Do it yourself

Still pretty but some sun, water and lot's of love will make them strong soon

In our food-supply we have made ourselves completely dependent on supermarkets. While it is so much more fun to do it yourself.

Before industrialization started most people grew (at least some of) their own food. There were no supermarkets yet. Let go of fridges and freezers which could keep the produce fresh for a couple of days. In summer the strawberries and other fruits where picked and eaten. Special treatments enabled the people to conserve the surpluses for periods in which less food was available. Many houses even had special cabinets with a stable temperature in their houses. 

In this period it wasn’t even strange to have a pig or some goats around your house. Despite the smell people profited from the presence of these animals. In times when food was plenty, they could eat the leftovers and grow. In times when food was scarce, the ‘pet’ was eaten. It was a normal lifecycle which everyone excepted because it was the only way to survive.

Now we in cities cannot really accept the neighbor having a smelly and maybe also noisy animal in the garden. Eat least not a kind of animal which you could also eat in cases the supermarkets are empty.

The current trend on food manly focuses on the growing of vegetables and fruits in and around the city. It is a good trend since finally people start to value their food again, it brings people together and it saves energy for transporting the foods you normally buy at the supermarket. But it can’t feed all of us.

After being interested in the relation between food, people in cities for four years now, I finally started to bring my theoretical knowledge into practice: I grow my own food. Well, not really food but tomatoes. And it is such fun. From planting seeds into the soil, watering them to the moment the seeds to pop-up. And then the growing process. It’s unbelievable to see how fast these seeds change into small plants which are - hopefully - within a few months strong enough to carry beautiful tomatoes.

If there’s too many to eat, I will definitely use some old tricks to conserve them so I could enjoy my work until next spring. Or I can call you in. I’ll keep you updated.

Royal insects

Read the interesting blog which will convince you to at least try to eat something new

Insects are usually related to nature and dirt. Hoe surprising to hear that the Dutch Queen-to-be was recently handed-over an insect cook book.

The number of people on earth keeps growing while there also is an expansion of people which could afford to live a Western lifestyle. This means more cars, more travel, more meat on the plates and thus more CO2 emissions.

Researchers concluded that we cannot continue eating as much meat as we do now. It is too energy consuming to grow cows, pigs, chicken and any other four legged animal. Growing animals is not very efficient way of making food for humans. The animals need liters of water and kilo’s of food each day. And the food has to grow somewhere and transported to another. The more energy, water and soil we need for the animals, the less we have for ourselves.

Since this problem is expected already some years specialists started to look for alternatives. Food which helps us to get the right nutrients but avoids all the energy use. If you don’t want to eat meat you already have the choice to eat tofu, beans and eggs or (if you live in Holland) a piece of ‘meat’ from the Vegetarian Butcher. But now there is something different available: insects.  

In some cultures insects are not an unusual aspect of dinner at all; 80% of the world eats them as a delicacy. In Mexico people love to eat ants, in Japan wasps are favorites on the menu. But Europeans don’t really seem to be attracted to eat these. To convince us of the possibilities, two academics and a chef made a book full of information and of course delicious recipes with the sustainable meat substitutes.

If this book can really make us to eat less meat it could mean a big change in the way agriculture is organized now. At this moment farmers mainly seem to look for more efficient kinds of growing plants and animals to be sure we can all eat what we want. This leads to an unhealthy way of producing food in which landscapes are dominated with monotonous crops and animals never see daylight. The bug industry could change this into more traditional landscapes filled with cows and pigs and grown with a diversity of crops.

If you - like I - have never tried consciously y eat an insect, then this might be a reason to at least try it. Go to a specialty shop which sells grasshoppers, mealworms or black fungus worm and just order some. Then find a recipe which guarantees a good taste. Do you like it?

Legally addicted

A beautifully growing tobacco plant hasn't a beautiful effect on our health

During the last years the discussion about eating food on the streets has grown. It might not be a good trend that people eat in public. Having a meal is namely very important for social and health reasons and therefore asks for serious concentration. What about the growing number of smokers on the streets?

Smoking was very popular after WWII. It used to be just for the rich but soon lighting a cigarette was accepted by all even for working class. Smokers where facilitated with ashtrays in cinemas and public transport, television series and films filled with by smoking persons and offices where filled with a blue mist.

When a clear relation between smoking and all kinds of chronic diseases was proved, the anti-smokers lobby grew. From that moment on smoking in public buildings wasn’t allowed anymore or only in designated areas. Airplanes and public transport became non-smoking, commercials were only allowed at special occasions and cigarettes couldn’t be sold to persons under a certain age anymore. Special taxes were introduced similar to the one they are considering for fats now.

