Category Archives: food

Speedy spelt loaf recipe – not speedy roads

Posted on April 6, 2010 | 6 comments

I am still on real bread, the topic of my last post.

Julia made the loaf in the picture above from a recipe in the Telegraph.

Apart from bread, Julia Guest, filmmaker extraordinaire, also made A Letter to the Prime Minister.

The documentary follows the British peace activist, Jo Wilding, in Iraq before and during the 2003 invasion.

Talking about films, I was round at Julia’s on Sunday to watch Life In The Fast Lane, a documentary she was involved with about the M11 road protest (1995).

The M11 sliced through three East London boroughs and tore apart communities – all for the sake of saving motorists three minutes of time.

The M11 road protest along with similar ones at Twyford and Newbury did not stop the roads being built.

However the cost of evictions – both financially and morally – eventually halted the then-mania for road-building.

This report by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) shows new roads are not evaluated. And grandiose claims for reducing traffic appear not to have been realised. For instance, according to Countryside Voice, the CPRE magazine (summer 2006), the Newbury town centre peak-hour traffic flows are almost back to pre-bypass levels. And, “the actual damage to protected landscapes is even worse than expected.” [added 2012]

So while we were watching Life In The Fast Lane, we ate Julia’s homemade squash-from-her-allotment soup with the amazing bread. It was delicious – tasty and healthy.

I was blown away by Life In The Fast Lane:

– the local residents who helped patrol the squat including the 93-year-old resident made a squatter in her own childhood home

– the anguished cries of schoolschildren as the 250-year old chestnut tree was torn down by a digger (reminiscent of a scene from Avatar) and despite the protestors’ beautiful tree-top home

– the spectacular London rooftop shots of squatters who locked-on themselves to chimney pots with concrete and handcuffs to stop being evicted.

It was a real insider’s view of a mega-squat resisting the onslaught of so-called progress.

The M11 movie put me in mind of the eviction of the Tesco squatters.

Julia writes: “I make this with fresh yeast from the Better Food Company and less flour. Let it rise for just over an hour in the tin, then bake it.. but no kneading at all. I use a mix of any seeds I fancy…and the quantities vary. I also add a little olive oil to stop it sticking – as well as coating the tin in oil and then a coat of small seeds. Baking only takes about 30 minutes.”

Check out Julia’s inspiration, a spelt recipe by Xanthe Clay in the Telegraph using dried yeast and requiring no kneading or proving, and an earlier one by Rose Prince that ditto is fast.

For further inspiration visit Real Bread campaigner and master baker, Andrew Whitley, and author of much-recommended Bread Matters.

And for my real-life experience of Julia’s recipe see my blog on Easy-to-make spelt loaf – it works!

Surely a quick-to-make loaf is a better use of speed than an unnecessary road?

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Do you eat real bread?

Posted on April 4, 2010 | 17 comments

I took the above picture of real bread at Wholefoods Market, London last weekend.

Daringly I took it AFTER being told by a Wholefoods Market employer that it was “not company policy” to allow photographs.

Even though I was about to blog about the store’s amazing real bread made by a genuine master baker who makes his own yeast.

Bread was on  my mind.

A few days before, a press release from the Real Bread Campaign had arrived in my email inbox.

A nine-month investigation by the Real Bread Campaign found that – despite those tempting bread-baking smells in supermarkets – only one, Marks & Spencer, produces real bread.

Real bread is made with basic ingredients such as flour, yeast and water.

Real bread does not use weird substances designed to make bread seem like real bread but are actually potentially toxic ‘processing aids’ that do not even need to be declared on the label.

I must confess.

A bit of me was like ‘so what?’.

I mean I was hardly surprised to hear supermarkets sell pretend bread.

However my inner jaded-real food campaigner was put to shame when the Real Bread Campaign’s report was published in the Daily Mail.

I was staying at my mum’s; she is a daily Daily Mail reader.

“I knew it,” she said, pacing up and down the kitchen, brandishing the paper.

“I knew that smell of baking loaves was fake,” she said.

The report vindicated her suspicion that there was no real baking going on.

Unlike at Wholefood Market which may charge inflated Kensington prices on some items (such as hummus) and not wish me to take photos but

does bake the

most

amazing

real bread.

