Last month the Low Carbon cookbook crew sat before a midwinter feast of spicy dahl, chickpea stew, millet, buckwheat, pumpkins, sprouts, parsnips, almond cheese, wild mushrooms, red bean hummus and something unusual: dried curly kale that tasted of cheddar. Intriguing and very very more-ish.We were at The Nectar Cafe where the shelves are stacked with local herb teas and hedgerow cordials and jars of lacto-fermented veg, chutney and salsas, all primed for this year's hungry gap. Jo Balfe's cafe, like our Low Carbon Cookbook, is seasonal to the max. To live within these kind of constraints happily, as we have all discovered, requires a whole different approach to cooking and living life. It's something that all cooks and creators find as they bridge the gap between the left and the right ways of seeing the world - the spark that lights the stove.
The spark is what you look for when you write a book, a creative way to mix that left-side heavy-duty information and the right-side possibilities of living lightly in synch with the planet. None of us wants to write an entertainment, or a text book. What makes you pick up a cookbook? we asked each other around the table. To proceed towards a low-carbon future an imaginative relationship with the physical world is necessary, where certain key commitments have been made. We need to be fired up by something stronger, more alluring than any feel-bad information. Tastes and kitchen encounters that connect us with the earth and with each other.Any surprising, life-changing, downshifting recipes to share out there? We'd love to hear from you. Charlotte Du Cann
Our next meeting will be a mapping exercise to plot out the structure of the book. Bring your pens and paper and a winter dish to share. Or if you have a recipe you'd like to be included, please contact Charlotte at theseakaleproject@hotmail.co.uk
Our next meeting will be a mapping exercise to plot out the structure of the book. Bring your pens and paper and a winter dish to share. Or if you have a recipe you'd like to be included, please contact Charlotte at theseakaleproject@hotmail.co.uk
Photo: Masanobu Fukuoka from One Straw Revolution); low carbon cafe conversation. Full text and pix from The Spark That Lights the Stove. The Nectar Cafe is at 16 Onley Street, off Unthank Road.
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