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As a treat and as a change from all the jam I make, we do like the odd jar of peanut butter yet trying to find some we are happy to buy has been an interesting journey.

First of all so many varieties are sold in plastic jars - no thank you.

Then a read of the ingredients shows many contain palm oil.  No thanks again.

Enter Sun-Pat peanut butter.  Glass jar (albeit with a plastic lid) and no palm oil.  Happy enough with that, or so I thought. On Instagram @BusyGreenMum posted a picture recently saying she hoped she had finally found a peanut butter that was palm oil free and she hoped it wasn't hiding under an E number or something.  The ingredient list she also posted showed it contained E471: 

E471 is a synthetic fat, produced mainly from plant origins but in some cases also from animal fats.  The most commonly used fat/oil to make E471 is palm oil.




I contacted Sun-Pat and they confirmed that the E471 in their peanut butter is made from palm oil which would explain why there is no "Palm Oil Free" label on their jars of peanut butter. 

I asked both on Twitter and on this blog if people knew what E471 was made from and almost everyone said they did not.

So whilst Sun-Pat doe not proclaim on their jars to be palm oil free they don't make it clear either that their peanut butter does contain palm oil.  I asked them on their Facebook page why they used E471 made from palm oil and also asked if they had any plans to use E471 that did not contain it. They initially did not reply so I asked again to which they said they had no plans to stop using E471 made from palm oil.  

Contacting businesses to tell them you are unhappy about their product and/or that you have stopped buying it and explaining why needs to be something more people to do ensuring businesses are made aware that the public increasingly do not want environment damaging products and are boycotting them.  You could add your own commetns to the Sun-Pat Facebook page or add comments to what I wrote:

Link to my original comment asking about E471.
Link to my comment saying I will not now be buying Sun-Pat peanut butter. 

Sun-Pat is now another brand of peanut butter that is no longer on my shopping list (and one of the few I could buy in France) so I am now left with 2 options.  I can either ask friends who visit to track down some peanut butter made with 100% peanuts and in a glass jar (and ideally organic) ... which, to be honest, is a bit of an ask ... or I can make my own.

Anyone have a good home-made peanut butter recipe?  

 

... but not wasting food, changing what meat we eat and altering our lifestyles will certainly help.

Some proponents of a vegan lifestyle state that if the world's population were to turn vegan we would save the world from climate change and cite the following reasons why they believe this is the case:

1. Livestock farming (especially for beef) produces methane (a greenhouse gas) via the natural digestive process of the animals ie cow farts. Methane is 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO₂.

2. Areas of rainforest are being felled at an alarming rate with the cleared land used for cattle farming.  The forests previously would have absorbed CO₂ and when the soil is cultivated before being turned to pasture, it releases nitrous oxide and methane that are both stored in the soil. Nitrous oxide is 300 times more potent than CO₂ as a greenhouse gas.

3. A hectare of land can feed many more people if it produces plants as opposed to animals.

Sounds convincing but there is another side to these arguments.

1. Methane from livestock

It is estimated that livestock produce 5.5% of all greenhouse gases, although in Argentina where livestock farming is the main land use this rises to 30% . But what other processes produce greenhouse gases and in what percentages?

Power plants - 25-30% ie using fossil fuels to produce energy.
Residential buildings - 11% through heating, air conditioning and power consumption.
Road transport - 10.5% and although cars now have lower emissions car numbers are rising rapidly
Deforestation and land use change - 10.3%. The land is not only cleared for livestock but also for palm oil plantations and other crops.
Losses during energy production - 8.3%.
Commercial buildings - 7% mainly through air conditioning, electrical devises and power to run computers.
Production of cement, ceramics, glass - 6%. To produce these new materials from raw materials uses a lot of energy with the associated emissions.

Then we get to livestock at 5.5%.  What these figures don't show is how much of each type of greenhouse gas is produced. For livestock this is primarily methane which is 20 times more potent than CO₂. This does make this 5.5% figure appear worse until you realise that methane does not last as long in the atmosphere and breaks down into CO₂. Yes, this is still a greenhouse gas and yes, methane production from livestock is a huge problem but it needs to be in the context of other emissions.  Livestock farming certainly produces high amounts of greenhouse gases but other processes, as detailed above, produce far more.

2. Rainforest clearance for livestock farming

Forests are not only being cleared for livestock production.  In Asia and increasingly in Africa virgin rainforest is being cleared for palm oil plantations.  Palm oil is deemed a wonder oil as it produces higher amounts of oil than any other oil producing plant. It is used extensively in processed food, including vegan food.  Other areas of cleared forest are used to grow soya beans which are also used widely in vegan food.

If farmers were no longer raising cattle they would have to shift to some form of crop growing on land that was previously pasture.   At present ploughing existing agricultural land releases 4.4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, mostly in the form of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that is 300 times more potent than CO₂.  Furthermore to produce consistently high yields, crops have to be fertilised. Without animals to provide manure (the pre-industrial method of maintaining soil fertility levels) farmers will have 2 options - to either grow plants specifically to be composted or to use artificial fertilisers. In reality farmers will not turn over a percentage of their productive land to make  plants for compost when they can buy artificial fertilisers.  Animal manure is not without its problems but the production of artificial fertiliser produces large amount of greenhouse gas emissions.

