Food self-sufficiency is not boring | Episode 7

Подписаться 1,9 тыс.

Просмотров 2,2 тыс.

50% 1

Episode 7: What’s for dinner? Not a question that gets asked in this series really as the answer doesn’t change very often. Do we end up taking our food for granted because we know we can walk into a supermarket and buy anything from anywhere in the world at any time of the year? Max says emphatically yes. Is a diverse menu important? Is variety the spice of life? Not necessarily.
____________________________________
About This Series
Formerly known as 'No Milk Today', this channel is dedicated to a total food self-sufficiency project. Max aims to spend a year from September 2022 to September 2023 only eating and drinking food produced on his small farm in the South West of England - and only allowing himself two imports - salt and tap water.
This series was adapted for BBC Radio 4, available from April 22nd 2024
www.bbc.co.uk/...
Produced by Tessa Browne
About Max
Max Cotton is a British television journalist who has worked as a reporter at BBC News in Westminster since 1995. In 2012 he left the world of politics to spend more time on his smallholding in Glastonbury but still occasionally writes and presents news and documentaries on Radio 4. He is best known for his work on BBC1’s Politics Show between 2003 and 2012.
Find us on
Instagram / maxgrowingsolo
Twitter / maxmaxcotton
Facebook / maxwellsrantnomilktoday
____________________________________
Music Credits:
California Dreamin' - The Mamas and the Papas (Cover) - Performed by Harry Cotton
No Milk Today - Herman's Hermits (Cover) - Performed by Harry Cotton

Опубликовано:

15 окт 2024

Ссылка:

Скачать:

Готовим ссылку...

Добавить в:

Мой плейлист

Посмотреть позже

Комментарии : 32

@johnathanwitts3911 Год назад

Spot on, superb on all counts. Highlighting how our approach to food production changed.

@LizZorab Год назад

Really enjoyed this video. Keep them coming!

@MaxGrowingSolo Год назад

Thanks Liz. Likewise. Max

@MonksModernMedievalCuisine Год назад

Fabulous 14th-century barn! Very interesting observations, as always.

@MaxGrowingSolo Год назад

Thanks for taking the time to comment. Stunning isn’t it? All the best. Max

@MaxGrowingSolo Год назад

Are we used to having too much choice when it comes to food? Latest episode out now.

@gregmellor3012 Год назад

I have thought exactly the same when preparing some fruit for my daughter today. The strawberries and raspberries are only that by name, the flavour just isn’t there compared to what we can grow ourselves. As well as the environmental impact, I’m sure this choice is what helps push up the cost of our shopping bills.

@Diniecita Год назад

@@gregmellor3012I agree they have no flavor. Years ago I decided that grocery store tomatoes had no flavor and stopped buying them. I don’t miss them. I grow my own every year. I am trying to eat more seasonally every year but it does take careful planning.

@gregmellor3012 Год назад

@@Diniecita tomatoes are on my list to grow plenty of next year. In their raw form I hate them, but they’re in just about every sauce/curry base that I love so that’s what I’ll be doing with them

@rubygray7749 Год назад

I just love what you're doing, too. It is obscene that we in cold climates hanker after tropical delights, and highly processed fare, when the potatoes, veg, fruit, eggs, dairy and maybe meat that we are able to produce ourselves, from garden to table in minutes or hours, boasts moan-out-loud flavour that is so much more fulfilling. That museum is wonderful. I have a marvellous old 2-bucket milker, a 1946 model, that still works beautifully. I made my own cheese press, a beautiful thing, the old style wooden lever with notches from which hangs a weight that is multiplied by the distance from the wall-mounted end. A notch on the underside of the lever sits on the acute peak of a wooden block which transfers the required pressure onto the wooden disc follower. Your cheeses look delicious. Edible at every stage. A subtly different taste and texture from one day to the next. Now THAT is variety worth having!! And your ingredient was milk!

@MaxGrowingSolo Год назад

Your cheese press sounds much better than mine. Ours. Is made from an old bit of 9 inch drain pipe and a couple of bits of ply pressed together with rebar and nuts. No idea what the pressure on it is. Long live all self supporters Ruby. Best wishes, Max

@yorkshirenome Год назад

I just wanted to say how much I'm enjoying these episodes and finding them really interesting. I feel the same way going to the supermarket, although I don't have much experience of growing my own food. It makes me so sad that we've come to accept it as normal that all types of fruit & veg are available all year round, and that everything comes highly packaged. You're inspiring me to think what I can be doing to just make even a tiny mark on how I eat, and if we all did the same perhaps we would be in a better place!

@MaxGrowingSolo Год назад

Thanks so much for your message. I’ve been banging on about this for so long decided I wanted to do something about it. Really grateful for your feedback. Best wishes, Max

@ellefiero5161 Год назад

You are covering so many of the subjects I've been mulling over about our food for ages now. In particular, the surfeit of choice, and how does that really benefit us? It certainly doesn't benefit the environment. Quality suffers when consumers insist on out of season foods on a regular basis.

