Weekend

First week has gone fast and I am happy with the way I was organaising my meals and preparing things  in generals, without creating problems with the needs of my family. Overall we had four meal together which were not bought from shops.It will be not only myself trying to survive with wild stuff and home made things ect, but when possible the all family will be involved. The easiest eating time is of course breakfast, as two sliced of bread and home made jam is generally what I eat, with the occasional egg from our chickens. One morning I had cheese, bread and jam. In the past in Sardinia people working all day long in the countryside would eat cheese and bread with a cup of strong coffee. breakfast had to be abboundand to last till lunch.
Yesterday at lunch we all had left overs and in the evening we made a bonfire in the garden and I cooked the rest of the venison in the fire. The other dish was roast potatoes and pheasant ( small one ). usual breakfast this morning and ravioli for all at lunch time. Before we started working in the garden I prepared some bread to be cooked later one and more apple juice for christopher. As I said before I make my bread with the yeast from the beer that has stopped fermenting. Some pictures below shows the product.

Beer yeast

Bread raising

I did not use much stuff from the freezer, so the freezer is stil full. Dandelions and nettles are still available in  the garden. We also got 8 plants of brussel  sprouts and few cabbages in the school garden are still there as well ,and  some parsley too . Parsley is very versatile as I can use it in different ways,especially for condiments. Cabbage like brussel sprouts can be boring eating stuff, and I know that brussel sprouts are not the favourites of the maggiority of people.( They smell too much? ) But who then has decided that they should be part of the Christmas dinner? My favourite cabbage is the white one, and I like both row and cooked. Cabbage actually has a lot vitamins : A, B1, B2, B9 and a variety of minerals like calcium, iron, potassium and others. The way I like to cook the brussel sprouts is to cat them in half, fry them with butter and then add some sweet wine or even whisky to finish with a teaspoon of honey or kind of jelly sweet product. All will melt together nicely. Do not forget the salt and pepper. I stiil think lot people will not like them.

Dandelions leaves

Cabbage

Beetroot leaves

couliflower mushroom from queen's Mary rock

As we can see, examples of wild food and coltivated ones. Some of the coltivated vegetables  actually were in the past wild, and then we managed to produce them under our controll. The only problem with the coltivated ones is the way most of them are produced. Lot of land is used for one crop, lot of water and lot of chemicals are also used to make sure the quantity is great. The arable land has now been used so much that natural nutrients are not there anymore, so we use fertilasier to make the lad fertile. This process is not natural, as we use products which are exstracted from oil. pesticides are also used in large quantities and they end up to our plates. They do not disappear as we think ( or we hope). What goes in , comes out.

The taste of wild vegetables is different as is the taste of game in comparason of chicken from battery hen houses or similar meat. but, we forgot that taste. We do not recognise it.Our palate now has been changed by the way products are manipulated, and our brain reacts to them as they (?) want it. Mild, insignificant chicken breast full of water, or super sweet puddings, or super fatty pies ect. I love choccolate, I love fish and chips and pies. Problem is, how much of it can I eat before I start to anticipate my departure from these lands.

Food waste facts:

Between 2 and 500 times more carbon dioxide can be saved by feeding food waste to pigs rather than sending it for anaerobic digestion (the UK government’s preferred option). But under European laws feeding food waste to pigs is banned. In Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, by contrast, it is mandatory to feed some food waste to pigs.