Giving Up Supermarkets for Lent.

The ginger on my local market earlier today

I’ve minutes to write.  It’s Valentines Day and I have a date with my husband   ...  so I must be quick.  My fingers are numb.  I’ve been carrying bags of food from the market, but as I am thawing out and typing these words I know that the contents of these bags will at least keep me going for a few days.

I’d like to say that I am pleased with myself for shopping on the market but I was irritated by the fact that I forgot the cotton bags, which would not only have saved my fingers but the planet too.  I bought Satsuma’s, shiny dark aubergines, and fresh hot ginger rhizomes.  It seems odd to be back in Northampton, when  a few days ago I was clearing lemongrass away to dig up fresh ginger with a cutlass on a plantation in Grenada, and eating earthy chinks of it with food writer Xanthe Clay.  Still at least I am not being eaten alive by sandflies. 

Digging up fresh ginger in Grenada on the Rose Mount Plantation 6 days ago

The shopping which is literally scattered across the table has taken on extra significance.  You see not only is today Valentines Day yesterday was the first day of lent.  For me this doesn’t hold any particular meaning as I am Buddhist, but it is a good time to reflect. I’ve been watching twitter and there are so many people who want to give up chocolate.  Whilst I appreciate giving up something you love for spiritual reasons, I feel that the overriding majority of people are hoping to loose a few pounds and feel better about themselves.  For me this is a time to do something really positive.  I’ve been reading Joanna Blythman’s book called Shopped: The Shocking Power of British Supermarkets and it's confirmed things I have known for a long time.. So I've have decided to live for 40 days with out supermarkets.   

Today is the fist day and it’s been a good start.  I’ve discovered many of the household cleaning products I use in a shop called the daily bread in Northampton, near the Bedford road roundabout.  I can’t say that this is going to be an easy task.  I work full time, spend my free time trying to keep up with a large working kitchen garden and I have three young children, so I figure if I can do this than anyone can.

British Tulips on Northampton Market from Spalding. 

 The other reason to celebrate today is that I was at Waterstones helping to launch a book for the Clandestine Cake Club.  Lynn’s book is really lovely.  If you love cakes I can’t recommend it enough, and you will find one of my recipes on page 91. Whilst I was there I caught up with my local MP, who has agreed to talk to me about food labelling in the EU as he was our MP when this was being decided.. look out for a interview on here with Chris Heaton Harris next week. 

Tomorrow I will share some of the adventures I had in Grenada last week.

Tonight I will make noodles. 

Stand up for your independent shops

Until they became conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.”

― George Orwell, 1984

From Phones to pushchairs, pet insurance, mortgages to funeral services it seems that the large corporate supermarkets want to every penny you have to give from your life, from cradle to grave and everything in between.

It's our independent shops that offer us the very best of seasonal local produce.

I’m very careful where I spend my money.  Money after all is power and we seem to have handed over power to some very dubious corporations.  I did think about apologising to the people who I might offend in this post.. but I’m not going to because it’s about choice.  Most people have been completely seduced by the supermarkets and we have, as a nation been sucked in to a vacuum that has changed an entire nations eating, purchasing and even social behaviour over the past thirty years.

I resent being controlled, and so I make every effort to buy my food at my small independent shops.  My butcher, my fishmonger, my grocer and my local farmers market get as much of my custom as possible.  When I do have to shop in a supermarket I choose the most ethical, after all I still need loo roll.

Last week, I found myself outside my local Tesco.  The car park was full.  "Helping you spend less every day" in large letters above the entrance.  

In my opinion nothing could be further from the truth.  I wonder if the irony of the slogan amuses the board of Directors because it seems to me that Tesco have absolutely no intention of helping you spend less.  To begin with the store lay out has been designed over the years using behavioural experts to maximise the amount spent.  The shelves themselves are stacked in such a way to increase the likelihood that you will pop the most profitable products in your basket.  Bargain buy one get one free scream to purchase food you don’t even need.  The entire store is aggressively designed to make you spend more.  Even the choice of yellow and red colours of the stickers are psychologically aggressive and designed to increase stress levels.  The result is an increase in cortisol symptoms which results in an increased appetite for high fat foods and cravings for sugar and sweet foods. 

A report this week published in this BBC news article says that Britain's biggest supermarkets have been defending their practices after a report suggested that up to half of the world's food is thrown away.  Believe me this is not helping people to spend less everyday.

The lady I buy my beef from at the Melton Mowbray Farmers Market

Just last week as I was walking about a large supermarket I've not been to in years and years  I noticed that that layout and complete saturation of sales messages had raised my anxiety levels. All around me there were deals and offers and supposed bargains not to be missed, but every purchase seemed to come with a bamboozle of information, mostly about the price. In the end I suppose people are so bombarded with the “it’s cheaper’” message that they simply accept this and for their own sanity turn off the scream of information.

As my husband and I got to the back of the store by the bakery there were several security guards and extra staff and about thirty people all kind of milling about. There was considerable tension in the air and my husband asked what was going on.  Stand well clear if you want my advice said the security guard.  What followed could only be described as three simultaneous scrums. As the reduced trolleys were wheeled out the crowd that had gathered literally swarmed over them with a frenzy of people pushing, shoving and  even standing on each other throwing food into their baskets as though they were post apocalypse movie extras.  I found myself staring in disbelief.

