If the list of ingredients looks like a chemistry lesson then...

This Last week for me has been very busy. The demands on my time are coming quite thick and fast. Some of these I will detail in latter postings. However there are two instances that I want to tell you folk about. Firstly, as I previously said I bought a new computer and have been busy setting this up. As I have needed to add hardware and software, I do this an item at a time test it before adding the next bit. This is far more time consuming than just putting it all together and hopping for the best. It has and does pay off in the long run.

However, this meant that I had lots of spare time to sit and watch the birds as they come and visit my yard. This occurred at the same time as the snows came, so I was able to see that my efforts were really worthwhile.

Then as I was awaiting the computer load some software, I went off to make some tea. On returning I suddenly realised that a Sparrow hawk was perched on the power line that runs parallel to my property. I rushed downstairs for the camera but it had gone by the time I got back, but it had been only twenty feet from my window, a real treat.

However, it doesn't end there, while out and about I missed seeing the bird again.
I had returned and noticed that two of the fat balls had been pulled off and were laying broken open on the ground. I presumed by the jackdaws, this wasn't deterring the birds as they were still feeding on them where they lay on the floor. Then a day or so latter I bumped into one of my neighbours who told me that they had seen a bird of prey, that had swooped in and (they think) took a small bird. This could be the explanation of how the fat balls were felled. As they were securely tied I had been surprised to see them on the ground. I would have loved to have seen this, but I cant be everywhere.

This has made me look carefully at where I am positioning the food so that I am not providing a bird table for the hawks.

It just shows that doing just a little can help a lot.

The other thing I wanted to talk about is food. Following the programmes on the food we are having foisted upon us, I have been even more careful about what I am buying. While I am pretty clued up, even I was appalled and revolted by what I was discovering. When I did my shopping last week I took more time to look to see if I could avoid all the foods where the practices of the food industry are unethical and unhealthy. That day I found that by avoiding the products that I would not want to eat, my bill at the checkout was seventy five percent lower.

This got me thinking, was it possible that by buying and eating ethically was cheaper?

As I had a receipt from a previous big shopping trip, this is an unexpected advantage of using reusable bags, and I looked to see if I could buy similar goods without compromising ethics and not breaking the bank either. For example, pasta that contain what is called the hidden egg. These are the broken eggs that come from battery farms. They cant be sold but go into ninety percent of the foods that contain egg. While I support free range by buying free range eggs, it looks as though I have for years been unwittingly supporting unethical farming via these products.

Additionally I wanted to avoid eating anything that was “mucked about”. I do try and eat healthy foods, so the products that are supposed to be more healthy will appear in my shopping basket. But as was shown in these programmes, most of these are still full of salt and sugar. Not only that the fats in them are far from healthy, and in the UK at least, the labelling regulations enable them to hide all the crap, more from what they don't say. While I have known for a long time that we need to read between the lines on labels, it became clear that no matter how aware you are, you can still be fooled. Therefore I am now adopting the simple rule; if the list of ingredients looks like a chemistry lesson then I am not going to buy it. On that principal I will stop buying the instant soups that you make in a mug. Looking at the ingredients in one of them, made me realise just what garbage is in them. Further, as I enjoy making soups, why not go back to what I used to do and make a big pan full when the veg is cheap and freeze some for latter.

Well I following my chemistry free approach, and I saved myself thirty five percent on my grocery bill. It has meant that I have to spend a little more time in the kitchen, but it is still fast food and I doubt that I have spent more than an extra hour in the kitchen this week. And part of that extra time has been spent cooking something special anyway.

What I did that was a bit special was as the result of actively seeking out a decent butchers. The one in the village is not that brilliant, and while the one that I had been using in Consett is reasonable, there is a lack of choice and variety. I don't understand how or why anyone would want to limit what they are prepared to eat, but locally it seems that folks will stick with eating the same limited foods day in day out. Therefore, I went looking for a better butcher, and I think I have found what I wanted.

I have two ways of telling a good butcher, the first is one that makes his (that's not being sexist its just that most butchers are men) own sausages. And if they have offal or the less popular cuts of meat available. It was the discovery that they had an ox tail available that prompted me cooking a large pan, three litres, of oxtail soup.

I also got some of the sausages, Lamb and mint, and they were a wonderful flavour. What's amazing is that a real butcher is cheaper than the supermarket anyway, and the quality is normally superior to the supermarkets anyway.

So it looks as though even with my time pressures this week, cooking and eating a healthy ethical diet is cheaper than the supermarkets would have us believe.