Barmy Bacon

Sadly, pragmatic food solutions often lead us into the depths of our national supermarkets. Not always horrible. More and more of them are realising there is a burgeoning market in both organic and local marketing.

Here's my rant. Why is it that there are still enormous gaps in the thinking?

Take bacon. My local Tesco sells umpteen types of cures, all "british". So why are all the organic cures Danish? As a consumer who generally cares about where my meat comes from in this order : organic, high welfare, local, british... and I'm not alone, I'm stuck in a what do I value more judgement, and I end up avoiding bacon.

Arrrgh.

Big Barn

One of the biggest issues I find as both a home food buyer and a chef-restaurateur, is that finding all that wonderful artisan food can be a right kerfuffle. All those who know the wonders of Borough Market can point at the ease of popping down there on the weekend to get amazing stuff. Many a blogger has written on the wonders of the market. But how many people can get that range of produce in their farmer's market? (Not that we shouldn't support them) Many are simply well below par, diluted with second phase suppliers, rather than the producers we really want to meet (I can make my own chutney and cake thanks...). Even when living among it in the countryside it can be difficult to locate that farmer round the corner who's got just what you need.

The answer.

Big Barn.

Well, part of it anyway. A growing resource to find exactly what's on your front door.

Have a go!

www.bigbarn.co.uk

Abundance

Well, the sun is creeping lower in the sky, and certainly where we are, the ravages of autumn are getting into full swing. While we absorb these last blasts of heat in the Indian summer we know that the frosts are coming, and laying down some goodies is the next perogative, while enjoying the summer's last fruits as well.

This week we've been out in the hedgerows collecting bullaces and brambles. It's jelly season.

Here's a basic rulebook for your berries...

1. Make sure you know what you're picking. The two above are fairly straightforward. Bullace is a wild plum. Amazingly this year, in our area they're almost edible off the tree, but they can be rather tart and astringent. Blackberries are hopefully familiar to even the most ardent urbanite.

2. Wash. For brambles it's worth soaking in a salt solution to lure out the maggots and various other minibeasts eager to eat your spoils. Leave them for a while and rinse well.

3. A good rough guide recipe is to briefly stew your fruit until the juices are really flowing, mash it well, and then pass it through a couple of layers of muslin overnight (or a jelly bag if you're feeling flush). Don't squeeze the bag! Measure the resultant volume of juice, and add an equal volume of sugar. Boil, starting slowly, to 108C. Jar. Enjoy.

4. For low pectin fruits, then the addition of apple in moderate quantities makes for good setting qualities. I usually add about a 5th to bramble jellies. When picking brambles, picking about a quarter slightly underripe, will also boost the pectin levels. The final way to get pectin is to buy it in, either in pectin-added sugar, or as pure pectin.

Our hoarding now lasts us until this time next year. How sensible.

Here's a place to start...

Look in your fridge.

How many things can you see that you can tell where or how:

a) it was grown
b) it was reared
c) it got to you

I wonder?