Designing food

I was just reading this article on the Guardian website about designing food:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/sep/15/designer-food-gm

It's a really interesting article and poses some difficult questions which are totally at odds with the way I, and many other people, think about food.

The prevailing wisdom at the moment is that it's much better to eat fresh food from a local source, grown as organically and naturally as possible. I guess the logic behind that is that it's what we used to do before science got involved and it's the way "god" (or the universe) intended it. It seems completely irrefutable to me that it's better to eat food grown outside in the rain and sunshine than inside in a lab, but will this become a luxury we can't afford in the future? And is it true that it's the best way?

I'll be watching and waiting for science to answer those questions I guess.

Bex
x

Morning!

It's a grey day today, but after the lovely weekend I still feel all full up of sunshine. Spent most of the weekend working in the garden, and managing not to get sunburned, which is a first for me! I switched some bluebells from the front garden to the back, potted up some cuttings from my herbs, trimmed the hedge, did some weeding, painted the fence, tidied up and began a war against slugs and snails. Now, we're an organic garden, so what to do? Obviously I don't want to stand on them because that's gross & mean, but I also don't want them to eat my newly bought & installed beautiful plants right down until they are nothing but stubs in the ground. [So far they've eaten at least £20 worth...and counting...]. So, I'm trying various things.

First off, coffee grounds, which didn't seem to be effective in the least, but which I've since figured out is at least slowing them down! Thanks to the Little Deli in Carrington for their kind provision in one day of more coffee grounds than we could manage in a week! I've since been recommended digging a plastic cup of beer into the ground and giving them a drink before they (unfortunately) die. For a while we did try taking them round to the park, but apparently they have a homing instinct which works for up to 4 miles, so that's not going to be any use at all! [This instinct has been contested by Joey Chickenskin and apparently I have to put a dot of nail varnish on the snails and see if they come back, if I get round to doing that I'll let you know how it goes!]

Anyway, garden pests aside, it's really nice to work in the garden, to plant stuff and see it grow (or not), to figure out where you've made a mistake and fix it for next time, and then at some point to end up with a bunch of flowers for the bees, seeds for the birds and vegetables for us! It's also really nice to listen to the blackbird who has taken up residence nearby, who Anders described as being "The Police Academy Guy of birds" because it makes all different noises like alarms, bells, beeps and whistles.

I did actually mean to write a whole different post today, but it seems that's what's on my mind, so there we have it!

bex
x