Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness…

Basket with onions, carrots and beetroot in — Some of the lovely veggies in season in October
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

…and my absolute favourite, savoy cabbage. Yum. Perhaps not quite what Keat’s had in mind, but Autumn (and savoy cabbage) is something I look forward to every year. So it’s October and I thought it would be a nice idea to investigate what’s seasonal (a.k.a. cheap!) this month. This is based on the UK, but I would imagine is similar in most of the Northern hemisphere.

Let’s start with the fruit (and some tasty ideas for what to do with it).

Apples – my absolute favourite is apple crumble with Bird’s custard, and to be honest, I don’t often get much further than that.It’s so straight forward and no need to faff about with pastry – but if you do have a bit more time/inclination, apple pie is also gorgeous. You can use dessert apples for cooking (just use slightly less sugar than if you were using a cooker), but nothing quite beats the warm, fluffy, appley clouds of Bramleys in a crumble or pie! Apple butter is another favourite of mine when I have the time – it’s not complicated to make – it just sits cooking in the oven for a long time. A taste of autumn in a jar. And of course, if you don’t want to cook with apples, you can always just eat them! (Not the cooking apples, obviously…)

Blackberries – you might find some still hanging on in the hedgerows. They marry perfectly with apples in a crumble or you could have a go at bramble jelly. The last lot that I picked made a lovely compote for my morning porridge with a bit of lemon juice and sugar. Wild blackberries are very pippy, so I tend to cook and then sieve mine for jelly and compote. I don’t like waste, so I really push them through the sieve and scrape the pulp off the bottom of the sieve and stir it in too. So I suppose it’s more of a jamly than a true jelly!

Some blackberries on a bush in varying stages of ripeness — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Elderberries – more hedgerow fruitiness, perfect as a jelly or you could have a go at making your own wine!

Pears – You can pretty much do what you do with apples to pears, though pears poach better than apples. Eat them in crumble, poached in a light syrup, upside down cake or just on their own.

Veggies

The root veggie stalwarts are still in season – potatoes, onions, carrots, but they’ve been joined by swede and celeriac. Sounds like the start of a lovely vegetable stew to me, especially when celery is added into the mix! Leafy greens continue in the form of rocket, watercress, spinach, kale and spring greens. There’s brassicas in the form of Brussel sprouts, cauliflower and broccoli And of course it’s nearly Halloween, so where would we be without pumpkins and turnips!

Swede – mashed or as wedges, I love the earthy taste of swede! (And if that’s confused you, you probably know it better as a rutabaga. It’s definitely not a person from Sweden!)

Sweetcorn – If you can find somewhere to pick your own, grab the opportunity and fill your boots (and the freezer!) with cobs. Freshly picked sweetcorn is divine, but the sweetness lessens quickly after picking. I love sweetcorn chowder, sweetcorn relish, succotash and just eating it on it’s own with some vegan butter melting over the top.

Beetroot – lovely roasted with a bit of balsamic vinegar to bring out the earthy sweetness, I also like to make mine into a pasta sauce with vegan cream and some lemon juice or to blitz it with some chickpeas (see my hummus recipe and just add 2 roasted beetroot to the blender) for bright pink hummus. ‘Bag puss’ beetroot (aka chioggia) makes a nice decorative change if you aren’t going to be blitzing it. For those of you that don’t remember Bagpuss, first time around or on a re-run, try this…

Sliced beetroot on a plate — Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

Butternut squash – I often find that butternut squash is a bit watery, but my favourite thing to use it for is Thug Kitchen’s Queso-ish sauce. It’s lovely (but the language in the recipe is quite ripe, so if you are easily offended, don’t go looking for it!)

Aubergine – I have never yet been able to master cooking aubergines in a way that doesn’t leave them tasting bitter and/or rubbery – so if anyone has any ideas what I am doing wrong, answers on a post card please! So as you’ve probably guessed, aubergines are also in season – baba ganoush and Imam biyildi are apparently very nice and if you are better aubergine cook than I, give them a go!

Cabbage – I love cabbage lightly boiled until it’s just tender (I know I should steam it, but I use minimal water…) with just about anything, but cabbage is more versatile than just a side dish – white cabbage is great in stirfry and fantastic layered up with white sauce and nuts in a cabbage bake, whilst stewed red cabbage is fabulous. You could also make sauerkraut if you’re feeling adventurous – very good for your gut flora is sauerkraut!

A head of savoy cabbage — Savoy cabbage – my favourite!
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Kale – I love kale crisps – quick and easy and very tasty! Kale is also good in soups. I made a lentil, kale and pasta ‘soup’ (well, that’s what the recipe I was following called it! It was actually more of a stew) last week and it was lovely. A slow cook of the kale means that the leaves won’t be tough.

