Gourmet it ain't, green it may be.

I like cooking. This is just as well, since Little Fish refuses to eat anything other than home cooked meals. We are working on it, and I am pleased to report that Little Fish's list of acceptable pre-packaged foods now includes chocolate buttons, jars of chocolate pudding, and the odd wotsit. However, much as she (and I) would like to consider this a reasonably balanced died, we do occasionally (think two or three times a day) find the need to supplement this with the good old home cooking.

Below you will discover the reasons why I now find this a disheartening task.
Roast lamb, with roast potatoes and parsnips, carrots and leeks, meaty gravy, mint sauce and redcurrant jelly.

Cauliflour cheese with brussels sprouts and bacon.

Vegetable soup with crusty french bread.

Everything looks the same when blended. After ten months of pureeing everything I cook I have discovered that the only things which alter the appearance of pureed food are spinach (mmm green slime), tomato puree (red slime, a good massacre effect can be achieved with minimum effort and just a little over enthusiasm with the spoon), and broccoli (pretty little green flecks, mmm who sneezed?).

Following on from our Ethical Apples, I decided to re-explore the farmer's market. This is a monthly event here and is theoretically limited to farmers who live within a forty mile radius of the town. As it turns out, we have a lovely pig farm selling wonderful garlic sausages (I wonder where the garlic came from?), a very nice sheep farm (mmm lamb leg steaks, now I know I bought them but I haven't unpacked them yet, can I really have put them upside down in my handbag and left them there?), a beef farm, a trout farm and a goat farm. Strange; I thought we had a fair few vegetable farms round here too, but apart from one stall selling apples (did think of offering to sell them mine but resisted the urge) all I found was one small stall selling extremely expensive butternut squash and potatoes. Since we travelled on the bus, for added Greenie Points this is perhaps not a bad thing; as it was I completely forgot to buy the other things we'd gone into town to get.

What's greener? Two trips on a public bus, one to the farmer's market and then one the following day to do everything else, or one trip in our own van? What's greener again; local non-organic produce or organic fruit and veg from halfway across the country? And why does our local dairy deliver milk from local cows but butter and cheese from Ireland?

An interesting site I found looking at your own ecological footprint. The results might suprise you.

Have a nice day,
Tia