I've just been out of my office for lunch and as is common once a month, a farmers market sets up for the day offering all sorts of wonderful foods and produce. I bought myself a delicious ceasar salad topped with freshly cooked jerk chicken (salad and chicken plus sauces produced/reared by the mother and daughter who were selling them).
I went to sit by some steps - overlooking a lovely man selling his own grown tomatoes - under the hot sun to savour my lunch and noticed next to me a young lady on her lunch break, holding a Sainsbury's bag out of which she pulled out the ubiqutous plastic wrapped ham and mayo sandwich with wilted lettuce in it.
Something about that really saddened me... oh well, my lunch was absolutely delicious! didn't really bother asking her if hers was any good :P
Having eaten courgettes in various guises for the past 2 weeks, and with no let up in production for a while yet, a plasticky wrapped sarnie has a sort of appeal.
When I was on dialysis a few years ago, all I was allowed to eat was steamed courgette and/or twice boiled potatoes, washed down with camomile tea or softened/purified water.
My hatred of the courgette has not diminished - but now I grow them for the rest of the family and they punish me so!
I can see what you mean, and I agree with you :)
I had a crunchy salad today with all my lotty grown stuff with a topping of fresh mediterranean parsley. The chunky cucumber was gorgeous. I had piles of it stuffed into a pitta with a beefburger left over from our burger stall last weekend. Only 49 burgers left to eat :o
I did a similar thing just now, ate my cheese and pickle rolls at my desk - rolls, homemade this morning, some mature cheddar, real butter and homemade chutney.
While my colleague had some stuff in a bag from the big yellow M which smelt dreadful.
We make the effort and I know it's not PC but I think we are allowed to be a bit smug sometimes!!
Rosie :) :) :) ;)
Vaca - that lady just doesn't know what she's missing. Trouble is I've heard of a lot of people that will not buy food unless it's wrapped. They are worried about a fly landing on it, or something. But not at all worried about all the chemicals that are pumped into them.
My colleagues are always amazed by my homemade bread I have for my homemade sandwiches every day.
Rosie - It still astounds me that people can't eat that big golden M food. I walked past one of the places yesterday and felt my stomach heave.
It is such a shame especially when there is no excuse with a farmers market nearby selling fresh produce.  Unfortunately people seem conditioned to prefer sterile packaged  food nowadays.  That salad she was eating probably came from a pack which was pumped with chlorine gas to keep it fresh.  Very sad she was unaware of  that fact and how much more nutritious the farmers markets produce would have been.  busy_lizzie
Quote from: busy_lizzie on August 18, 2005, 14:58:15
It is such a shame especially when there is no excuse with a farmers market nearby selling fresh produce.
...exactly my thoughts, she was sitting there watching the market unfold before her eyes but seemed oblivious to it...
i've just sent vikkie off to youth club with a tub of ratatouille (excuse spelling) for her packed lunch. all ingredients home grown  ;D and picked five mins before cooking.
now i know it tasted lovely (because i nicked some!) but more than that, the smug, self satisfied pleasure of sending my child off with home grown, home cooked, chemical free, FRRRESH food is second to none.
this is my first ever harvest and i'm LOVIN' IT! Â ;D
I've been eating salad sarnies for lunch at work for the last 4 weeks or so, I suppose I should be getting fed up of them but I'm not, especially now that I can bring a bag of sweets (gardener's delight) every day too.
Little Gem, Burpless Tasty Green, Lisbon White and Cherry Belle.....and, er, prepacked meat :(
Guess I'll have to get some pigs next ;D ;D
All this talk of food is making me hungry!
I want to know how to make this lovely home made bread! I have loads of tomatoes in my greenhouse just waiting to be put between some fresh slices of bread. Yum yum! ;D
I tried my hand at baking bread rolls, but they turned out like cricket balls! :'( What did I do wrong? Guess I should be on the recipe forum asking this stuff - never been there before. (note to self - must visit recipes4all!)
Quote from: Trenchboy on August 18, 2005, 14:30:15
When I was on dialysis a few years ago, all I was allowed to eat was steamed courgette and/or twice boiled potatoe
I've gotta a client who eats 'twice-boiled tats' under dialysis..... you tellin me I can sell him COURGETTES?????
;D >:( ;D ;D ;D
Talking abut salad stuff, my little gem lettuces were fantastic this year, so tasty and hearty. Have finished them now and only got some webb lettuces left, but will definitely grow them again next year. busy_lizzie
Talking about sterile stuff, my kids must have ingested half a ton of dirt from the veg they've taken off lottie. I am a remiss parent and the hand washing front, though I try to be good, and they couldn't be healthier. Though several of friends children who seem to live in a constant barage of sterility are always getting colds, bugs etc. And no, I'm not advocating the unwashing of hands, just that a liitle bit of dirt is good for the soul, I feel!!!! Lottie ;D
As I said on another thread, it's the anti-bacterial generation :P.
See how many household products have that buzzword on their packaging and in their commercials... what's the most ludicrous product you've come across?
Time to rebel, says I! Let's start a campaign!
LOVE YOUR GERMS!!
Not in our house they don't. I was bought up this way, D wasn't, but we both believe a bit of dirt does you good. And if you can trust the dirt - all the better.
Hi Underaarriage plan,
                  Its not the dirt that causes the problems its the anti-biotics that parents demand that their kids get from their doctor.
