The Soil Association Organic Fortnight, is the UK’s biggest celebration of all things organic. This year the Soil Association are encouraging us all to try something organic everyday.

Here’s a few ideas to get you started:

  1. Sign-up to an organic box scheme. Get local, seasonal and organic fruit and veg delivered straight to your doorstep, many are greatt value for money too.
  2. Cook fresh fruit and veg from scratch. Avoiding over packaged convenience foods is usually both healthier and cheaper. Have a scout round this (and other) blogs for some inspiration.
  3. Eat less meat, and when you do try lower cost cuts such as belly of pork or neck of lamb. Offal too can provide tasty nutritious meals. Get friendly with your local butcher for advice on cuts.
  4. Cook in bulk. Make meals in larger batches, use herbs and spices, and cheaper ingredients like tinned tomatoes or beans and pulses to bulk things out, and then freeze left over portions. This is a great way making less into more.
  5. Join or create an organic buying group. Bulk-buy your store cupboard staples with a group of friends at wholesale prices.
  6. Join or start your own local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) scheme in partnership with a local farmer. CSA is a partnership between farmers and the public where you make an annual investment for a share of the harvest and can prove great value for money 
  7. Grow your own, for the freshest, most local food you can get, right on your doorstep.
  8. Keep your own chickens and enjoy a great house pet and super fresh eggs every day.
  9. Write a shopping list. As a nation we we throw away 6.7 million tonnes of food every year. By planning meals in advance, buying what you need and not what you ‘fancy’, and using left-overs you should be able avoid the need to throw away any food at all, and save up to £50 a month
  10. Take a walk on the wild side. There’s plenty of free wild food available, and identifying and picking it is a great way of having fun outdoors so get foraging.

I buy organic as much as I can, believing it to be better for us in terms of the lack of chemicals even if the nutritional value isn’t all that much different.

What about you? Do you go for the organic option and why?

{ 2 comments }

August 26, 2010

Tate & Lyle Competition: The Winner is Announced!

Congratulations!! A winner of the Tate & Lyle competition was picked this morning using an online random selector. Congratulations to Wendy, I do hope you’ll get plenty of baking joy from this parcel of goods. Please email me your details and I’ll pass them on to Tate & Lyle who will dispatch the sugars direct.

Read the full article →
August 25, 2010

Pistachio Brownies

Cooking From The Hart I must admit I have never been a big fan of nuts in brownies. They’re usually included to provide a crunchy contrast to the brownies fudgy underbelly. But, a really good brownie is nice when it’s fudgy through and through and doesn’t need a contrast besides a glass of cold milk. [...]

Read the full article →
August 23, 2010

Cooking Made Simple [Review]

A couple of weeks back I was contacted by a local PR company who arranged for me to trial some products from Cooking Made Simple, a Loughborough based eatery and now (almost) nationwide delivery business. Everything arrived really well packaged and well insulated to keep the items cold. As someone who has studied food hygiene [...]

Read the full article →
August 17, 2010

Tate & Lyle [Competition]

It’s competition time again folks. This time it’s courtesy of Tate & Lyle, probably the UK’s most famous sugar company. Tate  & Lyle has committed to making its entire retail range 100% Fairtrade and  you can get most of their sugars in Waitrose and The Co-op and they are just  starting to sell their Fairtrade [...]

Read the full article →
August 17, 2010

Jerk Chicken

Food From The Rye I’m going to make an upfront confession, although I’m not sure how wise it really is to do so. Right, so, I got the craving for jerk chicken not from research or distant memories but, wait for it, from watching Peckham Finishing School for Girls. Now before you ask, that isn’t [...]

Read the full article →
August 16, 2010

Old Fashioned Lemon Bars

If Life Gives You Lemons … If life gives you lemons … make old fashioned lemon bars from Jim Fobel’s Old Fashioned Baking Book. Jim refers to these bars as a real taste of childhood. Well they weren’t a taste of mine, maybe that would have been different had I grown up across the pond [...]

Read the full article →
August 13, 2010

Cork Beef Pie

“The Only Thing to do with Good Advice is Pass it On” Oscar Wilde Clodagh McKenna’s Cork Beef Stew from The Irish Farmer’s Market Cookbook is a real favourite of mine and is a frequently made winter warmer of a dish. Generally I’d served a big bowl of it alongside some fluffy mashed potatoes or [...]

Read the full article →
August 11, 2010

Food Photography & Food Styling Tips

Working the Plate As food bloggers we have to take on the role of chef, writer, food photographer, food stylist and on top of that kitchen cleaner and pot washer. Quite a busy lot aren’t we? Food styling is a form of artwork in its own right. The job of a food stylist is to [...]

Read the full article →
August 10, 2010

English Cherries

“Whilst August yet wears her golden crown, Ripening fields lush- bright with promise; Summer waxes long, then wanes, quietly passing Her fading green glory on to riotous Autumn.” Michelle L. Thieme, August’s Crown Cherries are at their peek in July, but still a tremendous find in August. One of the delights of the summer, cherries [...]

Read the full article →
August 9, 2010

5 Minute Rose and Cardamom Chocolate Cake

The Baking Guru of Israel A few weeks back my fabulous and incredibly generous Israeli friend, Francesca, sent me a copy of Sweet Secrets by Carine Goren. Carine Goren is Israel’s best known pastry chef. According to my friend her book Sweet Secrets and accompanying television show of the same name were massive hits. So [...]

Read the full article →