And there's more. Microbes in the soil convert fertilisers (manure and artificial) into nitrous oxide and this rate has been seen to increase in an exponential manner when farmers add more fertiliser. Nitrous oxide also gets into the atmosphere when there is surface run off of polluted water and soil erosion. So whilst livestock, especially cattle, produce methane, farming crops results in high level of the more potent nitrous oxide being produced.  

Livestock are also fed soya, a crop that is increasingly grown in recently deforested land.  However if livestock farming were to stop it is likely that this soya would be used for other purposes, such as biofuel, human food in greater amounts and a variety of industrial processes.  If not soya, farmers would grow other crops, perhaps those to be used to produce plant based plastics to replace plastics made from fossil fuels.  Even if the land were not to be farmed, it is not possible to replant rainforests in the way that temperate woodlands can be due to soil degradation and other factors. Land that previously supported rainforest can regenerate into a form of forest but which supports less diversity (plant and animal) and it is estimated that to return to its original form could take hundreds or thousands of years.

3. A hectare of land can feed many more people if it produces plants as opposed to animals

Livestock that are intensively farmed do not simply graze on the grass underfoot and are fed additional food such as maize and soya.  It is argued that this maize would be better fed directly to humans or the land used to produce food for humans.  This in itself is a very simplistic statement and does not take into account that humans would not only want to eat maize but would want a variety of plants, many of which produce much lower harvests than maize, especially those that provide the protein needed in a balanced diet.

Any agricultural practice when undertaken as a large scale monoculture comes with much greater environmental damage than traditional small scale mixed farms.   There is a loss of local natural habitats and monocultures rely heavily of pesticide use.  Pesticide production releases emissions and there are many problems of pesticides affecting natural ecosystems and human populations. With the world's population eating a vegan diet there would continue to be monoculture agriculture.

One final point, not all land can be used to produce crops. This land however can sustain populations of animals, especially sheep and goats which are vitally important food sources for populations in  many parts of the world such as sub Saharan Africa.  Even in temperate regions there are many areas such as moorlands and wetlands that cannot produce crops but are farmed successfully for livestock.

Summary

Whilst is is beyond doubt that livestock farming produces large amounts of methane and rainforests are being cleared for more livestock to be raised, switching to an all crop based agricultural system would be accompanied by its own problems of greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, deforestation etc.  Eating less meat overall and switching to pork and chicken would lead to fewer emissions as these animals produce lower levels of methane.  Wasting less food would be hugely beneficial. It is currently estimated somewhere between 30-50% of all food produced is wasted both on the farm, in transport, during processing and in the home.  Landfill produces 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, almost all as methane from rotting wasted food.

The reality is we need to radically re-assess how we eat and more importantly how we live.  There are other more damaging processes such as energy production, road transport, buildings that have more negative effects than eating meat.  We certainly should be eating less meat, especially intensively reared beef and we need to be much less wasteful of our food. Switching humanity to a vegan diet may be less harmful overall but it will not solve the world's environmental problems and will result in a shift from one set of problems to another.

Further reading and sources:

• Nitrous Oxide 
• Environmental and social impacts of soy
• Why veganism isn’t as environmentally friendly as you might think
• Nutrition per hectare for staple crops 
• 15 sources of greenhouse gases

Food is life but is our current way of feeding ourselves killing the planet?

Wander through the aisles of any supermarket and you are spoilt for choice for food and a lot of it is ready prepared food - from breakfast cereals to microwave dinners, from fresh fruit already peeled and chopped to snacks galore.  It is now entirely possibly to eat without ever having to cook a single meal from scratch and whilst this may be amazingly convenient it comes at a price ... and not just the inflated cost of the food itself.  Convenient foods may be just that - convenient - but they also come with a negative impact on the environment.

Why convenience and processed foods are bad for the environment

• They take a lot of energy to produce.
• Chilled/frozen ready meals need energy to be stored.
• They are heavily packaged, often with materials that cannot be recycled/composted.
• The ingredients used will not be local.
• The individual ingredients, packaging materials and final product will have accrued a lot of food miles before arriving on your plate.
• The food industry wastes high levels of food.
• Foods often contain high levels of salt, sugar and additives.
• Many contain palm oil.
• They could contain GM ingredients.
• The consumer has no indication of the working conditions of the workforce used to produce the food
• There is no way of knowing the welfare of the animals used in these foods - many will come from factory farms and quite possibly be subject to have high levels of antibiotic use.
• Any fish used may not be sourced sustainably
• Consumers have no knowledge of the level of pesticides used on the basic ingredients.

I am not saying everyone should cook everything totally from scratch but I do feel that making a bit more effort in the kitchen would be a positive step for the planet.

Can I thrown you a "Cooking From Scratch" challenge?  

Over the next couple of weeks I challenge you to cook one days worth of new foods from scratch.  Just 4 things that you normally would buy ready-made but that you make yourself?

Ideas for Breakfast:

Yoghurt, muesli, bread, pancakes, muffins, fruit salad or anything from these 63 ideas from Good Housekeeping.

Ideas for Lunch:

Soup, baked potatoes with home-made baked beans or coleslaw, quiche,  hummus and crackers or make your own sandwiches/wraps rather than reaching for the ready made ones. Here's 52 great lunch ideas from BBC Good Food.

