Sorry for my absence.

My computer decided that it didn't want to work. I've been using my housemate's laptop to do things like twitter and facebook and generally trying to keep up with the world, but sharing a computer in very limited time means I've had to neglect this blog. My computer still isn't fixed, but I do have a bit more time over the bank holiday so hopefully I will get this written and published for you before the end of the weekend.

My subtitle for this post is: Grab a Bargain When You See it.

A couple of weeks back I happened to pop into Waitrose to pick up some more milk (I buy Duchy Original milk because it's organic, non-homogenized and the 2 litre cartons seems to always be on offer). Since I was in there anyway I decided to look round for reductions on meat (there's little in my local Waitrose I can afford to buy that isn't on offer or reduced). I came across some lamb mince that worked out to about £4/kg. Yeah seriously. It was of those "I wish I liked lamb more than I do" moments. Thankfully my housemate likes lamb and I cook for both of us. Housemate is spending more time away for work at the moment so I grabbed some and took them home to cook.

The picture below shows the packaging and the meatballs ready to bake.

I decided to turn them into meat balls because these can then be eaten as snacks or refried or added to veg in a pot to make a kind of soup. I was inspired by Practical Paleo's spiced lamb meatballs. In with the minced lamb I added salt, pepper, cumin, and cinnamon (Diane's mix probably tastes better but I didn't have everything to hand, check out Practical Paleo if you want the proper recipe). I then baked, cooled and froze them. Housemate reports that they were filling and tasty and worked really well for wild camping.

These are the final product about to go into the freezer (or about a third of the final product anyway).

There is a small town near me that had a market on this weekend. It only runs three a year but it tries to make them big when they run. I looked through the list of people who were going to be there and saw a butcher and a fishmonger. I was sold. I like the chance to meet producers I don't already know and the chance to look for bargains. From the fishmonger I found less a bargain (so more of a treat) but more of a good thing. I bought proper cold smoked kippers. I also picked up a chicken and a kg of diced beef for £10. It's locally raised so it had a mixed diet (because we're just coming out of winter) but for £5/kg I'm not complaining. I also picked up some local honey and some local organic cider vinegar. The cider vinegar is local, organic, not pasteurized, unfiltered, so it basically ticks the boxes. And to top it all off, it's cheaper than aspall's stuff.

Here's a picture of some of the kippers atop mixed kale and beetroot fried up in butter. Left my kitchen stinking of fish for ages afterwards. Not to be eaten just before you're expecting vegetarian friends or family round. Please excuse the poor photo. Like always it was taken from my phone and frankly I was too hungry to faff around trying to take a better one.

Cucumbers were on offer at Lidls so later this week I will be making lovely chicken and cucumber.

This lovely long bank holiday weekend has also seen me be able to get out into my garden. Down here in Devon we managed some sunshine, and my garden is fairly sheltered, so wrapped up against the cold it's been fairly pleasant. I'm not sold that this will be the final position of my veg beds but in practical terms it probably will be simply because it allows them to catch what little sun comes into my garden. I still need to fix them properly into the ground and build something round them to keep the hens out though.

Due to a headache I spent much of sunday afternoon curled up on my bed surrounded by gardening books. I love my books but sometimes it really makes the point that I am working with very little space. I'll  never be self-sufficient on this plot of mine, but it will certainly give me space to experiment and keep me honest about only using methods that prove to be economic. My garden looks barren now but I still dream of a time that it will be lush and productive.

The lord Saxen even managed some sunbathing in this weekend's weather.

Feeding the world one urban home at a time

A few weeks back my eye was rather caught by this article here about the Future of Food: Can Organic Farming Feed the World from the Small Footprint Family blog. I think it was short after I saw on youtube a documentary made a few years ago about the future of farming here in the UK from the view of a farmer's daughter here in Devon. The underlying point from both were that current farming methods are not sustainable. So it was on my mind for a bit, and then Christmas happened and starting my new business venture, but then the other day I heard on BBC news about the Institute of Mechanical Engineers publishing a report that claims that 30-50% of food produced does not make it to a human stomach. I'll let that settle in. Up to half of all food produced in the world is wasted. In my day job I talk to some vulnerable and often hungry people so this just seems plain wrong to be happening.