Find real bread here and tell me:

Do you eat real bread?

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GM potato? I prefer blight-resistant beauties

Posted on March 23, 2010 | 10 comments

I love the look of these potatoes and their healthy interesting purpleness.

They have just had their own launch in London at the sustainable London restaurant, Konstam.

Bred by the Sarvari Trust, these Sárpo potatoes are

  • blight-resistant thus reducing pesticides
  • high-yield
  • deep-rooting
  • have weed-smothering foliage
  • low-carbon footprint
  • and can be stored unrefrigerated.

Vegetable heroes, they are on the front-line of battle against the Genetic Modification industry.

Modification? Too mild a word! Manipulation would be better.

You may have heard. In March 2010, the European Union rode roughshod over the people’s wishes and approved the first GM crop in 12 years.

BASF’s GM Amflora potato carries a controversial antibiotic resistant gene which could enter the food chain.

The EU-funded pro-GM GMO Safety website says of the GM Amflora potato.

“In this potato the composition of the starch has been altered so that it is better suited for certain industrial purposes.”

Lovely. A GM industrial potato.

Crikey. It’s enough to make me want to join anti-Europe UKIP. (Only joking).

Luckily, there is an alternative.

The Avaaz petition aims to get 1 million signatures in order to officially request the European Commission to put a moratorium on the introduction of GM crops into Europe and set up an independent, ethical, scientific body to research the impact of GM crops and determine regulation.

The funding of GM science is driven by multinational agribusiness. GM is a money spinner perfectly suited to control-freaks because once a plant is genetically modified, it can be patented.

Monsanto sues farmers in North America for having unlicensed GM seeds – even if the GM seeds arrive on their fields (as seeds do) by wind, animal or insect.

Some scientists get excited about GM, genuinely believing the technology has the possibility of helping the world.

But GM science is out-of-date, based on the belief that Genes are King.

You can’t take a genetic characteristic from one organism, put it another and tra-la-la, create a GM plant in our best interests.

The Human Genome Project proved life is far more complex than that. We disturb the gene sequence at our peril.

Scientists,  if you want to explore the frontiers of life, there is plenty of mystery in the life we already have.

Defra has to decide whether to license two GM potato trials in England.

Come on Defra! Instead of putting my taxpayer money into unproven, disaster-in-the-making technology – why not put the research money into the beautiful blight-resistant purple potato?

What do you think?

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Tesco squatters evicted

Posted on March 17, 2010 | 7 comments

I stood in the cold bright sunshine watching No Tesco squat protestors being removed from the roof by baillifs.

It took  all of yesterday as many of the squatters had secured their bodies to the premises.

About 200 supporters stood vigil too, cheering and clapping them.

Some had a sound system (which blared out Ghost Town at one point, aptly), a musician played Klezmer on a clarinet.

A disturbing spectacle played out on the roof of the old Jesters comedy club which Tesco wants to turn into its sixth supermarket within a mile.

I don’t want a Tesco in Stokes Croft.

It’s a funky up-and-coming area with some of the best food shops and cafes in Bristol.

Herbert’s Bakery, the Radio 4 award-winning Thali Cafe, the Radford Mill organic farm shop, Licata the family-run delicatessen, Galliford’s late night corner shop, Bell’s diner, The Bristolian and Cafe Kino are some of the local businesses that would be at risk.

Supermarkets kill local business and the character of local communities.

There are two main strands to this protest.

1) The No Tesco in Stokes Croft campaign which has already collected over 4,000 signatures.

2) The squatters, who have been occupying the old Jesters comedy club since February after hearing about Tesco’s plans.

I admire the squatters for putting their lives on the line for a just cause.

I am not saying they are perfect.

For instance, a protestor in a Halloween mask squirted liquid at a balliff.

I thought: surely that is not in the Gandhian spirit of passive resistance?

I felt moved to turn to a nearby policeman (one of 70 including several on horseback) to explain this was not non-violent direct action as I understood it.

The policeman said he sympathised. He had not wanted a Tesco in South Bristol. (Local Bedminster residents successfully saw off Tesco but now has Sainsbury’s to contend with).

Another protestor had attached himself to the top of a tripod.

The baillifs used a blue cherry-picker with a crane to get him down.

