We’ve not long since finished our evening meal and feel incredibly well nourished thanks to the creative menu of the day.

I didn’t have a lot to do with breakfast. Our eight year old fancied porridge sweetened with local honey. He eagerly made it himself.

Chris nipped out to the local spring water sources to get our toxin free mineral rich water to use for all our cooking needs this coming week.

Lunch required a little more forethought. We served up a large bowl of fennel, cucumber, cabbage and green salad (largely sourced from a local farm) dressed with "garden herb salad dressing" accompanied by a newly created pate "dream bean dip" and "home-made heart shaped oatcakes".
It provided a well round medley of nutrients full of essential fats, vitamins, minerals and protein. We were all very happy with our first meal, feeling positively excited about new sustainable possibilities.

I do feel somewhat stuffed after eating our dinner this evening. We made use of local potatoes baking them with sunflower seeds as wedges, whilst I baked a new loaf creation that involved carrot, bell pepper, spelt flour, coriander and various herbs. It was very tasty, despite the fact I added a little too much water . It didn't seem too photogenic so I took a picture of the potato wedges instead.

As the sun goes down I am contemplating an evening beverage. Perhaps a cup of camomile tea with water from the well.

Well when Trin informed me we were going to have a week where ALL our food came ONLY from local sources (which meant no Hummus!) I thought we'd have a week living on nettles and water

What I wasn't prepared for was the scrumptious offerings being made infused with love. I can completely testify that when food is locally grown, there is a feeling inside that you're not damaging the environment but becoming at one with it. The food feels alive and vibrant.

I can see that it makes you want to take more time preparing it which of course makes it taste even better. Yummy!

Chris
PS I couldn't get enough of the "dream bean dip" - I can see I'll have to be careful not to put on weight!

At Openhand we often speak of "attuning to the lightness" in life and I guess sometimes people wonder what we're speaking of - well this diet of locally based plant food made as one with the consciousness of the earth is exactly the sort of practical thing we mean.

Its really connecting with the soul of the earth, respecting her and working in harmony with her by bringing our loving consciousness into what we are doing in every moment. It brings a deep sense of joy inside - a truly powerful way of raising our vibration

There was a unanimous vote for granola this morning. I took our usual recipe and adapted it to local ingredients (using barley malt extract and apple juice concentrate instead of agave syrup, and omitting the cinnamon and coconut). After our morning meditation I found a bush of juicy black currants at the end of garden ready to be picked and served them with chopped apple. The granola was fine, although it didn’t excel our usual one. We were still happy at the thought that it was possible to make local granola for breakfast.

Tuesday is market day in Glastonbury, so we took our back pack and spare bags and headed out for a supply of fresh produce from our local organic stall. The thing I love about the market, is the lack of packaging and friendly staff able to enthusiastically tell us where the various produce has come from! We came away with a variety of veg n’things, enough for the next few days.

We returned home settling in to home school mode for a while as our little one worked his way through various writing practice. The theme today was plants. He wrote the sweetest imaginative story about the life of an intensively reared broccoli plant who become liberated by an organic farmer. I love the way children come up with these things! Don't know where he gets it from!

We then whipped up lunch and designed a new
“English garden pate". Some of the ingredients even came from our garden. It was served with a couple of lively salad dishes with oatcakes and dip left over from yesterday.

We used home grown alfalfa sprouts. They’re simple to grow. It’s just a case of getting into rhythm about growing them. The good thing about growing your own sprouts is that you can produce them all year round. This is invaluable when relying on healthy fresh produce as there are times during the year where availability of salad foods is somewhat lacking. Sprouts are loaded with nutrients and an invaluable part of our cuisine. I've posted a step by step guide on how to make them here:
www.openhandweb.org/how_to_grow_your_own_salad_sprouts

Dinner was really filling, although I finally began to fully appreciate how I have depended on imported foods (especially to add special flavouring i.e. herbs, spices, tamari, vanilla, nuts, coconut).

I climbed our apple tree and picked a few apples to for apple crumble. The topping was a local variation of the “wild berry crumble". I used barley malt extract to sweeten and sunflower oil instead of coconut oil. I thought it wouldn’t be too tasty without the usual cinnamon and things, but surprisingly it turned out great!

I fancied something rather plain today for our main meal and used pearl barley and potatoes to make a dish with coriander seed and coriander leaf. We ate a huge plateful along with dark green cabbage and butternut squash. Did just the trick!

By 9 o'clock this morning some pleasantly tempting aromatic sensations where emanating from the kitchen and filling just about every room in the house.

A warming local fruit stew was on the menu at breakfast time for our youngster who fancied something warming to take the chill off the air.

Finding that Doves Farm grow and produce their own rye flour was just the inspiration we needed to make caraway-rye crackers. Yum! Just before a nice crop of fresh garden mint found it's way into our new tasty haricot-dip. Finishing the food prep first thing in the morning meant that we freed up the rest of the morning for other craft making activities.

Our evening meal was fun with good ol' baked beans 'home-made' style! After growing up on them we were over the moon to find that we were able to produce our own healthy local version.

Food preparation is a moving meditation for me, so recording exactly how much of what I put in, is often a distant thought. This bean dish definitely warrants me writing down the formula though. A good reason to make it again soon:-) They were eagerly devoured by us all along with baked spuds and parsley polenta.

Oddly most tinned varieties of baked beans are laden with refined sugar. Another great reason to make our own version.

