Do you trust the food you eat?

luka

Well-known member
george mobiot was talking about how america forced central and south american countries to subsist off of coca cola and cheez-dogs and obesity rates skyrocketed as a result. he said thats what theyre going to do to us too. and labelling wont be allowed so youn wont even know youre eating high fructose corn syrup
 

version

Well-known member
Yeah, I've heard that re: labeling. They apparently view it as "anti-competitive" as it allows people to identify their terrible products and choose not to buy them.
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
Or a call to allotment growing diy.

On a decent year our humble garden can produce stacks of produce. One thing to move out of lockdown with could be getting an allotment if you don’t have access. Try not to think of a Richard Briers. It’s so good for the head, body and soul. Once you’ve got the fundamentals down, you grow so much you end up giving it away. I bought a larger fridge freezer to store more soups and stocks a few years ago and it’s more than paid for itself. Use one local butcher for local people - lean, ethically produced meats, zero nitrites, prob a quarter of our diet.

Allotments, seriously. Good for everyone involved. Get out of the domestic abode, optional tunes, swap knowledge with the old timers in the area, time dissolves, limbs get a work out, so at least some alternative options are out there waiting for people to get involved.
 

luka

Well-known member
there isnt an allotment for every person on this island sadly. or a garden. or a balcony.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Yeah that's the guy I meant. I like it when he says "shut the front door" cos you think he's gonna say "shut the fuck up" but he doesn't.
 

version

Well-known member
My dad always goes on about this time he saw Jools Holland interviewing Miles Davis where he was listing all his achievements in awe then paused at an unfortunate moment saying "You are... a complete ar... tist" and he was convinced he was going to say "arsehole".
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Ha, like the famous misprint due to line spacing

"Heather Mills who lost part of her leg in a motorcycle accident, is rebuilding her life with the help of former Beatles leg-end Paul McCartney"
 

version

Well-known member
Michael Pollan's seven rules for eating sound sensible,

  1. Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. "When you pick up that box of portable yogurt tubes, or eat something with 15 ingredients you can't pronounce, ask yourself, "What are those things doing there?" Pollan says.
  2. Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can't pronounce.
  3. Stay out of the middle of the supermarket; shop on the perimeter of the store. Real food tends to be on the outer edge of the store near the loading docks, where it can be replaced with fresh foods when it goes bad.
  4. Don't eat anything that won't eventually rot. "There are exceptions -- honey -- but as a rule, things like Twinkies that never go bad aren't food," Pollan says.
  5. It is not just what you eat but how you eat. "Always leave the table a little hungry," Pollan says. "Many cultures have rules that you stop eating before you are full. In Japan, they say eat until you are four-fifths full. Islamic culture has a similar rule, and in German culture they say, 'Tie off the sack before it's full.'"
  6. Families traditionally ate together, around a table and not a TV, at regular meal times. It's a good tradition. Enjoy meals with the people you love. "Remember when eating between meals felt wrong?" Pollan asks.
  7. Don't buy food where you buy your gasoline. In the U.S., 20% of food is eaten in the car.
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
there isnt an allotment for every person on this island sadly. or a garden. or a balcony.

Debbie Downer aside, have you applied for an allotment and been rejected, because if you haven't that just appears as dismissiveness

Granted, some parts of the UK have waiting lists, but if memory serves right you're in the big smoke....

 

luka

Well-known member
tbh i dont want to spend the time, money or energy required to maintain an allotment. ive just been feeling resentful of anyone who has outdoor space during lockdown.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
In Portugal there are a lot of what you might call reclaimed allotments where it seems as though people just rope off some ground, claim it and start growing some stuff. I suppose removing all of them is pretty low priority for any officials so they remain.
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
tbh i dont want to spend the time, money or energy required to maintain an allotment. ive just been feeling resentful of anyone who has outdoor space during lockdown.

Sounds like the ideal remedy to convert that frustration into vegetables you can actually taste.

Not to be the Neil to your Rik, but

 

luka

Well-known member
i was supposed to be a Neil but unfortunately i grew up in the wrong area around the wrong influences.
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
No Hawkwind then!

Derek Jarman's book Angelic Conversations was my gateway drug into broader botanical realms, beyond certain indoor grows. Highly recommended read. His perspectives on growing spaces, metaphorical or otherwise, are far more eloquent than i can manage here, although growing spaces are just one theme among many. Put another way, it's the Jungian antithesis to any episode of Gardener's World and that fucking human abomination Titchmarsh.
 

luka

Well-known member
my dad was a big gardener and had two allotments running when i was a kid. he took me to see Jarmans garden too. i thought angelic conversations was judi dench reading shakespeare sonnets though? im sure ive got a dvd of it
 

catalog

Well-known member
i heard they were trying to get funding to preserve his garden and make the house into a museum, should be done. dungeness is really cool, really liked it
 

catalog

Well-known member
oh cool, im glad they got that sorted. i find his films patchy in the extreme, thought jubilee was shockingly bad, but quite enjoyed caravaggio
 
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