Ideas for Dinners:

Think about a dinner you usually buy ready-made and search out how to make it yourself.  Pizza, fish fingers, burgers, pasta sauce, pies or any of your favourite ready meals. Search out a recipe and give it a go.

Ideas for snacks, picnics and food on the run

Home made cookies, cakes and cereal bars, popcorn, sliced fresh veg sticks with a dip ... and for over 120 more ideas have a look here this page from Jamie Oliver.

More help here!

Maybe these blog posts might inspire you to cook more:

Reasons to cook from Scratch - part 1
Reasons to cook from scratch - part 2
21 ways to cook efficiently 
7 ways to have a sustainable fish dinner 
What foods are in season when
Why buy meat from an independent butcher/farm shop/farmer's market


I am not asking everyone to cook absolutely everything from scratch but we could all do our bit.  Ultimately what would you rather have - a packet of plastic wrapped biscuits full of dubious ingredients of unknown source that has travelled umpteen miles to get to you ..... or the smell of fresh oat and fruit bars spilling out from your kitchen?  I know which I'd prefer.

Are you up for my cooking from scratch challenge?

I picked this loaf of organic bread up at our local supermarket recently.  I don't normally buy what my boys call "Plastic bread" but this was in the reduced to sell basket and with an excess of eggs and milk I knew I could make it into a bread and butter pudding. But I also wanted to pose the question to you as to whether this was a good green choice or a fine example of greenwashing?

Greenwashing:

Greenwashing (a compound word modelled on "whitewash"), also called "green sheen", is a form of spin in which green PR or green marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception that an organization's products, aims or policies are environmentally friendly.*

The bread uses organic (Bio) ingredients but that is where, in my opinion, any green advantage stops. 

It might be organic but ... 

• It is highly processed and bears little resemblance to bakery or home-made bread.
• Both end crusts have been cut off - I would hope they have been used elsewhere but why remove them?
• The bread is wrapped in a non recyclable plastic bag which will end up in the bin.
• It will no doubt have travelled many miles before ending up in the supermarket.
• It proclaims proudly that it doesn't contain palm oil.  Since when was palm oil an ingredient in bread anyway?

So it is shouting loudly about being organic and palm oil free but I would think a loaf of home-made bread or one from a local bakery (which can be found in most villages and all towns in France) would have far less impact on the environment even it it wasn't made from organic ingredients.

What do you think?  A good green product or a plastic bag of greenwash?

I wrote in a recent blog that when we lose so many of the skills our predecessors knew then we place our lives in the hands of others ... and with just a few large companies holding the greater part of the market share we are left to buy what we need from a small number of super-corporations and they can produce theses goods however they want. These large companies care more for profit than sustainability.  They can use as many pesticides as they see fit, grow GMO crops, use child labour, transport goods all around the world, wrap them in plastic etc etc ... and as consumers our choice to have anything different is lost with the skills to produce these items ourselves.

What skills, therefore, do we need for the sake of saving our planet from further environmental damage?

Skills the world needs us to know

Food

How to cook/bake our own food from scratch
How to use up left-overs to create more meals
How to preserve food - bottling, drying, salting, jam and pickle making etc
Brewing
Cheese making
Knowing what food is in season when
Growing your own food - how to grow fruit, vegetables and herbs
Raising your own animals - chickens for eggs and meat etc
Butchery skills
How to forage and knowledge of what you can eat
Fishing and hunting

.... will reduce food waste, food miles, unnecessary packaging, factory farming, growing crops under cover out of season, excessive antibiotic use, palm oil use ...

Clothes 

How to make your own clothes
How to mend clothes
How to upcycle one item of clothing into another
How to make cloth and wool
Knitting, crocheting, weaving etc
Leather working

... will reduce excessive use of pesticides on cotton crops etc, reduce the amount of clothes going to landfill ...

Health

Basic First Aid
How to use natural remedies for simple ailments
How to know when a trip to the doctor A&E is really necessary

... will reduce excessive use of medicines and antibiotics, help ease pressure on health services, limit plastic waste ...

Around the House and at Work

How to mend things
Natural cleaning methods - the power of vinegar and bicarb!
DIY of all sorts
Building useful things eg compost bins, solar panels
How to upcycle/repurpose things
Pottery
Metalwork, Brickwork and Woodwork
Conservation skills - tree care, habitat management etc

...  will reduce consumerism, keep things out of landfill, reduce plastic use, reduce use of harmful chemicals ...

In the past one family would have known a large number of these skills.  Not everyone would know how to do everything but together they would be able to tackle most things.  And when they did lack something they certainly knew how to barter, swapping their excesses for things they were short of either due to their locality or missing skills.

I have tried to keep this list fairly general but as I was writing I kept going back and adding more skills.  In fact, there are hundreds of useful skills we must not lose but if we were all able to say we were competent in just a few of those I have listed think how much environmental damage we could reduce.  How much plastic packing would we not need if we simply grew some of our own vegetables or how much less pesticides would be sprayed if we made our own clothes by upcycling old ones?

I am OK with food and health and have a very practical husband ... but both of us is lacking on the clothes side of things ... I can manage basic mending but have never got to grips with sewing.  So I do the next best thing and buy second hand whenever I can and make do with the clothes I already have.

