Almost veggie January

One of my aims for 2009 is to move towards a largely vegetarian diet, the ultimate idea is to have meat only once or twice a month, at the most.

So, in January I'll make the first steps towards this aim by eating vegetarian food only for 80% of my meals (that's lunch and supper - I rarely ever have meat for breakfast, unless seriously hungover).  

80% veggie means I can have meat in three meals per week, doesn't sound too difficult, especially if I make my own sandwiches for lunch at work...though I'll miss those gorgeous schnitzels from the Beetroot Polish deli!

Why am I doing this? A number of reasons (not in any order):

• saving money
• health
• ethical treatment of animals (i.e. I'll only eat ones that had a nice life prior to ending up in my tummy)
• sustainability

Hey ho, let's go!

Alllotment news for November!

Spent a drizzily Sunday morning on the allotment digging, weeding and put down 20 bulbs of garlic.

This adds to the 10 bulbs already planted at home which means 30 bulbs of garlic for the Spring, hurrah! One can not have too much garlic I say.

I really enjoyed the hour and a half of getting muddy and wet, really, I did, honestly. On my arrival home I spread muck through out the house and had a delicious cup of coffee, ah that's the life.

Oh, I also found an online course on food preservation (the next logical step from growing one's own food), run by the 'National Center for Home Food Preservation' , it's free and looks fun. I'll keep you updated, I know you want to know.

To celebrate Monday morning, here's a classic clip by old-time Aussie punks, The Saints:

Salad

Just finished reading 'Not on the label' by Felicity Lawrence, it's an excellent start for anyone wanting the low-down on the food industry in this country (and anywhere else in the West I'd imagine).

One quote that jumped out at me from the section on bagged salad leaves was:

"Time was when we ate lettuces in summer and, following out northern European seasons, switched to root vegetables and brassicas in winter. But now, thanks to global sourcing and advances in packaging technology, we have got used to the idea of eating a variety of salads all year round" (p.29)

This struck a chord. It's only been this year that I've somehow remembered (I'm sure I used to know this, a long time ago) that food is seasonal, that salad leaves grow for a certain time of the year in the UK, as do apples, onions and everything else (excepting the good old hardy perennials of course).

This can't only be my particular foolishness, I'm willing to bet it's a blind spot for all my generation.

We have to learn all this again, how to eat seasonally (how to live seasonally)...one day in the not to distance future, we may not have a choice in the matter.

On a cheerier note, have a listen to Drink the Elixir, one of my favourite pop-songs of the 90s by Salad: