Coffee in the Square

Energy Saving Tip

How can something as simple as an onion skin save energy? Perhaps we forget just how much energy it has taken to grow, store and transport them to our kitchens. Don't throw them away.
Many of us compost peelings, but have you thought of other uses? I put a few onion skins into my stockpot thereby ensuring that my stocks have a lovely orange/brown tinge. The skins impart a rich oniony flavour. The immediacy and nutritional value of a stockpot is a wonderfully sustainable system, especially if you use waste heat to stew it up. And once you get into the habit of using real stock, rather than water or cubes in your cooking, you will never look back!

The London Salad

The day was chosen to be auspicious. It was a full moon, international woman's day and a solar flare hurtling towards earth, making the glorious sunny morning seem all that more glorious.
The event? A workshop led by Ceri Buck , for the garden museum entitled 'Invisible Food'. We walked through the Archbishop's Park, just behind the museum, spotting Daisy (good for stir-fry), Couch Grass(salads), Mares-tail(soups and stews) and Mallow(protein rich).
Unfortunately the nettles, a delicacy when lightly boiled, like spinach, with butter and nutmeg, had been lopped by an over zealous gardener - only the day before.
What a shame that he or she didn't realise that a tincture of nettle could stabilise blood sugar, revitalise the kidneys and sooth the bronchial passages.
The high point of the walk was stopping on a park bench, under the heady scent of an abundantly flowering Mimosa tree, to sample dandelion root coffee and to learn the secrets of tincture making.
The process is simple, but Ceri warns about being too mechanical in our approach to wild bounty. Don't take too much, think about the smell, the texture and the taste. Use all your senses and emotions to experience the moment.
The tincture takes four weeks to ferment. After that a few drops a day in a glass of cold or warm water should introduce a moment of healing calm to each day. Our Couch-grass tincture will be a spring pick-me-up. And if the Couch-grass doesn't do the trick, then the neat Vodka it's matured with, might help a bit too!
There is a follow up session on 20th March, which is the spring equinox. I shall certainly be there.
Highly recommended. Info www.gardenmuseum.org.
Ceri's work is part of a Lottery Funded Lambeth Initiative, www.lambethlandofsolidarity.wordpress.com

Stop Food Waste

We spent an enjoyable evening with Dr Compost (a.k.a. Craig Benton) and his lovely partner Tina the other night.  Craig told us that a third of the food we buy ends up in the bin.  I can see for myself that this must be true. I'm starting a compost heap, and the sheer quantity of material that goes into the kitchen composter is unbelievable.

The Irish government has sponsored a wonderful website, written by Craig and friends called Stopfoodwaste.ie  Government policy is based around prevention of waste. By not generating waste we eliminate the need to handle, transport, treat and dispose of waste. Encouraging people to reduce their food waste is a large part of the challenge.

The site has good ideas about reducing waste.  For example it recommends serving food on platters and letting people help themselves, to reduce the amount of scraps on plates (also good for the waistline) 

I think that we are conditioned by TV chefs to waste larger proportions of food than our mothers did.  Most of these TV chefs have been trained in posh restaurants where every lettuce leaf needs to crinkle seductively and every tomato slice must be identical.   However in the home we don't need to eat like that!   For years I discarded the outer leaves of lettuces.  Recently I've discovered that its those very leaves which have the most flavour!  Our understanding of nutrition is changing too.  I try not to peel fruit and I haven't peeled a potato in years.  Even mashed potatoes can be made delicious with their skins left on.  (The peel just disappears into the mash.)

However, even with those sorts of measures my compost pile is growing, so I consulted Craig for ideas.  I live in a flat with a roof garden.  There is no room up there for the wonderful row of large turnable heaps that you'd find in a country garden.  Craig has recommended a wormery.  I'm slightly concerned at the thought of more pets about the place, (can you take compost worms to the vet if they get sick?) but he's persuaded me that this is the best route. And the output - a fine till of worm casts - is caviar to pot plants!

So this weekend weather permitting I'm starting to make a series of stacking bins.  Go to Build your own composter for all the info.

Contact Craig at doctorcompost@earthlink.net

Thanks to stopfoodwaste.com for permission to use the images.

Here are some stills from Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky's quite lyrical video piece that's now showing at Tate Modern. They recorded a series of pieces documenting the strange balletic movements of rubbish on the pavement outside their Manhattan studio over a period of two years. Wow, what a messy part of town is Chelsea NY?
The dance of the black bin liner and the white cube of polystyrene was, for my money, the best bit.
But sitting there made me realise just how much waste is related to fast food. When we got outside we had a cup of tea in the Tate cafe. And yes, you've guessed it! My tea came in a paper beaker.
I'm thinking of keeping my Scandinavian Kitchen portable beaker with me at all times now, so that the world is not riddled with my fast food cast-offs.
Don't tell me that the Tate cup was recyclable - it probably was. But I'm not sure that a nice mug used over and over again is not only more energy efficient, but also makes the tea taste nicer!