How do you rate your environmental life skills?  And have you skills I have not included here?

This image turned up on my Facebook timeline this morning.  I am sure it brought a smile to a good few people, especially if they had managed to rush to the shops before the bad weather hit and stocked up of loads of bread.  However when a friend posted on Facebook that they were baking bread, he wondered how many people were also doing this and how many do not know how to bake bread.

Image from Leamington Spa Courier

Loss of basic skills is something I have been mulling over for a while triggered by something else that popped up on social media.  Maybe you have seen this, or other similar "Never have I ever" type memes, where you get one point for each item you have NOT done.  I have seen ones for gardeners, parents and then this one for DIYers/self sufficiency advocates:  Do drop  me a comment with your score!


However there is a more serious note to both the photo and the Never Have I Ever mere.  We are fast losing vital skills and by doing so we are becoming dependent on some-on else for the basics we need in our lives.  Once we lose the knowledge needed to grow or cook our own food, make or mend our clothes etc then we leave ourselves vulnerable to having to buy from large organisations whose environmental records may be far from ideal.

You might argue that you could buy from smaller companies but many of these are in fact owned by large multinationals.  Look at this page to see just how many food companies are in fact owned by Monsanto.

Do you really want to be buying food from a company that promotes and produces vast quantities of GM crops and pesticides?

And once just a few companies dominate the market then they are given an almost free hand to do what they want.  As consumers our choices will become more and more limited and our ability to control what we eat, clothe ourselves in or have in our houses will be in the hands of just a few mega companies. 

So whilst I appreciate not everyone can keep chickens, milk a goat or ride in the back of a pick up, there are a lot of basic skills in the Never Have I ever meme that we really should not be losing.  If you can grown a few vegetables you can feed yourself organically and without plastic packaging.  If you can sew or mend you don't need to be buying yet more cheap throw away clothing.  If you can mend things think how much stuff you can stop going into landfill.  If you know how to forage for blackberries you can make your own jam and if you can make bread, the next time you get snowed in you won't be running out of this basic supply.  We need to pass the skills we have onto the next generation.  We need to teach ourselves those skills we have lost and we need to get basic skills like cooking, sewing, DIY and gardening back on the school curriculum.

Oh and my score?  Two!  (So long as I am allowed milking a sheep, rather than a goat!)
But do you know which two I have never done? 

And what is your score?  Have you got skills you can pass on to others?

I am sure a lot of you may well have made eating more fruit and veg one of your goals for 2018.  I wonder, though, if you have thought about how it is best for you (and the environment) if you are eating fresh seasonal produce.

What is seasonal produce? 

If you are eating "Seasonal Produce" it means you will be eating fruit and veg that is naturally at its best.   It will have grown outside and generally not too far from where you live.  For this reason it will taste great and have the highest possible nutritional value.  Also, if you are eating out of season produce it will have either been grown abroad (racking up food miles) or in heated greenhouses (racking up energy costs).

Why eat seasonal food?

Food that is in season has many advantages over imported food or that grown under cover:

• It will be fresher and have a great taste
• It will be nutritionally better for you.  The fresher fresh food is eaten the better it is for you.
• It will help the planet having using food low miles and less energy to grow than imported or greenhouse grown food.
• It will be cheaper.
• Finally, you will get great seasonal variety.  And believe you me, there is  nothing better than eating the first fresh strawberry of the season - it's taste will be a million time better than an imported "winter" strawberry.

So now you are hopefully keen to eat seasonally how on earth do you know what is in season?  An easy way is to eat fruit and veg that is from the country where you live.  The UK for example cannot grow green beans outside in winter so any fresh green beans need to imported often from as far away as Africa.  In contrast parsnips can be grown locally in the winter so you should find UK parsnips in the shops.  You could also sign up for an organic veg box and have a delivery of in season fresh produce arrive on your doorstep.

If you need some more help please do look at these blog posts detailing what fresh produce is in season throughout the year.

Veg, Fruit and Foraged Foods in Season in January
Veg, Fruit and Foraged Foods in Season in February
Veg, Fruit and Foraged Foods in Season in March
Veg, Fruit and Foraged Foods in Season in April
Veg, Fruit and Foraged Foods in Season in May
Veg, Fruit and Foraged Foods in Season in June
Veg, Fruit and Foraged Foods in Season in July
Veg, Fruit and Foraged Foods in Season in August
Veg, Fruit and Foraged Foods in Season in September
Veg, Fruit and Foraged Foods in Season in October
Veg, Fruit and Foraged Foods in Season in November
7 Foods in season at Christmas

Do you try to eat fresh food that is in season? Is there anything you really miss when it is out of season?

FACT - there are a lot more meat eaters in the UK than vegetarians or vegans (studies suggest there are around 5% vegetarians in the UK).

FACT - the number of vegetarians is growing in the UK

It is known that producing meat, especially lamb and beef, produces greenhouse gases and that large amounts of meat for sale in the UK comes from abroad (stacking up food miles) and/or from factory farms with questionable animal welfare standards (both for animals and workers).  Eating too much meat is also be linked to health issues.

BUT, many of those who eat meat will not become vegetarian in the foreseeable future.  Meat is an integral part of their diet and despite an ongoing reduction in overall meat consumption in the UK over the last 40 years, the negative points above will not stop many from eating meat.

