it.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Where is the turkey crown?
Christmas is a time for families, for seeing old friends, eating cake for breakfast and every combination of turkey possible. This Christmas was no exception. Old friends and families were seen and enjoyed, new faces growing older by the day, standing, walking, talking. Christmas cake was scoffed and then subsequently rationed, left with armed snowmen guarding their snow-capped paradise. (Several attempted raids left the snowmen in a precarious state with a significant loss of land..)
December saw me buying a new motorbike, despite not having my license yet, and learning how to fix it, with the very capable help of Tony. December also saw me working at the Farmer’s in Frankby, the food is tasty for what it is, but it lacks the x-factor that will keep it busy through the winter. I’ve had a few ideas for the menu, but the one that seems to be taking shape is the 5 mile menu. With a map on the top of the menu, you can see exactly where you food came from, and it will all be from within the 5 mile radius. This idea connects with me on many levels, first I think it is an amazing thing to be able to eat what is grown in the locality, second it supports local businesses, and thirdly it improves local resilience. Buy from a supermarket or chain shop, you are pouring into a bucket with holes in, buy locally, from people, money stays with the local economy and can go round again, this is local resilience. Every time we buy anything, we are making a decision, we are making a vote, we are saying yes to cheap imported meat with little care for the animals welfare, or we are saying yes to local, to hand reared, to real farmers, to people looking after the welfare of the animals we will eat.
Ok, enough ranting. A last quick note about the pork box, the Gloucestershire Old Spot piggles, though. For £65 we got 7 packs of delicious sausages, 3 packs of loin steak pairs, 3 maple cured streaky bacon, and 2 back bacon, we also got a shoulder joint, a rolled pork belly, and the biggest rolled leg joint a burly man could comfortably hold. (www.fordmillfarm.co.uk)
Mr Saucy is enjoying the delights of Italy, more food induced posts to come…
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Pauly the butcher
So after a lovely summer on Gozo cooking lovely vegan food for all those healthy yogis, i turn bushy tail and head down a different route. November has found me in north Devon, on a 10 acre small holding in a small valley. Surrounded by farms and fields, rivers and streams, buzzards and starlings, there is a pedigree pig farm. It's only small, with 32 pigs, ranging from very cute little piglets, up to Gerry, nick named one-shot Gerry, who has put even the most barren of sows 'in-pig'. He's a big boy, as long as a cow and high as my hip, little tusks growing by his chops, he's soft as can be, but i wouldn't turn my back on him...
the pigs are Gloucesterchire Old Spot piggles, they are a rare breed, and on this farm there are two rare bloodlines, a male line Gerald, and a female called Primrose, so not only is the farm about producing meat, they are keeping alive a rare bloodline in this rare pedigree pig. Feeding them in the morning has fallen to me, which is mostly a pleasure, this morning in particular, i began just as the sun first crept up over the far hill, and the warmth grew as i fed and watered these lovely little piggles. They are a breed that is easy to over feed, and if they over feed, there will be too much fat, and too much fat doesn't make good joints, sausages nor bacon.
Along with learning the art of keeping rare breed pigs, i have also got to learn some butchery skills. When i arrived they had just picked up Dahlia from the abbatoir, and on monday i spent the day in their on site butchery listening to rock music and doing that what butchers do.
I learned where the bacon and chops come from (same place), the joints, the hams, hocks, tenderloin, belly. The knife skills were particular but easy to get the hang of, a big knife, a little knife, and a saw. It wasn't as gruesome as i had once imagined, and i thoroughly enjoyed learning how to cut her up into the different joints.
All the bones, once the majority of meat is taken off, is put in a bag for a husky rescue farm, proper recycling!
Tuesday brought sausage making, making batches of 5kg, we made traditional, apple and scrumpy, and my favourite, the christmas sausage, port and cranberry. I learned the art of 'linking' sausages, and although it wasn't that difficult, i was exceedingly proud of how good they looked, hanging up in the chiller.