I remember being concerned about "green" stuff twenty years ago as a child. I'm pretty sure that "reduce, reuse, recycle" only became common later to wider audiences. Food is a finite source. It takes land, water and oil to produce industrial qualities of food. My personal feeling that I don't care whether we're reached Peak Oil or whether climate change is caused by humans or entirely natural. I do however care that it's doesn't make sense to balance our whole economy on something as finite as oil. I just don't think it makes much sense to keep making more and more of stuff, and that has only been compounded by this report from IME. It's a waste of resources, an insult to the producers, and when it comes to food wasted in the western world it is largely consumers who are to blame. So this is something we can do something about. The report recommends that we put into action what we already know about making good use of food. So here is my advise, tried and tested.

• Grow your own. Firstly you have control, and secondly you don't. Mother Nature doesn't often make perfect tomatoes and sometimes carrots are funny shapes in the real world too. Growing your own teaches you to be more forgiving when selecting fruit and veg that other people have grown. Buying from local producers is another good way for naturally shaped and appearanced fruit and veg to be given a chance. I'm really lucky. I have a local grocer who sell their own stuff plus a few bits from other people. I can buy unusual varities of apple that look less than perfect but taste fantastic. The next best thing I've seen in the supermarkets is again apples. Tesco and sainsburys seem to use whatever variety is cheap to sell as their cheap range. So don't always buy the beautiful shiny apple (or whatever) when the ugly sister next to it is less wasteful and still tasty. 
• Only buy what you need or can reasonably use. This was actually high-lighted in the report as they point out that bulk offers from supermarkets often result in bulk waste when stuff goes off. So you know, meal plan. I go to the shops on a saturday, buy what's cheap or on offer, get home and then plan what I'm going to make for the week dependent on what I've bought. Obviously I know I need to buy a few kg of veg and usually about 5kg of meat/fish every week so that helps because that's how these foods are sold. Sometimes I will buy more of something than I know I will use in a week, so when I get home I repack it for the freezer. Simple. I have meat, veg and fruit in my freezer. Rotate what's in your freezer, checking through it every few weeks and include it in your meal plans. The nice thing about eating the way that I do (meat plus veg) is that it's really easy to plan. The only thing else that I will add to this point is to plan yourself some easy to make or can be cooked from frozen meals. I will try and share some examples in the coming weeks. I had a friend fail at converting to this way of eating because he forgot too often to get meat out of the freezer to defrost. 
• Use up leftovers. This site isn't paleo but you get the point - Love Food Hate Waste. Again your freezer is your friend but really it's best to use stuff up sooner rather than later. If you put stuff in the freezer - label it! I speak from experience. You're not saving anything if you end up throwing food away as unidentifiable. Everything looks the same once it's been in the freezer long enough. Omelettes are a good way to use up veg, and can be eaten at any time of day. Scraps of meat can be saved for things like a stew or curry. And save them bones. Stock and broth are common ways to make best use of left over veg and bones. Bone broth is easy to make, good for the digestive system, protein sparing, filling, and generally good for you as well as economical.  
• Eat nose to tail. The report focuses more on plants than meat, and carries the assumption that meat is automatically uses more resources than plants. However if they are measuring what makes it to the human stomach then eating nose to tail will increase the amount of the animal that we eat and therefore generate less "waste" (although much of the waste is used to feed dogs and cats amongst used for other things). I am planning on getting a bigger freezer and when I do I will be buying my meat by the part animal. Eating nose to tail and making things like broth will mean I can go longer between purchases and throw away less at the end. 

I will probably expand on all these in later posts. However I've got a long day ahead of me tomorrow so I'm off to bed. 

