Defining Green Gastronomy

Wednesday, 22 July 2009

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"Gastronomy - the appreciation of fine food and drink in good company" is the web-page banner within the main website. As a first step towards a definition, we can put it as

Green Gastronomy - the appreciation of wholesome food and drink in good company.

See the second of the lower panels for more and then think about shades of green in the third panel.
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From gate to table?

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Beginning with the process of putting food and drink on the table and what happens after, we can include preliminary environmental issues.

Meal decisions - future meals

Shopping list

Buy the food and drink

Prepare and cook it

Consume it

After

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So much for such a simple list. Much of this website is given over to the numerous variations which apply to the process. More later.

Meal decisions - future meals

The No-Time people [NTs]

When you see children forcing exasperated mothers to put this or that into the supermarket trolley you wonder what planning has taken place regarding future meals. More likely is "Oh, there's the fish-fingers - we'll have them on Tuesday".

You are having a bad day at work and rush out to to deal with lunch. It may be brought back to eat while you work or you stand and eat it at Macdonalds etc. At worst you munch on the return to work. [Pursue "ambulant gastronomy" below.].

When the future catches up with the present in a restaurant etc, you decide to order food and drink that you would like to try or haven't had for ages and had forgotten about.

When the future catches up with you when drinking is the primary purpose at the time, you remember to eat something. It will help the drive home or so you believe.

Of questionable origin, but you ask "Shall we eat or go to Macdonald's?".

The Have-Time people [HTs]

On the other hand, you might be one of those who plan meals. You might even consider such aspects as where and how the food you use is produced. You may have grown food in the garden or allotment. More about all this later. See the list of websites at the end of this section.

UK Year 8 children are saying things like "I have seen coconuts in cling film"." Many useful web addreses for all to use.

http://www.geographypages.co.uk/foodmiles.htm

Explore the site to see if they have considered the buying-the-food miles. As HTs they are likely to travel less that adult NTs.

Shopping list

Even mothers as mentioned before make a list of sorts even if only in the head. They and HTs have been researched by the supermarkets. The rest we know. More later.

Buy the food and drink

Most of us are NTs at some time or other. We reach out at the supermarket for items which interest us or that have been forgotten. However, we try to keep to our HT shopping list and may even look at product labels. More later.

Prepare and cook it

The amount of work done is directly proportional to the type of items bought or acquired. ["Acquired" encompasses the garden, left-overs and donations on visitor arrival. ] Similar considerations apply to electricity and gas use. More later.

Assuming that some food has been prepared, there is food waste which needs to be dealt with. Not everyone can compost. Packaging is another aspect. More later.

Consume it

We can delve into the enjoyment aspect of the green/non-green meal later. We will look later at satiety or the aspect of feeling as if you have had a proper meal. Comparing the better fast food with the worst 'proper' food will be interesting. Applying that task to drink promotes a greater interest in the task.

After

Depending how far one wants to take Green Gastronomy, there are washing up ingredients and energy considerations relating to the dishwasher. They all relate to the meal.

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Gardening etc websites repeated from the "Green Gastronomy" page

"Grow-your-own" campaign

www.rhs.org.uk/growyourown

"Not in my back garden" but where the "not" is removed

http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/

Not for seed-cake

http://www.packetseeds.com/

Garden aids

http://www.harrodhorticultural.com/

More on the consideration of environmental issues

To follow

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Green Gastronomy - the appreciation of wholesome food and drink in good company.

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Once "fine" is changed to "wholesome" the inevitable debate commences. If it is one, it is not guaranteed to be the other. "Fine" implies the freshest, best quality food item or ingredients. However, within the genre, many dishes served have been through several stages of preparation, cooking and temperature change with often numerous extra ingredients such as double cream, egg-yolks, gelatine, butter etc in generous proportion.

When attention turns to drink, there are as many problems. Those who go to their gourmet association dinners can get through half a dozen, perhaps more, glasses of different alcoholic drink and still drive home. It is their life-style. "A man's a man for all that." "Gastronomy brings smiles and double chins." [see below]]. The distinction between "fine" and "wholesome" becomes more blurred with successive glasses.

That may deal with "fine" drink for the moment. What about "wholesome" drink?

It is said that a glass of red wine a day keeps heart trouble at bay. Does that, if true, qualify it as being wholesome? In his lean times, Churchill's immediate family was reduced to three bottles of Champagne a day. He didn't die a young man. He would have turned his nose up at wholesome drink.

In the 1940s/1950s, school children competed to see who could drink the most play-ground milk which came in third-of-a-pint botles. Times have changed.

Milk has a checkered history. "You can't blame milk for being confused. It's getting attacked for exactly the same reasons it was once celebrated." Undeterred, Ovaltine sells itself as a wholesome drink once its granules have been added to milk. Doubly wholesome?

It follows from this that putting "and" in the equation [fine and or + wholesome ] provides no solution.

Answers on a postcard, please, to

avrf23@dsl.pipex.com

More to follow.

More on what has been said - both panels:

Milk--How a wholesome drink became a villain.

The milk quotation came from

http://www.google.co.uk/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUK273&q=%22How+a+wholesome+drink+became+a+villain%22&btnG=Google+Search&meta=lr%3D By Chris Suellentrop - first result

http://lists.envirolink.org/pipermail/ar-news/Week-of-Mon-20040621/026159.html AR-News version

Compare and contrast the two treatments.

See Ovaltine selling milk as being wholesome at

http://www.ovaltine.co.uk/en/article.asp?chco_id=4

See who contributed the double chins mention at

http://ndresimonongastronomy.blogspot.com/

Ambulant gastronomy

This term was first used on page 172 of my Gastronomy book - via Ancillary Topics and then Publications. You can also go to

. . . http://www.gastronomy.org.uk/

directly and find the book link via the Pubs [Publications] page.
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Shades of Green Gastronomy

Within the UK, there is the Caravan Club and its monthly magazine is circulated to some 350,000 members. One can reasonably assume that most are keen on out-door life. "The Club undertook research .... [in 2008] to find out members' views on environmental and sustainability issues and how they relate to their caravanning activity." [May mag, 2009, p 51] The Club used Ipsos MORI within its project.

The project revealed that most members are "light green caravanners" who wish to conserve the countryside and who support recycling while at camp sites. Those caravanners deemed to support "dark green initiatives such as wind turbines at every site" were in the minority. The "significant number" of "mid-green"caravanners may be unaware what they are as "mid-green was not defined. However, we can see the picture.

A picture of fresh fruit and veg is not necessary here. One included in the article was captioned "The Club encourages members to buy local produce". Elsewhere, there was "Years before trendy celebrity chefs started telling us to buy local produce, the Club decided to ..[encourage] .. members to .. support local, rural businesses.".

More later

Defining Green Gastronomy

"I'm fed up with all these milk-miles."

"You're not the only one."

Monday, 27 July 2009

Wednesday, 22 July 2009

From gate to table?

Green Gastronomy - the appreciation of wholesome food and drink in good company.

Shades of Green Gastronomy