When they were not looking, he slid down the tripod and onto the arm of the crane, hugging it with his body, trying to skate its length.

But a bailliff grabbed him from behind, and five joined him. He tried to shuffle down the crane’s arm. They kept yanking him back and it must have hurt – he yelled with pain.

Of course the baillifs succeeded. It was six against one.

This is the way society is structured. The law of the land is upheld by physical force.

And the law is not always fair or correct.

In my view the planning laws need to be changed to protect local shops.

The protestors were using their bodies to express a need to change the status-quo.

Two other protestors had their arms in a barrel of concrete. The baillifs assessed the situation (see above) then used an electric hacksaw to remove them, as the Daily Mail reported.

As the tripod man was escorted to the ground, a section of the crowd chanted: “Let him go.”

The mounted police surged forward. I smelled horse manure on the ground.

Most of the squatters were not arrested. Four face charges for public order offences, according to the BBC.

“The police let them go, bless them,” one of the supporters said.

The BBC video clip has highlighted the most dramatic bits, natch – there is also a quote from yours truly.

Meanwhile Tesco has one more planning hurdle to negotiate and the No Tesco in Stokes Croft campaign – along with 100s of others taking place all over the UK – continues.

Still time to add your signature to the Bristol City Council petition.

PS A few blogs ago I announced I was standing for the Green party in Bishopston. Last week I withdrew from standing. I am currently a full-time carer; I just did not have the capacity to do it properly. Huge decision. Hard to make. Feel relieved. Green beliefs means respecting nature’s limits – I had to respect mine!

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Peaceful protestors await Tesco eviction

Posted on March 13, 2010 | 20 comments

I am in awe of the No Tesco squatters.

They are putting their safety and freedom on the line, taking non-violent direct action to keep the old Jesters building as a community centre.

It’s a lovely space with its wooden bars and stage and has become a hub of homemade entertainment and education since the squatters moved in.

In time, it could become a food coop selling affordable healthy food.

Instead Tesco wants to turn it into another soulless supermarket selling mass-produced food – even though there are five Tescos within walking distance.

The idea of another Tesco is unpopular.

Many (numbers tbc) have signed the e-petition at Bristol City Council.

3,500 have signed postcards complaining to Bristol City Council about the lack of consultation over the building’s change of use from ‘comedy club’ to ‘shop’.

Supermarkets are bad for local business and communities.

Supermarkets ‘will kill corner shops by 2015’ according to the Times.

Local shops create neighbourliness – and local profit.

Spend money with your local shopkeeper (instead of a supermarket) and the money doubles in value to the community because it is re-spent locally.

Planning laws are toothless – they cannot protect its own.

So the squatters moved into the beautiful old building Tesco wants.

Sadly, on the 2 March they lost their court case to keep it for the community.

The peaceful squatters want to save the building.

Inspired by Gandhi, they practice passive resistance, or Satyagraha.

My photo

The poles on the roof (see my pic above) are an urban version of climbing up a tree and refusing to leave in order to stop it being cut down.

It’s called manufactured vulnerability.

If Tesco wants to repossess the building, then the police and bailiffs acting on court orders will have to evict the squatters by force.

A terrible situation for all involved.

The squatters remind me of the suffragettes who chained themselves to railings.

Sometimes people take brave and desperate action to improve the quality of life for future generations.

Tesco could choose to hand the building back to the community.

What a graceful PR coup for Tesco that would be!

What do you think?

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Last meal at the No Tesco squat?

Posted on March 7, 2010 | 22 comments

Stephan rang me from the No Tesco in Stokes Croft squat.

I had just taken a picture of this Tesco bag blowing randomly on a branch in a car park in Portishead.

Stephan said tonight’s Sunday communal meal may be its last.

Last Tuesday, a repossession order was granted to Tescos plc – the ‘conscious squatters’ lost their court appeal to keep the site for the community.

I call them ‘conscious squatters’ because they look after the old Jesters comedy venue site with its bar and stage and share it consciously, hence the squat’s screening of Food Inc, last night’s Cosmic Cabaret and its regular Sunday night communal meal.

They have been occupying the premises ever since we locals heard Tesco has a planning application on the site. Even though there are 6 Tescos within a mile [see comment below] and 31 in Bristol.

