Beetroot and Carrot Salad

I used to think beetroots had to be cooked. Now I am wiser, I know they can be  raw. And may be more nutritious as a result.

Grating beetroots makes crunching effortless while an oil and vinegar dressing adds luxury. Carrots, also grated, are a perfect companion.

You know what they say: eat for colour: orange, reds (and more), each colour containing different immune-boosting nutrients.

I first came across the beetroot/carrot combo at the Better Food Cafe about seven years ago, and copied the idea, working out a version at home. 

Then turned it into a recipe for Grown in Britain Cookbook. I wish I had name-checked my inspiration so glad to be doing so now. My beetroots came from  the Better Food Company, too.

I peeled the carrots and beetroots, above. Grown organically, slowly, biologically, they are chemical-free and needed only scrubbing, plus the skin has nutrients. (But I am not perfect and peeling is faster).

I was taken with the yellow, white and purple carrots, as they used to be before 17th century Dutch growers went monoculture orange to praise William of Orange. Poetically, these 21st century rainbow carrots were grown in Holland.

I had bought my Dutch rainbow organic carrots at the Bear Fruit stall (above) in the Bear Pit, Bristol.

The Bear Pit is, by the way, an example of urban regeneration from the grass-roots-up. A dingy subway on a busy city roundabout now transformed by locals into a lively market and meeting place.

Beetroot and Carrot Salad – ingredients for four

• 600g raw beetroot
• 600g raw carrots
• 50g sunflower seeds
• Dressing: 4 tablespoon olive oil + 50ml balsamic vinegar
• oil for frying/toasting + soy sauce for seeds
• Salt and black pepper, to taste
• Fresh herbs (parsley, coriander) or snipped salad cress.
• 1.1. Scrub/peel carrots and beetroot, and trim tops and tails. Keep carrots whole for grating. Peel the beetroot and cut in half. Grate the raw vegetables, using hand grater or food processor. Combine in large bowl and add olive oil and vinegar dressing.2. If not serving immediately, don’t add dressing yet. Instead, store covered in fridge. Remove 1 hour before serving to bring to room temperature. Then add dressing (below).

  3. For the vinaigrette, put the oil and vinegar in a screw-top jar, put the lid on tightly and shake vigorously.

  4. Gently heat olive oil in a small frying pan and toast the seeds for 3–4 minutes over a moderate heat, stirring to prevent sticking. Add the soy sauce at the end of the cooking, if using. Most of the sauce will evaporate, leaving a salty taste and extra browning for the seeds. Store the toasted seeds in a jar with a lid if preparing the day before.

  5. When ready to serve, add the chopped herbs to the grated beetroot and carrot. Shake the screw-top jar with vinaigrette, then pour over the vegetables, and season to taste. Toss the salad gently until everything glistens. Scatter the toasted seeds.

In Bristol’s green heart, we trust

Green party councillor, Gus Hoyt, says Bristol’s mayoral Cabinet has a “green heart at its core”. (Image credit Bristol 24-7)

Previously city councillors had voted for their leader. But the Coalition government gave ten of England’s biggest cities the option to vote for its own. Last May, Bristol people voted in a referendum to elect their own mayor, the only city to do so. In November, independent candidate, George Ferguson, became the city’s first “directly-elected” mayor.

Does a directly-elected mayor give more power to the people because they (rather than councillors) are voting? Or does the new role give too much power to one person, the mayor? But that’s another story.

Last November, Gus Hoyt, Bristol North’s first Green party councillor, got a late-night call from newly-elected mayor, George Ferguson, inviting him to join the new mayoral “rainbow” cabinet.  Gus Hoyt explains in his blog why he accepted.

It’s a question because the Green Party is opposed to the cuts - yet the Bristol mayoral cabinet is pledged to cut £35 million. The intention of the cabinet is to minimise hardship, says George Ferguson. “I’m trying to minimise the effect on services,” he says.

Personally, I don’t get this cuts business. For a start, the UK is one of the most powerful countries in the world. To my mind, Austerity Britain is a marketing slogan to cover up the reality which is: “Stop giving money to the poor, so the rich can get richer.” But I digress.

