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Food Culture

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Beans by many other names: Part one

The derek cooper award This month, out of the blue and marvellously, Ruth and I became the proud recipients of one of the BBC Food Programme’s Food and Farming Awards; to wit, “the Derek Cooper Award for Outstanding Achievement”. It is a great honour and a great fillip. Derek was a fine writer and a…

Beans by many other names: Part two: the recipes

I ended each chapter with a few recipes plagiarised from various sources but modified in the light of what was then the orthodox nutritional theory. The emphasis was on low-fat, under the influence of the American physiologist / nutritionist Ancel Keys (1904-2004). Keys’s general idea – that we should follow a basically Mediterranean diet –…

Food with a Sense of Place

How mass production deprives us of food that has a real sense of place and how we can fight back.

Fresh Inspiration

When faced with the same old ingredients we need to get inventive. Its time to learn something new.

Dorothy Hartley’s Food in England

The post-Christmas period is one in which I used to enjoy reading the latest new cookery publications, but there have been very few of quality in recent years.  So, I was more than happy when Colin suggested I devote an entire blog to one of our enduring favourites – Dorothy Hartley’s Food in England.

Appetisers

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Adding an appetiser course would be a great improvement to our British “meat and two veg” meal format.

Getting the British Pulse Racing Again

It is exciting to see the revival of ancient pulses, which we were in danger of losing altogether. One strong factor that works in favour of a resurgence in popularity is the general trend towards eating less meat. There are certainly many recipes to choose from.

Webinar no. 2: The absolute importance of peas and beans

Colin Tudge talks to JOSIAH MELDRUM and NICK SALTMARSH, co-founders of HODMEDODS, and arch developers and promoteRS of pulses. Pulses have long been key players in agriculture and the human diet and in almost all the world’s cuisines – fixing nitrogen, rich in protein, and the basis of some of the world’s most popular and…

Eating for Pleasure

As someone who lives to eat rather than the other way around, I am rather shocked by the rapid rise in serious eating disorders. Summer presents numerous opportunities for making a meal an occasion to remember so lets enjoy them!

Endangered Foods

Many “endangered” foods are still being grown in people’s gardens, however the commercial sources have become extremely scarce.  The summer months provide an abundance of examples.