The Trough

Babysitting a jar of jelly brain like structures called Kefir is more interesting than you might imagine.

drained kefir

They bubble away in a corner, after a couple of days they produce a liquid that can be used to ferment ginger juice into ginger beer. Or lemon juice into lemonade. Hurrah! well – the first lot went pink and tasted a little sour – the second lot was so spicy it made me sneeze… Hopefully this time I will get it right. The bacteria and yeast combo are quite addictive – I check them every morning and evening and remain mesmerized by their monotonous reproduction.

As they are apparently quite hard to kill  – we’ll see about that:)
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Here are a few things I’ve found myself collecting about Tesco. Thought it was time they all went into one place.

1. That there are similarities between the architecture of churches and Tesco. Here are two photos by Robert Edwards that give a hint of it.

Tescos by Robert Edwards

Church By Robert Edwards

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Buzzing bees

My first and most entertaining encounter with bees took place last week. We were kitted out in our space suits ready to check on Deborah’s hives at The Quadrangle in Kent. The suits were made of white cotton twill – hardly the thickest of fabrics but the white was supposed to keep the bees calmer (more…)

I’ve been looking at places to live. Most new builds I’ve visited are being designed without defined eating spaces. Lounge and dinning room homogenized into a space for the sofa and the one way conversation of the television. The Table is the western tool used to catalyse communal eating, providing personal space, distance and a plinth for the daily feast. Of course no table is complete without chairs.

The kitchen table

It was hardly surprising that the humble table was mentioned in the introduction to a day of talks about food. I had got up at 6am to travel to Oxford, the title of the talks was instantly captivating, ‘Thought for Food: the Ethics of Eating’.
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It’s quite incredible the visual symbols we use to tell ourselves what something means on-line, how we connect it with the physical world. This wonderful, almost nostalgic, collection of images placed together by — Ro London . He collected them to ‘compare, contrast, and study used by other graphic artists‘. Just shows what shopping means to us – mainly a supermarket shopping trolley by the looks of things. Go see his site! http://www.intersmash.com/300images/

The book is about the same hight as my mobile phone

What a title! This book from 1852, is filled with some joyful and simple recipies from how to cook rice to baked cod’s head and toast water.  It takes many aspects of a healthy diet into consideration, including cost and the social value of making something a little more special that normal.
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It's even got the seasons!

Farmville scares me. People virtually growing nothing but nice graphics on screen. This sparked a short discussion with Phil, around this project of a similar nature called  ‘le verdure del mio orto’ roughly translating as food from my garden. You create a virtual garden and grow what ever you want – the difference being you receive a box of your harvest every week. An interesting approach to Community Supported Agriculture.  The Site has recipes for the vegetables too.

I wonder what else we need to virtualise before consuming it – so we feel like we’ve put in a little effort. I’ve got stagnant screen shots of second life in my mind… mmm.

Keep finding lots of Community Agriculture stuff this week. here is Food Connect in Brisbane. They have a pools of 80 farmers producing for the scheme and deliver the Veg boxes through ‘City Cousins’ who provide centres for collections three times a week. It’s like a box scheme but there are more chances to meet the growers and locals who are involved in the scheme. not bad!

happy first birthday p-hop

This is as food/knit as I could make it p/hop, bring on the spaghetti… enjoy the day!

This was about 30 seconds after it was cut

Found this mushroom the other weekend and would love to know what it is. It smelt mushroomy and stained red when you bruised or cut it. It was in a well rotted collapsed tree but i can’t remember what it was… I’m, not sure it was possible to tell. do you know? or know someone that might? thanks.

The whole mushroom

Didn’t make it to this but was excited by the thought that it had happened. see the Guardian

Things like ‘political low tide Mayonnaise’ and hundreds of people eating wonderful food together at harvest time in the city. Wonderful. I will be there next year – with a camera that works!

I found this through the most recent discussion on Radio 4’s food programme, discussing the history of the feast. I’ve since seen the same thing has happened on Sydney harbour bridge. looks fantastic! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8324527.stm