Last night at a Bristol Friends of the Earth meeting, guest speaker, Gus Hoyt – focusing on food and energy – described the positive things the cabinet hopes to achieve.

Green Bristol food vision

• Make it easier for local food producers to sell their produce, building connections with local supply chains

• Turn Bristol into a bee capital (Paris has over 400 hives)

• Establish a “nuts-and-bolts” food market at Bristol Temple Meads railway station new enterprise zone - if successful it could be replicated in areas of deprivation

• Aim to declare Bristol a zero waste city hopefully working with green-friendly Labour MP for Bristol East, Kerry McCarthy, who introduced a food waste bill in parliament

• One fruit tree to be planted for each Bristol child born so apples and nuts can be harvested at will, and children can learn where food comes from (it really does grow on trees.)

• Edible beds in public spaces and food production in parks so food can be picked for free

• Turn Bristol into a food capital. The city already hosts several food festivals – let’s host more

• Enable more schoolchildren to learn how to grow food to eat and how to cook it.

At this point Gus Hoyt referred to the horsemeat scandal, and how we must bust the myth that affordable food has to be rubbish. When people cook from scratch, food can be healthy, fresh – and affordable.

At this point, let me invoke my mother invoking her mother:

“The secret of good cooking is quality ingredients. The first step to learning how to cook is knowing how to choose quality raw materials.”

My grandparents lived in poverty in the East End – but they knew how to cook. The UK media delights in making healthy food a class issue, as it sneers at middle class obsessions about organic food. Hello?! The true class issue is companies producing rubbish food and spending millions on marketing it to poor people.

Back to last night’s meeting. There was a discussion about the Blue Finger, a stretch of local land perfect for growing food. At the start of the 20th century, Bristol was ringed with market gardens which fed Bristol. Now we buy tasteless produce in supermarkets trucked in from far away.

And should the negative effects of climate change and fuel shortages take hold, making Bristol more self-sufficient in food makes a lot of sense. And more pleasant and healthy, too.

At the Friends of the Earth meeting, Phil Haughton of Better Food Company said that plenty of local farmers would be happy to lease/sell a field the land: what is missing, he said, are entrepreneurs. Meanwhile Joy Carey, author of Who Feeds Bristol, said to make Bristol food-secure, eight main things need to happen including composting, growing, learning to cook and supporting small shops and producers.

Bristol Food Policy Council (the first in the UK) is developing a food plan with those eight components. Bristol, be proud.

Green Bristol energy vision

• Bristol to become the go-to-city for renewable energy 
• Make Bristol a truly solar city
• Bristol can be “a living university ” for green institutions
• Aim for Bristol to become the European Green Capital
• Invite aeronautical businesses to use their expertise to create tidal technology (rather than bomber ‘planes) -  a kind of “swords into ploughshares” idea
• Secure £10 million to make council houses more energy-saving
• Work with institutions such as the NHS and universities to make energy more affordable with ‘Energy Partnerships’
• Wind turbines at Avonmouth are due to open in December
• Bristol to be 100 % “fracking” and nuclear-free.

So, dear reader, does this gladden your heart? It did mine.

La Pirogue – stolen fish and refugees

“Y’a plus de personnes ici, y’a plus de poissons.”

“No more people here, no more fish,” says one of the characters in La Pirogue, the Senegalese film directed by Moussa Touré, selected for Un Certain Regard, Cannes 2012.

Here’s a clip from La Pirogue.

Illegal fishing on a fierce industrial scale is robbing West African coastal countries of its fish, often the only protein source for millions of people.

Instead of being used for local, sustainable fishing, the painted pirogue is used to transport desperate people on a perilous sea journey. The film is dedicated to the thousands of Africans who have died crossing the Atlantic to Europe.

If they had their fish, they would not risk crossing the ocean in a wooden boat.

Much of this stolen fish ends up in Europe, says the Environmental Justice Foundation in its recent report, Exposing Pirate Fishing: The Fight Against Illegal Fishing in West Africa and the EU.

Everything is connected. The would-be migrants who try to enter Fortress Europe are suffering from the illegal trade in seafood sold to Europe.