@MaxGrowingSolo Год назад

thanks for you comments and sorry it’s taken me so long to reply. I guess the test for me is going to be the next few months when my choice really is going to plummet. Roll on the spring. Happy New Year. Max

@heidicouture2584 Год назад

Another great episode. I do agree Max that we are beyond spoilt for choice in supermarkets, but in the end it all feels a bit watered down, doesn't it? I love the concentrated flavors of 'Home' wherever that is. Also Max, I can see a major difference in your skin and health! This project is healthy in so many ways. Great work and enjoy your Christmas Gammon! Happy Christmas to the whole Cotton Brood! Hxx

@MaxGrowingSolo Год назад

Ah thanks Heidi. Hope all’s well. Max

@oddthreadz2789 Год назад

Fantastic, you are definitely showing what can be done by using food products that are not only in season but local too. Here our food options, for fresh anyway, is a bit limited as we are under snow and ice but even then we can still eat a lot of our own with planning. Everyone needs to show the supermarkets that we do not want insipid tomatoes in December but would rather wait til they are in season and the flavours are amazing, it's a long shot but would be wonderful.

@MaxGrowingSolo Год назад

I do think it would be much harder with a more severe climate. I’m sort of getting that feeling with the cold weather we are having. Veg that is still in the ground here and that is normally fine over winter - are really struggling - liKe leeks and swedes/turnips. -7.3 is proving really tough for them. Glad you are enjoying it. All the best, Max

@Diniecita Год назад

YES. Tomatoes from the store are just nasty and have no flavor. I don’t buy them anymore. I grow my own and can what I can and thats all we have.

@Diniecita Год назад

@@MaxGrowingSoloIm in Minnesota in the states. We are in winter now. The ground is getting closer to freezing each day. Nothing will be able to be picked until May. If it didn’t get picked and put up you are out of luck. Potatoes keep a while and meat in the freezer for sure. i can a lot from my garden every year. I am really enjoying the snapshot into your world.

@MaxGrowingSolo Год назад

Gosh it must get really cold with you. We are really lucky in rainy old England that if we do get hard frosts like we have at the moment they don’t last too long. I haven’t canned/bottled much for this project - mainly because I find the jars so expensive. Best wishes for your winter. Max

@englishhomestead Год назад

We are spoilt for choice, but I'm sure if you had given them (the peasants in the past) a wider range of foods to grow they would of. Having variety in what we grow to eat really is a game changer when it comes to potential crop failure and having other things to take it place. I also think we get set into ruts when it comes to food, when I read about potage and some of the wild greens and other things they would have added to it, I'm sure they knew how to keep themselves healthy, and like you say it would have been very seasonal. I'll often cook a meal and we have the same things two nights on the trot, my children think this is perfectly normal thankfully. Lets me batch cook it without having to preserve it in between.

@MaxGrowingSolo Год назад

What I think is really hard, which Medieval English peasants had to do without is tomatoes, peppers, squashes, chillis and potatoes. They are just about my go to vegetables. We are all for eating leftovers too. Hope you are managing in the cold. Cheers, Max

@englishhomestead Год назад

@@MaxGrowingSolo yes, I'm all about the potato, I can happily have it everyday of the week. I wonder if swede would have been the go to root veg for stews and things. I do love a good swede and say we'd eat one a week through the winter months. I guess ou taste buds have changed massively as well, turnips often taste bitter to me and I know they would have been quite a big crop to eat (I mean if blackadder taught me anything it's that....)

@MonksModernMedievalCuisine Год назад

@@englishhomestead Hope you don't mind me butting in. Just to answer your question about swede. In England, they weren't around in the medieval period, though they were culivated in medieval Italy. They started to be cultivated in Germany and Scandinavia 16th/17th centuries, I understand. Turnips were grown in medieval England. There's a pottage of turnips in King Richard II's cookery book, which dates to c.1390.

@englishhomestead Год назад

@@MonksModernMedievalCuisine I don't mind at all. That's really interesting, but I feel for them with no swede and no potatoes! I can see why grain was so popular!

@MonksModernMedievalCuisine Год назад

@@englishhomestead I'd struggle without potatoes! I like swede, too.

@sharonholmshaw6541 Год назад

Hi Max, what does the Sodium Nitrite do to the bacon? Thanks

@MaxGrowingSolo Год назад

It’s supposed to stop the development of bugs in preserved meat. Thanks for your comment. Ma

@elizabethm5794 Год назад

Having so much choice all the time actually ruins the enjoyment of things. Fresh strawberries are so much more delicious in the spring when you have gone without them the rest of the year. Cakes and sweet treats on holidays are more meaningful when they are the exception and not the rule. Eating with the seasons means that there is always something to look forward to.

@MaxGrowingSolo Год назад

I totally agree!