Transition Southampton

You are still reading this blog? Wow, thanks. Whilst you are at it, here are the links to two articles written by Sally Churchward in the Daily Echo which featured the challenge a the beginning and the end.

17 August 2010 - the "report"

7 July 2010 - announcement of the challenge

That seemed like a really quick month (like actually all months but never mind) as our food challenge officially ended on Saturday. Now we are free to have all those bananas, mangoes, Kenyan runner beans, apples from New Zealand, Argentinian beef, pacific tuna, etc. etc...

Yes, our diet was restricted in several ways during the challenge. We didn't have any pasta, rice, lentils, humous, cous cous, bulgur wheat, quinoa, almonds or other nuts, raisins, dried figs etc which we would normally have had. We also did not bake any rye sourdough bread as we normally do every fortnight or so. The Eling Tide Mill wheat flour was the only local flour we could get. It was almost impossible to get local milk and we probably ended up drinking Dorset and Devon milk as this is what Pensworth dairy sources if they can't get Hampshire milk (we went to Best One on St Deny's Rd during the past two weeks to get the Pensworth Dairy milk). We used butter but it wasn't local as we couldn't find any. We did not have any margarine or olive oil, only Pratt's Rapeseed oil. We also did not have any olives, pickles or any sheep's cheese. The only juice we had was a bottle of apple juice from Hill Farm (Sunnyfields shop). We didn't buy any wine (but had a bottle which we still had at home) but got two bottles of local cider instead and also had some left over beer from our party from the local Bowman brewery.

You can read on the blog what we DID have, definitely quite varied in terms of veg and fruit plus we had very high quality cheeses, duck eggs and sprouted a lot of wheat for muesli, and absolutely loads of fresh summer fruit. So I definitely don't think it was less healthy, probably the opposite, and it probably wasn't less varied either, even though we had to give up a few things and be more creative in the kitchen.

A question we got asked regularly was whether we had spent more money buying all this local food. In a rare hour yesterday (Sunday!) I did some accounting and found out that we had spend 100 pounds less than we had spent on average in the previous three months. That was a surprise! The figures did not include eating out which we only did once this month - on Saturday we went to the White Star, who try to source as much as possible locally, to celebrate the end of the challenge. So I added five pounds per meal eaten out to even out what we would have approximately paid for a home cooked meal instead (probably a bit generous). I think what made the biggest difference was that I took home made sandwiches and salad for lunch instead of buying it at work which I normally do. Including coffees etc. this costs me roughly 70 pounds a months, so that explains 70% of the difference. We probably had a bit less cheese and didn't buy any wine so that probably explains the rest. As we had a lot from Pickwell which is a lot cheaper than the supermarkets we probably saved a bit of money that way or at least evened out slightly higher prices elsewhere.

Another really important point is that virtually none of the food we had was actually available in Southampton directly! In fairness we must say that we only learned about the relatively new "Taste of the South" market at the Bargate (4th Tue every month) too late to check it out. If this is really a market with local produce as the organisers claim that would be the only outlet in Southampton apart from one or two items in Longs and Gannaways (and the regional range in Waitrose but that doesn't really count as it is transported back and forth a lot before it reaches the shelf). Gannaways also has Southampton honey and we heard that October Books is planning to have a few more local items on offer, too.

There will be several reasons for this. The low prices that supermarkets pay to producers as well as cheap imports have made it unaffordable for many farmers (particularly dairy as we've seen) to keep their business going. The surviving local food market is therefore geared towards a small niche market (foodies, the environmentally conscious and those with loads of time to hop to farmers markets, Sunnyfields and Pickwells at the weekend).

If some sort of acute crisis (for instance, a longer term oil price hike, interruption of supply chains, lorry driver strike or similar) came along in the near future I'd be truly concerned. As I just said, we found variety and really good quality food but this is targeted at a small market and would not immediately scale up to the population within that 30 miles radius. We had also picked an easy month, I think a very different story would have emerged just two or three months earlier. Some people have gardens and there are a few allotments but they would not be sufficient to feed the population during a more severe crisis.

