Christmas is over

Sorry for not posting sooner, but busy with the family and other things.
Christmas was a good time spent with the family, sleeping a bit longer ,working in the wooden house and going out for some walks. Food preparation did not take long as I did plan the menu' in advance. It was a very good feeling to be able to eat together dishes made at home from our cultivated ingredients, game, rescued products, and wild ones.
On Christmas Eve we had scallops Au gratin for starter and my fish cakes ( Cod ones).They were delicious. I used the small mince pies containers to create small individual mouthful bites. This recipe is worth a try. Cut the scallops in small pieces. In a bowl chop some parsley, garlic, and add grated breadcrumbs and a bit of cheddar cheese or Parmesan cheese.Then, add a bit of olive oil and lemon juice. You have to make a soft paste. Put the scallops in the container and then cover them with the paste. Grill for about 10 minutes.
 The wine  chosen was a white golden one made from rhubarb.
Christmas day  starter was home made grissini ( too hard to be honest.do not know why), the very first home made ham and mushrooms from the queen rock above Drum. For the starter we tried a nettle wine.
The main course was home made lasagna.We drank red cherry wine for this dishes.
 In the evening we had a partridge inside a pheasant, roasted with reduced wild cherry paste and roast potatoes and carrots, plus our first Brussels sprouts from the garden. I boiled them, then fried with garlic,parsley,bit of spices and wild cherry paste. Very good combination. Christopher ate them with no fuss.
 A ciabatta bred with sesame seeds was made for this dinner. The wine we choose was a red Worcesterberries  one.
 To finish we had our first panettone cake with a  rhubarb wine A which is much sweeter than the other batch.
Sunday for lunch was vegetable soup and rescued sandwiches. We were working in the wooden house so I had my lunch in there.
On Sunday evening we tried a scallop recipe from an old book.The scallops were simmered in milk first, then finished to cook in the oven in mini containers ( saved from mince pies ) on top of mash potato, and covered with a mixture of cheddar cheese, bread crumbs, Marsala wine and a drop of oil. The dish was interesting and the scallops had a much milder taste.
On Monday lunch was a different vegetable soup to keep ourselves warm, but in the evening after a two hours walk, we made a bonfire on the top of the garden and we roasted parsnips, potatoes and Tuscan sausages( a gift from our neighbour). We sat outside in front of the fire under our top garden hut, drank a dram of whiskey and had a good conversation about life, nature and related arguments.
There were left over from the roast  pheasant and partridge.Lesley boiled the bones and separated the remain meat. On Tuesday night we then had a curried bird Shepperd pie made from Lesley. It was a real good dish. In fact we ate it all and Christopher had a double portion after he hesitated ....when he tried the first one.
Today a t lunch time I made a soup with potato, carrots, onions. butterscotch, coriander seeds and the stock from the birds. Very tasty indeed.
We did very well with our food recipes and we really enjoyed the all experiment with nothing than natural ingredients. It was a very good Christmas. I will be posting some pictures tomorrow.

Christmas starter with home made grissini and home made prosciutto.

Christmas Eve starter with scallops Au gratin and home made ciabatta garlic bread

Christmas lunch home made lasagna  ready from the oven

The two birds roasted and succulent

my very first panettone cake made with rescued ingredients. Panettone is a typical north Italian cake very popular at Christmas time

One day to go

Last day in school and every one rushed away for the last shopping,  last preparation and decorations before Christmas.
As the school is closed, some food was lest and available for me. Lots of milk both from the kitchen and the nursery.Lots of potatoes that will last for the all winter. I have to think something potatoooo...fry ,mash,roast,potato cakes,potato gnocchi,potato fritters and more.
Milk on the other hand I need to freeze it as I am not using much cheese at all. I might attempt to start making yogurt as it is not a difficult thing.I do not eat yogurt but Christopher and Lesley like it.
Our shopping is done long ago ( not myself ) and we so much food available I will be having no problems for the rest of the experiment.
Josie gave me a wonderful present. I full box of vegetables with many types of them. Picture below. As the food for me is in abundance, I will be using lots of it for the all family, as my entire experiment is done for protesting against the food waste in our countries. So, no food will be wasted in our house.
Christmas time is obviously the time were we buy more, we eat more and we waste more. Figures shown that we waste an extra 20% of food than normal. All because we start buying food and other things for Christmas from November and before. this is what makes me crazy about the all business around Christmas. Is not actually Christmas but just a big feast where we are mad spending hundreds of pounds in food, drinks and other stuff which in a high percentage goes back to charity shops or dumped.
Why retailers start to sell Christmas thing before haloween? And why we start shopping two months early?
I do  think that for many people Christmas has no any christian value or connection. it is just a holiday were for some mysterious reason we have to indulge so much. yes it is still a big moment for a family reunion, having friend around but there is no religion connection for most of us. If you go to Spain or Italy it is more or less the same in big cities, but in small towns and villages the atmosphere is completely different.
every thing is in a small scale, less pompous showing off etc. But nowadays, talking about food waste there is no difference. In Italy and Spain the waste matches more or less the waste of any other west countries.
In small villages this is not the case as people buy less because have less, and waste little. Another reason for buying lots of stuff is the tendency to borrow money. Now this is typical of this country. The pro capite debt here is far more superior than in Italy for example, were people still prefer not to buy if they have no money.
The debt of this country is astronomical and our kids are going to pay the consequences in the future. This is what we are leaving to them, a dark uncertain future. Plus the national debt sums up for about £15.000 per person in the UK.
We should talk about it and not try to hide the problem. This borrowing philosophy is one of the major problems of waste. Because we buy thing that are not absolutely essential, and lots of modern gadgets are design to last little, or are not in fashion the very next year.
The status of well being should now be determined not by how much money we can spend, but on how well is pent and not wasted.
Anyway, this Christmas we should try to finish off all the food. What is left  over should be re used in other dishes. Use one of your cookery book you bought or you have received as a present and be inventive. If we do not waste food. we will be buying less the following week and therefore we will be doing a favour to the land, the water, the animals that provide it to us and more important we will be leaving more food for the people who are starving. This is true as the implication of the food production have lots to do with the starving population around the planet.

