Several years ago, when William and Kate got married, someone in our town organised a street party. Now– I love the idea of a street party, the history and tradition of mass celebration of Royal Weddings in Britain, the comradery, the feasting. Yet there’s also a deep ambivalence about the concept and public financial drain of monarchy. I was torn about participating. But, because Kate and Will were a couple based in love, something truly to celebrate, and because I wanted to support the efforts of the girl so enthusiastically organising the event, I decided to join in.
At that time, I was attempting to make a dandelion preserve, a jelly really, but the whole thing went wrong, because without any pectin — I guess I could have used apples for a mild tasting thickening agent– it didn’t solidify. What resulted was a thick syrup, known as Dandelion Honey. I wasn’t fully satisfied though because I knew from the process that there had been a moment of beautiful, delicate fragrance that I’d boiled away in my attempt to make the jelly. So I resolved to try again in the future to recreate that ephemeral moment of sublime dandelion perfume that I’d experienced.
I’ve decided I’m not going to write a post about Guava Jelly, even though Bob Marley singing about it is happy and sexy. Enjoy the song and feel reprieved…
Instead I am going to share all those web links that accumulate in files on my computer. I guess these offerings of links really do illustrate the Kitchen-Counter-Culture approach to food, cooking and eating. Here goes:
There’s a campaign that’s very important protecting the interests of small and poor farmers in Africa against the land-grabbing and market-dominating tactics of big corporations–Read this Red Pepper article as well as this interesting portal. Here’s a link to the World Development Movement campaign. This is important. Food Security for people means small systems, not being marginalised in the big ones. Where we still have any leverage, we must use it.
A recipe for an alternative soy sauce though calls for beef stock. Interestingly I remember being suggested a vegan beef-stock alternative as a good mixture of black-strap molasses and soy sauce.
A wonderful list of things to do with dandelions — I love these kind of lists — and there are so many more ideas as well. Dandelions, in their abundance, are such an incredible gift, and feeling thankful for them is a spiritual practice of spring and summer for me. Here’s a recipe for Spicy Fried Dandelion Flowers. And a piece on Dandelion Root and, among other things, dehydrating them. A few weeks ago, inspired by Pascal Baudar of Urban Outdoor Skills (operating in dry Southern California so very different from my cool moist world here), I made a kimchi with lots of dandelion leaves– it turned out really well. Get ready for a fun Dandelion post from Moi-Meme coming up in the next few weeks 🙂
Getting personal: After all those years I had migraines, small ones and large ones, I did come to believe a leaky-gut hypothesis, and pretty much feel healed by eating very very low (though not no) gluten and sugar. This article talks about a the role of Zonulin in Leaky Gut syndrome from a Paleo point of view.
Kitchen Counter Culture 