Pumpkin – good as soup, in pies and roasted. And obviously you could make a Jack O’ Lantern out of them. Unless you are being traditional and in the North, in which case, you’d be using a turnip, which brings me nicely on to…

Turnip – a bit of a neglected vegetable really, which is a shame. Mustard glazed turnips are divine and if you can get the turnips with their greenery still attached, you can eat that too! They also work really well in a stew.

Rocket and watercress – let’s not forget these two green stars whilst we’re on the leafy greens kick! Peppery and fire-y and good sources of vitamin C and iron. What’s not to love? Make a pesto out of them (use the leaves instead of basil) or make a white sauce and stir in the leaves a minute or two before the end of cooking and then stir through pasta. You can add other veg in as well – some grated carrot and slice red pepper works well (and then you’r almost eating a rainbow!)

Cauliflower – Obviously cauliflower Scheese (other brands are available, but this is my favourite…), but also stuffed cauliflower with almonds, onions, chilli (also seasonal) and served in a cumin infused tomato (still seasonal) sauce…oh, alright, a can of tomatoes simmered for about 10 mins to thicken with 2 tsp of cumin added!

Parsnips – even better after the first frosts have worked their magic on them to make them sweeter, I love them roasted, in curried parsnip soup, mashed, in a stew – just about any way you can think of really. We grew loads of parsnips when we had an allotment – with varying degrees of success. One year, the parsnips got carrot root fly – who knew the little blighters would enjoy parsnip as well as carrots!Anyway, it didn’t put me off and I look forward to parsnip season every year.

Leeks – I find cooked leeks strangely comforting (maybe it’s an echo of my quite-far-back Welsh ancestry). Their warmth and delicate flavour always make me feel better! In leek season, I often use them instead of onions, but their also great in potato and leek soup (never served cold in our house), or smothered in white sauce and with some sort of cheese substitute on top.

Sliced leeks — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

You’ll still find other veggies from September hanging around as well – chicory, courgettes and marrow, cucumber, lettuce and Swiss chard, peas and runner beans, and radishes too – but they’ve been joined by (drum roll please…)

Chestnuts – I was at Beamish last week (fab, but very wet) and there was a coal fire burning which took me straight back to my childhood and my nan roasting chestnuts on the coal shovel on her fire. Of course, we’re talking about sweet chestnuts here, not horse chestnuts aka conkers (because they are poisonous and if you eat enough of them, they will kill you…) Sweet chestnuts however, are lovely peeled and eaten straight from being roasted on the fire. If you manage not to eat them all, they work really well in vegetable pies and you can even use them in sweet recipes too.

So there we are, a whistle-stop tour of what’s good in October – although damsons, strawberries and mangetout are out, there’s more than enough plant based goodness to make up for it and I shall be eagerly awaiting my first roasted parsnips of the year.

Watch out for some of the recipes that I’ve mentioned over the coming weeks – happy cooking and eating!

(As ever, all opinions are my own and there are no affiliate links)

Sheep Friendly Shepherd’s Pie

Ewe and a lamb standing in a field — **No sheep in this pie!**
Photo by Adrian Dorobantu on Pexels.com

It’s been a busy fortnight for me – I’ve just become a student again and so this week was a whirl of induction activities and field trips to some exciting sites. Our last field trip of the week coincided with rain that set in for the afternoon. Even though I had waterproofs on (remember, there is no bad weather, just the wrong clothes 😉), after three hours, the rain began to seep through. It very kindly brought the cold with it… Today has been wet too – though I didn’t have to stand outside in the rain, which was nice! So with all this damp, I think it’s time to pull out my recipe for vegan shepherd’s pie and get cooking. It has the added advantage of making enough for 4 large portions and it keeps well in the fridge for a couple of days, so I don’t have to cook when I get in late tomorrow. Bonus!

I adapted the recipe from a plain veggie shepherd’s pie recipe that I’d found and an article about an Indian version of a meaty shepherd’s pie that someone had cooked for the Queen. After a bit of experimentation, here is my version. Warm enough to drive out the damp and the winter chill, but not blow-your-head-off hot, feel free to add chilli powder if you like more heat.

Don’t let the long ingredients list put you off – it’s mostly spices which you chuck in at the beginning – peeling and chopping the veg is the most time consuming part!

Serves 4

oil for frying
2 bay leaves
1 tsp cinnamon
1” (2.5cm) ginger, grated
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp garam masala
1 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 large carrots, diced
2 sticks celery, sliced thinly
8oz (200g) green lentils, washed and picked over for small stones
¾-1 pt (375-500ml) stock
1 tbsp tomato puree*
2 lb (1kg) potatoes
plant milk
vegan margarine or oil

Fry the bay leaves and cinnamon in a little oil until it smells fragrant. Be careful not to let it burn! Add the remaining spices and then the onion and garlic, carrot and celery. Fry for 2-3 minutes more.

