Food Connect Box 3

My latest food connect box contained the following:

2 large imperial mandarines
3 oranges
3 kiwi fruits
2 avacados
1 small bunch shallots
1 bunch rocket
1 butter lettuce head
1/2 celery bunch
4 carrots
1 large head broccoli
1 large eggplant
4 apples
1/2 red cabbage
5 strawberries
1 punnet cherry tomatoes
2 lemons
1 bag mushrooms
3 pieces ginger
3 potatoes
3 small sweet potatoes
1 bunch kale (?)

It has been interesting to put these things together into meals, especially the more unusual ingredients I haven't ever cooked with before (like yacon and kale).

Food Connect Box 2

I know I've been quiet folks -  enthusiasm for other things and my continuing health oddities/troubles have been taking my attention.

However things have been going on in my little patch of the world.
I've grown a batch of sprouts very successfully and plan to photograph the process next time for a blog entry. 
I then used the sprouts in a crazy soup concoction I call "verdant broth" in an attempt to use up more cabbage.  I can't remember the full receipt but it involves cabbage, peas, sprouts carraway seeds and no stock!
I've also watched my basil seeds, alyssium and lettuce seeds germinate.   Meanwhile everything else I planted while ago either sits dormant or are Fail.
I've been reading 'The Edible Garden' by the amazing Alys Fowler.
I've been cooking regularly and watching the inspiring 'River Cottage'.
I pulled two carrots that I grew - a very proud moment.


AND...

Last night I got my next Food Connect box of vegetables.

Contents:
1 bag flat mushrooms
2 large tomatoes
3 red capsicums
1 bunch spring onions
1 bunch coriander
1 big butter lettuce head
1 med brocolli head
3 green zucchini
4 finger eggplants
1 round eggplant
1 big and 1 small yacon
1 lrg sweet potato
3 very large cloves garlic

2 avacados
3 large mandarines
3red apples
3 oranges
1 pineapple
4 lady finger bananas
4 kiwi fruits


I have to admit I am stumped by the yacon...

Food Connect Box 1

I picked up my first Food Connect box last Thursday.  (Gourmet mixed box at $52)

It contained:

1 garlic head
1 bunch dill
1 med head of broccoli
1 bunch shallots
2 avacados
3 zucchinis
2 large eggplants
1 green chili
4 capsicums (1/2 red, 1/2 green)
1 butter lettuce head
1/2 sugarloaf cabbage
1 corn cob
roughly 400g flat mushrooms
2 beetroots
7 sweet potatoes
2 lemons
2 lemonade fruits
3 kiwi fruits
3 appleas
6 mandarines
2 oranges


I did an online shop of Coles and Woolworths and found that the same produce totalled $66.92 at Woolworths and $55.55 at Coles.   (This, of course isn't a perfect comparison but it does give some guide.)

Now to work out what I'm going to make from it all!

Biggest Kitchen Table Audit - Food

The next topic of discussion at The Biggest Kitchen Table was food.


What have I done so far to improve the quality of food in my diet, to make my food socially responsible (ethical, environmentally sustainable etc), to lower the costs and to remove unnecessary preservatives and chemicals from my meals?

• Make meals from scratch.
• Buy basic ingredients (no packet mixes).
• No longer buy packaged baked goods but rather make them.
• Eat home made bread and make homemade pizza bases.
• Drink water, tea and home made cordials - no more softdrinks or nesquick.
• Buy food in bulk where possible (makes it cheaper and less packaging to dispose of).
• Buy all vegetables at a local fruit and veg market.
• Shop for dried groceries with Australian owned and made as preferences.
• Almost never buy take-out.
• Take lunch to work (leftovers from dinners and baked treats for morning and afternoon tea).
• Buy meat only once a month or less (meat is an essential part of our diets but not to the extent that most people eat it and there is a huge amount of grain used in farming meat).
• Consider the best way to use an ingredient to get the most out of it - for example, if I have a steak of beef I will not cook it as a steak with vegetables and gravy - because that will feed me for one meal. Instead I will dice it up and use it in a stir fry which will last me 4 - 5 meals.
• Use up leftovers rather than letting them go to waste and freeze meals to save them.
• Have a worm farm to help dispose of food scraps in a way that is beneficial to my (future) garden and keeps food from rotting and creating methane in landfills.
• Harvested and used macadamias from our tree and basil from the pot in my cooking and baking.

I'm only human so occasionally I stumble and buy a KFC snack box or buy more vegetables than I can use before they go off... but I'm getting better all the time.

What I'd like to change or put in place:

1) Get chickens, big, fat, plump egg makers (who will also help with disposal of kitchen scraps and produce excellent nitrogen boosting poop for my compost and garden).
2) Build a 3 box compost system.
3) Begin a small vegetable garden (using heritage seeds and organic gardening methods, with a smattering of permaculture concepts thrown in)
4) Plant some fruit trees - especially some awesome, unusual and exotic ones like chocolate pudding fruit.
5) Learn how to make yoghurt, cottage cheese and then hard cheeses.
6) Learn the best way to store food items so they last the longest.
7) Get a pasta roller and make my own fresh pasta and gnocchi.

That all feels a bit overwhelming so I'm going to stop there before it feels unachievable.

Diet and Sustainability

This evening on the way home from the train station I listened to a seminar broadcast on ABC National Radio. It was hosted by the University of Technology Sydney and the topic was 'Diet, Food and Sustainability'.

It never fails to amaze me how points of matter that arise in discussion of sustainability, frugal living, simple living etc. hit home in one of those light-bulb 'of COURSE' moments.... but are, at the same time, embarrassingly simple.

Some of the points that I found interesting or light-bulb moments were:

1. Bottled water is bad mmmkay. Why? Because millions upon millions of those bottles end up in landfill.
2. People in today's society have become so 'precious' (the presenter's choice of phrase) that we import navel oranges from California in our Summer when we have no shortage of valencia oranges grown locally. In taste testing sessions people have almost exclusively preferred the taste of the valencia oranges but they don't sell as well as the imported navel oranges... Why? Because navel oranges don't have pips. Because of pips! *facepalm*
3. Meat in our daily diet causes a strain on the sustainability of our food supply. Why? Because it takes some very large amount of grain to produce one kilo of meat - which is then often exported from Australia anyway adding a big fat, heavy carbon footprint.
   

It was interesting to think about how our daily choices of food make a difference. It made me consider the things I do (or have started doing recently) to lessen the impact of my household on the environment and to be more sustainable.

I buy my green groceries from our local farmers' market. The market boasts that it is the only one in our local area that restricts sellers to local producers or produced food only. I am not sure how true this is but I'm going with it. It is less distance for me to drive to than other local markets I previously tried out - a lower carbon footprint for me and the sellers.

I have a vegetable garden started (that is... a hole in our turf waiting for soil, mulch and seeds!) and plan to own chickens, both with the aim to be more self sufficient and sustainable.

I drink tap water both at home and at work. Bottled water is a no-no.

I have bought a worm farm - as yet empty of it's squiggly occupants, not yet bought, and plan to pick up a cheap compost bin from the council this week (yay Compost Awareness week!). I plan to use both of these, as ways to reduce the amount of household waste going to the tip and therefore landfill.