La Pirogue opened the Afrika Eye Film Festival on the 9 November 2012. I was helping the sixth Afrika Eye Film Festival with its social media, and saw a connection for another client, Charles Redfern’s sustainable canned fish brand, Fish4Ever.

He in turn saw a link with the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) and sponsored their stall at La Pirogue’s screening.

Here is Charles Redfern and Kate, a marine scientist, who ran the EJF information stall at the Afrika Eye Film Festival, at the Watershed, Bristol.

Charles has family links to Sierra Leone, also ravaged by illegal fishing.  In 2011, he raised £9k to help the EJF buy Sierra Leone a new monitoring boat. This boat featured in an Al Jazeeera video investigation as it chased two South Korean trawlers fishing illegally.

David Dravie-John from Sierra Leone, and Charles, connected at the opening night. David Dravie-John wanted to interview Charles on his Bristol-based radio on Ujima 98 FM, but as Charles is Reading-based, I agreed to be interviewed instead.

Positive change starts with awareness. I have to communicate the problem because it’s part of finding the solution.

The Zimbabwean film maker, Afrika Eye Film Festival co-founder, and director of Robert Mugabe – What Happened, Simon Bright, says in my interview for Bristol247, “Film has the power to transform political events”.

…”so that the beautiful African pirogues will never again serve to transport human misery,” as a blogger wrote.

Fish4Ever’s ethical sourcing policy refuses to buy from long distance foreign fleets fishing in the coastal waters of developing countries.

And here’s a picture of Charles eating lentil soup I made with Fish4Ever anchovies, + cut-up sweated small cubes of fennel, leek and swede (a veg trio inspired by healthy-food-on-a-budget Square Food Foundation’s chef Barny Haughton).

Delicious sustainable fish, and food security for poor countries.

Have I helped join up the dots?

Organic September: Eve Balfour

A coincidence. I was planning this post on Lady Eve for Organic September when environmental journalist and historian, Erin Gill, passed through Bristol.

“Eve Balfour,” said Erin Gill, emphasising the word, Eve, as we sat in the Better Food Company cafe today.

Eve is what her friends and family called her. The title was expedient, thought Erin. Certainly useful when campaigning for counter-culture sustainable farming. (Eve’s title was inherited from her childless uncle, Arthur, the first Earl of Balfour, responsible for the Balfour declaration).

But I feel frustrated! Why are these perfectly sane, common sense ideas deemed unorthodox in the first place? As Shell prepares to drill in the melting Arctic, I despair about this terrible struggle for long-term care to prevail over short-term profits.

It’s not through want of vision.

Eve Balfour wrote The Living Soil, published in 1943 – a synthesis of emerging thoughts linking sustainable farming to health – and co-founded the Soil Association in 1946 to spread the word.

Organic historian, Philip Conford, author of The Origins of the Organic Movement, and The Development of the Organic Network: linking people and themes (1945 – 1995), wrote in the Soil Association’s Living Earth in 2003 (when I was editor):

“To the general public, the Soil Association’s name may seem narrowly focused: surely soil matters only to farmers and gardeners. The answer is no, it matters to everyone who eats and all who are concerned with health.”

The reasons, he writes, are given in

Eve Balfour’s book, The Living Soil (reprinted 2006).

The book helped kickstart the organic movement – a rising tide of hearts and minds from both the left and right of politics which questioned quick-fix chemicals, animal factories and the monocultures of factory farming. Their prophetic vision foretold a depleted soil with negative knock-on effects.

The organic pioneers called for biological and ecological sciences to underpin farming, not the increasingly-dominant chemistry one (which sadly gained more sway from developing munitions in two world wars).

To me, these organic pioneers were inspiring, standing up for nature against the increasing industrialisation of the west.

Eve Balfour speaks my language.

In the first edition of the Soil Association’s magazine, Mother Earth (1946) Eve Balfour wrote about those who questioned the status quo:

“…They are beginning to understand, for example, that health is something more than than just not being ill, and that the right approach to health consists not merely in the prevention of disease but in the promotion of vitality in both organism and environment, for the one cannot be studied apart from the other.