Add lentils, stock and tomato puree and bring to the boil. Simmer for 30 mins, topping up with water if the lentils are looking a bit dry, until the lentils are cooked and then cool slightly.

Meanwhile, cook 2lb of potatoes and mash until smooth with a splash of plant milk and a knob or drizzle of your fat of choice. Whip the mash potatoes with a fork to make them fluffy.

Put the lentil mixture into a large ovenproof dish if making one large pie, or divide between two smaller dishes if making one to save as well. Spread on the mashed potato and rake across the surface with a fork to give a ‘rustic’ appearance.

Bake for 30 mins at Gas Mark 5/190^oC/370F until golden brown and crispy and then serve with green veg, mango chutney and lime pickle

*no tomato puree? Use a can of tomatoes and decrease the amount of water used in the stock accordingly. If tomatoes don’t agree with you, leave out the tomato puree – it’s still very tasty! If you have Henderson’s relish, you could add a couple of tablespoons of that instead of the tomatoes to give it some more depth.

Three Fab Free Things to do in Wirral

Boat house framed by tree. Very low light. — View across to the Roman Boathouse in Birkenhead Park

Other Half and I had a day out in Wirral on Friday, doing lots of sightseeing of the best, ie free, kind. We were going to visit Hilbre Island, but what with the coolant related disaster (more of that later) and the fact that it was Friday 13th, we decided that maybe it wasn’t such a great idea…though we will be returning at a later, more auspicious date!

Our first port of call was New Brighton promenade, which is the longest in the UK at just over 2 miles long. We parked at Marine Point retail park, which has a free car park and is in a really good position for the promenade. There’s also a supermarket and a coffee shop, should you feel the need to use the conveniences…Of course, I was then obliged to buy something from the supermarket, so I bought… a swede. Which will do very nicely for a stew later in the week and only set me back 60p!

We set out towards the lighthouse and Fort Perch Rock – towards the right as you look at the sea. The tide was in on the walk out, so we walked mainly on the promenade. There were a few patches of sand to walk on though – and so we did. I was very excited to find a mermaid’s purse and some whelk egg cases whilst Other Half took lots of arty shots of the Port of Liverpool. We would have visited the Fort, but it was closed and looked like it had been that way for some time. It was impressive to look at from the outside though and is a cracking example of a nineteenth century fort.

Whelk Eggs
Mermaid’s Purse
Port of Liverpool

As we walked further along the promenade, we came across The Black Pearl, a ship made out of driftwood and other salvaged materials, and being enthusiastically explored by some small children. We could have walked all the way to the Seacombe ferry terminal (from where you can take a cruise over to Liverpool for £11 and get free entry to the U-boat Story), but we decided that there were other things that we wanted to do and turned back. Walking back, we noticed that there was a mermaid trail through the town and along the promenade and we would have done that if we had had the time.

The tide had receded quite some distance by this point and the beach that it revealed was sandy and clean. There were several life guard sheds about and I would imagine that the beach is really popular in the summer. Having said that, I wouldn’t have fancied swimming in the sea on that day as I saw two dead Lion’s Mane jellyfish. Unlike in the Sherlock Holmes story, they are unlikely to kill you, but will give you a nasty sting. Even when they’re dead – so if they are still wet, don’t touch, because they can still sting!

Back up by Fort Perch Rock, the tide had gone out enough to walk around the seaward side and to get some good views of the lighthouse and some baby seagulls that were having a mooch around. The lighthouse that can be seen today was begun in 1827, though there had been some sort of light on Perch Rock since the late seventeenth century. Like all lighthouses in Britain, the lighthouse is no longer manned. It was decommissioned in 1973, but a grant was awarded recently to allow the lights to flash out again from the top. The lighthouse can be reached at low tide, but it is private property.

Our next port of call was going to be Birkenhead Priory, followed by Hilbre Island, Hoylake and West Kirby War Memorial and Birkenhead Park. What actually happened is that the car got a coolant problem and so we ended up spending an hour trying to sort the car out… By that time, we’d missed the tide at Hilbre and were cutting it fine to see the Priory, so we wandered over to the War Memorial instead. It was actually quite hard to find – we parked in a side street and then used phones to direct us with limited success until we saw a foot path sign. We followed the path up the hill and then could turn left or right. We turned left and soon came out into the memorial garden and war memorial at the top of the hill. It has amazing views across the Dee estuary to Hilbre Island – so we got to see it from a distance in the end! The memorial itself is a tall granite obelisk with two bronze statues, one on the west side and one on the east side. On the east side is a Tommy, dressed for winter and looking grim – it’s a realistic statue which is quite unusual. On the west, is the figure symbolising peace – a hooded woman with a wreath of poppies and some broken manacles. I was particularly struck by the angular nature of the memorial and it put me in mind of some of the work that Nevinson was producing before and during the First World War. It is unusual in that it was the names of those who have died in more recent conflicts, eg Korea and Iraq 2009. It is a striking memorial and a lovely peaceful location. If I lived locally, I think I’d spend a lot of time sitting in the memorial garden.