FACT - that makes for a lot of meat eaters. 

But where is the best place to buy your meat?  In my view this would be a local butcher or farm shop/farmer's market.   

Image attribution - wikimedia

Why buy your meat from an independent butcher or farm shop/farmer's market.

Environmental reasons 

• By their very nature at farmer's markets farmer and many farm shops sell their own locally produced meat whilst independent butchers often buy from local farms.  This means the meat they sell has fewer food miles than supermarket meat. A local butcher will often be able to tell you which farm produced the meat it sells.
• It is often easier to take your own containers so reducing plastic waste.
• Lamb and beef produce the greatest amounts of greenhouse gas missions per kg of food but a local butcher, farm shop or market will stock a greater range of meats and may even sell locally shot rabbits or pheasants etc.

Animal welfare reasons

• Some supermarket meat, especially food such as budget processed meats comes from factory farmed meat where-as butchers and farm shops generally use meat from local farmers who practice higher welfare standards.
• Some butchers, farm shops and farmer's markets supply beef from dairy bulls that can be slaughtered at birth on large dairy herds .

Economic reasons

• You will be supporting local businesses who in turn support the local economy keeping local people employed.
• You can buy the exact amount you need, reducing costs and waste.  In a supermarket you are stuck with however much mince or however many chops are in the package but not so at a butcher.  Great for families of "odd" numbers who need 5 chops not the obligatory 4 from pre-packed supermarket shelves.  You can also easily buy less meat and then bulk out your meal with more vegetables and pulses.
• You can buy unusual and cheaper cuts for more variety and less expense.  When did you last see scrag end in a supermarket but your butcher will supply it? A butcher will also often be able to tell you the best ways to cook your meat.

Conclusion

If you are not ready to go vegetarian then buying your meat from a butcher, farm shop or market is a good choice to make.  It may be more expensive than supermarket meat but it is a far better option for the environment, your pocket, your plate, the local economy and animal welfare.  If the cost worries you, why not simply reduce how much meat you buy so you can enjoy fewer meat based meals but that are of a higher quality and better for the environment. 

Do you eat meat?  Would you consider swapping the supermarket for a butcher, farm shop or farmer's market?


Sources used:

The Vegetarian Society Fact Sheets: Number of UK vegetarians

This was my kitchen table yesterday and I realised that it summed up my life so well and what I hope to achieve on a daily basis.  Let me take you on a journey round my kitchen table/life ...


Starting top left and going clockwise:

Bowl of bread dough rising - this one is pumpkin bread and it turned out really tasty.  The sharp eyed among you may notice the dough is covered with plastic and you would be right.  It is a bag that had tortilla wraps in it and after being used several times to freeze things it split so got downgraded to a bread cover.

My 13 year old Nokia phone - yup, I really do have an original Nokia and it is at least 13 years old.  Dare I ask how many phone upgrades you have had in 13 years?

2 tea towels - these came from my Mum's house after we cleared it out.  We tried to salvage as much as possible of things that could not be given to charity or sold on/recycled.



My bag - now if you think my phone is old, this bag is around 20 years old.  It was a present from my sister in law and was hand made in Nepal.  It was so well make I reckon it will last me a good many years more.

Bowl of satsumas - bowl from Mum's house (our cat broke our last fruit bowl) and the satsumas came in a cardboard carton.

4 empty glass bottles - these had organic fruit juice in them and are now used when I buy milk straight from the local farm.

A bowl with the last of the peppers from the polytunnel - these will probably go in the chutney (see tomatoes, below and the bowl is a traditional teurgoule (Normandy Rice Pudding) bowl that I picked up at a boot fair. 

Torch - this one is rechargeable so has no need for batteries.

Bottle of olive oil - glass bottle, French oil ... and hiding behind the bottle:

4 pots of hedgerow jelly made from foraged fruits.

Rivals for Catan (card game) - we love playing card and board games and this is a real favourite.  Tom had an afternoon without lessons and as it was chucking it down we decided a game was in order.  I just wish the packaging inside was not made of plastic.

Cod liver oil and evening primrose - from an eco point of view these are a TOTAL FAIL.  They contain palm oil, come in plastic pots and are probably from farmed fish.  But I have bad joints and without these I also suffer badly with my back.

Last of the tomatoes - I got a fabulous crop this year.  They were slow to get going but luckily we had a lovely mild autumn so I only harvested the last of them this week.  I am hoping those on the table will ripen and those in the bowl are destined to be chutney and tomato and chilli jam.

Butternut squashes - these grew in the polytunnel from some seeds I chucked in really late.  Not a great harvest but they'll make a meal or too.  Luckily my outdoor pumpkins did really well so we will get more pumpkin bread!

Pot stand - to protect the table when I bung hot pans of food on it.  It was second hand from somewhere.

Knife - I have had this knife ages and it is still sharp.

My tea pot - even before I learnt teabags contain plastic I had switched to loose green tea as I much prefer it.  Now my other half also uses leaf tea for his builder's black tea.

Oh and the table and chairs need a mention too.  The chairs came from a friend who no longer needed them and our previous ones were in a very poor state thanks to a naughty Labrador who chewed the legs when she was a youngster!