Eight days into a fresh 30 Days Paleo

I thought I'd offer up a little insight into how things are going. I was worried that after months of not being as strict as I would have liked that it was going to prove really hard. So far it's been relatively easy. I managed to walk past the creme eggs in tescos and avoid the chocolate machine at work. From time to time I get a sugar craving, even though I'm not deliberately trying to be low carb. I was probably helped on by one of my colleagues who IS low carb at the moment. She was having a difficult day so bought a big bar of dark chocolate and shared it out. I'm not avoiding dark chocolate but didn't have any with me. I was also having a difficult day, and that piece of dark chocolate stopped me from breaking and buying normal chocolate.

This next week is the really big challenge. I'm going out for a meal Saturday night to celebrate my birthday followed by drinks. I have my plans to manage this, but there will be peer pressure to conform. Thankfully since it's my birthday I've picked the restaurant. However the big challenge follows on Sunday when I have a re-enactment group meeting. There's always food at our meetings, and it often revolves around bread. Yummy yummy spelt bread. But I'm just going to have to say no.

Really the thing that keeps me strong so far is knowing that I'm going to be seriously disappointed in myself if I can't make 30 days.

Why my goals for 2013 didn't include a fitness goal.

Most paleo folks have fitness goals. Most paleo folks who have blogs talk about fitness sooner or later. Movement and exercise are an important part of realising our genetic potential and an important part of achieving "health". So why have I not included a fitness goal?

I'm going to be having surgery at least once in 2013. I might even have surgery twice. Not simple day surgery stuff either.

I've also taken to heart the advice Robb Wolf gives in The Paleo Solution to build and maintain some muscle.  So no specific fitness goals at the moment beyond making time and energy for movement that allows me to build and maintain some muscle. Once I'm done with surgery I look to bring to fruition some ideas I've been having about physical challenges. I live near Dartmoor so I'd like to get climbing. I like would to try a martial art. And I would like to tackle one of those big obstacle races.

So there you go. No fitness goal because other priorities fill my world at the moment.

As a PS to our goals though. I realised at the gym tonight that this is the first time I am doing a strict 30 days Paleo and working out regularly throughout. My sleep isn't great at the moment but I'm trying to work on that. I've also got loads of social stuff planned for the month too. It feels like I'm really giving myself a cracking start to 2013, as long as I actually do it all.

My aims for 2013 - I don't do resolutions

Resolutions are too easily broken. A whole year is a big ask. Whilst aiming to make a change is a good ideal there are too many unknowns over that kind of time frame. I do however have some aims for the time ahead.

• Do a proper 30 paleo without non-paleo treats. So no grains, no vegetable oils, only dairy will be in my tea/coffee, no legumes, will allow myself dark chocolate. My plan is to then give myself February  "off" before getting back on track for March. Really this is to prepare my body as best as possible for surgery later in the year. By March I should have a surgery date for chest surgery. 
• Start and build a small business venture I am getting involved in. It's an established company and I will have plenty of support. I would like the extra money plus the experience building a business. The extra money will hopefully get ploughed into paying off my mortgage. 
• I want to have my chest surgery before the summer and I would like to have at least consulted about lower surgery before the end of the year. I will continue to work on improving myself in preparation for surgery so I can do what I can to have the best result possible. Just call me vain.
• I want to replace the lawn in my garden with raised beds and stone paths. I want to move my chicken coop so it's better positioned on my patio. I want a water butt. I want to rip down the shed in my garden that is falling down and replace it by rebuilding and extending my side shed. And I want to see how much food I can produce from my garden. I want a garden that produces food and that I can enjoy spending time in without being a slave to it. I have further plans but I think this is enough for one year. 
• And last but not least I want to lay down some good memories with friends and family. 

We'll see how many of them I manage. And in the mean time I really need to polish a couple of recipes so that they're good enough to share. 

Simple steps . . . reducing your water bill

The gathering of water. I live not so very far away from a reservoir. When the reservoir was build it involved the loss of a valley, diverting a river multiple times and massive amounts of materials. However it is large and reliable. It's a place of beauty now but it came at a cost. The treatment of water for our consumption is also costly, especially when so much of it is flushed down a toilet or used for watering plants. This cost is obviously passed on to us, and I live in the most expensive area of the UK for water bills.

