Welcome to Cooking Animals

As the regular reader of my Wildlife and Environmental Blog know, I have been threatening to do something related to Farming, Food and Cooking for awhile.

Partly this was because I discovered how few people knew how to cook, or at least were afraid to try cooking. When the Recession started I started to film material for a Video Pod Cast to show some of the basic kitchen skills so that people can see how easy and enjoyable cooking can be. However, I wanted to be sure that I was not trying to teach Grandma to suck... well you get the picture.

Personally I am passionate about food, as my waistline shows. While I am calling this Blog “Cooking Animals”, I will frequently be talking about vegetarian food and cooking, so I hope that meat eaters and non meat eaters will be able to enjoy this self indulgence.

I hope that I will be able to get people thinking about the food they eat, the sources of that food, and the power of the supermarkets. While I am fully aware that most people have little choice about where they buy their food from, often once people start to understand the way the major retailers market their products to us, then you will discover that the supermarkets are not as cheap as they would have us believe. I also hope that I can, via the Video Pod Cast, show that many of the “Convenience” foods can be reproduced at home cheaper. Often taking no more time than it takes to cook the “Convenience food”. However much more importantly without all the added chemicals that are so often, quite legally, added to our food.

I am a great fan of seasonal eating. While the supermarkets can supply many items all year round, it is when a food is in season, that it is fresh and at its cheapest. Discovering the seasons can often help folks on a tight budget to make ends meet. But also eating food when its in season will ensure that you get the maximum nutritional benefit from the food too.

It is likely that I will introduce you to some new ingredients too. When I was vegetarian, I discovered a whole range of foods that are not common but can allow a cook to be creative in the kitchen. So anyone who has an open mind and is willing to try new things may discover new dishes, or alternative ways of doing things.

The postings here will cover a range of issues often with looking at the environmental impact of our food. Back in the 1970s when I became a vegetarian it was because of reading a book that was predicting BSE. This book alerted me to the fact that I along with most other people, did not know where the food we were eating came from. Also, it alerted me to the problems of industrial farming. While factory farming may have enabled many foods to be produced cheaply, it is the hidden costs that frequently cause problems elsewhere.

I genuinely welcome any comments on what I am doing here. I can not promise to respond personally, but your ideas and suggestions may well help shape this into something that helps people understand food, cooking and how to make wise choices.