Allotments 4 All

Hello all,

For all the Hugh Fearlessly-Eatsitall fans on here (I know there are a few) just got sent this:

"River Cottage TV Show Newsflash

We would like to let you know that Hugh is back with a brand new series on
Channel 4 starting on Thursday at 8pm.

Each week he is inviting a different group of fast food loving, urban
dwellers to spend a week at our River Cottage HQ. Hugh's mission, of
course, is to change their ways forever.

The first show takes a group of chicken-lovers living off takeaways and
cheap supermarket chicken. Unafraid to use shock tactics Hugh exposes the gang to the full horrors of factory poultry farms in the hope that they
will embrace the free range alternative. So he asks them to care for the
River Cottage poultry flock, bond with the birds and at the end of the
week, make them dinner.

But will he succeed?"

Cheers,
Rob ;)

Thanks Rob we'll enjoy that ;D

wow, free room and board, wish they'd take us, we'd even lie about what we eat to go ;D

 ;D ;D ;D@scousers

thanks for that - would have missed it otherwise.

we've changed our minds, don't mind cleaning the chook, well, ray'd do that, cooking, no problem but live in a tent, me knees are no good any more and I'd not be able to get up and down onto the bed :D

hubbies hooked on coast so will have to catch the repeat

I don't blame a lot of people on that program....i mean some of them are a bit bad...but it's easy isn't it to just grab some cheap chicken off the shelf and then stick it in the freezer.

i mean i've got a tiny little garden that takes up hours and hours everyday. like today i've been up since 8 this morning and i didn't stop working on the garden till the sun was about to go down. i've only had 3 10 minute breaks. and to be very honest....not THAT much got done. i shifts about 15-20 wheel barrows full of manure to the garden....planted a 100 or so bulbs....planted some plants....and then about 7 bare root plants...and that's it really. and even that small amount of work was only possible because i had a day off work.

for people that work it's impossible to do that sort of stuff...especially if they have children. to get a piece of land or allotment and keep that up would take ages of their time. and then to collect, prepare and cook all that food will take more time.

by the time they've worked, done the garden, done the allotment, cooked food, cleaned the house, and do whatever else they need to do in a day they'd need 30 hour days with only a few hours sleep every day.

i can understand when people do that sort of stuff in their pensions because even though they don't have a lot of money...most of them have a lot of time for that sort of stuff.

i do feel bad about the food that i eat...and where it comes from.....but unless i change my life DRASTICALLY.....i can't keep any of it up.

thanks for the heads up looks like its going to be a good series


tim

I think part of what HFW was trying to show was that cooking things from scratch needn't take any longer than cooking a ready meal.  Part of the problem seems to be that people just don't have the skills - real cooking is no longer taught in schools only 'food technology' & many people just don't know what to do with a raw fish or fresh veg.

I came in too late but taped it....hopefully the Sky record thingy worked.

Marymary, I agree about many people being unable to cook a decent meal these days. I inherited a love of food from my parents and my gran who was a whizz in the kitchen but I know many ppl who just haven't a clue and won't even try.

Quote from: Marymary on November 02, 2006, 21:17:36
I think part of what HFW was trying to show was that cooking things from scratch needn't take any longer than cooking a ready meal.  Part of the problem seems to be that people just don't have the skills - real cooking is no longer taught in schools only 'food technology' & many people just don't know what to do with a raw fish or fresh veg.

i guess. but yes...that's precisely the problem. unless we introduce all of thise stuff into our schools as compulsary education and training then nothing's going to change. it can't change.

i mean it took years for jamie oliver with the help of the government to sent in a vague healthy eating plan for children in schools....and even that's only some schools and it's all a bit badly implemented anyway. to introduce such drastic changes it will take decades.

being a bit of an 'oldie', I learned to cook by watching my mum, my three children, two of them boys, learned by cooking with me, I was lucky that ray was earning enough for me to stay at home and look after our 3 and teach them things like that, many people today feel the need to have lots of stuff, their choice, and don't have the time with their kids or just can't afford to stay at home, I feel sorry for anyone who wants to and can't afford it ;)

Yes. Schools can't teach everything. I learnt cooking from my parents and older siblings. Because I can read (school helped with this), I have learnt lots of different ways of preparing food. But you learn in the doing. My husband started doing the cooking when he retired. For 3 months he asked "how do I...?" questions. Now he says "get out of my kitchen!!!"

It is easier and quicker to cook a meal from scratch. It's healthier and tastes better too. Hence the interest in RC programmes.

I know schools can't teach everything & that kids should learn how to cook from their parents but many young parents don't know how & so can't teach their kids - schools could help by teaching the  next generation or it will just go on & on.

I'm not sure people ever really learnt to cook at school; I think they learnt it from their mothers. Nowadays little kids see them heating ready meals and get used to the idea of doing the same.

It is the waste that I find amazing.  I always ALWAYS save the bones of any critter I cook to make stock to make soups and stews.  One chicken can go a very long way, including sandwiches for my darling for work, roast and soup.  When that fella said about nobody saving the bones to make soup, I laughed out loud.  This week we have had rabbit soup and on Guy Fawkes night we will be enjoying chicken soup, all home made and free range.  Does that make me terribly old fasioned at 30something?  I, like lots of you, were - and still is incredibly lucky in that the Devonshire branch of the family are all amazing cooks and taught me masses, and still today, mum and I experiment, try new things, and rustle up meals out of very curious ingredients and then compare notes.  In turn, both of our urchins can cook - the know how to chop and peel, they make bread, biscuits and cakes, sizzle bacon, do the toast, and generally help when I am preparing a meal.  Anyhow, I digress.  I enjoyed the program a lot, but I do feel if we all had Hughs income and circumstances, of course we would all enjoy prime freerange organic meat at every meal, but when money is short, what are you going to do when you have the sprogs to feed?  Me, I send my darling out shooting and we have wabbits for tea!!

well, as someone a bit older, 50ish, I taught all our 3 to cook, I thought it really necessary to teach them at least to be able to feed themselves, came in handy when they went to uni, one of them, alan, went to university to study maths, finished his course, took up cookery instead and is now chef at leicester university. I've now converted my son in law to a healthy , cooking individual, my daughter used to do it all but, as a nurse who works all the hours god sends, she found it hard to cope so mike's taken over, it's amazing what I can get through , he now has cut out all saturated fats from his cooking, his mum and dad still use Lard to cook with and between my daughter and myself, we've even got him eating sprouts!!
it's got to be lead by example, feed people and talk about what they are eating :)