The Figure of Peace
Peace in the sun and War in the shade

With no chance of making it to the Priory before it shut, we headed to Birkenhead Park instead, famous for being the first publicly funded park and the inspiration for Central Park in New York. If has some very impressive Victorian features, restored as part of a project that began in 2004. The park has an upper area and a lower area, and both sides have a lake. We did the lower area and wandered past the Roman boathouse and the Swiss Bridge and through the disconcerting tumble down stones of the Alpine rockery (apparently deliberately designed to look like an avalanche!) The Roman boathouse has a lovely mosaic effect floor of birds, fish and plants created with pebbles rather than tiles – it’s very striking and well worth a look. If feeding ducks is your thing, you’ll be spoiled in the park, as the lake is very well populated with waterfowl, including both adult and baby swans.

Part of the mosaic floor of the Roman Boathouse in Birkenhead Park

We could have spent much longer in the park – it really is massive – but the light was starting to fade and we had a longish drive home, so reluctantly we left – but we shall return to the Wirral Peninsula for more free adventures in a couple of weeks when the trees have some autumn colour and the tide is in our favour!

Keeping on, on the Thames Path!

My weekly post is a little later than usual this week, though for good reason. Other Half and I have been raising money for Mind, the mental health charity, by going for a walk along the Thames. Which makes it all sound rather tame, except for the fact that it was a 100km walk (that’s 62.2 miles for those of you that like me, still use old money) and we did it in 21 and a half hours. So no sleep for us – and I figured that it’d be better to create a blog post when I was actually awake!

So this week’s post is really about how I fueled myself to keep going for that distance and over that amount of time. As a conservative estimate (because I’m not sure how heavy my bag was and because there was no option to choose speed on the calories burnt calculator that I used), I used somewhere in the region of 4150 calories. Clearly I was going to need to eat something a bit more substantial than the sticks and leaves the vegans usually eat 😉

Breakfast was really early, so nothing was open to buy anything – I had two packets of instant Moma porridge in almond butter and salted caramel flavour. All you need is a kettle, a mug and a spoon and it’s pretty much my go to breakfast when I’m staying away as it’s miles cheaper than buying breakfast out.

Our event started at 7.10am and by the time we’d got to the first rest stop at Richmond, we were both feeling peckish. The first rest stop was well supplied for vegans – there were several different types of crisps available and some interesting looking cookies as well as fruit. Neither of us could resist the lure of pickled onion Space Invaders crisps – though the 200% increase in price was a surprise – they were 10p when I was at school! We also picked up a bag of Gato nut butter cookies each as well. I went for almond and raspberry and Other Half went for hazelnut and chocolate. We ate those whilst walking to the next stop. Other Half made the better choice – they had a really crumbly texture that worked much better with the chocolate flavouring.

By lunch time, we’d done 28km and arrived at Hurst Park. If you were doing the quarter challenge, you got lunch because that was your finish. Everybody else had to bring their own. Our lunch was our usual walking option: 2 bread rolls with mustard pickle. We’d made them at home and brought them with us, but despite being a day old, they were lovely. I grabbed a banana as well.

The third stop was a bit of a disappointment – they had a big display of pick and mix sweets, none of which was suitable for vegans. We’d brought some pulsin bars with us, so we had one of those each and some more water and then carried on our merry way!

Runnymede, site of the signing of the Magna Carta, was our fourth stop and that meant it was time for dinner! There was one vegan option – a very tasty tomato and bean ratatouille and then you could help yourself to chips, peas and carrots. There was a vegan cake option but you had to ask for it – neither us wanted cake. Having to ask for the vegan option might seem a bit annoying, but actually it means that there will be a vegan option left for the vegans. I’ve lost count of the times that I’ve been at conferences and other events where non-vegans have decided that the vegan option looks great and have eaten it all up!

By about 8.30, we had completed just under a third of the distance and watched a lovely sunset. This was another snack stop and by this time I was craving salt again, so I went for Smiths Salt and Vinegar Chipsticks – another snack fondly remembered from my childhood – and who can forget the advert?

At just before midnight we got the 6th stop, just over 3/4s of the way through. This was a meal stop and there was a vegan option of lentil koftas. Again, neither of us wanted to eat anything big at that time of night, so I opted for the other pulsin bar that I had brought with me. I wasn’t really hungry, but knew that I should eat something to keep me going and it seemed to work quite well.

