Foodies In The News

[Badger's Mate Profile]

With the exception of salt and similar minerals such as saltpetre, I'm struggling to think of any foodstuff that isn't carbon based.

[Earthmaiden Profile]

Hmmm, it would be interesting to know what the general public considers Low Carbon food to mean. I can imagine it might be quite a grey area.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Low carbon is a difficult term
I note the Prof Mike Berners Lee who is probably the UK’s leading expert on sustainability uses the term “low carbon footprint” and then that’s clearly not “low carb[ohydrate]”

Surely foods have to be essentially animal, vegetable or mineral, and if animal or vegetable they will be carbon based?

Trivia: Mike B L is Tim B L’s younger brother. Tim is the father of the internet, and I was shocked to discover he is younger than me (he was born June 1955) - made me feel rather ancient

[Busybee Profile]

On a similar vein, I was rather surprised to see what constitutes food miles. I was in a farm shop cafe in Cumbria which proudly displayed the food miles of most of its products. So far so good, the meat was as expected raised on the farm, dairy products less than ten miles etc......what drew my attention was the coffee. Sixteen food miles, well if Cumbria has some coffee plantations they have been very well hidden, turns out that food miles are calculated from the UK distributer, not from their place of origin.

I felt rather ignorant that I didn’t understand how food miles were calculated. Did anyone else realise this?

BB

[Earthmaiden Profile]

In an OU course I did in the early 2000s, food miles were calculated from source (as IMO they should be!), though of course, means of transport and the state the product is in (raw, processed etc) makes a difference too. It really annoys me how many products seem entitled to display the union flag when they are only finished or packaged here, especially things like meat.

[Pepper Pig Profile]

A couple of interesting things in today's Guardian.

Anyone here do Winter barbecues? https://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/f ... our-family

And student lockdown recipes look interesting, particularly if you like gnocchi. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2 ... -top-chefs

[Earthmaiden Profile]

A lockdown BBQ for one in the snow doesn't sound overly appealing .

Since when could students afford fresh salmon?

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I think the thing is that a cup of coffee only requires about 15 grams of coffee

So if food miles are standardised, so one food mile is equivalent to X amount of CO2 and Y amount of pollution then it makes sense that a cup would only clock up 16 food miles.

Which I think is why Mike BL sticks to expressing emissions in terms of equivalent kilograms of CO2, it’s possibly clearer and certainly more consistent

PP I don’t do winter BBQ. I might if I had a proper garden!

[Busybee Profile]

In an OU course I did in the early 2000s, food miles were calculated from source (as IMO they should be!), though of course, means of transport and the state the product is in (raw, processed etc) makes a difference too. It really annoys me how many products seem entitled to display the union flag when they are only finished or packaged here, especially things like meat.

That’s how I would expect food miles to be calculated EM, and I felt a bit of a fool when I asked how the coffee could only have 16 food miles, I’m wondering if I miss remember slightly and it wasn’t the distance from the distributor but where they beans were ground - this could tie in with your explanation re processing EM?

Either way, it feels like a bit of a con.

BB

[Busybee Profile]

Re winter bbq’s our cousins in Manchester had a bbq on Christmas Day. This was really just to facilitate them all meeting together outside.

It was just a standard beef burgers and hot dogs etc but they enjoyed it immensely, I think the fact that they could see their grandchildren was far more important than the food. They had a gazebo and chairs and blankets etc and managed from 11am til about 3pm. They then had their traditional Christmas dinner the next day.

The cold wouldn’t bother me, but rain and damp would. We have often lit a bonfire and sat round it at night during lockdown when it’s been cold and dry. In fact we do this quite a bit year round, we have an open fire place on our top terrace ( the actual old railway platform) because its elevated we have fabulous uninterrupted views over to The Howardian Hills and The White Horse. It’s our favourite seated area.

BB

[Pampy Profile]

My brother and his family often have a BBQ on bonfire night - BBQ in the daylight followed by the bonfire and fireworks. If it's raining, they cook food in the kitchen and eat on what used to be the railway platform, which is covered. They've done this since their children were young (eldest now 40!). Before they moved to the station with its conveniently covered seating areas, they used to put up a large tent if the weather was inclement. I've sometimes done a BBQ brunch when the weather's been nice.

[scullion Profile]

Thoughts from Michel Roux.

https://www.standard.co.uk/reveller/res ... 18440.html

i think this was posted in the book club by mistake.
- good piece - in our small way we are doing our bit for the beach cafe.

[Pepper Pig Profile]

Oops sorry!

That’s what comes of having a cat helping . . . .

[Wic Profile]

If we are at home for Christmas we always barbecue the turkey, it’s a good way to do it and frees up the oven for all the rest. We very often have winter barbecues, which doesn’t mean you have to eat outdoors, it just needs it to be dry enough for the cook to be out there.

[Pepper Pig Profile]

My chum Foodycat whose OH is a great all seasons barbecuer says there is a real problem getting barbecue charcoal at the moment.

[karadekoolaid Profile]

My son did a BBQ last week in Cincinnati. -3C outside - happy as a sandboy!
(But then he´d probably do a BBQ in the North Pole )

[Amber Profile]

Loads of different charcoals available here when we walked past a local shop today. We bought ours (for our fire-pit) from the dreaded Amazon, two days before Christmas. OH hates Amazon, but the service was excellent.

[aero280 Profile]

At one place I worked, the chief chemist held a BBQ on a Saturday. On Sunday evening he decided that he would clear up the ashes. There were some bits of charcoal that weren't fully burnt out. They were cold enough to pick up, so he put them back in the bag and put the bag in the cupboard in the kitchen.

On Monday morning, while he was at work, the fire brigade were called by a neighbour to put the house fire out!!

[Pampy Profile]

Just goes to show that academic excellence doesn't always extend to common sense as well!

[Stokey Sue Profile]

But any chemist who is any good should be really practical, though it was usually the glasswork that seemed to be a fire risk in labs where I I worked