The vegetable box from Josie and Fraser

last week before christmas

Here we are, near the end of the school term with more cold spells forecast up and after Christmas. Good thing we decided not to go back to Sardinia. Weather is bad in Italy as well.
I try to update this blog more often, but having too many other thing to do I have to relay on a weekly base visit. last Friday the school was closed due to the bad weather, and last Thursday we had the Christmas dinner offered to the jennies by the Kitchen staff . took a bottle of my rhubarb wine to offer a little taste to all in exchange of the dinner. There was lots of food left so I had a big container of sliced turkey with the gravy offered by the cook Is now in the freezer ready for another time. As the  kitchen closed some more food was left and I took a big pan of tomato soup which will probably last for the all week.All family had soup Friday night Saturday lunch and Sunday lunch and Lesley and me also today at lunch time. With this cold is a good thing to eat anyway. Sunday evening I made the usual pizza and a loaf of ciabatta bread which was very good.
I also made more ravioli pasta to be stored in the freezer for later exchange.
The freezers are still full, as I am making and getting more stuff. After a month and an half I never expected to have still so much food stored, including the food in the jars. Most of the jars are frozen in the shed but that is not a problem as the content is mostly vegetables and wild herbs and mushrooms. Some meat has to be used as soon it will defrost. I might start  to take in a jar at time and use it.
This morning I was also sorting all the bottled wines and puting them in order. I have stored 94 bottles of different wines and to lots of apple wine is still on the go, fermenting.
I have tried all of the wines and a part two of them all the rest are very good.
here is the list and my opinion.
Pea pod wine              mediocre    5 out of ten            sweet and sharp but with a medicinal smell
Gooseberry wine        mediocre     6 out of ten            medium sweet/fizzy  drinkable but not brilliant
Wild cherry wine        good            7 out of ten           medium dry / intense red and fruity as you expect
Wild cheery wine 2    good             7 out of ten           sweet wine / rose' colour less fruity
Worcesterberry wine very good      8 out of ten           medium dry / red intense colour is like a cabernet
Apple wine 1 and 2    very good     8 out of ten           medium sweet / golden  is half way wine and cider
Apple wine 3             mediocre       6 out of ten           medium dry /bit sharp it needed more sugar?
Beetroot wine            good              7 out of ten           sweet rose' and fruity ( too sweet?)
Sweet cecily wine      medium good  6 out of ten         medium sweet anisete taste and smell ( just ok)
Rhubarb wine           very good        9 out of ten         medium sweet golden intense flavour
Nettle wine               very good        9 out of ten         sweet/ golden colour/ good flavour/like desert wine

The surprise was the nettle wine and the red ones from wild cherries and the worcesterbery one. The red ones have nothing less than a good quality red you buy but 40 times cheaper. one gallon of this wine costs only about a pound to produce, this is the kilo of sugar and the teaspoon of winw yeast and other ingredients.
One gallon produces about seven bottles of wine. That is 15 pence per bottle approx.
The nettle wine is a fantastic discover. A wine that has an intense dark golden colour and full of flavour. It is like drinking a good desert wine like sherry. Generally I was happy with the results and I want to produce more of them next year, and actually try to buy very little wines from the shop.
here and there are failures but I know that is part of the all experimentation process. We will be defenitely celebrating  christmas with our wines starting with a desert wine as aperitive ( nettle), then a red one for the main course (wild cherries) and another sweet one for the pudding ( rhubarb). I have the menu nearly ready in my mind but it will be reveal only before christmas.

potato gnocchi.one of my favourite dishes

A variety of wines fermenting

pizzas and pasta

Half way through December already....time is flying away at incredible speed. Next weekend is Christmas.
I have been busy after school as I was involved in the pasta making demonstration yesterday afternoon. i think it was successful with 5 participants taking part in it. We did lasagna sheets, some ravioli with smoked mackerel, potato and parsley, linguine and gnocchi. I was explaining to the ladies and the only man present to the demonstration, that they could make different shapes of pasta according to their imaginative initiative. I made the example of the ravioli I made a while ago with beetroot. I will show the picture below. The ravioli where filled with boiled beetroot and herbs and cheese. The colour is actually pink as I cooked the lasagna sheets in the coloured water were the beetroots were cooked.
Making pasta is easy and cheap. Plus, you will appreciate more what you eat because you have made it, and you will finish off every thing because you have worked to do it. And finally, when you became confident and you create your own pasta special, you can invite friends and impress them with your pasta skills.
my hope is that more people dedicate more time to the food they eat. We spend far too little sitting at the table and even less time preparing our food. If we look at the time we dedicate eating we will be surprise to discovered that between breakfast, lunch and dinner time we spend only about 30 or 40 minutes. Lots of people spend less that that. Lots people eat on the go, or eat sandwiches at lunch and ready made meals in the evening and no breakfast. Food is the most important thing in people lives and health, so I do not understand why we do not reflect on this important aspect of our lives. We live in a society where time seem to be escaping from us, and we seem to be always running to catch it. This only creates stress ands stress creates more frustration and unhappiness.
Convenience is a false excuse. it cost us money and health problems as most of the food manufactured contains chemicals, colorants, unsafe preservatives, parts of body bones from various animals,and a variety of mixed ingredients that have an  unclear provenience. But the list is longer than that.
No mention the packaging that is a major problem for the recycle system.

Christopher went to a boys brigade party and took four pizzas I made for him to take to the party. After that had a drink and then I decided to finish using the pears I cooked few days before. I was worried that they would start to ferment so I made another 2 pears cakes. I am still eating some of the pheasant we cooked last weekend and yesterday I had some soup from the school kitchen ( left over ). I will have soup today as well and I have kept one full tab in the freezer.
here are the pink ravioli from the beetroot.

preparing the beetroot ravioli sheets

filling the ingredients

The pink beetroot ravioli ready.