We avoid refined sugar as it wreaks havoc with health. In short the vitamins, proteins, fats, enzymes and beneficial nutrients are removed meaning that it avoids the usual digestion process and goes straight through the stomach wall into the blood stream (hence the instant sugar rush). Our blood sugar levels then go through the roof, forcing the pancreas to secrete the hormone insulin to lower the blood sugar levels in a despatate attempt to maintain equilibrium (if the blood sugars were not lowered we would rapidly find ourselves in a life threatening situation). The only problem is that the blood sugar levels then drop too low, so we crave another fix of sugar to pump them back up again (hence the addiction/withdrawl symptoms creating a vicious cycle.

We've taken to using agave syrup and maple syrup in moderation. These are not available in the UK without importing, so eating a local diet has been inviting us to explore the use of concentrated apple juice and barley malt in baking. There is also honey, which can be found locally for those who enjoy honey. I heard that sweet cicely (a herb/wild plant) can be used as a sweetner if you like aniseed flavour. Yet another discovery that I am looking forward trying out.

This week has found me amidst an avid exploration of what is actually available to us to eat here.

I am finding that a lot of things that we are able to grow here are generally not available... perhaps owing to the fact that it seems much less effort and cheaper to import from abroad. Maybe having to get out the wellies, spade and scissors just doesn’t sound quite as enticing to most (can't imagine why not though ).

Our society is geared for dependence on the system. The majority of us rely on foods from everywhere else but our local area. Although it is understandable it doesn't alter the fact that if for whatever reason the system were to fall apart (which looks increasingly possible given the state of worldly affairs) there'd be big trouble!

In order to tap into what is available locally I am really having to become creative and learn how to use new herbs, spices, vegetables. I finding out what gives us a wide range of vitamins, mineral, essential fats, proteins etc. within what we have nearby. The truth is that it is all out there or possible to grow. It's fun to make new discoveries.

Here are all the different options that I have found so far available in the UK throughout the year. I must admit that I am really suprised at all the choice we have. Once we discover them the only limitation is our imagination

Fruit:
Apples, pears, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, black currants, red currants, gooseberries, plums, damsons, blackberries, grapes, medlars, cranberries, loganberries, elderberries, melons, quince, figs, mulberries (fruit can also be dried for use throughout the year)

Grains/cereal:
spelt, barley, rye, oats, wheat. I have also heard that quinoa can be grown in the UK. Something I'd like to explore.

The list of vegetables is endless.

I spent most of the day out today. Our youngster had a dance class after which were were invited to lunch by a lovely friends. They've just bought a 12 acre woodland and have aspirations of self sufficiency, so they were happy to accommodate our 'local food only' requirements. After a lot of forethought and label reading my friend ditched the idea of her usual lentil or chickpea dish and came up with a delicious vegetable soup with spelt bread instead.

The evening meal tonight made us feel like we were in a restaurant as we served up a rainbow coloured medley of local versions of "stuffed seedy pepper", beetroot and fennel with cauliflower in mushroom sauce! I can't wait to see what we dream up tommorow.

The main thing that I have come to appreciate is how dependent the vast majority of us are on a vulnerable system of imported food. We seem to import foods from the far reaches of the earth that we could easily grow here!

I struggled to source staples such as nuts, seeds, beans and oils. The reason we don't grow them here is that it is far cheaper and easier to grow and produce them in other countries and import them. Unfortunately to date we just don't have the systems in place or adequate demand to make it worth our while.

I remember the fuel blockades seven years ago, when fuel supplies ran out and the country came to a halt. Supermarket shelves were stripped and basic 'staple foods' were being rationed. The simple fact was that fuel for transport had been taken out of the system and couldn't ship food around the country. Many people couldn't go to work, or drive to the store that was miles away from home. Others died because they couldn't get the medication the needed. In short the whole system began to collapse! Although it seems to have laregly been forgotten it was clearly a major warning highlighting the need to us that we are reliant on a vulnerable system. Did it change anything? Doesn't look like it!

Looking at the state of worldly affairs, it also seems very realistic that something like that could happen again on a much larger scale. It seems that if you take anything out of the interdependent 'system' (money, gas, electricity, transport fuel) then everything in the equation could easily tumble.

Of course we could all bury our heads in the sand it pretending that it is not a possibilty and hope that it doesn't happen. We could take the 'let's cross that bridge when we come to it approach (hoping that there is still a bridge to cross!) and pray that someone else will come to our rescue. My approach is to help us take responsibility for ourselves as a community.

Personally I am looking on the bright side of things and feel totally confident that those of us who feel compelled to are able to live a self sustaining lifestyle. It may involve learning new skills and changing our way of life entirely. Yet it would bring us in line with the divine flow of the nature.

We experienced last week that we do have everything we need in the UK to sustain ourselves. It is a matter of application and growing more of that which we currently fall short of as a community. Things are moving. I speak to more and more different people on a weekly basis who all feel that we have become dependent on a system that is not sustainable and are seeking to find realistic solutions to bring us back to a self sustaining way of life.

We've been inspired to try many new things and I am filled with excitement at the new possibilities available to us. The food we have been eating is absolutely delicious. It gave us a sense of 'rightness' that only comes when you are harmonising with the natural environment around you. I would recommend that we all look for local options with our food. If that means starting by getting a local veggie box or visiting the local organic farm or market stall once a week then there a a thousand reasons why eating locally is in our best interest.

All we need do is find it in our hearts to take the first step in the right direction... after that each following step shall be unveiled to us.

With Love
Trinity