“These people have begun to see life on this planet as a whole, and Nature’s plan as a complicated system of interdependence rather than one based on competition.”

Soil health equals human health, as this Huffington Post film review of the Symphony of the Soil (we helped organise its London premiere), shows.

However, despite its benefits, organic farming receives little UK government support compared to other countries in Europe. What a terrible shame – organic food should be available and affordable for all, for the sake of soil, water conservation, animal welfare, bees and other wildlife, wild flowers, and our health.

Everything is interdependent.

Post Script A recent review from Stanford University indicated organic food may have less pesticides but is not more nutritious than non-organic food.

The review  (and the ensuing media frenzy) is rebutted by US scientist, Dr Charles Benbrook.

This article on the NHS website also looks at the Standford review’s methodology.

And, a great response from food writer, Michael Pollan.

I like this rant from Riverford Farm about organic food getting knocked just when it’s never been better.

Kedgeree

I ask Nadia over. Our plan: to make a video of cooking kedgeree, then scoff it convivially.

We assemble the ingredients, position Nadia at the cooker and I film the three-minute video on my iPhone without a script.

I like it fast and real, like my food.

According to Wikipedia, kedgeree ‘consists of cooked, flaked fish (sometimes smoked haddock), boiled rice, parsley, hard-boiled eggs, curry powder, butter or cream and occasionally sultanas’.

We use Organico Nerone (black) rice, into which, once cooked, we stir 1 tsp curry powder, quartered organic hard-boiled eggs, chopped dates, Fish4Ever peppered mackerel then lemon juice + chopped parsley.

We concoct curry powder with ground spices. Recipe for future ref: 4 tsp coriander + 2 tsp turmeric + 2 tsp chilli + 1 tsp ginger + 1 tsp mustard seed + 2 tsp cinnamon + 8 single cloves. We only use 1 tsp of this mix in the kedgeree. Would be wrong to overpower the rest of the ingredients…

No sultanas but miraculously I have dates, softening in water. We decide 8 cut-up small ones are fine. No butter because the fish is canned in plenty of organic sunflower oil. (I hope this encourages you to experiment when cooking).

Before Nadia arrives, I hard-boil eggs.  Note to self: try 3 next time.

I boil the rice.

250 g Organico Nerone rice simmers for 40 mins in 800 ml water. A whole grain, cook black rice as if brown rice: 1 cup of rice for 2 of water.

Listen, sometimes cooking is guess-work. Jamie Oliver uses 170g of long-grain rice for his kedgeree recipe but give no quantities of water. Water has to cover the rice generously because rice swells.

Amounts-wise, I’m a bit hit-and-miss. (Gad, how I hate reading posts like this when desperately seeking a recipe. Sorry). How do you cook your rice?

STOP PRESS: After saying on Twitter that I could not find a classic kedgeree recipe online, chef James McIntosh blogged this one! Fresh!

I was dying to try Organico Nerone rice. Known as ‘forbidden rice’, it did not disappoint. Dramatically black, the cooked grains are fragrant, dense and vibrant.

A speciality grain, it is grown only in parts of the Po valley. Charles Redfern, Organico’s founder and MD, is rightly proud of his artisan suppliers – Organico Nerone rice is cultivated and packed by the Picco family, growing it since 1878.

Organico Nerone rice recently won two stars in the 2012 Great Taste Awards. “Two stars = faultless” according to the Great Taste Awards.

Declaring interests, Organico and its sister company Fish4Ever are clients. I only promote what is Winkle-tastic real food. And I did the video just-for-the-love-of-it.

Fish4Ever, the world’s first sustainable canned fish brand, is store-cupboard convenience with a conscience. In organic world, everything is connected. Fish4Ever’s eco-practices include supporting local day boats, artisan fishing and local canning, and 100% organic land ingredients. The result? Quality fish. It’s a virtuous circle.

Here’s me eating it. Yup, I overcooked the rice a bit. And still, utterly delicious.

Black rice kedgeree served with grated carrots

And here it is, served the next day.