Happy chickens

The snow is away and the green grass is back for the joy of our chickens. The last two weeks the chicken were not very happy, spending most of the time inside. They do not like the snow or the cold for that matter. Only Betty ( the youngest one) adventured outside walking on on  the  snow, looking for food. The funny thing with them is that you give them  some food and they eat only some of it, then the go away in search of something different. So the crows come down and eat the rest of it.
Anyway, now they are happy and this weekend they spent most of the time outside, as we did working on the wooden house. We finished putting down the wooden floor. Now it looks like a chalet. Please with the job.Now I need to think about the internal walls and the insulation.
What did we eat this weekend?
Saturday lunch was some rescued sandwiches. Christopher went out see the panto in the evening with a packet meal and Lesley and me had scallops au gratin ( recommended), boiled beetroot leaves and stems, cheese and bread.
Lunch on Sunday was gnocchi for all ( made them in the morning) and in the evening a roast pheasant with boiled cabbage and roast potatoes. Cabbage and beetroot were from school garden. I also rescued more parsley as it is incredibly still OK after that snow and cold spell.

Christmas on the streets of Inverness

I went to inverness yesterday, looking for a couple of presents for Lesley and Christopher. It has been long time since I went to the city and all around me Christmas was in its full show. Did not know were to start. Walked into the eastgate centre, stopping at the book shop, then to HMV were I bought something for Chris, then passing the coffee and the pastries shop....tempting me....! Down the stairs another coffee shop, out in the direction of the Victorian market, and every few meters food was on display making my mouth wet....but, I stopped and open my rock sack were I did deliberately put in it some of my bread sticks to resist the temptation overcoming me. I was thinking about Ulysses getting tied up to the mast of the ship in order to hear the sirens and their beautiful voices singing and tempting him to go with them...and die...in their trap. Well I did not want to avoid to see and smell all the nice food on display, but I knew that few bread stick would do the trick.
The abundance of food available to anyone ( most of us) is just a sign of wealth and commodity in our society. On the other hand, is bizarre that food is served every where in addition to restaurants, coffee shops and pizzerias. I still remember my shock when first visited the swimming pool in Inverness about 12 years ago. Going to keep fit or swimming and at the same time selling fatty food and sweets inside the very complex as soon as you had finish yours exercises. Then maybe going to buy a jumper and find that there is a restaurant in there as well. Even if you now go to HIS you can buy food. Food is every where around you.You can not escape the temptation. You are trap every time you enter a shop and do not matter what kind of shop it is. Even in HMV yeaterday morning, as I was approaching the cashier a lady before me bought a DVD a bottle of irn bru and three chocolate bars.Can you see what I mean.One DVD and four other products which had nothing to do with what that shop should be selling. The other problem is the amount of sweeties are sold, even in a grocery shop. There are more sweets and fizzy drinks on display than fresh greens.
I always underline this to people I talk to when the argument about healthy eating arises. The problem is the food ( the bad one especially ) available at every door you enter. Fancy some shoes? Yeah, OK and have a cup of hot chocolate as well. lets go to M&S and see some underwear and have a sandwich with a coca cola...and so on.
We can not spend million in adverts saying what to eat and what not to eat, if at the same time we offer food to people as described above. Is wasted money.Plus, lots of this food is wasted as well.
Food really is not a necessity anymore. We eat to please ourselves, which is not a bad thing if the pleasure of it was not then related to the problems we are talking about: waste and health. The pleasure is not only in the taste, but in the color, the smell, the quantity etc. We indulge too often and this is the real problem.
Anyway, Christmas is nearly there and I hope people will enjoy the food they buy and eat without wasting any.
This morning I defrosted the last meat balls and some wild herbs and made some more ravioli.Then I made  two pear cakes ( Christopher just loves it ) and a loaf of bread.
I am keeping very busy and next week on Tuesday I will be demonstrating how to make some types of pasta to a group of friends in the library. Hopefully this will encourage more people to make their own pastas more often.
this week end I hope to carry on working in the wooden house, starting to put down the floor. Snow is melting, so it should not be too cold outside.

Today's pear cakes and the bread

The prosciutto

Yesterday I decided to open the parma ham still hanging from November 2009. It was suggested by Lesley as to avoid potential bad surprises. I was planning to open it just before Christmas in order to get some nice sliced of cured ham for the Christmas starter. I did not know if the cured leg of the pig ( front one.normally you this cured ham with the back ones, but I like to try unconventional things ) was going to be a success, so in order to avoid surprises I open it yesterday. Surprises? Yes, it was good surprise. The cured ham was a success. First slices were tiny bit salted, but as you progress with the cutting is OK.
So, we have cured ham for Christmas. It was not a easy task as the temperature in here are too low for this type of thing, and not having space in the house, the leg was left in the shed all the last winter, spring and summer, from minus 12 degrees to probably plus 20 or so. I am please with it and the experiment has to happen again, hopefully.  It was along wait, but ....
After the success of the Salamis made last winter, now is time to try some sausages as well. Rabbit burger were good ( I have few in the freezer) and if anyone is prepare to give me some venison meat, I will try sausages, burgers and cured meat with it. Obviously you will get some of the processed meat in exchange.
Today lunch was pasta homemade linguine with last year bacon. Yesterday it was scallops and linguine. In the evening I am having again nettles,dandelions and wild garlic herbs in oil with cheese, grissini bread and focaccia bread.
I have not done any juice from the pears as I was planning. Instead I have made four jars of jam and the rest of the pulp is going to be used for a cake.