At our seventh stop around 2am, neither of us ate anything. There were snacks available, but neither of us were particularly hungry and we didn’t really want to hang around in a cold tent either. This turned out to be a big mistake. The last stage was horrendous with a perfect storm of low temperature and poor visibility due to the river fog that had rolled in and made it feel even colder than 3.5 degrees C. We were both very tired and in retrospect I should have grabbed a banana!

We finally rolled into Henley at around 21 and a half hours after we’d started. Neither of us felt like a hot meal and there was cold no vegan option. Having learnt from the South Coast walk we did last year, I’d brought enough porridge with us to have another two sachets each. It tasted great and was lovely and warm. We got the first train that we could back to London and nipped into Leon for more porridge – and I have to say, I was very impressed with the Ruby Red Porridge that they had on offer – warm, fruity, nutty and sustaining. Yum!

So that was how I fueled myself for the equivalent of nearly two and a half marathons. My top tips for vegans intending to do a similar long distance challenge are:

Bring your own snacks – it’s great if the event caters for vegans at every stop, but you know what you like and it’s so much more motivating to know that you have your favourite bar to eat at the next stop, rather than hoping that there might be something suitable left. Plus, if you are concerned about plastic usage, you can make choices that don’t mean using plastic.
Try your snacks out in training – nobody wants an upset stomach 7km from the nearest toilet…
You will eat more than you think you will – take something for between stops just in case you need it. I carried some more Space Invaders with me for that reason (but completely forgot that I had them at 3am!). If you’ve done lots of training, you’ll know when you’re likely to start craving salt for example.
Make sure you eat something at every stop, even if it is just a small piece of fruit. You will get to the point where you stop feeling hungry, but your body is still working really hard and needs the fuel.
Make sure you drink enough water – drink at every rest stop and take water with you too. This is especially important if you need to take NSAIDs like ibuprofen, as they can effect how your kidneys work.
Make sure you do enough long distance training walks (pretty obvious really, but two and a bit marathons is a loooong way)
Bring plenty of plasters for blisters and change your socks every 25km

Despite the physical effort involved, staying up all night and the inevitable aches and pains afterwards, I really enjoy this kind challenge and get a great sense of achievement afterwards. If you’re thinking about it but aren’t sure, just give it a go. You can always retire if you have to!

Second Hand September

Lots of clothes on hangers — Photo by Artem Beliaikin on Pexels.com

All of a sudden it’s September and the weather has taken a decidedly autumnal feel. My run this morning was illuminated by a beautiful golden light as I was running along the cycle path; it was glorious and is the kind of light that you only get at this time of year. The light was fairly greyish when I left home, so I know the days are getting shorter and I know that it’s autumn thanks to the face full of spider’s web that I got at several points on the path (Keat’s never mentioned that in To Autumn, did he!)

Anyway, I digress. Today’s installment is Second Hand September, an Oxfam initiative designed to raise awareness of the cost of fast fashion and our relentless desire to consume. 11 million items of clothing end up in landfill a week. 11 million items. Every. Single. Week. Take the pledge and sign up to not buy any new clothes for the month of September. The website has loads of facts to help motivate you – one white cotton shirt produces the same amount of emissions as driving 35 miles in a car. And that’s before we consider the pollution caused by the pesticides used in cotton production and from the dyes or bleaches used if you want any colour other than off-white. Oxfam say that the global textile industry produces more greenhouse gases that the international aviation AND shipping combined. Just think what a change we can make buy pledging to buy nothing in September and then being more mindful about the clothes that we buy beyond that.

Which is fab in theory, but how to apply this in the real world? I’ve blogged about the 333 fashion challenge before. The great thing about it is that no one says you have to get rid of the clothes that don’t make that quarter’s cut – just pack them away and reassess next season. This has two advantages 1) next season, you’ll look like you’ve got a whole new wardrobe and 2) you avoid the problem of donating items which, as is often the case with fast fashion, can’t be sold on as they aren’t very well made and then end up in landfill. So give Project 333 a go – believe me, nobody will notice that you are wearing the same 33 items just in different ways: they’re far too busy wondering about what they look like to notice anyone else!

So that’s one approach – but what about when your clothes need repairing? You have a couple of options. If you’re lucky enough to own a sewing machine, you can do loads of stuff yourself, even replacing broken zips. If you don’t have a sewing machine, there are still lots of little jobs that you can do yourself rather than going to an alteration shop. Restitching a fallen hem (or taking up a hem in the first place), sewing on a button or a popper, darning or putting a patch on clothes can all be done quite easily by hand. If you’re not a confident stitcher, you can use wundaweb to iron up a hem, but honestly, it is really straight forward and just takes a little practice – my other half still likes to remind me of the ‘Frankenstitching’ that I did on a pair of his trousers around the hem once. It really wasn’t that bad, I just needed a bit more practice… and it was around the bottom of the leg, so nobody could see it anyway!