So what can be done to encourage local food production and the availability of that food directly in Southampton? Can we develop more community urban agriculture projects? On what sort of land? Can more fruit and nut trees be planted in the city? The food group is working on those and other issues but any more ideas and people interested to develop those further are more than welcome to get in touch! Perhaps we could also set up a "Hampshire Diet" project, similar to the Fife Diet http://fifediet.co.uk/ in Scotland which according to a recent newspaper report has had a positive impact on the community and local economy? Let us know on [mbuchs "at" gmx "dot" net] or [n "dot" o "dot" bardsley "at" reading "dot" ac "do" uk].

Last Sunday morning I jumped on the train to Winchester to go to the Farmers Market and get our supplies for the week (and for the three course dinner that we were cooking for us and Nick's sister & partner on Sunday). There was a recognisable difference to just a month ago in terms of the variety of vegetables with quite a few new arrivals. I asked stall holders where their produce was coming from to ensure it was within the 30 miles radius. They were all very happy to explain and some told me more about how they grew their veg and fruit. I learnt that all veg and fruit sold on Winchester Farmers Market needs to come from within a 50 miles radius. Also, 30% of the ingredients of cooked/baked items sold there need to be local according to the cake Lady from Hamble.

As you can see from the picture, I came away with a large pile, including things we had never tried before like golden beet and damson jam. It also included some early sweet plums! I had to pass the Isle of White cherries and black berries as I couldn't possibly carry any more ... Actually, I had been after some raw milk from Blackburn and Haynes in Borden. Sadly, Celia still was not allowed to sell any milk because of the supposed hygiene issue that the FSA had complained about. She told me about this battle and how much they had done to test everything and find the reason for the complaint. She knew some other raw milk producers who have given up because of those struggles. Hopefully she won't! I bought two packages of her raw cream instead which is very different to what you get from the shop: very thick and much more flavoursome, simply delicious! Next time we'll need to try her ice cream, too.

Most of you will probably know Winchester Farmers Market, so I can keep the facts brief. You can look up the dates, location and many of the producers on the Hampshire Farmers market webpage: http://www.hampshirefarmersmarkets.co.uk/ (including the dates for Romsey, Hythe and some other local markets). It's so worth a trip (don't forget your cash, even if you are planning not to buy much you are almost guaranteed to give in to some irresistable goodies).

Which brings me on to another topic: markets in Southampton. The main markets in S'ton are currently run by the Southern Market Trading Co-operative - which doesn't seem to have much local produce on offer. However, their partner Prodgrow is now supposedly offering a "farmers market" called Taste of the South in Southampton on the 4th Tuesday every month in the Bargate area. I haven't yet been there but might pass by next month to explore. The Transition Food group is already in touch with Hampshire Fare and Southampton City Council to explore further options of a farmers market in town, not sure whether we'll get anywhere but if we'll of course let you know so watch this space.

We’re baking 3 loaves per week, all in one go, since almost nothing at work is locally sourced. Since I no longer work for Southampton University, I believe I can say what I like about their food on this blog. The canteen is disappointing, but the natural product of running things on commercial lines, rather than a philosophy of ‘you are what you eat,’ and  commercial realities. Briefly, it held out some promise with an initiative called “HELO.” The letters stood for Healthy, Ethical, Local and Organic respectively. But the reality was that for inclusion in HELO, only one of these critera had to be met. And after a couple of years, HELO seems to have disappeared entirely. Only a sign remains, on the students’ union building.

I now work at Reading University so (who knows?) may not be at perfect liberty to describe the food on offer and my opinion of it on these pages. Now is not the time to anger one’s employer, it seems. However, on offer at virtually all our universities seem to be those industrially-produced sandwiches in triangular plastic packaging with an implausibly-long shelf-life. I wonder how many books and articles go unwritten, or how many are written that should not be, thanks to soggy-sandwich-induced depression at work? After three years of real bread, I’m afraid there is No Turning Back. So the early start is intensified with an emergency sandwich-making frenzy before dashing for the train.

The last batch of loaves used the ‘sponge and dough’ method. It halves the yeast and also improves flavour, and possibly nutrition, thanks to prolonged fermentation. You make a small, sloppy starter dough with a fraction of the flour and water and all the yeast, leave it overnight, and mix this with the rest of the ingredients in the morning. The yeast multiplies overnight and then gives a decent rise when you refresh it with the additional ingredients. With the assistance of the warm weather, we got really well-risen and springy loaves.