Salamis (two on the left )and sopressata from the pig head meat ( on the right )

The prosciuto ready to be sliced

Looking good....

apple wine and a cod fish

The cold temperature has affected my apples and I decided to do something urgently with them before they turned black. All the apple were frozen in the shed and this morning with the help of Lesley we cut them to make some apple wine. About 8 kilos of apples, but I have probably another 15 kilos to sort. Another 6/8 kilos were kept in the house so I can use them for my snacks. The pears were also frozen, and I will be doing some juice with it.
later this morning Calin turned at the door with a big fish (cod). Tomorrow I will process it into fillets and use the rest of the flesh for some fish cakes. I gave to him some ravioli with mushrooms for the exchange.
In the last few days I made focaccia bread sticks, linguine pasta and sort two pheasants and two red leg partridges. (We had one last night and it was really tasty. I did cook it in the oven ,then cut it in pieces and finish it in the pan with a sweet cherry paste and oil. The contrast with the salt and the sweetness of the cherry paste( melted) was really tasty.)
This weekend we were out celebrating Susan Fraser retirement .(Friday night at Brokie lodge near Beauly ).
Some people were asking me what I was going to eat.....Well this was a special occasion, and although I was no easy, I felt I should go for politeness. I did choose from the menu carefully, making sure that the products were at least local or Scottish. It was haggis for starter and venison for main course. Did not choose a cake but a cheese board ( the only cheese that was not Scottish was the french brie). Cheese was too much so I saved for the next day. It was the same for breakfast: bacon,black pudding, egg, sausage. ~All the products are provided by local business  as I discovered talking with the owner of the lodge. The list of the business that provide the food to the lodge ( including some vegetable) are written in the breakfast menu.
I decided not to have lunch on Sunday and made a pizza for everyone in the evening.

This morning I peeled all the pears as they were getting black and boiled them with some water and sugar. With some of them I made 2 cakes and the rest will be processed into juice. It would be a shame to waste them.  From the cod I made 4 fillets and then I boiled the head ,the tail and the rest of the flesh from the spine. later on I made a dozen of fish cakes from it. it is amazing how much meat from those cuts you can get.
For lunch I had linguine with scallops ( thanks Katie) and for dinner mixed wild herb in olive oil, cheese, the rest of my pizza and a piece of cake.
Some pictures below.

The cod fish

Fish cakes from the cod trimmings etc

Cooking the pears

Focaccia sticks

End of the month

First month is gone…I say fast, and surprisingly every thing went well. Better than I expected. I will try to record an account on what I have experience, how much food I have use etc.

First of all, I feel great, gratify and looking forward to the next month, and Christmas time where I want to try to do something special fore this special occasion.

Something for all family. We will have a banquet with all wild and own grown food, game, homemade sweets and drinks.

The main benefit from this experience is that I feel more relax because I know I am doing something positive and not only for myself. I am spending most of the time preparing food and reading lots of fact about food, its waste, the problems that are afflicting other people around the world. My mind is free from other thoughts and I find myself thinking intensively, but the all self thinking is very therapeutic. I also observe nature in a different way. I try to gain secrets, or new thought observing the birds in the garden, the behaviour of the chickens, the trees changing colours and all the others thing around us.

Most of the things I know I have learned from observing my father, my mother and my grand parents. We lost that skill because everything is done for us.

So, so far I have eaten homemade bread and homemade jam for breakfast except for the occasional eggs from our chickens.

Lunches were mainly with a variety of homemade pastas, from ravioli with different fillings( all own grown or wild herbs and veg ), gnocchi, linguine and lasagne. Other meals were made with our vegetables, both fresh, from the freezer and jars. We still have cabbage on the ground, leeks and Brussels sprouts.

I used some of the meat from last year pig, including meatballs from the pig head, bacon, pancetta and fat for frying things. I also used two all rabbit, two all pheasant, some fish cakes from the pike and some rabbit burgers. I had some creamy home made cheese with my meals, but I have to say that I did not eat much cheese at all. In fact, I still have lots of it and the last one I made was in the middle of the month.

As cakes, I had my own carrot cake from rescued carrot cake mix and my invention of panettone which I am planning to perfect for Christmas.

Overall I think the diet was balanced with lots of carbohydrates and lots of proteins and vitamins. As fruit I had only pears and apples from our trees.

Coffee was not missing as my wild fruit teas and the spearmint are a very good drink.

We, as a family, drunk juices made by myself and as alcohol, we had homebrew beer and home made wines. In facts, we bought ,I think, only 6 bottles of wine in the entire month.

At weekend  I had some sandwiches (unsold and destined to the bin) from the school kitchen. Food going to be wasted because unsold, is a common fact around every western countries. Most of the milk I used for the cheese was out of date or just about out of date, and the nursery staff kept it for me. If you process the milk to make cheese, even if it is out of date, it is still good to be use.

If I had bought the flour and few other ingredients for making my pastas, cheese and bread that were given to me in  exchange of my stuff  I would have spent around £12 or 15 pounds in the all months. That is 50 pence a day. But, even one pound a day would be still remarkable.

My freezer is still nearly full of vegetable, different meat and juices, so I am confident that I should manage for the rest of the experiment. I still try to resist not to eat too much or save the extra slice of bread or make the pheasant to last at least three meals.

As for this weekend, I did not manage to do anything outside. Snow is deep in the garden and is too cold to be comfortable to work.

Saturday evening the all family had pheasant and vegetables. Sunday we all had my pasta for lunch and in the evening my pizza. So, that was three meals with wild and our own products for all family. In fact, during the all November we ate (no shop food )15 times together. This gives me an indication how far the all family could go with this experiment. Maybe two months? Monday for my lunch I had pasta with pieces of the pheasant breast (left over) and peas. Dinner was 2 fry eggs and three different vegetables from the jars. I opened for the first time a jar of wild garlic, wild nettle and dandelions leaves preserved with my apple vinegar and salt. Really interesting taste. I also open the first mushroom jar and a mix vegetable jar in the liquid saved from a jar of courgettes/gherkins  . This last one was also very good. Tuesday lunch more gnocchi with pheasant breast and in the evening more vegetables from the jars with two sliced of sheep liver from the freezer.

(our chickens in the snow)

Last Saturday I also tried to create a panettone cake from two egg whites, some sugar and flour. It was nearly as I wanted, but I need to improve it by making it to raise more. This would be a possible cake for Christmas as in |Italy, the panettone and the pandoro are the cakes for Christmas. I have a picture of the first attempt.

Christopher loves it, so, must be better than I think.