Darning sounds horribly complicated, but I mended a triangular tear in a sheet a couple of months ago and it was much more straight forward than I’d thought it would be – I used this video as a guide and it worked brilliantly. As the lady in the video says, I could have made it into something else, but what I really needed was a sheet!

Didn’t quite feel up to darning my socks, though – they’re thin cotton and it was going to take ages to darn the heels, so I just used patches. I cut out a patch of fabric from a too-far-gone to repair sock. The patch was cut slightly bigger than the area I wanted to repair so that I could turn the edges over and hide the raw edges. I stretched the sock over a can of tomatoes because I didn’t have a darning mushroom and was really surprised by how well it worked. I turned a small hem around the edge of the patch and slip stitched it in place. The patches are wearing really well and don’t rub at all.

There are loads of resources on the internet to help with mending – videos are great because they allow you to see and follow along with the actions that you are supposed to take, rather than relying on still images. Having said that, I do like the reprinted Make Do and Mend books that are available as reprints – and some of the ideas for renovating clothes are up to the minute. Body con dress? Open up the side seams of a dress that you want to change. Cut out two panels (one for each side) in a darker fabric and then cut away fabric half the width on the edge of the side seam on the back and front, sew in your panel et voila! A body con style dress from an original idea for a maternity dress (in the original no fabric was cut away and the panel could be removed after the baby was born, allowing the seams to be zone back together. Thrifty or what?!)

The final way to reduce the amount of clothing that you buy is to buy the best quality that you can afford. That doesn’t have to mean the most expensive, I mean the best quality fabric and workmanship on the seams, buttons and so on. It pays to have a really good look at the fabric – if I can hold it up to the light and see the shadow of my hand through it, I won’t buy it because I know that it’s unlikely to last very many washes. If you are buying fewer items, then you’ll be able to invest in higher quality clothes that last much longer – good for your pocket and good for the environment.

So I’ll be taking part in Second Hand September and thinking about whether I really need it before the next time I go to buy clothes (but if I do decide that it is a necessity, I won’t be feeling guilty!). Why don’t you join me and thousands of others in taking part in this year’s Second Hand September?

Banana (N)ice-cream

I don’t know how often the late Summer Bank Holiday is actually hot – but it’s definitely a hot one this time around! In the interests of keeping cool, healthy and plant-based, here’s a super quick recipe for banana ‘ice-cream’ with just one ingredient (go on, guess…) You’ll need a blender and a freezer too. One banana is enough for a small serving, but it’s really easy to scale up and make more – just don’t refreeze it once you’ve made it…

Chop your banana into fairly thin slices and freeze until firm. The thicker they are, the longer you will have to wait, so I always cut mine fairly thinly 😁

Just enough frozen banana slices for 1 serving!

Remove the banana from the freezer and leave for 5 or so minutes to soften. Blend until the banana takes on a whipped cream type consistency (hard to believe, but it really does!) If the banana doesn’t start to come together, leave it for another couple of minutes and then try again. Et voila! Banana nice cream – serve immediately.

If you want to make it more exciting, chocolate, strawberries, chopped nuts, and coconut and pineapple all go really well with bananas. Sprinkle your choice of flavourings over the top or mix them through the banana.

Quite ripe bananas work well in this recipe – they taste less sweet when they’re frozen – so it’s a good way to stop bananas going to waste and the bananas store well in the freezer for a while.

Enjoy!

3 common kitchen ingredients that will green your clean!

I’ll be honest – cleaning is not one of my favourite things, so I want it to be done as quickly and easily as possible. I also want to clean in a way that is going to have as small an impact on the health of my family and on the environment as possible, which is why I use everyday ingredients for doing most of the cleaning in my house. To be fair, they do require a bit more elbow grease than all those cleaning adverts that show products that you just squirt on and wipe off. I think the return in terms of exposure to chemicals and reduction in packaging waste is worth it, especially as they don’t really need that much more effort or time and are often cheaper than shop brought products.

First up: lemons. Lemons are great anywhere you are trying to get rid of limescale and grease. I also use half a lemon rubbed over my shower screen to get rid of limescale from water and soap splashes. Leave for a few minutes then rub with a sponge or cloth and rinse off. While you are waiting to wipe off the shower screen, use the half lemon to rub over the taps and get rid of any limescale there too. Leave for a few minutes and rinse. It’s really important to rinse well, because the lemon juice is acidic and like any acid, will start to eat the finish of your taps if you don’t!

Lemons are great for descaling the kettle, especially if you live in a hard water area. Pop half a lemon in your kettle with enough water to make sure you can boil it without the kettle boiling dry. Boil the kettle as normal and leave for a couple of hours for the acidity in the lemon to work its magic. Rinse the kettle out and boil a couple of times to get rid of the lemon flavour. Make yourself a cuppa and feel virtuous about the fact that you’ve saved plastic waste (no bottle of kettle descaler) and not used lots of chemicals. You could also use vinegar instead if you wanted, but I much prefer lemon halves because a) it smells better when boiling and b) the taste is much more palatable if you don’t quite manage to remove all the lemon flavour before you made yourself a cuppa!