“ It’s the same ones every night.” Said that security guards.  “They’re total scum.”

I felt myself prickling, but decided to breath through my response. After all I was not the one there night in night out having to police this.  As we were at the till the cashier mentioned this nightly routine “ They are vultures,” she said scornfully.  “ They hang about in here waiting for the reductions with nothing better to do.” 

“Has it occurred to you that perhaps these cannot afford to eat if they don’t get the reduced food?”  I asked.  She shrugged. “ They should get a job.”

I drove home feeling that I had witnessed a whisper of what is going on all over my country.  The giant corporate supermarkets sending out messages that they care about us, whilst simultaneously

manipulating every aspect of our food decisions.  Who exactly does Tescos help spend less everyday? From the time poor wealthy to the really desperately poor they seem to me to just want as much of everyone’s money as they can get.  They want all of it - every penny.  Well Tesco’s, Asda, Sainsbury, Morrisons and any other overbearing corporate supermarket  ....  I do not believe that it is your divine right to make money no matter what the cost. 

It is the last time I will ever step foot in any of your stores, and so despite the inconvenience of finding a parking space and the extra time that it takes, I will consistently and continuously campaign for people to make the effort and support real people running independent shops who offer an alternative to the consumer. 

So I was wondering then, how to turn such a negative experience into a positive one and I thought I'd celebrate all that is good about independent shops. Do you have an outstanding butcher?  A wonderful fishmonger?  A fabulous grocer?  

Please leave a comment and go out of your way to keep them in business.  Your local shops care, they will be pleased to see you, respect your custom, give you good advice, fabulous food and support the local farmers and the community. In fact they are everything that Tesco’s are not. 

My last word to my own food blogging community is that collectively have serious influence  - so if you are a blogger & would you would like to make a difference then please add this logo to your site and tell the world about your local baker, butcher, cheesemonger or greengrocer. 

Everyday decisions add up to a lifetime of difference.  Be the change you want to see.

What Makes a Really Good Cookery Course?

For me a course has to be hands on. 

I love going on cookery courses.  I get excited about each and every one, and yes you might ask why a qualified chef might say this, but in my experience you can always learn more.  I also really enjoy the social aspect of getting out of the house and meeting really interesting people and feeling that I have something new to try out on my family when I get home.

Working for BBC The Kitchen Garden show has meant that I’ve had the opportunity over the past few years to go to many cookery schools and have done many courses some of them good, some of them truly awful and several that were outstanding.

So as I’ve set up the Juniper and Rose Cookery School in Northampton I've been thinking about what makes a really good cookery course?

The starting point for me has to be price.  If it is too expense I just can’t afford it.  It’s that simple.

Then there is the question of numbers. All too often cookery courses are over oversubscribed.  I understand why, More people is more profit, but too many and it at the expense of the other students.  I remember one particular course in London that had 22 people there.  It was a nightmare.  I couldn’t see the demonstration and when I needed clarification on an instruction I had to wait twenty minutes before the tutor got to me.

I like to really learn stuff.  One particular course I recall being hugely frustrated that all the good bits I wanted to do and needed to learn were simply demonstrated.  I can look at a video on you tube if I want to simply watch someone doing it.  When I want to do a cookery course I want to be up to my elbows in whatever I am cooking, so I get to touch, feel, measure and learn.

I don’t want to sound like I am being fussy about things, but when I am on a cookery course I want to put things in a wider context.  Whilst I am learning with my hands I like to learn the way in which my food choices affects the world.  I like to know, for example, which fish as sustainable when I am doing a fish course, or where  I can buy flour milled from the nearest flour mill.  I loved that when I attended a course run by Dan Lepard at that were given artisan flour to take home and try.  It was generous and thoughtful.

For the sake of timing or cost of ingredients, or even perhaps as an attempt at getting more in I’ve been on courses where there is a communal theme.  Making different shapes with Danish pastry was one such course.  I got to make twenty of one particular shape and we all shared out the other five shapes.  Now I am truly really great at one Danish pastry shape only.

Cleanliness is rally important.  I know you are probably wide eyed that I have even mentioned this, however I have been to one cookery school where things were not quite as they should be.  Common areas must be clean for me.

Finally I like to be inspired to go home and start cooking.  I  want a course to influence the way I do things and even to motivate me.  It’s a tall order I know, but when I’ve spent a whole day and my hard earned money I want it to have an effect.  If you’ve been on a bread-making course and you don’t go home and make you own bread then what, if I may ask, was the point of that?

Every cookery school I've been to has had a different feel to it.  Some are intimate, some are friendly, others are intense.  Hopefully I've taken the very best aspects from all of them and added my own style. 

I’d love to know what else you think makes a really good course… .

Share your Baking Blog Post

Sometimes I get really fed up with writing about what I have done.  Me myself and I syndrome!  So today as the snow falls I find myself sitting thinking about all the interesting things other people have been up to.

So it occurred to me to have a blog sharing day .. ok I might extend it for a couple of days!

I've added this picture and tweeted it and thought that we'd all be able to enjy other peoples baking and fortunately  there are no calories looking at the screen.

So if you do have a cake, pie, bread, pastry or even a baked potato ...  share your post .. or even someone else's post on my Juniper and Rose Facebook page here.