Potato Pizza and Pigeon - Local Eating in the UK

4 years ago Lifestyle

For Lent this year, we are giving up eating.

fieldPhoto:

Well almost. We can eat root vegetables, apples, flour, dairy and some meat.

This is because we are experimenting with an exclusively local food diet and these are the foods that are in season within 100 miles of where we live in the English Midlands.

This week we are in training. We have been making a lot of soup, baking bread and even grinding up roast parsnips to make substitute coffee. Our 7 year old daughter has been eating up Christmas chocolate she had saved. We think she is trying to put on fat to get through the month.

The other thing we have been doing is arguing. Eating local is a stressful business. Can we eat this jam? No, we don't know where the sugar came from. What about this flour? Well, we know it was ground within 100 miles, but we don't know which farm it came from. What about salt? As we're in the middle of the country and the furthest point inland, there is no local source of salt. Can we manage without it?

We have also been visiting farmers markets, local shops, mills, orchards and endless farm shops. Out goes our normal diet of lentils, tinned tomatoes and pulses. In comes cream, butter and pigeon. It tastes a bit like liver, if you are wondering.

Mostly we're on the lookout for things to do with root vegetables. Yesterday we had a potato pizza. Today we're having potato quiche.

A pattern is beginning to emerge.

By new contributor Joe Turner. Joe runs the Freedom Clothing Project, a co-operative set up to source excellent quality ethically produced products. If you feel like writing for us, drop us an email!

If you want to keep up with Joe's experiment in local eating, why not subcribe to our RSS feed? We'll even give you a free album.

Written by: joeturner

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Comments

Old Comments

Karin says

Feb 2nd, 2008 at 12am
Potato pancakes, Kartoffelpuffe or Latkes, are made with raw, grated potato and onion, which is why the oats are needed to soak up some of the water. The egg binds it all together. They were can be eaten with apple sauce and then are known as Himmel und Erde - heaven and earth. I think they were popular during the depression in Germany as they are very economical and use very basic local ingredients. They seem to be Jewish in origin, but not so far back as Jesus certainly didn't come across potatoes in 1st century Israel.

Bagshaw says

Feb 1st, 2008 at 12am
There’s also potato pancakes - add onion, egg and oats, and defininely salt. Fry in veg oil hopefully, but I guess my grandmother wouldn’t have. She probably used lard or maybe goosefat.
My Dad used to make these with leftover mashed potatoes on Sunday morning. He would just throw in an egg, maybe some salt and pepper and pan fry them with a little butter. As kids, we would put ketchup on them (and everything else), that doesn't sound so good now, but they are tasty!

Karin says

Jan 31st, 2008 at 12am
Don't forget Bortsch!

Al Shaw says

Jan 30th, 2008 at 12am
Great plan. Hope it goes well for you. You've got me thinking about doing this - but not till next year! On the subject of root vegetables, we're big fans of a old fashioned veg casserole. Cheers.

Karin says

Jan 29th, 2008 at 12am
There's also potato pancakes - add onion, egg and oats, and defininely salt. Fry in veg oil hopefully, but I guess my grandmother wouldn't have. She probably used lard or maybe goosefat.