Today's offering
Categories: uncategorized
Date: 03 October 2005 20:45:02
OK, I promise not to be boring and tell you every single piece of food that passes my lips but here is what I had today. Remember it gets points for locally grown and locally produced, and I'm going to average each meal, and for multi-ingredient items I'll either average them or take the largest ingredient if there's one in particular:
Breakfast, average score 0.25 for growing, 0.75 for processing, overall 0.5:
Granola: Oats, malt, raisins. From the wholefood shop. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume mainly UK, but I'll try and remember to ask next time I'm in.
Milk: Our milk comes from the Northwest but it's all from over 50 miles away (just! - there is a dairy closer but it doesn't produce liquid milk)
Orange juice: this is almost certainly not European, and indeed probably it's the concentrate which is shipped to UK
Coffee: Grown in S. America, I assume it's packed in the UK. I am not giving up coffee. That's final.
Lunch, average 1.4 for growing, 1.8 for processing, overall 1.6:
Kingsmill bread: Produced in the UK. I have emailed to ask about ingredients, but I suspect the flour is non-UK
Lurpak spread: I'm assuming this is European
Lancashire cheese: from 10 miles down the road although it may have travelled 10 miles to the warehouse and then 20 back!
Tomatoes: these are the most local. They are from someone's allotment in exchange for shelves.
Pear: from our organic box, I'm assuming it's from the North of England. I feel a bit cheeky asking the organic people where their fruit and veg comes from.
Snack, average -1 for growing, 1 for processing, overall 0. Hmm.
Redbush tea: Grown in S. Africa, though I'm not sure if it's packed there or in the UK. I should look out for some local herbal tea.
Wedding cake (it's been in the freezer): the ingredients (flour, sugar, dried fruit) may be mainly non-European, but it was baked in London!
Dinner, average 1.7 for growing, 1.7 for processing, overall 1.7.
Pasta: European, probably Italian. Can you get pasta made in the UK?
Cauliflower: a Romanesque, which looks like this:
Local, although I'm assuming this, but based on slightly better evidence than the pear - I saw some in the local greengrocer's, too.
Cheese: from Wensleydale, which is 30 miles away
Philadephia cheese: this is from Germany, I discover
Yogurt: this is from the Midlands, normally the plain yoghurt we have is from much closer
Jam Rhubarb from someone's allotment - the sugar is probably British - the ginger is probably not!
We were given the tomatoes and rhubarb in exchange for some shelves (complicated, but a great system). I'm disturbed today by the difficulty of finding out where grains and grain products come from, even though we grow them in the UK. I've emailed Allied Bakeries, a local organic bakery, a local mill (that says on their website they only use UK flour), and a large organic mill, to find out exactly where their flour comes from. I'll let you know.
In the meantime, if anyone comes across UK-grown-and-made pasta or herbal tea, let me know...