                          PREMTAL ;)
This will probably turn me into some sort of a leper on here, but, once in a while, I quite like to have a change and eat junk, whether it be a Big Mac, sliced white bread or a pre-packaged sandwich. My overall diet is pretty healthy, so I don't see that it does me any harm.
Couldn't agree more, Premtal! But still think it helps not to be too fussy so kids can build up some immunity. I knew a lady who's kid had a pile of toys he could play with, and a separate pile for visitors' children, which were disinfected after peeps had left, never known a kid get so many bugs etc. Strangely enough, didn't get too many visitors......... ;DLottie
My darling takes home made sangers, pies and cakes to work everyday, and he is the envy of his colleagues. Now some of them take home made selections, and I have an outlet for excess veggies!
My kids are rarely ill, number one son has never had antibiotics in his 4 years. Prepacked 'junk' and Maccy D's is a chemical, sugared, salted hi that we endulge in once in a while, and like you Wivvles, once in a while, we love it! :P ;D
Quote from: aquilegia on August 18, 2005, 14:53:17
Rosie - It still astounds me that people can't eat that big golden M food. I walked past one of the places yesterday and felt my stomach heave.
oops - must learn to type. meant "that people can eat that..."
sorry McD fans!
...and so do I endulge in McDonnalds a couple times a year, I know it's engineered food and not good for you but so are many other things. And they've somehow made it taste rather good in a chemical sort of way - they wouldn't be so succesfull otherwise. My point is that the lady eating her sandwich probably did so out of habit, eating generally the same type of bland manufactured food at every lunchtime. The sad part of it to me was that she didn't get the urge to experiment something new and probably tastier and fresher - even if just to break with her routine.
vaca
I like the happy meals with the daft toys ;D but like most on here I probably don't go near the place more than once a year. The sad thing about the woman Vaca mentioned is that she probably buys the same thing every day because she knows what she's getting. For a country with such a wide variety of international cuisines available we can be very conservative when it comes to trying new food; I know I've been known to buy a nasty cheese and onion sandwich from WHSmiths because I know that it won't challenge me :-[
On the subject of grow and eat your own, has anyone noticed that they're eating more?! I've been underweight for years (no joke health wise I can tell you :( ) but since starting to eat organic and to put our own veg on the table (a couple of months ago for the latter) I seem to be finally putting on some weight. All the wrong places of course, and OH says it's middle age spread ;D but that's not really the point - I feel like I'm eating more healthily, and therefore - more.  Anyone else found the same? (Plus, any good tips for trimming waistlines? ;D)
;D ;D ;D
O NO!!!!!!!!
Dont tell me that this time next year I will be even fatter!!
Was hoping that all this excercise and all the lovely organic veg would help me get in shape!!
Ahhh well.......
Yes, but how much exercise is it really?! Get in car, get to site, pick peas, eat some, pick peas, eat some - move on to fruit, pick some, eat some, pick some, eat some .... ;D  Then get home (via car) and make huge dinner with all your pickings, and especially dessert!!
Of course, I could cut out the car ......
I've got fatter anorl :o I thought I would have lost weight but allotmenteering has given me a raging appetite plus the lagers we get through too as we're sooooo thirsty ;D
I've told my OH not to buy lager. Just opened fridge to get the tea and he's restocked the fridge >:(
I'll put it in the slug traps ;D
Me too with the Little Gem lettuces. Really successful and so delish :)
I'm dead healthy. Now I've found somewhere to hide my tools I go on my bike - and I take two bottles of water with me - Saint RedClanger :)
But I do have a couple of ciggies when I am there - would probably have four or five at home though, and I do like a beer when I get back home.
With regards to diet - with the way the finances have gone this summer, I do not know we would have eaten if we had not got the lottie earlier this year.
I find portions are more generous with home grown. Before plot, shopping has always been on a very tight budget so purchases had to stretch, now I can pick a fresh lettuce everytime I fancy a cheese and lettuce sanger, and a roast dinner can have a choice of 7 or more veggies! Puddings are the downer, have made lots of home made icecream this year and it is sooooooooooooooooo delish. Plus all the crumbles earlier in the year from the bubby, and now the apples and plums are here, so more crumbles, pies and cobblers! Freezer is stacked already, jam pantry is full and am almost out of jars. Am now thinking of taking up wine making and getting the equipment over the winter to start next year.....more calories!
Don't worry EJ - the more wine you drink the less accurate the calorie count!
My get thin campaign has suffered another setback :( Someone has given me a box of plums so I'll just have to make another crumble ;D
I wish you hadn't said that... of course I had realised I have been putting on a bit of weight for all the reasons mentioned but I was in denial ;)
The veggies are so plentiful and delicious of course that the Governor and I never have less than five different vegetables for dinner.. plus all the diets say that you can eat as much vegetable as you like.
Yeah well....
Derek
Eat as many veg as you like but try leaving off the butter, salt, black pepper, mayonnaise, cream................. ;D
:(
Eeeeek..whats wrong with black pepper?????
???
Know what you mean about the roast dinners EJ ;D Have just put away roast beef and yorkshire pudding, plus potatoes, parsnips, beans, asparagus and fennel. We did think about adding peas and sweet corn but decided enough was enough!Â
We had chicken ellkebe, with roast tats, chard (stem and leaf served as two seperate veggies - daughter only likes the stems!), carrots, yellow french beans. Was going to do apple crumble for dessert, but ended up helping my darling clear out the shed so ran out of time!
Thank goodness it's only once a week (- especially as we do have dessert!)Â ;D