I would much rather have this cosy communal space the squatters have created than another soulless supermarket.

Yet any minute now, eviction papers could be served. The squatters then have 48 hours to leave.

Here is Stephan’s Project Flowers at the squat. Note the framed flower drawings.

“Flowers represent positivity,” Stephan explains. “In a way we are all like flowers.”

He created the project so everyone could take part in it.

Food is like that – something we can all take part in.

Tonight the squat served the most amazing vegan meal for over 50 people in return for donations only.

My plate of varied inventive coleslaw (raw cabbage, slivers of kiwi, finely cut celery, herbs, seeds, and cardamon), vegan chilli stew, potato curry, beetroot and spinach leaves and a mound of brown rice. Followed by homemade fruit crumble and dairy-free custard.

The funny thing tonight turned out to be networking-central. I caught up with five different lots of friends from different parts of my life (including dance, work, family and food).

The No Tesco in Stokes Croft squat is creating community.

It is budding, at the beginning of its spring growth, fertile with plans including a food coop to make local healthy food affordable for all.

It would be no joke if the squatters in the old Jesters comedy club were evicted.

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Food Inc at No Tesco squat

Posted on February 27, 2010 | 6 comments

Last night the squatters screened Food Inc (my pic above) at the No Tesco in Stokes Croft squat on Cheltenham Road in Bristol.

The comfortable friendly squat is on the same premises Tesco wants for its 32nd supermarket in Bristol – as opposed to to the real food, whole food, local food market we locals want.

The perfect setting to see Food Inc, the documentary by US investigative journalist, Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation.

The US farmer in the picture above, sitting on his horse surrounded by cattle in verdant nature, is an illusion.

“If people knew the truth about their food, they wouldn’t eat it,” says Eric Schlosser.

So the truth is hidden.

“If there were glass walls on mega-processing facilities, we’d have a different food system in this country,” says the farmer from the local organic Polyface Farm.

Farmers who speak publicly about what goes on behind the huge industrial shed-doors get their contracts terminated.

Debt is not restricted to poor farmers in the developing world. US farmers are forced to take out loans they can’t repay to meet the company’s demand for the latest  ‘upgrade’.

Chickens are bred to grow fat faster. Their bones and internal organs cannot keep up with their fattened breasts. Chickens too ill to walk are processed as food.

Eric Schlosser says the industrial food system is based on the fast-food one: train workers (usually illegal immigrants) to do one mindless task, over and over again.

Neither the animals or workers’ comfort is of concern because they are temporary commodities, cheap to replace.

The self-policing food industry is close to US governments, whether Republican or Democrat. Those on the boards of farm chemical companies turn up as high-ranking officials in the FDA (US Food and Drug administration).

Most of our food is controlled by four megasized multi-nationals, from seed to supermarket.

Companies now legally own any seed they genetically modify.

Monsanto sues farmers for violation of their patents, and has a hotline for farmers to report on each other for doing what they have done for centuries: save seed.

These companies are so powerful, they can afford battalions of lawyers to fight farmers.

They lobby governments to skew the system so the poor end up paying more for fresh broccoli than ground-up beef treated with ammonia to kill bacteria such as e-coli rife in the manure-drenched animal factories.

We need to change the policies which make the bad calories cheaper than the good ones.

After the film, the squatters served parsnip and ginger soup, with potatoes and onion. It was delicious, satisfying my desire for wholesomeness and taste.

Here is my cup of deliciousness posed against a No Tesco campaign postcard which thousands have signed.

Here is the steaming soup saucepan sitting on a tea-towel on the bar of the Jesters, the ex-comedy club, which Tesco wants to demolish and replace with a soulless supermarket.

On my way home, I passed a plastic Tesco bag lying discarded on the streets.

Says it all, doesn’t it?

Please sign the petition asking Bristol City Council for a proper consultation.

And, hot-off-the-press: I am standing for the Green Party in Bishopston.

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Fay’s fish soup

Posted on February 13, 2010 | 13 comments

My mum Fay made this fish soup last Friday.

She bought the wild sea bass in Tachbrook street market, London, from Pat, the only fishmonger she trusts.

“If he packs up, I’ll pack up,” says my mum.

Here’s Fay’s riff on an Evelyn Rose recipe. Two medium-sized fish serves five.