Now smokers are moved out of the buildings we see them more often on the streets. Before you enter your office, a restaurant or the train station, you might have to walk through a smelly mist caused by the smokers. The strict regulations should discourage people to smoke and protect others from suffering of effects caused by the addictive habit. But in effect we seem to suffer more than ever.

Smoking also influences our agriculture. The biggest European tobacco growing countries are Italy, Poland, Spain, Bulgaria, Greece and France. Like any other plant it needs soil, water, some food (read: fertilizers) and sunlight to grow. The plantations absorb a significant part of our agricultural area. A smoker should not forget that every cigarette he  lights not only has a negative effect on his health and to that of those around him but also uses some of our valuable agricultural area.

The discussion of European food security and health now seems to focus mainly on animal diseases, bio-fuels and obesities in relation to the subsidies going to European agriculture. But we should not forget to remember the tobacco industries. If this bad habit would be banned we will have more space and energy left to grow food we can really survive on. Maybe this is a convincing argument to stop now?

Something is growing

A chicken freely walking around in an (sub)urban farm

It is Easter. The time that the sun appears, trees start to flower and the first baby animals are born. The sober winter period slowly disappears and gives room to a fresh new world. Humanity starts to smile again.

The shops also show a transition in their assortment. The last cabbages are sold and replaced by more light leafy vegetables like spinach and different kinds of lettuce. And now it is Easter the supermarkets offer all kinds of specialties which you can serve to your guests. As a consumer you can choose from luxurious breads and cutlets, cheeses and jams. But it is Easter so we cannot forget about the eggs.

Since the beginning of this year it is not allowed to hold laying hens in battery cages anymore. A battery cage was a space just a little bit bigger than an A4 sized paper (25*30cm) and was meant to produce as many eggs a possible while using no space at all. Very cheap and efficient for the farmer. Not at all pleasant for the hens and thus for the quality of the eggs.

Despite the attractiveness of the low prices consumers realized it couldn’t continue like this. They started to buy free range or even organic eggs. The supermarkets picked up this new trend and started to offer a bigger diversity of good eggs and banned the battery ones from their shelves.

Unfortunately it is more difficult to find the animal friendly version in processed products which contain eggs. Most biscuits, pasta, ice cream and mayonnaises still contained ‘the bad ones’.

Now the battery cages are not allowed anymore, it becomes more difficult for these producers to get their cheap eggs. Good news for hens and consumers but the producers still knows to find a way around these regulations. Although the European committee is forcing their member states to strictly control the execution of these regulations, there are still farmers which illegally produce in the old fashioned way and could thus deliver to producers which want to use these eggs.

As a consumer we should be more aware. Don’t just buy the mayonnaise you’ve always bought. First check if it is made with free-range or organic eggs. If not, then check the others brands. By boycotting the incorrect products we will force those producers to change their production methods and ingredients (from battery cage to at least free range eggs).

In the end there is nothing better than an egg freshly taken from your own happy hens in your own beautiful garden. So if you have the chance and room to house then consider buying some. Then next year’s Easter will definitely perfect. 

Festivities

Last month we could already enjoy the first days like spring. Warm rays of sun heated our body and made us come out of or dark and moldy houses. Forgetting about our aims to behave healthier this year, we ran to the icemen, ate lunches on terraces or spontaneously organized a picnic in the park.

It is always nice if you can go out of your house into the fresh air. But this also asks from you to be more creative on the way you get your food. In a city you can settle down on whatever terrace you like. Options are open to you so you can choose everything from simple to fancy. And if you don’t want to sit on a chair you can go to one of the many (city)supermarkets which cater for a as-you-like-it picnic in the park or on a bench along the water.

The beach houses provide usually sea or summer related meals like plates with fish and chips or barbeque grilled meats. The reputation of these restaurants is depends on the service, the atmosphere and only a little on the food they serve. Although it’s getting better since a couple of years the food served is usually not too healthy and certainly not original.

A new spring also means the opening of the season full of festivals. And it is not only the music festivals we could enjoy these days. You can choose to see theatre plays, be part of a sports event, visit an outdoor fair, and so on. There are many options for everyone.

As different as the festivals are, as monotonous is the food on offer. There seems to be a caravan of snack cars touring around all the events in a certain region or country. The food they offer is shit. It is fried, bad quality and usually very expensive. To me, it is one of the reasons to avoid these festivals or at least to make sure that I can have a good lunch. Preferably somewhere near the place where it all happens but in case it is not possible I will bring my own.

Maybe for this season we should plea to the men and woman organizing these festivals to pay more attention to the food department of their event.  It is so important to have a good mail when you’re out all day soaking up lots of new impressions. Even though it is not the activity where people come for. And from the people touring around with their snack car we should ask them to be more creative and replace the usual stuff with more original, more healthy and more fulfilling stuff.

Let the spring begin!