Supper that night was the misfit sausages, and the port and cranberry were the winners, they also make maple cured bacon, and i'm hoping to get some maple cured streaky, with port and cranberry mini chipolatas, and make the best pigs-in-blankets ever!
The taste of the rare breed pork is without doubt superior to your everyday pig, which are kept inside, stuffed full of growth hormones, fed too much wheat to make them grow bigger. I hadn't ever really thought how different varieties of pig would taste different, this added to the outdoor hand rearing doesn't even compare. It makes me think what a ruby red t-bone steak would taste like, or what variety of sheep is the tastiest.
My time here has answered lots of questions about pig farming, but for every answer, i now have another 5.
I feel like i've tasted lots of ingredients, all of which i enjoy, but with only one meal to make, i need to decide how to combine those that i love...
the pigs are Gloucesterchire Old Spot piggles, they are a rare breed, and on this farm there are two rare bloodlines, a male line Gerald, and a female called Primrose, so not only is the farm about producing meat, they are keeping alive a rare bloodline in this rare pedigree pig. Feeding them in the morning has fallen to me, which is mostly a pleasure, this morning in particular, i began just as the sun first crept up over the far hill, and the warmth grew as i fed and watered these lovely little piggles. They are a breed that is easy to over feed, and if they over feed, there will be too much fat, and too much fat doesn't make good joints, sausages nor bacon.
Along with learning the art of keeping rare breed pigs, i have also got to learn some butchery skills. When i arrived they had just picked up Dahlia from the abbatoir, and on monday i spent the day in their on site butchery listening to rock music and doing that what butchers do.
I learned where the bacon and chops come from (same place), the joints, the hams, hocks, tenderloin, belly. The knife skills were particular but easy to get the hang of, a big knife, a little knife, and a saw. It wasn't as gruesome as i had once imagined, and i thoroughly enjoyed learning how to cut her up into the different joints.
All the bones, once the majority of meat is taken off, is put in a bag for a husky rescue farm, proper recycling!
Tuesday brought sausage making, making batches of 5kg, we made traditional, apple and scrumpy, and my favourite, the christmas sausage, port and cranberry. I learned the art of 'linking' sausages, and although it wasn't that difficult, i was exceedingly proud of how good they looked, hanging up in the chiller.
Supper that night was the misfit sausages, and the port and cranberry were the winners, they also make maple cured bacon, and i'm hoping to get some maple cured streaky, with port and cranberry mini chipolatas, and make the best pigs-in-blankets ever!
The taste of the rare breed pork is without doubt superior to your everyday pig, which are kept inside, stuffed full of growth hormones, fed too much wheat to make them grow bigger. I hadn't ever really thought how different varieties of pig would taste different, this added to the outdoor hand rearing doesn't even compare. It makes me think what a ruby red t-bone steak would taste like, or what variety of sheep is the tastiest.
My time here has answered lots of questions about pig farming, but for every answer, i now have another 5.
I feel like i've tasted lots of ingredients, all of which i enjoy, but with only one meal to make, i need to decide how to combine those that i love...
Friday, September 30, 2011
Where are your nuts?
Well it's been ages since i last did this... it's coming up to the end of september, i'm 29 now, and the weather has finally turned... We've just had two days of storms in Gozo, and houses here are not made for the rain.. it gets in everywhere.. i'm glad i dont own the house i live in at the moment, i dont think it'll last 20 years...
My only complaint of Gozo arrived yesterday.. after the rain it sent hundreds of hard backed centipedes crawling up the walls of the apartment, and through the entranceway.. my skin was crawling everytime i went through....
So since july, i have settled into life here very well. S came here for 5 weeks, and we spent the time, eating and drinking, swimming and sunbathing. We visited every beach, and as many restuarants as bellies would allow.
We visited Malta on two occasions, staying at the grand harbour hotel, pretty cheap (50e for a double), the rom looked over the grand harbour, as the name suggests, and we woke to watch the massive boats and cruise ships sail slowly by. Valetta is a great city, very underestimated, lots of nice restaurants, beautiful buildings, and amazing views.