The Power of the Sun and the Pull of the Sea

I've recommended this ace caf' before. It is situated on the East Beach Seafront of Southsea. I've since discovered that it is not just a seasonal café but sits here distributing coffee and home made bread and butter pudding all year round.
Yesterday the whole of the British Isles was influenced by cold still arctic air that had sunk down to our latitudes, causing this cold bright weather.
Despite the air temperature being only 5 degrees C it felt much warmer in the sunshine. Warm enough, in fact, to sit quite happily beneath the umbrellas and sip your coffee.
We took a long walk along the beach and when we got back to the car, which had been parked due south, the interior temperature was 21 degrees C! How's that for passive solar gain. What better demonstration of the power of the sun than this.
Incidentially the waters around the Isle of Wight have some of the strongest tides in the country. But so far none of this power is being harnessed.
Last week the Crown Estates published the latest round of winners for contracts to build next generation windfarms. The winners for West of Isle of Wight, which would be the closest to Southsea are Eneco New Energy

www.corporateuk.eneco.nl

This company from Holland grew out of the municipal power generating companies of the Hague, Dordrecht and Rotterdam which were originally owned by the local authorities of those three cities.
Their website suggests that they are dedicated still to citizen participation.
Isn't it a shame that the wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight closed down. They would have been the perfect partners.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Southsea Afternoon

The English South coast is slowly starting to wake up from about 50 years snooze in a deckchair.

Mike and I went to Southsea yesterday and strolled in the un-seasonal August Bank Holiday sun.  Its about ten minutes walk from Portsmouth

and Southsea rail station.

The highlight is the East Beach which local people seem to decry as decrepit, but  we found it delightful.. They have left the beach un-weeded, so plants like sea cabbage and thrift are flourishing.  Half way along – just opposite the military museum there is a lovely take away café – they have a real coffee machine in the back of a trailer and do home made bread and butter pudding as well as delicious looking filled rolls.  To complete your seaside meal a local ice cream company park nearby.

The really cool thing is the beach deckchairs that you can sit on to drink your coffee.  Each one has a container in the arm to support the coffee cup!  Those fold out chairs are really comfortable – the high back can also be used as a wind break if it gets a bit nippy.

If you pop into the tourist office you can pick up a map which shows the whole seaside from Portsmouth Harbour right to the ferry to Hayling Island (which runs from the very far end of Southsea front.)  (It’s a cycle route – but in fact its quite difficult to hire a bike around here!)

There is a very good leaflet to be had on the works of Thomas Ellis Owen, 1805-1862 who did a series of Nash type terraces and cottages just near to the Southsea town centre.  It’s a short walk – all concentrated into a few streets and obviously the posh part of town to live.  Kent Road used to overlook the common and the sea – but sadly its all been built-up now.  Before you get to the bombed out part of Portsmouth – which have now been built up with tower blocks and council flats – you walk through a delightful cottagey Victorian area.  The pubs all look amazing – festooned with tiles and decoration and all amazingly still open and active.  Some have turned themselves into brassieres and look quite smart.

 

But don’t get too excited – Southsea is an expensive place to live – we saw no bargains in the estate agents’ windows!  And these agents are obviously good at marketing.  The architectural leaflet is sponsored by estate agents DM Nesbit and Co!

 

www.portsmouth.gov.uk/living/714.html

Of Art and Caffs

A busy day yesterday!  I went down to the South London Art Gallery, one of my favourites in London to see the John Armleder show entitled "About Nothing".   He was a member of the Fluxus Group, but don't let that put you off! This showcases his works on paper and is really a feast for the eye.  I was at first worried about the Royal Academy Style hanging, but as you view the show it does grow on you.  It works because so much of the show is about repetition, and the impossibility of repetition.  The wallpaper, made from 1000 images of unique snowflakes forms a backdrop.  The work itself often relies upon the serendipity of chance, the shape formed by an ink "puddle", a few chance marks on paper or the juxtaposition of marks on objects such as record sleeves or collages.
I could and possibly should have spent three hours in the show - but next time I shall take a step ladder.  I've enclosed a set of images.

The other reason that I went down to South London was to re-visit a great caff there called Tadim, which is located at 41 Church St Camberwell SE5 just down the road from the gallery. It is a smoky and colourful cafe near to Camberwell School of Art. So it's frequented by a motley collection of students and locals. The by line 'the healthy way to eat' can not quite be believed - all that Baklava and Boreci - but my veg stew and salad seemed restrained enough. Vegetarians beware! The stocks used are meaty I reckon but the menu does specify which dishes are guaranteed meat free. Murals of Turkey's tourist spots and woven tablecloths complete the ethnic feel. Definitely a 'caff' but in the multi ethnic way that is unique to South London. An original!

South London Art gallery have got together with other local galleries to publish a rather good guide Art South Central which gives information about the galleries but also travel info and other nice things to do in the area.  I got to hear about the Tadim Cafe from their publication first.  Its a great idea and particularly good for arts and cultural organisations to plug themselves into other activities cultural, leisure and gastronomic, within an area.

Finally I rolled up at Elephant and Castle - which is due to be refurbished or redeveloped and certainly needs it.  I was off to a lecture at South Bank University Lepu (Local Economy Policy Unit) by Andrew Carter of Rocket Science about urban economics.  His premise is that regeneration areas are undervalued and in fact offer the market - generally the development market - larger returns because of the greater potential for improvement.  There ensued a lively debate about how that market uplift could be shared amongst people living in the area.  The view seemed to be that so often regeneration became gentrification.
I instigated a discussion about economic indicators on the micro scale in a totally selfish way to further my research on the matter.  Not much positive advice, but those who were involved in Economic Regeneration in the UK did volunteer that their role and their outputs were ill defined by their political or government masters.
These debates occur on the second Tuesday of each month and if this one is anything to go by I can recommend them. 
The university campus is being intensified, smaller buildings are being pulled down to make way for five to eight storey teaching blocks.  The lack of public open space is marked, but not oppressive.  This is an urban site.   Hopefully the external environment will be improved once the Elephant gets redeveloped.  There is that massive roundabout for a start! David Walburn, director of Lepu remarked in his introduction on the scarcity of shops around the place - and there are certainly no nice caffs here (as far as I found), though the South Bank Uni could become the major cultural/intellectual focus for the Elephant and Castle