Next up: vinegar – it’s not just for chips! You can use vinegar anywhere you would use lemon juice (but see above for why I don’t use it on the kettle!) It’s cheaper than lemon juice, so if I am cleaning my washing machine, I’ll use vinegar rather than lemon juice. The thing with modern washing machines and washing powder is that they don’t use much water and they work at a low temperature. This is great…but there can be a tendency for the low water usage to mean that the soap isn’t always washed out properly and the low temperatures mean that bacteria and mould can grow – and that’s just what you don’t want. The solution is simple though – once a month, run the hottest wash that you can through the machine and put 1/2 pint of vinegar through the detergent drawer. You can use any vinegar you like, but some are smellier than others. Malt vinegar has a stronger smell than white wine vinegar, but white wine vinegar is more expensive. I personally wouldn’t use red wine vinegar or brown malt vinegar either, just in case the colour in the vinegar caused some staining

If you want to clean a slow draining plughole, put a cup of bicarbonate of soda down it followed by a cup of vinegar and leave it while the frothing does its thing. This works really well for minor blockages and if you do it once a month or so, then you shouldn’t need to use more caustic products.

Which brings us nicely to the last ingredient: bicarbonate of soda. Bicarb is great for removing stains and deodorising. If you have a bit of a whiffy fridge, perhaps because you’ve got half an onion stored in there, put some bicarb in a bowl in the fridge and it will absorb the smell. It works on carpets too – sprinkle over the bicarb and leave overnight. Hoover up the next day and the bicarb should have absorbed the smell. A word of warning though, if you’ve spilt something on the carpet, make sure that the carpet is dry before you put bicarb on it, otherwise you’ll end up with a paste and it’ll be difficult to get off the carpet.

I use bicarb for removing stains from hard surfaces as well – it’s mildly abrasive but won’t scratch. Put a little bit in the bottom of a tea or coffee stained cup and give it a good rub – and hey presto the stain will have vanished! Try it on work surfaces and the kitchen sink and even on the bath where it will also cut through any soapy grease too.

So there you have it – three common kitchen ingredients that you can use to clean your house too. Many shops now sell bicarbonate of soda in bulk packets too, so you’ll be saving money as well as reducing your plastic waste. What’s not to love?

Seven things I discovered from doing Plastic Free July

My plastic free July didn’t get off to the greatest of starts to be fair – someone gave me a free cup of tea. Which was lovely, except for the plastic disposable cup. And the plastic soya milk container. And the tea bag. Because unbelievably, yes, tea bags usually have plastic in them. Found out that the hard way by trying to compost them, and three years later I’m still picking tea bag skeletons out of the compost bin. So I made an easy adjustment there and only drink tea made with leaves at home. I also manage to get two brews out of a pot, because the leaves are much more flavourful than the tea dust that goes into bags, so as long as you don’t leave it to stew, two brews work fine! If I’m out and about, I try to find a cafe that uses tea leaves or has a tea bag brand that doesn’t use plastic in their bags, such as Clipper Organic everyday tea or Pukka teas, which although they have little sachets for each bag, they can be recycled with paper. (And for those of you of a certain age, all that talk of T-Bag has no doubt stirred some ‘happy’ memories!)

But I’m digressing – so after a bit of hiccup at the start, here are seven things I’ve learnt from doing Plastic Free July

Oat milk is surprisingly easy to make at home – all you need is a blender, a cheese cloth to strain it through, a bottle to store it in, oats and water. It’s so much cheaper than buying plastic lined tetra-pak cartons!
Weigh and save type shops are great for getting plastic free staples cheaply. My local one sells dried fruit, lots of different flours, pasta, pulses, nuts, spices, teas and coffee as well as offering some refills on tolietries. The amount of plastic (and cash) we’ve saved from swapping to buying this way has been really quite impressive.
Fresh almond butter tastes amazing! The same shop also does freshly made nut butters – and if you bring your own jar, you’ll save plastic from the filmy seal thing around the lid and the lid itself (which is often coated in plastic on the inside to protect the metal from the contents) – peanut butter takes no time at all, but almond butter takes 25 mins to make…
It is possible to cut plastic use in the bathroom quite easily – toilet roll is available without a plastic wrapper from Who gives a crap, toothpaste is available in the form of Denttabs – just make sure you store them in a dry place, like a glass jar – and safety razors are great once you work out how to use them and spend a bit of time working out which shaving soap suits your skin best.
Terracycle recycle hard to reclaim plastics. Check their website and see where the local drop off points for things like pet food pouches, crisp packets, sweet biscuit wrappers, plastic trigger heads and cleaning caps is for your local area.
Be prepared. I don’t mean military grade planning here, because who has time for that? Just be mindful of what you are planning to do and how long you are going to be out for. Take a reusable cup with you when you go out if you are likely to buy takeway drinks, metal straws are readily available if you feel you need to use a straw and avoid using disposable cutlery by bringing your own. There are some lovely bamboo examples around, but you don’t have to buy anything new, just bring cutlery from home with you!
Give yourself a break – you will slip up at some point because plastic is pretty ubiquitous – and there are some foodstuffs that are really hard to store safely otherwise (though I am planning to have a go at making my own tofu soon). The important thing to remember is that you are making a conscious effort to make a difference and you are moving in the right direction