Marine Ecocide trial sets legal precedent

Ecocide is the destruction of nature, and the Ecocide Act seeks to bring those responsible for this destruction to account.

Drafted by barrister and campaigner, Polly Higgins, the Ecocide Act is not law. Not yet.

Writing post-Rio, Polly Higgins says the Ecocide Act is “a fully-worked piece of legislation which is ready to be implemented. All we need do is mobilise people to say that this must happen.”

In this spirit, the Bristol Law School organised the Marine Ecocide Trial in the presence of Polly Higgins (seated in pic below).

It was cool to meet Polly Higgins – we chatted (as one does!) about vested interests lobbying politicians. Polly Higgins said, worryingly, political lobbying is regulated by voluntary guidelines only, and only since last year.

Now to declare my vested interests: Charles Redfern, the MD and founder of Fish4Ever, the world’s first sustainable canned fish brand, is one of my clients. I only promote causes and companies I believe in. My involvement in the Marine Ecocide Trial was passionate and, mostly, voluntary (as is writing this blog).

The Marine Ecocide trial took place on the first floor of Bordeaux Quay restaurant on 15 June 2012 during Bristol’s Big Green week.

Real barristers cross-examined expert witnesses in front of judge and jury as if the Ecocide Act were law.

Although not a “real” trial, the Marine Ecocide trial is nonetheless of huge relevance to future trials. As Bristol Law School principal lecturer in law and organiser, Benjamin Pontin, says:

“Documentation and arguments used at this trial will be used as legal precedents in future ecocide trials.”

The Bristol Law School is soon to launch a website dedicated to the Marine Ecocide Trial – watch this space.

The previous Ecocide trial at the Supreme Court – which found Tar Sands bosses guilty of ecocide - had actors as expert witnesses. In contrast, the Marine Ecocide trial used real expert witnesses.

In the Bristol trial, the UK Secretary of State for the Environment, Caroline Spelman, was charged for implementing policies that “are causing damage to and destruction of UK fishing ecosystems…”

The government pleaded not guilty and did not appear. Instead Graham Watson the Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament  appeared as a defence witness. So did Jeremy Percy, the chief executive of the Under Tens Fishermen’s Association.

The defence focused on showing that Caroline Spelman was not in control of UK fisheries policy, because it was devolved nations and the EU also being responsible.

The Walrus and the Carpenter

The words of Lewis Carroll’s poem, about the Walrus gobbling up the oysters, came to mind as I listened to the so-called concerns of the defence:

‘”I weep for you,” the Walrus said. “I deeply sympathise”.

With sobs and tears, he sorted out those of the largest size, holding his pocket handkerchief before his streaming eyes. “”

Marine Ecocide prosecution

Jonathon Porritt appeared as an expert witness for the prosecution, swearing his oath on Gaia. He talked about the “systematic abuse of science” for political ends.

He also said that fish stocks don’t necessarily replenish once overfishing has been halted. In other words, overfishing can lead to extinction.

Another expert witness, was marine lawyer, Tom Appleby. When questioned by the prosecution about whether the UK government can legally hand out fish quotas, he said: “I do not believe Defra has this power to give out property rights.”

Dr Jean-Luc Solandt from the Marine Conservation Society gave the history of UK fishing and a factual but searing account of the damage done to the sea bed by scallop dredgers and beam trawlers.

Charles Redfern, MD and founder of Fish4Ever, the world’s first sustainable canned fish brand, was an expert witness for the prosecution.

He said that consumer awareness of the plight of the fish was a double-edged sword because now people care more about sustainability, it is possible for unauthenticated sustainability claims to be made.

Think how many times you see “Dolphin-friendly” on canned fish. Charles Redfern says you might as well label chocolate as “dolphin-friendly”; that is how meaningless the term is.

Time to present the Fish4Ever mermaids pretending to be sworn in

Imilia Lucas

Jane Victoria Powell

with costumes made by

fellow mermaid, Melanie Small.

Here is the Greenpeace fish talking to fisherman, Jeremy Percy – please check out Greenpeace’s new campaign to be Be a Fisherman’s Friend.

(Yes, fishers do seem to be mostly male.).