The panettone cake

 

First snow

First snow has arrived. The garden looks good but the chicken are not happy. Only one of them this morning advetured herself out, and standing outside the kitchen door, was calling for food. it was nice to make the fire and get the house that good feeling of warmth while out was snowing.
Had  a look in the frigdge and decided to use the last boiled potatoe, some chunchs of boiled parsnip, turnip carrot and cabbage. Cut and mash it, then add some fresh parsley all together to make some filling for a version of vegetarian ravioli.
So, I mixed 300 grams of flour, one egg and 30 minutes later the all thing was ready. The ravioli were bigger than normal as I put more filling in it.
Christopher came back for lunch yeasterday and he had gnocchi. Same for me e Lesley later on. Today different pasta for both as Christopher had packet lunch in school.
Here are some pictures of the dishes.

First snow in the garden

My meal today.

The vegetable ravioli

water as food

After watching the documentary from BBC2 I though to write what I think about the water business around the world. Water is a primarily element for our existence. As I wrote before in this blog, water is now a right for every human being living in this planet. the UN has finally agreed on this not long ago.This is a extract of the document:

"By a vote of 122 in favour to none against, with 41 abstentions, the General Assembly today adopted, as orally revised, a resolution calling on States and international organizations to provide financial resources, build capacity and transfer technology, particularly to developing countries, in scaling up efforts to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for all.

By a text on the human right to water and sanitation, the Assembly expressed deep concern that some 884 million people were without access to safe drinking water and more than 2.6 billion lacked access to basic sanitation.  Bearing in mind the commitment to fully achieve the Millennium Development Goals, it expressed alarm that 1.5 million children under five years old died each year as a result of water- and sanitation-related diseases, acknowledging that safe, clean drinking water and sanitation were integral to the realization of all human rights."

But before every human being in poor parts of the world gets this right ( drinking water available for everyone), we still have to provide this fundamental resource to people living in modern countries. As I said, after selling the land, now we are selling the water. Why? And why only few multinational groups have this monopoly? Who authorise them? They say that they can provide pure clean water, better water than the tap water. Why they do that? Because water is now polluted in many rivers and is not drinkable. Who polluted the water?
Water should never be privatise as private companies put profit first. No one can deny this because otherwise the companies won't do it for nothing. The precious liquid, that from rivers and sea and rain finally reaches us to keep us alive is now sold into plastic bottles made from oil. We buy water and soon we will be buying the air we are now breathing for free. The free water from the fountain in the streets of my town are no there anymore. it was free water from the above mountain, canalised by the Benedictine monks long ago, and because someone has decided to take it away ( the water ) we had to wait long time before the infrastructure was in place in order to have water in the houses. Now the water from the tap is not drinkable, so we are force to buy water at extra costs, because we already pay water taxes.
Water is food. No water, no food. To produce a bottle of coca cola the water used and wasted is unthinkable.
" Communities across India living around Coca-Cola's bottling plants are experiencing severe water shortages, directly as a result of Coca-Cola's massive extraction of water from the common groundwater resource. The wells have run dry and the hand water pumps do not work any more. Studies, including one by the Central Ground Water Board in India, have confirmed the significant depletion of the water table.
When the water is extracted from the common groundwater resource by digging deeper, the water smells and tastes strange. Coca-Cola has been indiscriminately discharging its waste water into the fields around its plant and sometimes into rivers, including the Ganges, in the area. The result has been that the groundwater has been polluted as well as the soil. Public health authorities have posted signs around wells and hand pumpsWater shortages, pollution of groundwater and soil, exposure to toxic waste and pesticides is having impacts of massive proportions in India. In a country where over 70% of the population makes a living related to agriculture, stealing the water and poisoning the water and soil is a sure recipe for disaster. Thousands of farmers in India have been affected by Coca-Cola's practices, and Coca-Cola is guilty of destroying the livelihoods of thousands of people in India. Unfortunately, we do not even know the extent of the damage as a result from exposure to the toxic waste and pesticides as these are long term problems. Most affected are the marginalized communities such as the Adivasis (Indigenous People's) and Dalits (formerly untouchables), as well as the low-income communities, landless agricultural workers and women. Taken in its entirety, that's a lot of people in India. ps advising the community that the water is unfit for human consumption. "
We can see how those multimillion profit companies act and I think they do not care about what they do as long their profit goes up. They say is because is a people choice, I say it is not a fair choice. if you go to a supermarket and you find on the shelves 10 different products, then you start to be in difficulties to decide what to choose. If there are only 2 products, then you will choose between them. Is not people choice is them creating it. That would be OK if what they created is damaging, or ,putting in danger people life.
So, that precious water is actually the basic ingredient for the food chain, and not only a simple essential drink. What the UN meant using the " affordable " term remain unclear or suspicious, but still better than nothing. At least the message is clear in the waider contest. If it will became applicable depends on individual governments.
As for me, business as usual. More pasta and vegetables ( left overs). I hope to be able to calculate what I used in the first month, just to have a better idea on how much food I really need.

Pheasants

Yesterday I have received 2 pheasants and today I cleaned them and stored in the freezer.
I also received the flour ,so I can make more pasta to give it in exchange of these birds. I have cooked the hearts and liver with a small piece of breast for my lunch. It was delicious.So tasty and fresh.
For tonight I will have a bit more of the rabbit stew I made the other day,with some bread and cheese. The potatoes I have cooked on Sunday night were too many, so I had some of them at lunch and for dinner.
Tomorrow I have to have some greens to balance the diet. I am not worried in eating pasta every day, but meat is not the same. I have lots of game but only some pike fish cakes left, so I am saving them for now.
I was asked from some friends if I could do some pasta making demonstration, so I am thinking to arrange a date before Christmas. I will be happy to know that some families  will be preparing home made pasta during the festive days. When four years ago  we promote a mushroom festival the people who participate were all very enthusiastic. We should actually try to promote events like this one more often, because it bring people together, and you will be meeting new friends and doing something more rewarding for yourself in terms of learning new things, socialising, and keep healthier. For example we should organise a apple festival,a house home made cooking display e so on. Share things and knowledge and products.
 Some pictures of my lunch tomorrow.

hearth, liver and breast

My lunch. What is better than this?