For the last three weeks we’ve been taking mostly cheese sandwiches (Lyburn, Sway goat’s cheese and Isle of Wight Blue - pictured), home-sprouted beansprouts and wheat grains, salad leaves, and fruit. We cheated slightly with some tahini on a few occasions – running down existing stock. I haven’t bought a single thing at work though. That is great from another point of view too, namely keeping the wages where they belong, in the employee’s pocket.

More on muesli… According to soil association types, modern muesli is basically ‘colon fibre.’ See www.soilandhealth.org/06clipfile/MuesliSml.pdf for the grounds for this startling claim. The complaint again has to do with heat in industrial processes destroying the complex biochemistry of live seed that makes many of the nutrients available to the body. Our sprouted wheat muesli seems closer to the original recipe which consisted of mostly of fruit, and some fresh rolled oats. We’ve substituted a compote of strawberries, raspberries and redcurrants for the original apple, and add a little milk.

In our quest for grains, we came across www.grainstomill.co.uk, who have recently branched out to Haslemere. They sell live grains and muesli mixes and are trying to source locally. That’s outside our 30 mile radius, but one for the future. They have offered to sell via the food buying cooperative in Southampton, and will give us some demonstration packs to hand out at the next distribution day.

Looking back, it feels like a pretty unruffled week - one can get used to this (*wink*). Well, it was easy this week because our fridge was bursting with all the goodies from Pickwell Farm and Lymington market, three litres of goats milk, tonnes of eggs and some tasty cheese from last weekend. So we had buckets of salad, boiled beans and a hotpot, often combined with eggs or cheese and bread or potatoes. As we had gotten a bit bored of fritatats, omlettes and scrambled egg, we tried a new but really simple recipe on Friday: egg-fried bread. Just mix some eggs and season, pour over two slices of bread in a shallow dish, wait until the bread has soaked up all the egg and then slowly fry in a pan. Rustic and yummy (ah, and calorific, but who cares about that), we had it with fresh broad beans, cauliflour and a salad.

We also got round the muesli problem in the morning as we SPROUTED the whole wheat grains that we got from Eling tide mill last week. Just soak them in water for about 12 hours, then drain and let them sprout at room temperature, rinsing them twice a day. They are ready to eat within 48 hours and have a delicious flavour. Ideal just raw with some fruit and milk/kefir/yoghurt, sprinkled over salad or in sandwiches. Apparently, sprouting makes a bunch of nutrients available which are otherwise locked up in the grain (or in fact killed through the heat which is applied through milling and flaking in industrially processed grain products).

On Saturday morning our fridge was depleted gain so we went to Sunnyfields market, Eastleigh Community Farm, Pickwells and our allotment over the weekend to stock up. Apart from the usual suspects (I spare you listing them all here, basically just all the essentials we were living off during the past two weeks) we also found some more "exotic" things like local duck eggs, gooseberry jam and foraged chanterelles and samphire. We had never seen samphire before, it's also called sea asparagus, looks a bit like thin, green seaweed stems, grows in marshy areas and tastes fresh and salty. We seasoned our salad with it yesterday but one can also briefly boil it for a side dish. From Pickwells we got more courgette flowers today which we deep-fried (yes, we deserved a treat) in batter (left plate on the photo, next to a pancake with chanterelles). Plus we got lovely blackcurrents and other berries, some of which will soon be turned into a summer pudding with some old bread - can't wait until it's ready.

The most inspiring and exciting experience this week was a visit on Saturday morning to Eastleigh COMMUNITY FARM. Initiated by Eastleigh Transition Network's (ETN) food group in spring this year, they are already producing crops in abundance, particularly courgettes, beetroot and lettuces. ETN had been offered a 5 acre field from a farmer in the area to be used as a community farm/allotment. The farmer mainly gets paid for managing the land, not for growing and selling crops (!), so that made it attractive to him. ETN then put out a call for expressions of interest to about 8,000 households in Eastleigh in spring. About 230 households got back and were interested to become a member by paying 10 pounds and offering 10 hours of work on the farm per year. The first 100 were able to join (so they even have a waiting list now!) which were then divided into 10 teams, each of which is responsible for growing one crop. Those already cover most of the 1.7 acre field with which they started - very impressive given that it's only running for a few months. The farmer ploughed the field for them in spring and provided a fence but everything else has been done by volunteers, many of whom put in a lot more than their promised 10 hours a week. The hard work is rewarded by the produce that members can buy for a third of the shop price. Not only that, but it also had real benefits for the community as it brought many people together who had not even met each other before.