Results of Marine Ecocide Trial

In response to the jury’s failure to deliver an unanimous verdict in the time available, the judge acquitted the Secretary of State and ordered the prosecution to pay court costs.

I am not MEANT to know how the jury of sixth-formers voted but I do know so I am now going to tell you.

The jury at first voted 7 to 5 in favour of finding the Secretary of State Caroline Spellman guilty of ecocide.

The jury went away to try to reach an unanimous verdict. It returned a verdict even closer to a guilty charge, voting 8 to 4 in favour of finding the Secretary of State guilty.

However, the jury could not deliberate further because, unlike a real trial, we only had a day, and the day was ending.

So the defence jumped in and asked for the Secretary of State to be acquitted and costs to be awarded to the prosecution, and, wrongly – in my biased pro-fish opinion – the judge agreed.

As I could not be a mermaid that day, here is a picture of me

on Bias Lane (in Devon). Apologies for the diversion.

Whatever the outcome of the trial, it raises awareness of the Eradicating Ecocide campaign to make ecocide an international crime.

As Polly Higgins wrote recently:

“Big ideas always start out in the margins before they spread into the mainstream. Earth law and in particular the law of Ecocide is just that – a big idea worth spreading.”

Worst Olympic sponsor?

The Olympics loom. Once again I am out of step with the nation. I feel like Scrooge at Christmas.

I salute sports people, their dedication and prowess. But the nobility of their art is undermined by their patrons.

Greenwash Gold is inviting votes for the worst sponsor.

I am cross about Olympics’ sponsors  of fast-foods such as Coca Cola or McDonald’s which contribute to obesity.

However, my vote for worst sponsor must go to the Dow Chemical Company.

Its website looks green and pleasant.

Dow Chemical with Monsanto produced Agent Orange, a deadly herbicide used in the Vietnam war. Agent Orange caused severe deformations in children, according to the Vietnam Red Cross.

Dow Chemical owns the Union Carbide company responsible for the 1984 Bhopal tragedy. A terrible explosion of the US multinational’s pesticide factory one night in an Indian city resulted in painful deaths, poisoned water, chronic illness.

The survivors are still fighting for justice.

Meredith Alexander, a commissioner on the sustainability watchdog of the London 2012 Games, resigned over Dow Chemical’s sponsorship.

She explains in her words why, adding:

“I would like to see Dow take responsibility for the Bhopal tragedy.. .This would be a true Olympic legacy.

Look, the London 2012 Olympics have inspired groovy things such as sourcing sustainable wood and sustainable fish. I am not saying it is all bad.

However, just as Christmas is monetised, so are the Olympics.

Rooted in mythology, the Olympics were intended to develop spirituality. O, to revive this noble intention!

Which sponsor gets your worst vote?

Thank you Criminal Chalklist for ’100 metre Dash’ image above. I think it might have inspired this post. 

London, 17 May: Symphony of the Soil UK premiere

I am a soil lover.

Some see soil as dirty.

What does that say about our relationship with the world?

Love soil – our lives depend on it.

I am proud to be promoting the Symphony of the Soil UK film premiere on 17 May 2012.

With specially-composed music from a Hollywood great, and original animation, Symphony of the Soil is a multi-media film. Read its roll-call of expert interviewees soil scientists, farmers and campaigners including Dr Vandana Shiva.

Organico, the Mediterranean organic food company, is sponsoring the invitation-only premiere. Do Like Organico on Facebook for the chance to win tickets to this exclusive event.

Director and filmmaker, Deborah Koons Garcia (above) will be  talking about Symphony of the Soil with the Soil Association’s Helen Browning OBE and organic farmer.

In 2006, I organised the London premiere of Deborah Koons Garcia’s film documentary The Future of Food. It examined the corporate domination of our food system, sounding the alarm on GM patents, and exposed revolving-door politics between biotetch executives and the US administration.

The Future of Food helped spearhead the US real food movement, currently calling for GM labelling in California.

Deborah Koons Garcia says  that Symphony of the Soil is a positive film because we can all do something, such as make compost or support organic farms.

