Picture courtesy of Leeds Market

Coconut Milk Yogurt

Bad news about soya (environmental and health issues) is piling up like a week’s worth of dirty washing. But what can vegans, and people who want alternatives to dairy, replace it with?

At this year’s Natural and Organic Products Show in London, it was obvious that coconut- everything from coconut oil and flour to milk and water- is becoming the thinking person’s dairy alternative. It is currently feted as the richest source of medium chain fatty acids, but modern science is only just beginning to map all the nutritional benefits of the coconut.

In tropical countries where coconut trees grow, coconut is traditionally known as a supremely nutritious food. In Sri Lanka, I was told that coconut water can be used in hospital as an alternative to a drip, thanks to its excellent rehydrating properties. And the environmental back story is good too. Coconut trees are traditionally grown in a highly sustainable way, a linchpin in permaculture-style, small scale farming. Every product and by-product of the tree is put to good use.

I don’t avoid dairy, but I do have a soft spot for coconut. Virgin coconut butter/oil has become a staple in my kitchen. Now I am happy to have discovered CoYo, the new coconut milk yogurt that’s made in East Sussex. I tasted it gingerly, but there was no need. I liked it instantly for its winning combination of coconut milk creaminess and sharp, clean probiotic cultures. It’s thickened with tapioca starch, which gives it an agreeable volume in the mouth, and a very restrained amount of xylitol (a sweetener derived from tree bark), but it barely tastes sweet. The natural one is delightful, the raw dark chocolate one makes a healthier, yet satisfying substitute for a toothsome dessert and the Alfonso mango pulp version is dreamy.

In short, CoYo feels like a bit of a breakthrough.

Abergavenny Food Festival

I’m already looking forward to the weekend of 15 and 16 September, and the 2012 Abergavenny Food Festival.

Food festivals are proliferating, doubtless a good thing, but no other yet rivals this veteran. Its winning character is something to do with the way the festival takes over the centre of the town, rambling in and out of market halls and yards and snaking down the main street, showcasing one interesting food producer after another. About 200 of them, to be precise.

That, and of course, and it’s unerring good judgement when it comes to putting together a line-up of stimulating speakers, debaters and demonstrators. This year, it includes some of the brightest lights of the culinary world, such as Claudia Roden, Pierre Koffman and Yotam Ottolenghi (opposite).

On top of that, you have street-food chef cook-offs, ‘Rude Health’ rants at Speakers’ Corner, a Children’s Food Academy, plus chef demonstrations featuring the region’s finest.

And, how civilised, all children under 16 get in for free.

I’ll be speaking in the Festival debate- Do We Still Need The High Street?- on Saturday15th at 6.00pm. On Sunday 16th September
at 12.30pm you’ll find me in conversation about my latest book, What to Eat, with Simon Wright.

Tickets online at www.abergavennyfoodfestival.com or call 01873 850805. 

Bitter Seeds: How GM crops are driving Indian farmers to suicide

Warning: director Micha Peled’s moving film exposing the myth that GM can feed the world may make you very angry.

Manjusha Amberwar hopes to get her first article published in the local paper. Taking her first step as a journalist is not easy for the village girl, whose entire family opposes her ambition, and the topic of her article provides even less reason for joy. Her father was one of the many Indian cotton farmers who have committed suicide. She hopes that by drawing attention to their plight, she can bring an end to this epidemic, but it won't be easy. Many farmers switched to genetically modified seeds produced by the American company Monsanto, and the drawbacks proved to be manifold. In contrast to the supposed benefits, the costs for fertilizer and pesticides turned out to be far higher than before. What's more, the seeds require more water, and the farmers are rain-dependent in an arid area, so they rarely grow a large crop.

You can watch the trailer for the film here:

http://www.idfa.nl/industry/tags/project.aspx?id=4f0dd106-373b-47c6-87da-12a21265a3b4

CROP FOR THE SHOP

Now here’s a good idea. Big Barn the local food website, has come up with a Crop For The Shop scheme. If you are a small grower, or even just a keen gardener with a seasonal glut, you can take along your surplus courgettes, plums or whatever to shops participating in the scheme and they will sell them for you. Crop For The Shop is catching on fast in community shops and other small indie outlets because it helps them source more local fresh produce and encourages people to grow food and make money from any surplus. By cutting out the middle men, the scheme delivers really fresh fruit and vegetables that are cheaper than the supermarket.

John Briffa’s brilliant new book: Escape The Diet Trap

I am relishing this phenomenal, science-based demolition of the bankrupt diet and ‘healthy eating’ advice that’s been churned out by the nutrition establishment for the last fifty years. Why dieting is a total waste of time. Why fat is not the enemy. The ‘slimming’ foods that actually encourage you to put on weight. Why you should base your eating on time-honoured unprocessed foods, not the low-cal junk that fills food industry coffers. A really important book.

Coffee grown by women

It’s a hard fact  of life that women around the world around do lots of the work growing our food, but don’t have much to show for it. A gross calumny on the male sex, I know, but hand over a pay packet to women, and there’s a good chance that most of it will get spent wisely. The same sum in male hands all to often gets squandered down the local equivalent of the pub. Evidence shows that  where women control household income, family health, nutrition and education improves at a faster rate because less money is spent outside the household.

Now my favourite Fairtrade company, Equal Exchange, is pioneering a new style of doing business that puts the revenues from trade directly into women’s pockets. Its elegant, smooth-drinking, organic Ugandan Gumutindo Arabica coffee is exclusively from women in farmer-run co-ops, so improving their status and capacity for independent action. The coffee positively leaps out at you from the shelf with its eye-catching and engaging stickers that read ‘Women Farmers Grew This Coffee’. A great new direction for Fairtrade and an exciting new product whose marketing pitch will definitely resonate with female consumers up and down the land.