Back on track
Posted by Catriona Ross - 19:36 on 27 November 2010
Oooft. It's been a hectic few weeks involving lots of travel, which hasn't boosted my efforts on organising the garden and eating locally. Saying that, a fair proportion of what I ate was probably local to the place I ate it in. Food travels; now there's a tasty topic to pick up one of these fine days. Watch this space!
This weekend I'm well and truly at home. A niggle that I should be out and about doing things has been blessedly banished by the snow and ice. It feels like January, not November and hibernation mode is setting in. It's weather for snowy walks, making soup and keeping the wood stove burning merrily.
Luckily our fortnightly veg box and chicken arrived yesterday so we're all stocked up. Click here for a list of local suppliers, some of whom will deliver delicious, fresh food to your door. In the box were Jerusalem artichokes - perfect timing given that the latest arrival in our Transition Black Isle recipe section is a a recipe for Jerusalem artichoke soup. Delicious with a wee dod of Highland crowdie stirred in at the end to give it a bit of winter heart. Just watch out for the rising wind...
Assessing the weekend's menu I'm finally feeling back on the right track for the Highland Food Challenge. Porridge is perfect for breakfast in weather like this and the soup for lunch was accompanied by home made bread, as we didn't make it out for supplies today. Local chicken and veg casserole for dinner, and tomorrow night's treat is a roast of Shetland beef produced a couple of miles up the road by Transition Black Isle member Bob Bull at Glachbeg croft - check it out here. We're fair looking forward to getting tucked into that!
Still don't have any home made wine on the go, but a bottle of Black Isle blonde washed down tonight's dinner nicely. We're inching closer to producing our own drinks; elderberries are in the freezer and we're amassing demijohns. Our drinks demonstration Bottling the Tastes of Summer the other night was a real inspiration. Notes from the session will be available on this website soon.
My recent travels took me to to even chillier climes to learn how Finland is getting to grips with solar power in solid form - wonderful, renewable wood that grows on trees! It was fascinating too to get an insight into travel in Finland - snow tyres for bikes and the best trains I've ever been on. Click here for blog articles from the trip.
The second stage of my trip was a couple of days at the Transition conference in Edinburgh - an uplifting event made fantastic by the people. Not only the speakers and workshop leaders - who were superb - but all the amazing folk among the delegates; all sorts of interesting people striving to create hardier, happier communities across the country and the world. You can access the blog from the conference here. The site features lots of videos, comments and articles to help you catch up on what's happening in the wider Transition world. Well done to the team at Transition Scotland for putting together such a great weekend.
Aye... the snow makes life difficult when you need to get places. But slowing down also brings welcome relief. Life today involves lots of running around like a headless chicken, often feeling like you're achieving little more than a frazzling of tempers and nerves. As the fossil fuel era enters its twilight, a more naturally-paced, local way of living is evolving. Which means more time to cook, blether to neighbours, play music, stock up on logs and read or doze next to the glowing stove. Magic.