I had a conversation a couple of months ago with some friends to compare water bills. There is the same number of people in each home but their water bill is few times ours despite being with the same water company. The result of this conversation was the realisation that some of the practises that we follow make a difference.

We practise "if it's yellow let it mellow; if it's brown flush it down". You don't have to be religious about this for it to reduce your water consumption.

We also limit shower time. We don't shower every day. As housemate works on his own most of the time he showers even less than me. The timer below is an illustration of a piece of kit we were able to get free from our water company. At first I thought it wouldn't make much difference, but using it has reduced the time I spend in the shower. I never decided to use it to do that really, more it was curiosity about how much time I was spending in the shower. But observation causes change, and so I'm now naturally more conscious of the time spent in the shower.












We also practise that clothes aren't just automatically dumped into the wash. We consider if they're dirty or if they smell. I get changed when I get home for work into jeans, t-shirt and jumper usually. It was a habit I developed at school. I went to boarding school and we had to get changed out of our school clothes within half an hour of the end of school, so it's a habit I follow now. If I wear an item of clothing to make dinner and then sit on the sofa for a couple of hours it is not dirty. I hang it up before I go to bed and wear it again the next evening.

The last thing that we do is again shower related. We have a combi boiler so it takes a little while for hot water to come through when you want a shower so rather than waste the water I collect it in a bucket I keep next in the bathroom. This water is then used to flush the toilet from time to time.

They're small practises, simply things really but they evidently make a difference. The only equipment they involve are an egg timer and a bucket. They can be followed in a flat/apartment or a house or a farm. These aren't extreme steps either, or they don't need to be. We use less water than the water company expects two people to use, and I have further plans for ways to reduce our water consumption.

Three tips for saving money on meat

1. When you buy chicken, buy whole chicken. Especially when it's on offer. 

Yes I roast my chickens upsidedown to begin with. When whole chicken is on offer I stock up, this time I bought three chickens. One I have roasted and we ate the breasts. Next we will eat the legs for lunch tomorrow. I have the remains of another chicken in my freezer, so next weekend they will get boiled up for chicken bone broth. The other two have been divided up. First I cut the legs off. I cut the string off, pull the legs out a bit, cut through the skin, pull the joint out of its socket and then just cut my way through. Then I cut the breasts off. I haven't yet mastered cutting the breast off cleanly. But I have started pulling the skin off before I remove the breast and that seems to help. Lastly the remains with the extra skin go in the freezer, ready to feed the dog another day. And in case you're wondering, a bird like this takes about an hour and a half to roast and I roast it like this for the first half hour because it helps keep the breast beautifully moist. 

2. Eat offal

Offal in this context means not just organs but also those cuts of meat that are less desired by the masses. I wrote last time about how far a simple lb of lamb scrag went (6 portions). Pork blade is another cut that I have seen for a very good price at the butcher. Liver makes for a very economical meal, or can even stretch a bit off mince/ground meat a bit further. It's highly nutritious as well. Cuts like these often require long, slow cooking. This is where a slow cooker comes in handy. Glands such as kidney and liver require very quick cooking. Butchers are usually the best place to buy things like this however the best price I've seen for ox kidney was actually in Waitrose (although I've yet to try and buy direct). Morrison's are another supermarket where you might be able to get more offal like stuff. 

3. Eat bone broth

Another use for a slow cooker. I use an acid such as vinegar or lemon juice just in case it really does help release minerals. When I make chicken broth I will cook it for a while, remove the carcasses and pick them clean of meat. The meat goes on one side and the bones go back into the pot. The bones are then simmered again until they are going soft before being removed. I then add the meat and some veg back and I have a fantastic soup. Not only does bone broth make food go further, the amino acids in the broth are also protein sparing. If money is truly tight then bone broth is the way to go because it will help you meet your protein requirements without having to consume so much meat. Think of the peasant pot from Ireland to Korea simmering away with little meat but a few bones; nourishing families.