And I’ll leave you with my bonus tip – aim to reduce and reuse first, because (and this has become something of a mantra for me) recyclable doesn’t mean it will be recycled.

Hope you managed to save some plastic from getting into landfill in July and I hope you’ll be inspired to carry on now – many small actions can build up to one big change!

Quick Chickpea ‘Hummus’

I love hummus and often make this for lunch with homemade oatcakes or as a sandwich filling. It’s quick because it’s made with a tin of chickpeas (though you could cook your own first – use 4oz/100g dry weight and save electricity by doubling up the quantities and freezing the cooked chickpeas that you don’t use) and it’s ‘hummus’ because it doesn’t have any oil or garlic – but don’t let that put you off! Feel free to add both if you want to, but you know what? It’s great without too – and no garlic breath either (which let’s face it, is great if you have an important meeting after lunch…)

The garlicky taste in this recipe is provided by asafoetida aka hing, so you still get the hint of garlic without the whiff! it’s widely used in Indian cookery and this recipe is inspired by one I found in a Hare Krishna recipe book. You can find asafoetida in the spice aisle in Sainsbury’s these days – it’s bright yellow as it also has a little turmeric in it. If you are gluten free, you’ll want to check whether it is mixed with wheat flour as well. You’ll also find it in Oriental and Indian supermarkets where it is more likely to be called hing. For those of you that are interested in that sort of thing, the word asafoetida comes from the Latin word for fetid – and it really is pungent, which is why you only need a small pinch!

Ingredients

1 tin chickpeas, drained with the liquid reserved
Juice of half a lemon
3 tbsp (45ml) tahini
pinch of hing (I use the wrong end of teaspoon to take out a little of the powder)
1 tsp paprika (optional)

Put the chickpeas, lemon juice, tahini, hing, and the paprika if using, in a blender with a little of the reserved liquid and run until all the chickpeas are well blended. You’ll need to stop and push down the puree in the blender occasionally and probably add some more of the liquid as you go. You want a consistency that is between runny and stiff so that you can either put it in a sandwich or eat it with oatcakes and veg. Once you are happy with it, serve! Super quick, non garlicky ‘hummus’ – easy chickpeasy…

If you want to use oil, add it at the beginning and use less of the liquid from the can or drizzle over some oil at the end. I love paprika but it’s just as good without. If you do put paprika in it, it will end up with a pinkish tinge. Or you could shake some paprika over the hummus before you serve it if you prefer.

It keeps well in the fridge for 24 hours or so and feeds 2-3 people as a main meal, more if you are serving as part of a range of dips.

What’s the opposite of Synth Pop?

I can’t say for sure, but I reckon it would be something natural and without bubbles! In honour of plastic free July (and the fact that it is July, and well, hot!) I made some lemonade this week, which had no plastic packaging for any of the ingredients (hence the natural…). The lemons came in my veg box (no plastic netting here), the sugar came from a paper bag and the water came from my tap. I had a search around for some a quick recipes as I’d never tried making lemonade before and this is what I came up with – two recipes that I found smooshed together to make an even better one.

The blended lemon makes the recipe super quick, but just bear in mind that the bitterness from the pith will develop over a few days. It’s not unpleasant, but might be a bit unexpected. If you don’t want bitterness at all, you could juice the lemons and zest them rather than using the whole thing.

This recipe makes about a pint but the ingredients are easy to scale up or down and it’ll keep well in the fridge for a few days.

Ingredients

1 1/2 lemons – unwaxed and organic
3oz (75g) sugar – caster or granulated is fine
1 pint (500ml) water

What to do

Put the water and the sugar in a pan together and heat over a low heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved. Leave to cool slightly. Chop up the lemons and add them and the sugar syrup to a blender. Blend for about 30 seconds, until the lemon is chopped very small. Pour the lemony syrup through a sieve and into a jug. Press down on the pulp with a spoon to get as much juice out of the pulp as you can. Chill and serve.

And there you go, easy-peasy lemon-squeezy (I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist!)