Tag Archives: Bristol

The Organic Food Festival 2009

Posted on July 3, 2009 | 5 comments

Lido couscous cropped again

We met last night to discuss the Organic Food Festival 12-13 September 2009 in association with the Soil Association.

First my starter (above) which made me think: my favourite dishes are mush-tastic. I eat lots of grains and pulses, and, let’s face it, they blob.

Please don’t reject my love because of their apparent lack of finesse.

Nourishing, healthy and economical, grains and pulses lend themselves to many tastes.

I ate the above starter (£6.50) last night at the Lido (saved and restored to its Victorian-swimming-baths-original thanks to a community campaign).

Couscous with yogurt, fresh broad beans and coriander – delicious, soothing.

Even when eating out I am drawn to mushy grains.

But why be ashamed? Eating for substance is the organic way.

“We are about inner quality, not outer appearance – that is our hallmark.”

So said Patrick Holden, Soil Association director, recently quoted in the Independent apropos the abolition of those wonky EU-rules on wonky veg.

Which brings us back to the Organic Food Festival.

Last night’s dinner was the inauguration of two things:

1) I was in my new role as food editor of The Source.

2) The Source is helping produce the programme for the Organic Food Festival 2009. And that’s what we doing, round a table at the Lido.

Every September, Bristol Harbourside transforms into Europe’s largest organic market place. The Soil Association organic festival used to be free but became so popular it got rammed so, there has been a charge. This year £1 of the £5 entry fee goes to the Soil Association.

My message?

Join us!

The Organic Food Festival in Bristol Harbourside on 12 – 13 September 2009

Taste the future

Organic is more than a product

– it is our sustainable future.

5 Comments

Posted in food, organic, restaurant, sustainable, vegetarian

Tagged Agriculture, Bristol, couscous, Lido, organic, organic food, Permaculture, Slow Food, Soil Association, The Organic Food Festival 2009

Lunch at The Spark

Posted on February 23, 2009 | 6 comments

Here is lunch at The Spark, the wonderful publication I edit.

I am still at the Soil Association two-days a week as contributing editor. Now I am editor of The Spark on two more days. My inner-Gemini loves having two jobs, especially as both have ethical, sustainable values.

Every week, we stock the small Spark office fridge with fresh provisions from Better Food, the organic supermarket. On my plate is:

organic hummous
Aconbury organic sprouts
Natural Vitality winter salad with barley and beetroot
pickled beetroot from a jar
olives
slices of fresh local organic chickory.

Wise healers in Ancient Greece counselled eating from a wide range of food, the origin of mezze. Lunch at The Spark fulfils this criteria for nutritional variety.

It fulfils my appetite on other levels too. Free-thinking and alternative, it’s been part of my life since publisher, John Dawson, bought out the first issue in 1993. It’s now the biggest free ethical quarterly in the southwest.

An independent publication, The Spark is a precious thing. Instead of celebrity gossip and relentless doom, it offers inquisitive editorial and practical solutions. The Spark is optimistic. It embodies the idea that it’s better to shine a light than shout at the darkness.

If I want to shine that beam at myself, The Spark can steer me to self-knowledge. I feel I can be more useful and peaceful for acknowledging my demons. As Gandhi put it:

“Be the change you want to see in the world”

The Spark is brimming with creative ways to make a difference, both inner and outer. Whether looking for a therapist or a course on permaculture, it is THE place to advertise if you want to catch 99,000 like-minded people.

The spring 2009 Spark goes out today to indie food shops and local libraries from Glastonbury to Bristol and beyond Bath. Join The Spark on Facebook and visit The Spark website (heading for its revamp).

Back to my lunch. We have an hour to eat and clear up. Civilised with time to digest. The conversation ranges wide and is, well, sparky.

How was your lunch?

6 Comments

Posted in eating well on a budget, food, health, organic

Tagged Bath, Bristol, Glastonbury, John Dawson, Soil Association, Spark, Spark on Facebook, The Spark magazine

Beautiful food grown by us

Posted on October 22, 2008 | 3 comments

The inspiration for this blog is manifold.

It owes its line-length to skinny writing

and the vegetables in the picture

to the organic Better Food Company

where I shop, happily, in Bristol.

I also want to multi-dedicate this post

to the planet’s coolest conference, Blog08

and the winner of my first blog competition.

More soon.

And please leave me a comment!

3 Comments

Posted in food, organic, producers

Tagged Better Food supermarket, Blog 08, blog conference, Bristol, concise writing, organic food, skinny writing

Real bread

Posted on February 7, 2008 | 5 comments

Spelt bread stall

I live in several places at the moment and today it’s Bristol’s turn. Hello city, I say, saluting its stone buildings, built to impress. I am at its medieval trading centre and, time travellers, Corn Street is still buzzing centuries later.

Every Wednesday, Bristol’s farmers’ market takes over the historic street and here’s the glorious thing: its stalls are bursting with real food bounty.

I buy fresh halibut from David Felce, the fishmonger (see mini pic below). I won’t talk about fish right now. (Except to say I pan fried the halibut gently for five minutes in olive oil. I usually use butter so that was an experiment. Served it with purple sprouting broccoli. Yup, it was good, she says smacking her lips after dinner. Simple and seasonal.)

The god of convenience has blessed me. My local Bristol farmers’ market also hosts the best bread in the world.

The Common Loaf Bakery uses spelt and rye, flours that have not been hybridised out of their natural existence like wheat has.

I bought a four-seeded (sesame, linseed, sunflower and poppy) spelt loaf and a spelt fruit bread laden with figs, prunes and raisins soaked in sherry, plus hazelnuts, dates, cloves and nutmeg. Not to mention the Celtic sea salt.

Hand crafted artisan bread. It doesn’t get more real than that. (I love those Christians with Hebrew names who make the bread, and keep the price down by living as one family. Respect.)

While in Pie Minister, Bristol’s pie shop, I pick up a copy of Fork.

Promising “no celebrity chefs,” its strap line says: the real food magazine.

Sounds just down my street…