Sweat sliced onion and carrots in butter. Once softened, add the two whole sea bass – or any pieces of fish – and turn over in the fat. Cover with water and add a bay leaf. Simmer until fish is cooked (flakes easily, about 15 minutes) with the lid on.

Cook the whole fish, gutted but with head intact – this will add flavour. Take off the head at the end. Skin and fillet before serving.

Add a dollop of cream fraiche or sour cream, braised fennel and rice with aromatic saffron.

The No Tesco in Stokes Croft campaign (note Saturday’s celebratory demonstration) has been on my mind (and blog) this week, along with the brave squatters who have now occupied the site that used to be a comedy club and which  Tesco wants to turn into a soulless supermarket.

On Wednesday I had the privilege of visiting the peaceful protestors in the occupied premises. They are doing a grand job and I am grateful for their action.

Funnily enough, my mum had a Tesco story last Friday.

“Jack Cohen, the founder of Tesco, had a barrow outside my grandmother’s shop in Morgan Street market in the East End. My family used to look down on him because he was just a barrow boy and they were shop-owners.”

Taking advantage of the property slump, Tesco is intent on buying up land.

Tesco wants control of every purchase from food to movies.

I can’t help wishing Jack stayed a barrow boy.

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Stop Tesco banner in peaceful protest

Posted on February 10, 2010 | 5 comments

Note  Tesco’s blue hoardings, put up on Saturday, and – I might add – taking up a large part of the pavement. Cheek!

So very grateful for the handpainted banner now draped on the building (see pic above) proclaiming: “Stop Tesco! Every little hurts”.

Here is my report on Monday’s meeting in Stokes Croft, Bristol, where we heard about Tesco’s plan to build a soulless supermarket on premises which used to be a comedy club – Tesco’s, you must be joking!

It is believed the premises are occupied by some brave individuals concerned about this supermarket takeover.

Good for them, I say.

Supermarket food is not cheap because the cost to our health is so high.

What would you prefer in the place of a purveyor of industrial food?

All creative and positive ideas welcome.

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No Tesco in Stokes Croft

Posted on February 9, 2010 | 24 comments

Last night’s meeting 

About 200 gather in Stokes Croft, Bristol to discuss the shock-news of Tesco opening a soulless supermarket in the area.

Not so fast, o supermarket giant – the local people of Stokes Croft want a say.

Local communities need local shops, not another soulless chain that swallows resources.

The intended site is a comedy club – they must be joking, as the campaign headline on Facebook says.

The area Tesco has chosen to site its 32nd supermarket in Bristol is Stokes Croft near St Paul’s.

The home territory of The People’s Republic of Stokes Croft which trials new ideas and celebrates creativity.

The very opposite of Tescopolis.

Supermarkets kill local business. The small shopkeeper does not survive.

The tragedy is Stokes Croft is an increasingly happening place.

Take Canteen, which serves seasonal and local food at affordable prices, hosts great music nights and is designed by award-winning architect, George Ferguson, above newly-reclaimed office space at Hamilton House run by Co-Exist.

Tesco’s planning application to change the use “from stand-up comedy venue to shop” was done under another name last November.

The minimum of public consultation took place – no responses were received – so no one knew until last week that Bristol County Council had given Tesco permission to set up shop.

Not even St Paul’s Unlimited, the body set up by Bristol City Council “to provide an open, accountable, community-led organisation to advocate and lobby for the community of St Paul’s”.

There is still time to stop the supermarket which by the way already has a Metro Express five minutes from the proposed site.

According to Rachael Marmite of the Planning Club (she knows her stuff …and how to explain it in plain English), the Bristol City City Council planning officer said:

“An inordinate amount of (responses) could rescind change of use.”

So lots of responses are planned, including surveying local traders and neighbours, petitions, lobbying councillors and a pledge bank.

Find out the latest at the No to Tesco in Stokes Croft campaign website.

And get general campaign material and advice from Tescopoly.

The people of Stokes Croft want a meaningful consultation.

Being a creative community, expect some street theatre along the way.

“If we all make an effort, it will be easier to achieve,” says co-organiser, Claire, at the first meeting last night.

“Every little helps,” added someone else in the audience, to laughter.

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