Getting creative with less. Recipe lessons from the Australian Women’s Weekly during wartime
Major supermarket chains Coles and Woolworths have introduced restrictions on the purchase of these staple ingredients. Coles has also introduced “rationing” of minced meats. While this is not a genuine food crisis, these limitations will lead Australians to ponder the culinary possibilities of their pantries. Looking at Australia’s most widely read women’s magazine, the Australian Women’s Weekly, shows us how Australians have dealt with food shortages in the past: with creativity, ingenuity and good humour.
Stale Bread Idea
A Eshman, Sapphire, via Inverell New South Wales
Place scraps bread equal to a quarter-loaf in a muslin bag and soak in a bowl of cold water overnight. Remove and squeeze out all water with hands. Add to bread 2 large onions, and ½lb tomatoes peeled and chopped, with a little thyme, parsley and green garlic. Season with salt, pepper and mustard, add 2 eggs with enough milk to moisten and mix together. Drop small portions in boiling fat and fry till a light brown. Serve as a breakfast or luncheon dish or with dinner as a substitute for potatoes.
Australia’s Beekeeper Strengthen Community Amidst the Crisis
The Swan Valley and Eastern Regions Slow Food Convivium in Western Australia is working with a local WA pollen producer to set up a shipment ofspecial pollen for the Ligurian bees to feed on. The WA Convivium is organizing a long table lunch event at the Gidgegannup Small Farm Field Day on the 24th of May where all the money raised will be donated to support the recovery of the Ligurian honeybee. In collaboration with the South Australian Apiarists Association, they will select one or two Ligurian beekeepers to whom they will send the contribution directly.
Slow Food: the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy Needs to Move Beyond the “Feeding the World” Narrative
Slow Food believes the “feeding the world” narrative focused on productivity growth is outdated; instead we need to be looking at how to achieve healthy, iverse diets for all, and ecological farming in order to reach the Sustainable Development Goals.
In its response to the public consultation, Slow Food notes that the growth in productivity achieved by the industrial food system “has not translated in global food security by any measure”, and urges the Commission to phase out pesticides, ditch GMOs and focus its efforts on supporting a real transition towards agroecology which can provide good, clean and fair food – the principles at the core of Slow Food’s mission.
Slow Food asks the Commission to concentrate on three essential areas for sustainable food systems: agrobiodiversity, agroecology, and fair supply chains.
The Exiled Prince Behind Los Angeles’s Only Fresh-Pasta Food Truck
Within six months he had his own pasta truck—a shiny, royal blue colossus streaked with the colors of the Italian flag—called the Prince of Venice. It was his first foray into the food-truck industry. A pasta devotee, Filiberto refused to let mobility compromise the quality of his dishes, and became the first person in the world to put a fresh pasta machine in a commercial food truck. “Nobody told me it was a bad idea,” he says over the phone. Sound absurd? Business is booming. Sound lavish? You have no idea. Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia is the grandson of Umberto II, the last king of Italy. In other words, Filiberto is literally the Prince of Venice.
Looking forward to Harry and Meghan and their authentic Brit fish and chips food truck
Briefly
New Scientist 29 Feb 2020 reports that fish fossils in the Sahara that many species of fish, including catfish and tilapia, dwindle in numbers as changing climate dried up lakes and swamps and could have led to a change in human diet,
And also
New Scientist 14 March 2020 reports that testing has shown that the nutrient level in lettuce grown in space is very similar to that grown on Earth.