“I am making a positive film, science presented in an artistic manner [so] that people will fall in love with [soil] and become part of the soil community – because we are anyway. We rise up from it and we go back to it. So we’re part of it and when we are responsible members of the soil community, we give back to it, it gives back to us. …

“When people see this film they’ll actually become even more committed to a positive relationship with soil.”

As I am writing this blog, I hear BBC radio news announce: “Half of Britain is in drought.”

I shout to the radio: “Go organic!”

Organic soils retain more water than non-organic soils, according to long-term research.

If we put back what we take out, the soil can nurture us.

“We don’t grow plants. We grow healthy soil – and the soil grows the plants,” says a grower in the film.

Symphony of the Soil illuminates the complex dynamic relationship between soil life plants – “a dialogue of nutrients.”

It is all common sense. You have to put back what you take out otherwise soil becomes barren.

So why not listen to our common sense?

Follow the money.

Dr Hans Herren co-chaired the IASSTD 400-strong scientific review of agriculture which found that what the world needs now is small-scale ecological farming.

Interviewed in the Symphony of the Soil, Herren says of organic farming:

“…but it does not fill the pockets of the few. It only feeds the consumer and the farmer.”

Symphony of the Soil is a beautiful and moving film – shows how clever and intricate and subtle nature is.

But it will also made me angry and sad because there is so much needless destruction of this natural precious resource.

What is Tesco Real Food?

Tesco Real Food is the name of of Tesco’s recipe magazine and website, Tesco.com/realfood.

Launched by Tesco PLC in 2011,  the magazine is given away free by Tesco six times a year as a marketing promotion (see pic above).

Tesco sells real food in the sense it is tangible, not imaginary. But Tesco food is not what this Real Food Lover calls real food.

I have had this definition on my Real Food Lover blog since 2008.

“What do I mean by real food? As close to nature as it can get. I want mine grown organically – without chemicals and with respect, as close to my home as possible. And wholefoody and unprocessed too, please.”

Others have a similar definition.

The Real Food Festival says: “Real Food is all about great tasting, sustainably and ethically produced food.”

Real Foods, based in Edinburgh, has, for the last 30 years, sold: “healthy, natural, organic (real) food to the nation at affordable prices.”

In a blog post responding to Tesco’s recent use of the term “real food”, Real Foods writes: “… ’real food’ is food from which the body can extract the maximum amount of nutrition with the minimum amount of waste; food in its most natural state with the best bits still left in rather than foods that have been processed so that the goodness has been removed and replaced by chemicals which, if not actually harmful, are nutritionally ‘empty’.”

Like the efficient retailer it is, Tesco has done its consumer market research and understands the nation’s need for nourishment. The result is its Real Food marketing initiative. Will it help people eat real food?

The magazine promises 32 “seasonal” recipes on the front cover.

Out of Tesco’s three “Season’s Best” recipes, one features mangoes from Peru. Mangoes are not grown in this country. They can never be seasonal for the UK.

Ten out of the 32 “seasonal” recipes were puddings with no fresh produce at all. Some were for Valentine’s day, Pancake day and Mother’s day. Are these annual celebrations what Tesco means by “seasonal”?

If so, Tesco has misunderstood the importance of seasonal for real food lovers.

Eating seasonally is about enjoying freshly-harvested produce. The fresher and more seasonal the produce is, the more nutrients it has and the better it tastes. That is one of the (many) reasons why local is important because it means the food is fresher when you eat it.

Tesco Real Food magazine’s current issue invites readers to Love Local and check out online its “wide variety of food from local producers around the UK”.

I checked out Tesco.com/local with my Bristol postcode and was directed to the Gloucestershire region. I was offered only eight products, four of which were beer. Yes, all good local produce, including Pieminister pies and cold-pressed rape seed oil.

But eight products do not a local-food-supply-chain make.

Like most supermarkets, Tesco sources globally not locally.

This article on apples gives us a clue.

According to the Telegraph, at the height of the UK apple-growing season in 2010, Tesco sourced only ten per cent of apples from Britain. The rest were imported. However its billboard ads promised ten different British varieties (subject to availability).

