rachel.blog

Tag: farming

  • Wildfarmed flour at Bandit Bakery

    Wildfarmed flour at Bandit Bakery

    All the bread at Bandit Bakery today was baked using Wildfarmed flour. This is wheat that is grown alongside other crops to increase soil health and biodiversity. Instead of one giant monoculture of wheat, the rows of wheat are interspersed with a herbal lay of plants, grasses, and legumes. I bought my usual loaf of […]

  • May you live through interesting times

    There’s a Chinese curse, may you live through interesting times. On a personal level, the Christchurch earthquakes make this pandemic seem like a walk in the park because that was a much tougher period of time for us. Nevertheless, both events brought strange changes and have made me think of the Chinese curse. But there […]

  • A bumblebee, extraordinary changes for the UK, and thoughts on mother’s day for the most abused of all mothers

    I got stung by a bumblebee yesterday for the first time in my life. Since all our usual Saturday activities were cancelled I took the opportunity to do some gardening and as I put on my gardening gloves I felt a sharp prick. Thinking it was a spider (I’m terrified of spiders and yes I […]

  • Insect dog food

    Insect dog food

    Sustainability in dog food is becoming a thing. The dogs we look after always come with their own food which their owners provide but I feel a bit depressed giving regular dog food to dogs. We know how unsustainable livestock farming is and we’re already consuming beyond our resources just to satisfy our meat-heavy diet […]

  • Praise the oat drink

    Praise the oat drink

    I am loving the Marks and Spencer oat drink. I only just discovered it and it’s delicious! After having consumed soya drink for more than 15 years I’m now an oat drink convert. We’re not supposed to call it milk because the EU ruled that non-diary substitutes cannot be called milk. I’m quite happy about […]

  • It’s not all or nothing

    It’s not all or nothing

    I’ve recently started drinking oat milk drink. I usually drink soya but Ben recently went dairy-free at home and prefers oat drink so I thought I’d give it a try. It’s delicious. I’m addicted and prefer it to soya now. I like that oats are grown widely in Scotland and so I feel virtuous buying […]

  • The interminable battle with slugs and weeds

    The interminable battle with slugs and weeds

    I’ve been struggling with the slugs at the allotment this year. Most of the seedlings I’ve planted have completely vanished, presumably eaten by slugs. Last month I applied nematodes to the soil and put out a heap of beer traps. There seem to be fewer slugs now and although I’d like to take the credit […]

  • If you want to eat less soya, then you should eat soya

    If you want to eat less soya, then you should eat soya

    There’s a great quote from George Monbiot in the Guardian this week. Part of the reason [why a plant-based diet is better for the environment] is the extreme inefficiency of feeding livestock on grain: most of its nutritional value is lost in conversion from plant protein to animal protein. This reinforces my contention that if […]

  • Hodmedod’s

    Hodmedod’s

    Recently I discovered lentils and soya beans are grown in the UK and in the process I stumbled upon Hodmedod’s, an online store selling British grown beans and other products. I decided to give it a try and bought the big vegan box: Apparently carlin peas make a good replacement for chickpeas. I will whip […]

  • Vegan menus, radio programs, and strip clubs

    Vegan menus, radio programs, and strip clubs

    Last night we went out for a pub meal at The Justice Mill on Union St in Aberdeen. It’s part of a pub chain in the UK called Wetherspoon; I like it because there are several options for me to eat and it’s cheap. They even have a menu especially for vegans and vegetarians – eat […]

  • Climate change and the elephant in the room

    Livestock farming produces more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire transport sector. That’s all the planes, trains, trucks, buses, cars, and boats on the planet. Exactly how much the livestock farming sector produces varies depending on which study you look at. The most conservative estimate is from the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United […]

  • Absurd hypocrisy on the dinner table

    Earlier this week hosts of a Danish radio station killed a bunny rabbit on air and then later cooked and ate it. It generated a huge backlash for the station including calls for a boycott. I wonder how many of those who complained eat other animals? Why is it acceptable to kill, cook, and eat a young […]

  • Glen Garioch and Tolquhon Castle

    We have had another terrific day today. I almost feel a bit bad that I have so many terrific days and I hope that I’m not rubbing it in too much by writing about them on my blog all the time. There’s something so fun about writing about my experiences. It’s kind of a way […]

  • Insects, anyone?

    When my sister and I were little, our Thai nanny fried up some grasshoppers for us to eat. I can’t remember what they tasted like but I remember the experience well: it was fun and exciting. We caught the grasshoppers and she cooked them. There is a word for the practice of eating insects. It […]

  • My plan for our planet

    There are expected to be 9 billion people on this planet by the year 2050. I may be one of them. Without sounding too much like a brainless beauty-pageant entrant, I hope that one day, we might see an end to world poverty. But is this view inconsistent with the part of me that also […]