fantastic edible foods database

this site Plants for a Future - edible, medicinal and useful plants for a healthier world is an absoloute treasure trove of information. An incredibly user friendly and yet incredibly comprehenisve site. Add it to your lists. Its a great reference for foraging foods in your own garden and your neighbourhood. Seriously, really, go have a look, type in a plant and viola; its edibility rating, how its consumed, its other uses, its preferred environmental conditions. Its a gem. really. truly.

quite agricultural

We did the royal show yesterday. It wasnt too bad. I was going to do a bumper of a post with some fab pics ... i remembered the camera...but the batteries were flat! What an idiot. All i could squeeze out of it was these plates of award winning eggs. Couldnt even get a pic of the boybeans first 'barnyard' experience, comprised mainly of a chubby pointed finger poked up many wet domesticated nostrils.

I used to love going the Sydney Royal Easter Agricultural show every year when i was a kid, it was my once a year chance to get some junk food. Not lunch, we always took our own sandwiches but the heart stopping excitement of the 'show bag'. I would spend ages deliberating which ones to buy, but invariably came home with the same two every year. The Darrel Lea bag- to satisfy my chocolate needs and the Sunny Boy bag to satisfy my iceblock and chip cravings for the year. I loved coming home and spreading my loot around and admiring my sugar bounty, replete with the monos and saturateds that would have to do me until the following year.

The show piece i used to wait for with great anticipation was the fruit, veg and grain display. A huge mural made entirely of produce. In hindsight, Im not sure just how big it really was ( my childhood street and home are not as grand as my memories suggested either). It was usually a rural scene made from seasonal produce. I loved it. When i moved to SA, I was pretty peeved to find the Adelaide show didnt have such an agricultural centrepiece or a super dooper giant slide that you rode on an old hessian sack.

My favourite two things about the show here are the cattle sheds and the public entries for 'best of'. Love em. The cattle I love not because Im enamoured with cattle, beautiful though the specimens on show are , but i just really love the microcosm of home that the moleskin wearing, akubra sporting cattle families construct within these sheds to house themselves comfortably for the duration of the event. 1950's formica tables and odd chairs, worn plush couches, rugs, mugs, toasters, side dressers full with crockery, cups and the odd kambrook electric fryer, commercial size tins of instant coffee and bowls of fruit on doileys all in a 2x2m space and all nestled amonst the farting, chewing, defecating and peeing cattle. Its just brilliant.

The 'best ofs', well they speak for themselves. Where else do you get a space provided to get serious about the difference between an egg, and ginger sponge, a florentine and a fruit cake (the biggest entry field i have noticed, obviously a VERY serious and hotly contested item)? I love how by the end of a week the custards' hardened, the berries mouldy, the choux pastry has sunk and the jams have stained. There's always a fly or two in the cabinet but the goods inside still proudly sport id cards, some with ribbons, all for our viewing and not tasting pleasure. The kids always run happily around in chase of their most favourite piece, the most amazing creation, the 'oh my god can you believe a 12 year old made that' moment. Thats what i love about the show, the creativity and connection with making and growing stuff that it affords and the celebration of human endeavours. Watching your child emerge breathless and bright eyed and grinning from an exhiliarating, thrilling ride is kinda special too!

non-compostable

Ive had long hair for 20 years, really long for the last 10.
Here's the first chop. I feel mighty fabulous.
Liberated
Weightless(i wish)
Flippy
A fantastic start to Spring.

The only problem is its not long enough to donate! Well the longest bit is the required 12 inches but its a layered pony. What to do with it?

Haiku Friday

some like it, some don't.
visits plummet, stats decline.
Meh! It's my party...

just because

Prada in the larder?

Better foodies dont do humble condiments. Now, I know this but it was this kind of principle that started a marvellous argument at Chez Pan a few weeks ago about just how much of a foodie the Bloke was. (In hindsight, i cant believe how seriously we debated the finer points of what being a foodie actually meant). So when i discovered the little tome at the library yesterday 'How to be a better foodie. A bulging little book for the truly epicurious' by Sudi Pigott I knew it contained the definitive answers we were searching for. Its an almost-thigh slapper, tongue-in-check look at the extremes foodies will go too..."the committed better foodie may spend many hours musing over the logistics of digging an Imu fire hole-wonderful for a juniper-spiked porchetta" when you can read a sentence like that and relate... (thinking of my rather nutty post-partum , in between breastfeeding a 6 week old, efforts to build the pizza-oven while on maternity leave)...

So i know lots of you readers out there are food people, can you claim to be Foodies? Here's the Prada larder checklist (with minor modifications) and my answers. If you need translations then BONK! -not a foodie.

1. Nam Pla - 20 year habit
2. Mirin - sure
3. Soy sauce or shoyu -yup
4. White miso paste - umm,checking.. yes
5. Bonito flakes - I've run out
6. Verjus - for sure
7. Saba - huh?
8. Rose or orange water from 'foreign' shop -check rose water
9. Ume-shu - no have
10. Pomegranate molasses - *blush* yup
11. 100% pure maple syrup - yup
10. Honey-chosen for type - loca
11. Cardomon, coriander, star anise, all whole - who doesnt?
12. Chermoula - have all ingredients to make it fresh when required
13. Baharat - nother huh?
14. Ras Al Hanout - huh huh huh???
15. Jordanian Zatar - definitely not
16. Peperoncino - nope
17. Dukkah - yup
18. Shichimi togarashi - nope but i will coz its fabulous!
19. Preserved lemons/limes -yup, too many jars!
20. Sumac -yup
21. Chilli jellies - check this; yup
22. Red harissa - yup
23. Saffron -a few strands floating around
24. Mace - just nutmegs
25. Maille Dijon - personally purchased from Les Halles-whoop!
26. Vanilla - fair trade , thick and pure from Vanuatu and a pod
27. Fruit cheeses - yup, mine and bloggy trades!
28. Biscuits; lah dee dah ones -nope, get eaten by the kids too often , bake/buy on a need only basis

Extra questions to sort the Prada larders from the mere Tom Fords

a. boutique tuscan extra virgin olive oil - pass
b. Artisanal jams - home made count?? of course they do!
c. duck confit -*blush* again- from genial artisian duck grower in Brittany
d. goose fat - have home rendered duck fat in the fridge- count?
e. twist rolled darjeeling - nah
f. L'Artisan chocolate flakes -nah
g. Food trophies from Michelin establishments etc definitely nah- not into foodie trophies!
Hmm..not sure about scoring this thing; theres no cut off! Looks about right; i think Im into food but merely the garden Tom Ford varietal foodie.

When it come to spices, im not a loca vore. How can you be a foodie without a variety of herbs and spices? How can you enjoy food without variety? Where i can i will pay more, sometimes alot more (the Vanuatu vanilla which i guard like Mother Bear..."thats tooo much" she screeches at Bean2 across the kitchen), to purchase a local or more local ingredient but I think that spices are international trade currency, its ok to be non loca- they're light, used sparingly and keep but fair trade is important as is sustainable production. Its the big guns of everyday bulk consumption where i put my loca investments.
And remember , a formative foodie learns to assemble and turn a pasta machine at the same time, if not before, they learn to ride a bike. Touche.

How did you score?