Today 24th November . This is my new condiment for my gnocchi. I wanted to use plenty of vegetables, so I made some pasta gnocchi and boil a carrot, a parsnip,a turnip( small )and some cabbage( all these are cultivated). All this was then chopped and fried adding the heart and liver of 2 partridges.When pasta was ready I mixed all together to create a new dish. No bad at all. For dinner I finish off the rest of the stew rabbit with some of the vegetables left. ( I have still more for another two meals). I know, it looks that I am eating same dish three o four time , but there is no other  way. Like in the past, you have to eat all of it even if you have to eat it more than once. here some pictures of today.

All the ingredients in the pan

Dish ready

Pizzas

It was not a busy day yesterday as my back pain let me down, not able to start working on the wooden floor in the garden house. I hope on Monday it will be better. The days are now starting to get very short, and with the combination of darkness and damp wet weather that syndrome of SAD is there, in the corner of the early evening, waiting for you to sit in the lounge, switch on the TV, open a bottle of wine and les  jeux sont faits. Well I decided to make some more bread, ravioli and pizza for everyone. Two different types of pizzas, as mine has to be shop free one.The flour I had in exchange three weeks ago is now finish and I had to improvise a dough with strong brown  bread flour instead. I did use again the yeast from the beer ( it keeps for very long time, possible a couple of months.by the time is finish or inefficient the next lot of beer has been fermenting any way).
The brown coloured pizza was better than last time. I did add some anchovy oil which I kept in the fridge from last time we bought them ( September? I keep the  anchovy jar oil as it is good as a condiment. Now more than before nothing is going to be wasted ).
In the morning went out to look for dandelion leaves and nettles leaves in order to make the ravioli. Well no much is left out  there. it tells you that by the end of October no much food is available from the wild. I kind of knew that, and this is way my freezer is full of wild herbs and other stuff. Do I have enough? Difficult to say but I am confident because I have got lots of cultivated peas,beans,beetroot and so on.
To the filling for the ravioli I add some marjoram and sage from the garden and mixed with the other herbs and mashed potatoes. Ravioli are for Josie and Sheila as both b provided some products to my exchange. Vegetables and flour.
Thinking about the wild herbs in the garden, in a book written by Vivien Weise called  Cooking Weeds, there is an interesting table regarding the content of proteins per 100 grams of edible parts of weeds compared with vegetables we buy in the shop. Here is the sample:

Vegetables                                                 Weed

White Cabbage    0.2                                 Chickweed           1.5
Chicory                0.4                                  Daisy                   2.6
Red cabbage        0.4                                 Sorrel                   2.8
Lettuce                 0.9                                 Dandelion             3.3
Spring leeks         1.0                                 Dead nettle            4.1
Chinese cabbage  1.3                                 Fat hen                  4.3
Spinach                2.5                                Good King Henry    5.3
Brussels sprouts    2.8                                Ground elder           6.7
Curly kale            3.0                                 Common mallow     7.2

Average              1.4                                 Average                  4.4

What is interesting for me is that my favourite cultivate vegetable ( white cabbage ) is the one with less proteins. On the other hand, the ground elder, which I have discovered this year to be edible ( thanks to a history program on channel four) has one of the highest content. Ground elder is considered to be a terrible weed/pest, but as Vivien suggests in her book, do not fight it, instead eat it. Within the cultivated ones, Brussels sprouts has is one of the highest, and as we know, nobody likes it!!!
Now that the festive season has started two months early what we a re going to do with our shopping?

According to the Love Food Hate Waste campaign we waste, on average, a third of the food we buy each week. However, during Christmas, WRAP claim that this increases by a massive 60 to 80%. You only have to set foot into a supermarket before Christmas to see people queuing down the aisles with trolleys laden with food. Many of us buy food as if we are feeding the five thousand, going to be snowed in for a week and the shops will be empty for a month.

This represents a staggering 230,000 tonnes of festive food worth approximately £275 million that gets thrown away across the country during Christmas and the New year. I am shocked and horrified.

My way of thinking is this: buy less do not meas eat less, it only means waste less. If the figures are correct we would better buy less food and at the same time we will be not only saving millions but also feeding millions of others around the world. Is not good enough to be generous at christmas, giving money or other thing for charities and carry on wasting soo much food. All that waste, as we know means only one thing : more hunger somewhere esle. We know that water and land is exploited;we know that people are exploited;we know that is not good for the environment, so we need to think twice before we buy food.
My suggestion will be: waste less and you will be already given the best present to million of people around the world for this christmas. I like this to be a new trend because we underestimate the value of this savings.

Cabbage

Last night did not have much time to do any food preparation as we came back from the swimming pool late. Fire to be prepared first, as priority then some food for the youngest one, some dish cleaning and so I decided to boil some cabbage ( from the school garden ). I also boil the outside leaves although not as tender as the middle ones. Normally I would keep them for the pigs, but wanted to try them in a dish.
After boiled and drained, the cabbage was chopped  and added to the fry pan, where I have melted some fat from the sheep neck.( I am trying to use fat rescued from previous cooking dishes and some fat that I have preserved in salt from last year pig belly. It works alright. No need for oil in some dished). To the frying cabbage I added some bits of the meat from the neck ( carving it out with a sharp knife), pinch of salt and voila', ready for the plate. It did not look any good, but it was OK. In fact this morning I have taken some for my lunch to school with some bread, plum chutney an apple and a pear.
I have a feeling of satisfaction every time I manage to go trough the day with such poor dishes. I say, well, it was edible, not too bad, and it was sufficient. I firmly believe that our palate( the part of the brain connected to it) gets trained to the taste of food. And you get use to it if the food you eat is eaten often.
I say this because I think about the bland food ( some ) sold in supermarkets. Chicken breast full of water for example. When you eat that for 20 years, then you try a real chicken you my find that the taste is too strong and you do not like it. Think about what other people eat in other countries, and some of their food taste and smell horrible for us but is tasty for them. So, the palate can be trained to food. I stick with my cabbage till is finish. As I said before I love cabbage anyway. In summer months in Sardinia our kitchen garden is always reach of cabbage. Lots of them. We eat cabbage ( white one ) as a salad, mixed with tomatoes, salt, olive oil (ours) and wine vinegar ( ours ). In my family over there we produce lots of varieties of vegetables,but we also produce our wine, olive oil and we have plenty of almonds trees. Some time the production of one crop is far more than we need, and therefore we give it to friend, relatives and neighbour.  Every one do this, so we have an exchange of products in a natural rotating system.
Here is today's fact:

If we planted trees on land currently used to grow unnecessary surplus and wasted food, this would offset a theoretical maximum of 100% of man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

Why we own the planet?