Hopefully we can set up a project like this in Southampton. The biggest challenge does not seem to be finding enough interested people but a suitable piece of land that one could use (for free), rent or even buy. Of course rather difficult in a city. The way forward is perhaps to find several smaller unused gardens and other free spaces which could be turned into community allotments. A lot is already possible with raised beds and containers. A great example is the "PRINCESS GARDENS" in BERLIN which we visited in spring. Organised as a community project, they grow a variety of vegetables where there was previously just waste land in crates and raised beds (explore the photos at this link here: http://prinzessinnengarten.net/about/).

Well, if anyone has tips for suitable sites in Southampton, please do get in touch!!

Initially I thought it must be very easy to get some local milk as UK milk is widely available in supermarkets and from delivery companies. So surely some of it must be produced within a 30 miles radius ready of us to buy, must it not? It was interesting to discover that buying local milk is actually a huge challenge. Various searches and phone calls during the last few days uncovered that there are indeed several farms producing milk in Hampshire, Whiltshire, Berkshire, etc., but virtually none of it is available to end customers. Southampton has a dairy (Vines Dairy), whicn has a contract with Pensworth Dairy in Salisbury, but does not guarantee always to source locally. (It only delivers to small retailers in South England; this does include two shops in Southampton: Best One on St Deny’s Road and Pit Stop on Belvidere Rd in Northam.) We also found two farmers offering their milk on Winchester Farmers' market. One is the Smales family, on the edge northern edge of the New Forest, which produces the Lyburn cheeses, the other from Celia Haynes in Bordon. Celia’s milk is special as it is raw milk produced since 1969. “Raw” means the milk is unpasteurised. During pasteurisation, milk is heated at high temperatures to kill bacteria – and unfortunately also a range of vitamins and enzymes, the latter of which are required for digesting milk. Some people say that milk allergies which are so common today are partly due to pasteurisation. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has several times tried to prohibit the sale of raw milk. Whilst this has not been successful, the restrictions on the sale of raw milk have increased over the years so that it is now basically limited to a sell from the farm gate (see here).

Hoping that we could get our milk from Celia at Winchester Farmers market I phoned her up to order one or two bottles. It turned out that I had forgotten that she was only going to Winchester Farmers market on the last Sunday in a month and that she had decided not to sell any milk for the time being as the FSA’s (very strict) tests had criticised the hygienic standard of her milk (the reason for which she is currently trying to find out).

Whilst I was starting to think about how we could do without milk I coincidentally came across the New Forest Marque webpage http://www.newforestproduce.com/ which listed a goats dairy near Sway. A couple of phone calls later we had an appointment with Jason from the goats dairy to pick up three litres of milk from their stall at Lymington market on Saturday – which we did (see below, 'Saved by Goats'). We have frozen two bottles and have to use the other one within a week. The milk is absolutely lovely; it has a nice flavour without being too 'goaty' and slightly creamy consistency.

I will also try to use some of it to make kefir. Kefis is rarely available from shops in the UK but I had (the mass produced version) regularly in Germany. Kefir is a fermented milk drink which originated in the Caucasus. Real kefir is made with live kefir grains (see photo. Kefir sold in shops is usually made with a dried starter culture, not the grain) which are basically a special type of bacteria that ferment the milk. Virtually any milk can be used (cow, goat, sheep even soy), pasturised and raw. I recently got some kefir grains from Germany and have successfully made kefir for a few weeks now. It’s very easy, all one needs to do is putting the kefir grains into some milk, a teaspoonful of grains per pint is enough, and let it stand at room temperature. Depending on the temperature and the quantity of milk and grains, the kefir is ready after 12-36 hours. It has a creamy, almost foamy texture and a very refreshing, slightly sour taste. Lovely on cereals or just over some fruit in the morning, one can also mix some fruit puree into it for a drink. Once it is ready it keeps for a few days in the fridge. The kefir grains grow over time, in fact they double in size after about 4 weeks. So if anyone wants to try it please let me know, I have quite a few already that I can pass on!