I get the feeling Tesco likes using words such as real and seasonal and local and organic because they sound good. But does Tesco subscribe to the principles and practices that underpin these words?

Tesco Real Food magazine’s current issue has an advertising feature for Tesco Organic. It says organic produce is grown “with reduced reliance on fertilisers”.

This is incorrect. Let me explain. Natural fertilisers – such as composted green and animal manures, and nitrogen-rich crops – are crucial to organic farming. This is how the soil is nourished.

On the other hand, chemical fertilisers are banned in organic farming because they strip the soil of life and cause environmental damage including water pollution.

Tesco’s Organic range is truly organic, and I am not questioning that [added after publication for clarification]. But does Tesco understand organic farming methods? Or is it using organic to make Tesco’s other products – such as intensively-farmed chickens - seem more wholesome?

Here is another example of the mismatch between Tesco Real Food and the reality of Tesco food.

As far as I know (please tell me I am wrong) Tesco still sells foods with trans fats despite a promise to ban them by 2011. Trans fats may make food last longer, but they are essentially candle-wax with huge health risks.

Trans fats are not real food. In fact, they are not even food.

Tesco’s Real Food magazine is glossy, handbag-size and beautifully-presented. In thick bold type, it emphasises words such as “nutritious” and “soul-warming”.

Is Tesco Real Food  the marketing version of trans fats, a cheap filler that tricks us into thinking we’ve been nourished?

Real food producers can tell you exactly what is in their food: how and when and where it was grown, reared, produced and processed – how the land was fertilised, and the farm animals cared for.

Why is Tesco spending its marketing millions pretending to be real?

               

Sheepdrove organic goose

There is no getting away from it. Eating meat means taking a life.

I understand the horror vegetarians feel. I love vegan cuisine.

But I am a meat eater. Maybe once a week. I can feel the nutritional value it brings to my body.

If I were a hunter – I imagine – I would kill the animal, and lie down and cry because I had killed it. (I saw this on TV once). Then eat it. Hopefully with reverence.

But I could be romanticising.

The fact is I cannot square killing for food.

At least I can make sure the animal was well looked-after while alive.

Which is why I choose organic meat.

On Christmas day, we cooked and ate a goose from Sheepdrove Organic Farm.

Declaration of interest: I work with Sheepdrove Organic Farm. But – you know me – I can only work with a cause or company I believe in.

Check out Sheepdrove Organic Farm. Lots of great info on its website: including the importance of grass-fed creatures and Eating less meat? Eat better meat!

Sheepdrove Organic Farm’s head butcher, Nick Rapps, is passionate about showing people how to eat organic meat in a budget.

For instance, buy cheaper organic cuts (not pre-cut packages) from an actual butcher who can provide the unusual cheaper cuts. Cheaper cuts need slower cooking.

Nick Rapps’s The Organic Butcher’s Blog at Food Magazine is a treasure trove of tips. Here’s Nick on the organic Christmas turkey on a budget.

My sister, Geraldine, cooked our Christmas goose.

Listen-up. True to our ancestors, she is a real food lover.

My sister said: “How did I cook the goose? It was good, wasn’t it? And simple to cook. I rubbed salt and pepper and fresh grated ginger on the skin. Then scrunched wet greaseproof paper, smoothed it out and covered the goose. The formula is 20 minutes per pound on a low heat roughly 150/Gas Mark 2/300  and 20 minutes over. Our goose took about 5 hours. Regularly,  pour fat off the roasting pan (and keep it later for roasting veg) otherwise the goose fat will overfill the pan. Most importantly, let it “rest” a good half-an-hour after taking it out the oven.”

We served the Sheepdrove goose with an array of colourful vegetables, cooked by other members of the family so not one person did all the work.

Red cabbage and apples, squash and coconut, cranberry sauce, roast potatoes, Brussels sprouts, gravy.

PS I lost my ‘phone over Christmas. However – curiously – on the day I lost my ‘phone, I sent a picture of our Christmas meal (above) to myself. Which was lucky as I had not backed up my images since November so the Christmas meal pic would have been lost. Funny, eh?