And the table.  I reckon this table is around 80-120 years old.  I know it was my grandparents and as their parents lived in the same farmhouse it may even have been my great grandparents.  They arrived at the farm in 1881.  The table was originally just wood but at some point, probably in the 50's, it got a new Formica top.  It passed to my parents and now on to me.  I wonder if either of the boys will use it at a later date?

Over the year this table will have seen many changes and welcomed many people around it.  I wonder what stories it could tell of the lives of these who used it, studied at it, ate around it?

Does your kitchen table tell the story of your life?

"Buy Organic and save the Planet" could well be the logo of a company selling organic products and in many ways it rings true.  With a world of only organic agriculture we could be rid of so many harmful chemicals that kill more than the pests and weeds they are designed to wipe out.  We would say goodbye to genetically modified crops and the world's soil would be in a much better state.  But is organic always the right choice?  Are there actually times when you would be better off not choosing the organic option?  Was this "Simply Good and Organic" muesli I bought really a good environmental choice?

When organic may not be the best choice

When organic foods are plastic wrapped

We all know how bad plastic is for the environment with trillions of particles of microplastic now polluting the planet so should you really be adding to that load even if the product inside the plastic wrapping is organic?

When organic foods are flown in from afar

It is a conundrum that I suspect many a person who aims to buy organic will have grappled with.  Is it better to buy an organic product that was grown on the other side of the world and no doubt flown in or buy a local non-organic one?  Which neatly leads on to ...

When organic foods are not seasonal

It goes without saying that if the produce you are buying is not is season ie tomatoes in winter then it will either have been flown from far away or grown in vast heated greenhouses in somewhere like Spain.  The article below from Eco Watch exposes the extent of the spread of greenhouses in Spain and you can be sure that some will be growing your organic foods:

Greenhouses cover every square inch of land, more than 165 square miles of land around Almeria, Spain. Image from EcoWatch

When organic foods are heavily processed

Once you start processing food you start adding all sorts of unknowns to it.  Are all the ingredients necessary and what effects do they have on you?  Are they all organic, how much energy is needed to process the food, how much packaging does it now come in and how far (food miles) have all the ingredients contained in it travelled?  These are all unknown and could all reduce how environmentally friendly the food is.  And what about ...

When organic foods are contain palm oil  

We all know the devastating effects palm oil plantations are having on the rain forests of Asia and South America and the animals and plants that used to live there.  Manufacturers may say their palm oil is sustainable (what exactly does that mean anyway?) but the production of all palm oil goes far beyond just destroying habitats.  The working conditions of those harvesting and processing the crops is often extremely poor with no health care in place and workers are paid very low wages.  For the consumer, palm oil is far from a healthy product being high in saturated fats.  So why do organic producers even use it in their products?  Simply because it is the cheapest fat currently available.  For more details on palm oil have a read of these articles:

Not all organic standards are the same for all countries

Quote from Wikipedia on international organic standards:

"In some countries, organic standards are formulated and overseen by the government. The United States, the European Union, Canada and Japan have comprehensive organic legislation, and the term "organic" may be used only by certified producers. Being able to put the word "organic" on a food product is a valuable marketing advantage in today's consumer market, but does not guarantee the product is legitimately organic. Certification is intended to protect consumers from misuse of the term, and make buying organics easy. However, the organic labelling made possible by certification itself usually requires explanation. In countries without organic laws, government guidelines may or may not exist, while certification is handled by non-profit organizations and private companies."

So it is quite possible the so called organic product you are buying is not quite as organic as you thought.

When you drive miles just to buy a few organic items

If you are lucky enough to have organic produce close to you that is great but is it really a good idea to drive miles to get your organic foods, thus further polluting the environment? 

Do you really need it?

Finally, do you really need that food or are you buying it because it is organic and so you feel you are helping the planet and keeping yourself healthy in the process?  Have you been sucked in by some clever advertising but bought something that you either didn't need or could just have easily made yourself without the wrapping, industrial processing, unknown extra ingredients, food miles etc etc?  How much organic food still gets wasted because consumers buy more than they need?

So what of that packet of muesli?  I bought it as I needed something I knew my boys would eat for breakfast when they have to leave so early to get to school.  I normally make something they like but knew on this occasion I was short of time.  So I ended up buying muesli that contained processed (air dried) fruits, palm oil and glucose syrup, which came in a plastic bag and had ingredients in it from who knows where.  In my opinion, I do not think that constitutes a product that should be called "Simply Good and Organic."

You might think from reading this post that I am anti organic and that is simply not true.  I am, however, against organic food when a non organic alternative might have less of a negative impact on our environment.  Yes, buy organic but be careful in your choice.  Manufacturers want us to buy their products and they are not averse to a bit of greenwash.  Let's not fall for this any more.  Where possible let's ...

• Choose organic foods that are free from packaging 
• Choose local and in season organic foods
• Choose non processed organic foods and cook from scratch yourself when you can
• Avoid organic foods that contain palm oil
• Learn more about organic standards
• Consider buying fair trade products
• Buy locally 
• Buy what you need, not what manufacturers tell you you need!