When the planet was created and the first living creatures started to benefit from nature the land and the waters were not own by anyone. When the first people started to live in it, none of them had a concept of owning the land or the waters. The planet was there to support life in any form, with no discrimination between creatures.

Our planet is actually our house, a special one, as it provides shelter, water and food.

We are here only for a very short time  and we are going to leave this place for others after us. There is no need for owning a piece of the planet as it is not our own. After 100 years all the people living now in the planet will be gone. Others will be living and we have to leave this resourceful hearth to who is coming after us.

The concept I am trying to extrapolate from my mind is not applicable now days as the planet has already been divided into continents, countries, regions, private land and so on.

But the principle stands behind the thinking of the planet as the place for every living creature. It can not be different from this, as  laws or legislation regarding the partition of the land and the waters were not written at the moment of its creation. Who started this business? The Homo Sapiens! I always question the concept of humans being as the most intelligent creatures in the planet.

Is not the life of the planet a intelligent, clever development of a form being as a all?

Someone called Gaia or Mother as it gives birth to every thing including our self. So, are humans only a part of this intelligence, cleverness?

Or, we think we are. We only our self can think about our self as intelligent people. None one else. In fact, as we are so clever, we are destroying the only place that can actually keep us alive. Can we call it progress something that actually has a strong relation with pollution, destruction,  explotation, waste of resources and death?

New philosophical thinking is now need it for our  “modern “ society. So, volunteers please.

As for my day by day business, last night I have made more pasta for today lunch, more potatoe cakes with bacon from last year ( still very good. it was salted too much and this has helped to preserved it for longer.I just cut it in strips and boil it for 20 minutes or so and the salt is washed away), cooked another sheep neck and toast the last pumpkin seeds. Christopher loves  the potatoe cakes and if I leave him he will eat all of them at once. Toasted almond from our trees in Sardinia and the pumpkins seed are my snacks in the evening whilst drinking a glass of own brew beer. I must say, the cobination is really good. Snacks during the day are garden apples and pears. Last night we tried a glass of plum wine from last year. it was fizzy, rose' type of color, and a bit sharp. A medium brut type of champagne, but it need it more sugar added during second fermentation. not perfect, but I new that not all the wines would not. On the other hand, rhubarb, apple and nettle wines are very good. Cherry and worcesterberry ones are still to be tried.

Tuesday 16 november

Another two eggs today. If our chickens keep producing I will start to keep the eggs for the next months as I need them not only for eating, but also to make pasta . Pasta is better if made with eggs, as it cooks better and is easy to work the dough. I discovered that eggs can be kept fresh for months...using different ways. Searching on the internet I have discovered that in different parts of the world people used different systems, but was very surprise to find out that you could keep eggs fresh for months.
Because of a hen's egg laying cycle, traditionally farmers would have a glut of eggs in spring and not many in winter. This led to a number of processes to store eggs so that they could be used at a later date. Waterglass, or sodium silicate, was most commonly used. The powder was mixed with water to make a solution and then used to cover eggs stored in a stoneware crock. In other places people use to brush the eggs with the white or oil or fat then cover them with brawn (?) or ashes. I thought that this process was to long for me and tried a simplest way. The most important thing was to eliminate the air to penetrate the eggs via the pores, so I decised to try with only simple water. Tap water of course. I placed three eggs in a plastic container, fill it with water and close it.I put the date on the eggs and after a months a opened one to see the results. It was fresh as new. Tried the second lot for two months and the eggs were still very good. I have changed the water a couple of times. I think it is a good practice to do this especially in summer.
This was a good discovery.
Here some pictures of my tonight's dinner. I have open a jar of pig head meat made last november.It is like the old fashioned SPAM. Not bad at all. Today i have used some of my creamy cheese to make a spreadable mixesture like philadelphia using fresh parsley and chooped ( last )spring onion. For lunch I had pasta.

Spredable soft cheese

my dinner tonight.
bread, cheese, potatoes,my "Spam" meat, one boiled egg.

Egg pasta strips for gnocchi

Cutting the gnocchi

Final touch

Two weeks gone well

Could not be a better start for the third week. Nice and sunny and the cold frosty morning is not a problem.
As planned I made more bread on Sunday morning, enough for the week ahead. Collected more parsley before the frost will kill it all ,chopphed and frozen.
 I am not making any cheese at the moment as I have plenty of it. I have used another bag of vegetables from frezer ( peas ) and I have made a dish with pasta and pig head meat made it into balls ( from last november ). At the weekend the all family had meals from  food free shops. I also made more pasta linguine and pasta egg gnocchi but dsid not have time sto start the apple wine. i was finishing the roof in the wooden house in the garden. the oldest chicken has restarted to produce eggs so yesterday we got two and today three!! I can now eat more eggs. It is interesting to realise that my approach to food consumption has changed, because I am very carefull  for example in trying to eat 2 slices of bread instead of three. I tend to save something all the time, not because is not sufficent but  I think is because I want to see if the third slice of bread was necessary or not. Sometime we eat more but not necessarily  we need it.
Temptation are around the corner all the time, in school and at home, and that is more difficult to cope. Crisps, nuts, choccolate,biscuits and other similar  stuff....I am not going to surrender. Coffee is not a problem. The fruit teas are very good , so I am not missing it. Someone has asked me what I am going to do at Christmas, well I am going to have a medioeval type of dinner as I have wild meat in the freezer. I will make a starter with the parma ham ( still hanging in the shed ) and bites of mushrooms and potatoes. lasagna for first main course, and rabbit or pheasant for second main course. Cake? I have made 5 plum cakes which are frozen. I will get one out and I will make a cream from the eggs to go with it.( My version of custard). If is dry, we will be making a fire in the garden like last year and roast a piece of meat on it.
Good enough?

