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…
No comments:
Post a Comment