Postscript - after a comment about orgainc palm oil I have expanded on the subject in this blog post:

Why I will not buy organic food that contains palm oil

I pretty much took a break from blogging this summer - partly I was too busy and something had to give and partly my internet connection was playing silly whatsits and was often so slow (or even dead) that it made working online almost impossible.  I am keeping everything crossed that will behave itself from now on.

So I though I would take this opportunity to share with you some of my green moments from the summer of 2017.  I'd love to hear what you have been up to too.

Family Time

The boys and Simon went camping in the UK for a while and when they were here we had some great times playing games such as Settlers of Catan and Molkky (Finnish skittles made from wood), visiting local landmarks including our favourite castle at Falaise (birthplace of William the Conqueror) and taking some lovely walks around the Normandy countryside.

Playing Molkky

Falaise Castle with its medicinal garden

Walking in Normandy

Harvest Home

The veg patch kept me super busy this summer.  The weather has been unusually dry all year so this meant a lot of watering ... but when it did rain the weeds grew like triffids.  The courgettes, as ever, did well and I am still drowning under a mountain of them - if you are too, this post with 10 courgette recipe ideas may be just what you need.

Vegetable harvest at Eco-Gites of Lenault

I have also been foraging and the elderberries have been superb this year.  The blackberries have been ripe for a while but it will be a few more weeks before the sloes are ready.  Together with windfall or crabapples those are the main ingredients of a hedgerow jelly I make.

Elderberries ripe for picking

Light bulb moment

Freezing excess tomato purée in ice cube trays

Eco-Gites of Lenault

Finally we have had a busy summer with guests in our eco-gite.  And this month we are featured in Complete France online magazine and you can read all about us here in "Living the good life in Normandy."  The gite sleeps 5 and we would love to welcome you here one day.  Mention the code GRH when booking a holiday of one week or more and we'll give you a hamper of local Normandy foods worth around 25€.  Offer subject to T&Cs which are available on request.

Eco-Gites of Lenault

Polytunnel and potager at Eco-Gites of Lenault

Free Hamper worth 25€ when you book a week or more at Eco-Gites of Lenault with the code GRH

I hope you too had a lovely summer.  I am linking this post up to my #GoingGreen Linky so do head over if you have a green themed post you would like to add ... or if you'd simply like some inspiration for ways to make your life a bit more environmentally friendly.

What is seasonal food? 

If you grow your own vegetables the packet will tell you when you can expect to harvest the crop and this is when it is in season.  If you see vegetables for sale outside of this time then they are not in season and may well have been imported or grown under heat in a greenhouse.

Why eat seasonal food?

Food that is in season has many advantages over imported food or that grown under cover:

• It will have the best and freshest taste.
• It will have a higher nutritional value.
• It is good for the environment as it will have low food low miles and less energy will have been used than glass-grown plants to produce it.
• As a result it will be cheaper.
• Finally, as a consumer, you will get seasonal variety and the excitement of the first taste of a just in-season food is hard to beat.  A strawberry in winter may look appetising but it has minimal taste compared to a summer one.

What is in Season in March? 

March is a month that gardeners often term The Hungry Gap.  Winter veg is getting to the end of its season but summer produce is not yet available.  However that doesn't mean you'll starve and there is still plenty of choice for in season produce. 

Please note I have based this list on UK and Northern France.  

Vegetables

• Purple Sprouting Broccoli
• Leeks
• Cavolo Nero and Kale
• Cabbage
• Spring Greens
• Brussel Sprouts
• Lamb's Lettuce
• Cauliflower
• Romanesco
• Parsnips
• Radicchio 
• Jerusalem artichokes
• Chicory
• Carrots (by the end of the month)
• Pak Choi
• New Potatoes (by end of month)

Veg from stores:

• Potatoes
• Pumpkins and squashes
• Onions and shallots

Fruit

• Rhubarb
• Apples (from stores)

Foraging

March begins to see a real growth (literally) in wht is available for foraging and even if March is cold you should find some things to forage for:

• Chickweed 
• Japanese Knotweed  NOTE - it is illegal to put any knotweed waste, however small, in your compost or garden as it will spread and you could get a criminal record if convicted!
• Wild garlic 
• Nettles 
• Dandelion leaves and roots
• Violets
• Wood avens 
• Ground elder
• Alexanders
• Birch sap

Week 44 - 7 Green Reasons to Cook from Scratch (Part 2)

7  Green Reasons to Cook from Scratch (Part 2)

1.  Less salt and Sugar

Ready cooked meals and takeaways are often high in salt and sugar making them a pretty poor food  option.  Eating too many can lead to health problems whose treatment is a drain on valuable resources.

2.  Avoids chemical additives

Likewise such food is often laden with all sorts so chemical additives.  Whether these are unhealthy is argued at length elsewhere but do you really want to be filling your body with masses of man-made ingredients?  Home-made food also tastes fabulous!

3.  Greater understanding of where food comes from

If you cook from scratch you can start to understand where your food comes from and how it was produced.  Buy a takeaway chicken dinner and you have no connection to the fact that the chicken  probably led its entire life in a factory farm, was fed with all sorts of growth hormones etc before being killed in a huge inhumane abattoir and then the meat pumped with water.  But make that same chicken dinner yourself and you can choose a outdoor reared bird that is not full of chemicals and was despatched quickly in a humane way and not full of water.  You will also be able to choose food that is local and seasonal.

