Author Archives: eating-local

It has been an interesting and worthwhile experience to attempt to eat as much as possible locally sourced food. It became easier once we knew where to go for different items, but it is a shame that eating local does not necessarily mean shopping local. We had lots of interesting conversations with local shops, but [...]

We managed to source all the ingredients for our bread locally. It’s very straight forward to make in a bread maker. First thing in the morning, there is nothing more scrumptious than being woken with the smell of a freshly baked loaf. We found we missed the snacks of life but a slice of toast [...]

When we started the eating local project, we worried that our meals would be repetitive and uninteresting – lots of root vegetables and cabbage. How wrong we were! Once we found out where to source local produce, especially vegetables, we have found a great variety of food available, and with a bit of creativity, we [...]

I was really pleased that the piece I wrote explaining why eating local, seasonal food is a good thing has appeared in the Cambridge News. (It was posted on this blog earlier but it’s hard to find it now, so here’s the link if you want to read it.)

One of my weekly joys is shopping at the Sunday market – the picture shows a very bundled up me on the right buying veg from Mayflower Organics (Simon Steel in Littleport). Another great joy is people’s kindness – as soon as people hear about the project, they give me things: a bag [...]

I was passing through Barton this afternoon and decided to stop by Burwash Manor, a group of converted farm buildings housing a range of independent shops, including a number of food outlets.
I headed for The Larder, a welcoming farm shop. Quick to attract the shop assistant’s attention, i tentatively enquired, “Do you stock any local produce that comes [...]

One of the first thing to get your head around if you are to “eat local” is that supermarkets are pretty much off limits.Little did I know when I cycled to the supermarket to buy my first ‘local’ shop at the start of the challenge how few products were grown within the 30-mile radius of [...]

Oh, the difference a bit of chilli makes! Lovely Liz Serocold brought me some beautiful dried red chillies she’d grown last year and I have been adding them to soups and stews. Who needs black pepper and stock cubes when we have chillies, fresh marjoram from the garden, bay leaves and lots of fresh garlic?! [...]

This week we decided to try something different, as we wanted a change from potatoes and rice, and we were missing our favourite pasta dishes. So Ian had a go at making pasta (local flour, rapeseed oil and local eggs). It wasn’t quite like shop-bought pasta, but tasted good, and went very well with a [...]

We had a delicious meal on Friday, and Ian’s experimental approach worked very well! The chicken pie (made with leftover roast local free range chicken, and a pastry crust made with rapeseed oil) was accompanied by a layered vegetable dish cooked in a bowl in the microwave (grated carrots, grated red cabbage and some finely chopped sprouting [...]

This is the second time I have tried to eat locally. The previous 6 weeks were in the autumn, so there was plenty of fruit available. This time I am finding the lack of fruit harder.
Until Saturday I was existing on home made damson jam and apples that a friend had stored from her garden. [...]

Well, in the last week I’ve made a few discoveries, good and bad, but first I’ll tell you about this lovely picture – much of the veg comes from Simon’s Sunday market stall and is all grown in Littleport near Ely and the rest is a present from Dave Fox, who runs Trumpington Allotments – [...]