Todays' fact:

The irrigation water used globally to grow food that is wasted would be enough for the domestic needs (at 200 litres per person per day) of 9 billion people - the number expected on the planet by 2050.

Thursday / Friday

Another week is nearly gone as I do not count weekends.. I have more time to do things, although I am still working tomorrow morning in school. The plan is to finish the roof of the wooden house, start a batch of apple wine, make some more bread and collect more parsley to be then chopped and put it in the freezer.
As yesterday goes, I had usual breakfast, then I boiled the neck of one sheep, then put it in the oven for 40 minutes with dry damsons and cherry syrup, salt and pepper.Meat was very tasty.I have sliced it in  strips and had some for lunch with beans  and in the evening for dinner with kraut and bread and cheese.
This morning bread and jam, and for lunch I have created a new dish using some of the meat from yesterday. I cut the strips in very tiny pieces then add to the fry pan with fresh parsley, sage and marjoram from the garden, then when this was ready I have prepared pasta gnocchi and after cook it, I add it to the fry pan mixing the all ingredients  together. The dish was interesting and the meat much tender than the previous day.
Today I have also defrost some slices of bacon from Abriachan pig, ready for my breakfast tomorrow morning. bacon, egg and bread.
here some pictures of the meat from sheep neck cooked, the ingredients for today pasta and the pasta gnocchi.

The meat

Gnocchi. 200 grams of flour.One egg,water. Sufficient for two meals.Preparation time: 15 minutes. Cooking time: 5 minutes.

Ingredients for the gnocchi.

Yesterday I have found out from Jean Paul that in the black Isles there is a group of people who have started a interesting project called Transition black isle or TBI. Their aim (s) is to create a community which will be looking after themeselves by eating only local food, own grown vegetables, local meat etc. They are also looking of ways to produce theyr own electricity and advertise local and  near by shops and business. I have not read a lot but its sound promesing and interesting .This is a exstract from the front page. You can visit their website: www.transitionblackisle.org
Welcome to a world in Transition

Local people are coming together, taking positive, practical steps to tackle the biggest challenges we face and creating a resilient Black Isle.
Strong, vibrant communities will find themselves in much better fettle to move forward in the face of two intertwined facts which will shape the future for all of us.
Our way of life is largely powered by fossil fuels like oil and coal. Supplies are being used up fast. Many experts believe oil production has already peaked. What is certain is that reserves are finite.  And with demand outstripping supply worldwide, prices are going to soar sky high.
Practically all aspects of the lifestyle we take for granted depend on oil. Food, heating, transport, agriculture, hospitals, medicines; modern western society revolves around the assumption that we have - and will continue to have - plentiful supplies of cheap fossil fuels.
Climate change is happening. The vast majority of the world’s scientists agree that if we continue to burn fossil fuels at current rates the results look likely to be catastrophic for all life on the planet.
Looking these issues squarely in the face it becomes clear we must adapt and change the way we live. Getting people involved in making our communities resilient and helping smooth the journey to becoming a low carbon society is what Transition Black Isle is all about.
The good news is it's not about doom and gloom at all. Living more locally is more fulfilling, more rewarding and ultimately a lot more fun than running around like a headless chicken without barely time to think, let alone get to know our neighbours.
We are actively developing practical projects to promote:

• local food
• local trade
• renewable energy
• better, safer and cleaner transport
• strong communities
• a healthy environment
• a rich productive landscape
• ... and a resilient Black Isle

Find out more - and get involved!

Wednesday

Good sunny day allowed me to finish the roof in the wooden house. by the end of the week I should be able to put the metal sheets up and have the building water proof.
yesterday I received some meat from Donna's...which included 3 necks of the sheep, the tails and the kidneys. I had two of them for lunch with our grown potatoes and our grown beans ( from freezer ). I cooked the kidneys with the leaves top of our leek and my cider vinegar. Delicious. My cider vinegar was made from garden apples in an attempt to make apple wine, but one batch turned into vinegar. No problem as I use it for cooking, salads and to preserve my mushrooms. All is useful. The necks have a lot meat in it so I am planning to make a fire in the garden this weekend, and roast it. Tonight I will have more beans, potatoes and two boiled eggs from our generous chickens. I also brought to school a ,jar of my own kraut made last year from the excess of cabbage. here is the picture of today's work in the garden.

Roof is now on....

My linguine pasta dish. with creamy cheese and tomatoes sauce.

More facts:
The irrigation water used globally to grow food that is wasted would be enough for the domestic needs (at 200 litres per person per day) of 9 billion people - the number expected on the planet by 2050.

Monday/ Tuesday

In our office now my colleagues do not ask me if I want a cup of coffee... today I have defrosted a bottle of cherry concentrated for my break cup of fruit tea. Still got some Damsons one, but finished the little jar of mint . A bottle ( 500 ml ) is lasting about 10 days. Well, I am actually drinking less than before, probably half of the amount when I was drinking coffee. This means that i am taking no sugar and no milk. I have saved in the freezer a dozen of bottles of fruit concentrated juice. So, they should last about 100 days, 20 short to my target. But, I have plenty of apples and i will make some tea drinks from it,  maybe mixing some spearmint dry leaves with it, and I can still try (occasionally )the coffee from the almonds. Did not have any time to look for dandelion roots. I am far too busy at the moment, especially building the wooden house in the garden.
See pictures below. As yesterday and today meals no major changes. Breakfast as usual : bread and jam and hot drink. For my lunches I had two different type of home made pasta and dinner was left over pieces of pizza, cheese, bread and a apple, and tonight bread, rest of the pheasant with its nice sauce.

building it

the front is finished

It will be like a big workshop and storage area. The top op of the garden gets more sunshine and it will be a good place for reading and  meditate. Of course I will be using it to hang my sousages and salamis as well as entire leg of pork for parma ham. Christopher has already book it for his Birthday on the 6th of January, and I have to speed up the process of insulating the interior and  buy a second hand wood stove or something else to warm up the place. The light will be provided by a solar PV. I Found a kit  on the Internet for about £ 250 which provides the electricity for two bulbs. it will be good and fun.