4.  Slows life down a bit and holds friends and families together

The 21st century is a fast place where everything, including food is instant.  Bung an over-packaged meal in the microwave and gobble it down a few minutes later.  In contrast cooking from scratch helps slow things down a bit.  It gives you time to really appreciate what you are eating and you are much more likely to eat the meal together with friends and family around a table - a simple way to foster great relationships with the people in your life.

You may also find yourself talking to food producers about the best way to cook certain ingredients, what is in season and how the food was produced.  When you know more about who produces your food you are more likely to want to cook with and eat ethically produced food.

5.  Puts you in control of where your food comes from

Much ready cooked food is manufactured by multinational companies whose interest is profit-centred not food-centred.  They control what the farmers grow and how.  They have huge buying power and can reject produce and force down the price paid to farmers who in turn cut corners to try and make a profit themselves.  When you cook from scratch you can choose where your food is produced and how.  You are in control and you can  choose organic, ethical, fair-trade and local food

6.   Retains vital skills

Popping a ready cooked meal in the oven may be quick and convenient but what if you can't do that?  How are you going to feed yourself and your family if you don't know how to cook.  What if ready cooked food becomes too expensive for you to buy?  Cooking from scratch means you retain these vital skills.

7.  It's fun and gives you a sense of achievement

And that has to be a good thing!


Do you have any more reasons why we should be cooking from scratch.  Do please let me know in a comment.

Have you seen all the other posts in my #WeeklyGreenTips series?  Click on "Weekly Green Tips" in the labels section in the right hand column for loads more green inspiration.

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Week 43 - 7 Green Reasons to Cook from Scratch (Part 1)

7  Green Reasons to Cook from Scratch

1.  It saves you money

Ready cooked meals and takeaways are expensive.  Cook from scratch and with the money you save you'll be able to buy what can be more pricey organic or fair trade ingredients and still be spending out less money for infinitely better quality food

2. You can use organic, fair-trade and local ingredients

All of which are better for the environment and for you.  Less chemical use, better working conditions for agricultural workers and minimal food miles.

3. Use your own home-grown ingredients

Now that really in the way to have zero food miles and you cannot getter fresher than produce from your own garden/allotment.

4.  Eat Seasonally

By following the above points you will begin to eat seasonally, not relying on ingredients flown in form the other side of the world.  Yes, enjoy those strawberries in your desserts in summer and savour that apple crumble in mid winter when strawberries are not local and are expensive and tasteless.

5. Less Waste

Huge amounts of food is wasted in the manufacture of ready cooked meals etc from food rejected at the farm through the production methods.

One exception to this is cheap processed meat products where every available piece of the animal can legally be shoved in a sausage under the term "meat".  You will also find incredibly high fat levels.  Read this article for more about the way cheap sausages are made. 

5.  Less Packaging

Processed food comes with so much packaging much of which cannot be recycled.  Dump the ready meal and watch your bin slim down!

7.  Avoids Palm Oil

You won't find palm oil on the oil aisle in your local supermarket but you'll find it is so many ready made foods from cakes to curries that is is almost impossible to avoid ... but easy to do so when you cook from scratch.  Read this post to see why how else you can avoid palm oil.

Have you seen all the other posts in my #WeeklyGreenTips series?  Click on "Weekly Green Tips" in the labels section in the right hand column for loads more green inspiration.

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What is seasonal food? 

If you grow your own vegetables the packet will tell you when you can expect to harvest the crop and this is when it is in season.  If you see vegetables for sale outside of this time then they are not in season and may well have been imported or grown under heat in a greenhouse.

Why eat seasonal food?

Food that is in season has many advantages over imported food or that grown under cover:

• It will have the best and freshest taste.
• It will have a higher nutritional value.
• It is good for the environment as it will have low food low miles and less energy will have been used than glass-grown plants to produce it.
• As a result it will be cheaper.
• Finally, as a consumer, you will get seasonal variety and the excitement of the first taste of a just in-season food is hard to beat.  A strawberry in winter may look appetising but it has minimal taste compared to a summer one.

What is in Season in February? 

February can be a month to tease us that Spring is here.  Snowdrops are in flower and the days are getting longer but do not be deceived.  In all but the mildest of areas it is still well and truly winter and it will be a while before we see a major shift in what produce is available locally.

Please note I have based this list on UK and Northern France.  

Vegetables

• Turnips
• Swede
• Beetroot 
• Purple Sprouting Broccoli
• Leeks
• Brussel Sprouts
• Celeriac
• Cavolo Nero and Kale
• Cabbage
• Red Cabbage
• Lamb's Lettuce
• Cauliflower
• Romanesco
• Parsnips
• Radicchio 
• Jerusalem artichokes
• Chicory
• Salsify

Veg from stores:

• Potatoes
• Pumpkins and squashes
• Onions and shallots
• Carrots

Fruit

• Yorkshire forced rhubarb
• Apples (from stores)
• Pears (from stores)

Foraging

If the weather is particularly cold in February or worse still the ground is covered in snow then it will be hard to find much to forage for.  However, in periods of mild weather there will be things to gather:

• Chickweed
• Wild garlic 
• Nettles 
• Dandelion leaves 
• Violets
• Wood avens 
• Ground elder
• Alexanders
• Birch sap