We also visited Sicily, went to Siracusa, Palermo, Trapani, and a few small places in between. Trapani was lovely, the old town especially, and we were there on a festa night, lots of people on parade. Siracusa was lovely, romantic, old, and lively. Palermo is a bit dodgy..certain quarters are rich with boats, and only white folk. others are dirty, full of scary looking bars, and no white people whatsoever, there's a huge segregation, there's one end of a road, the train station, tramps, beggars, gypsies, and the other end, Louis Vitton and Prada shops..
Recently returned from France for Ben and Dani's wedding in st Tropez, it was lovely, a great weekend, great to see everyone, and enjoyed my speech, not as much as Pete, who stole the stage with his hyperbolic speech, creating a caricature of ben that left everyone in the place (to use kid speak) rofl-ing.
After the wedding Sand I went on a camping trip to the lac du St Croix and the gorges du verdon of my childhood. Again we ate our way through provence, most memorably being a blue steak in Moustiers St Marie, we had a great time. Our last night camping we camped on a virutally empty campsite, our plot being on the outer bank of a river, waking up to the sound of the river, with the sun rising on the gorge walls behind it, was breathtaking.
Since then, i have been back on Gozo, have begun fishing, not sure whether i am doing it right, haven't caught anything yet, but it's lovely to stand by the sea for a few hours at sunset. I'll take a photo if i catch anything!
I am currently trying to decide what to do with my life in november, i finish here on the 5th, and I am looking for a job for the winter, one that i can earn lots of money, and maybe go for a month long trip in jan... should be easy to find hey...S left on tuesday to go to Vietnam, and so begins her 8 month trip..
So begins my collating of nuts to see me through winter, where are your nuts?
My only complaint of Gozo arrived yesterday.. after the rain it sent hundreds of hard backed centipedes crawling up the walls of the apartment, and through the entranceway.. my skin was crawling everytime i went through....
So since july, i have settled into life here very well. S came here for 5 weeks, and we spent the time, eating and drinking, swimming and sunbathing. We visited every beach, and as many restuarants as bellies would allow.
We visited Malta on two occasions, staying at the grand harbour hotel, pretty cheap (50e for a double), the rom looked over the grand harbour, as the name suggests, and we woke to watch the massive boats and cruise ships sail slowly by. Valetta is a great city, very underestimated, lots of nice restaurants, beautiful buildings, and amazing views.
We also visited Sicily, went to Siracusa, Palermo, Trapani, and a few small places in between. Trapani was lovely, the old town especially, and we were there on a festa night, lots of people on parade. Siracusa was lovely, romantic, old, and lively. Palermo is a bit dodgy..certain quarters are rich with boats, and only white folk. others are dirty, full of scary looking bars, and no white people whatsoever, there's a huge segregation, there's one end of a road, the train station, tramps, beggars, gypsies, and the other end, Louis Vitton and Prada shops..
Recently returned from France for Ben and Dani's wedding in st Tropez, it was lovely, a great weekend, great to see everyone, and enjoyed my speech, not as much as Pete, who stole the stage with his hyperbolic speech, creating a caricature of ben that left everyone in the place (to use kid speak) rofl-ing.
After the wedding Sand I went on a camping trip to the lac du St Croix and the gorges du verdon of my childhood. Again we ate our way through provence, most memorably being a blue steak in Moustiers St Marie, we had a great time. Our last night camping we camped on a virutally empty campsite, our plot being on the outer bank of a river, waking up to the sound of the river, with the sun rising on the gorge walls behind it, was breathtaking.
Since then, i have been back on Gozo, have begun fishing, not sure whether i am doing it right, haven't caught anything yet, but it's lovely to stand by the sea for a few hours at sunset. I'll take a photo if i catch anything!
I am currently trying to decide what to do with my life in november, i finish here on the 5th, and I am looking for a job for the winter, one that i can earn lots of money, and maybe go for a month long trip in jan... should be easy to find hey...S left on tuesday to go to Vietnam, and so begins her 8 month trip..
So begins my collating of nuts to see me through winter, where are your nuts?
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