The Seed Truck - planting the seed of a better food system – is a brand new project for the Fife Diet which will take the ideas of local eating and food self-suffiency out on the road to communites across the country. It will be packed with heritage varieties of plants and trees, high quality seed stock and kit for demonstrating local eating & cooking. We’ll be offering a menu of workshops from permaculture to build-a-bed, to soil improvement, wild food walks and more, including special activities for pre-school children. The truck will be fuelled by recycled chip-fat oil demonstrating the need for innovation around food waste and transport. It’s a great opportunity for us to work with WWF Scotland.

WWF Scotland Dr Richard Dixon said:

“We are delighted to win this funding from the People’s Postcode Trust’s Dream Fund for the Seed Truck. This is the start of a really exciting project to promote a sustainable food revolution across Scotland.  These changes will help reduce the environmental impact of the choices we make around what we eat and where it comes from. “

Here’s the publishers blurb on Joanna’s  ‘What to Eat?’:

“So how can we eat well without waste, expense and ethical dilemmas? In this inspiring, practical guide award-winning journalist Joanna Blythman addresses all of these issues and more to help you buy food that’s good in the broadest sense of that word: food that is healthy and affordable and which doesn’t trash the environment; food that doesn’t exploit producers or cause unnecessary animal suffering, and last but not least, food that tastes great. She explains how to save money in the supermarket and elsewhere, how to use up every bit of food, from stale bread to old veg and how to improve your diet as well as your finances.

Packed with brilliant ideas for choosing lovely, wholesome meat, fish and veg and quick, easy suggestions for cooking them well, without compromising your principles or emptying your purse, this is the modern manual for eating well in the twenty-first century.”

Irish super-cook Darina Allen said of it: ‘A succinct and badly needed encyclopaedia of facts and common sense on food and nutrition for which I am truly grateful. The introduction alone is worth the price of the book.’

To win your book send us a paragraph on what you love about being on the Fife Diet.
Email us at mike@fifediet.co.uk

The top 5 responses will get a book sent out.

1/2 lb self raising flour

1/4 lb brown sugar

1 block of  shredded suet

1 tblsp mixed spice

1 tblsp ground ginger

1/4 lb raisins

1/4lb currants

1/4 lb sultanas

1 tblsp treacle

caster sugar for dusting

• Put the flour, spices, sugar and treacle in a bowl and mix with the milk until soft.
• Dip a large tea towel into boiling water, then drain well and lay out flat on a table. Sprinkle with flour and then sugar, you need an even but not thick layer. Place the mixture in the middle of the cloth, then bring the ends up and tie them together securely with string, allowing a little room for expansion.
• Place on a heatproof plate in a large saucepan. Top up with enough boiling water just to cover the pudding, then put a lid on the pan and simmer gently for 3 3/4- 4 hours.
• Check the water level occasionally and top up if necessary.
• Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas4. Wearing oven gloves remove the pudding from the pan and dip it briefly into a pan of cold water. Cut the string, untie the cloth and invert the dumpling to an ovenproof plate. Place in the oven for 10-15 minutes, just until the skin feels less sticky. Sprinkle with the caster sugar and serve hot with custard.

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 1 hour

Ingredients

1 tbsp oil or butter

i medium onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1/2 tsp of ground ginger

1/4 tsp chilli flakes

75g barley

500g mixed veg such as potatoes, turnip and carrots, peeled and diced

1.2 litre vegetable stock

125g curly kale, hard stems removed and leaves shredded

1 small bunch of fresh parsley, chopped

salt and freshly ground black pepper

• Heat the oil or butter and gently fry the onion and garlic for 5 minutes until it softens.
• Add the barley and vegetables (not the kale), stir to combine.
• Add the stock, salt and pepper, spices and bring to the boil. Simmer for around 40 mins or until veg and barley have softened.
• Add the shredded kale, cook for a further 15 mins, adjust seasoning , add chopped parsley and enjoy.

50g smoked bacon, cut into small “lardons” (Puddledub sells them)

2 leeks, diced

400g Arborio rice

125ml dry white wine

1.5 litre chicken stock

salt and ground black pepper

1 tblsp oil

50g grated Anster cheese

• Heat the stock to boiling point and keep just simmering.
• In a heavy based pan melt the butter over a medium heat and add the diced bacon. Cook until lightly browned. Add the leek and cook gently until softened.
• Add the rice and stir well through to coat with all the ingredients.
• Pour in the wine and stir constantly until it has been absorbed. Now begin to add the stock, a ladle at a time, stirring constantly. Make sure that all the liquid is absorbed before you add the next ladle. The rice should be tender but still firm to the bite. Add water, if you run out of stock before this point is reached.
• Take off the heat and stir in the oil and cheese.

3 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced

3 shallots, peeled and sliced

5 crushed juniper berries

fresh rosemary

2 bay leaves

sprigs fresh thyme

350ml red wine

oil

• Get your game dealer to remove the bone from the leg and place it (the meat!) in a large bowl. Keep the leg for stock.
• Mix the shallots, garlic and herbs with the red wine and crushed juniper berries.
• Pour over the haunch and rub in turning the meat over to give a good coating. Cover and put in a cool place turning and pouring the liquid over the meat every so often..
• Leave for at least 24 hours or up to 48.
• 4 hours before you are ready to bbq, bring the meat up to room temperature. Then dry off the marinade and brush with the oil. Bbq on a high heat browning all over then if you can reduce the heat slightly to cook for a further 20 minutes turning over occasionally.
• Allow to rest for 5 minutes before carving. Serve with hot pepper jelly.

seasoned flour

oil

200g/ 8oz mushrooms, cut in quarters

1 onion

25g/ 1oz butter

2tsp tomato puree

200ml stock

• Cut the heart into approx 2cm chumks.
• Heat a large heavy based pan and add a little oil, lightly coat the heart chunks in the flour and fry until browned in the pan. Place in a casserole pan.
• Add the mushrooms with a little butter and colour.  Add to the casserole. Fry the chopped onions in the pan and colour slightly, then stir in the tomato puree and stock. Bring to the boil and pour onto the meat in the casserole.
• Top up to almost covering and add a tsp fresh chopped rosemary, bring to the boil and place in an oven at 150C/ 300F/ Gas 2 for 3 hours until tender.

2 thick slices of good bread

2 tblsp Dijon Mustard

2 tblsp red wine vinegar

100ml oil

4 large handfuls of Kale

Cut the bread into slightly larger squares than the bacon. Whisk the mustard, vinegar and most of the oil with salt and pepper to form a dressing. In a frying pan cook the bacon bits in a little oil, over a high heat, as they start to colour add the cubes of bread and cook until crisp.

Using only the crispest, curliest brown edge free bits of kale tossed in a bowl with the dressing.

Add the bacon and croutons and toss through.

Is it something fancy or plain? Is it a great example of Fife Dietery or has it all gone a bit pear-shaped?

Here’s the space to share ideas, ‘fess up and ask for advice…

A sell-out crowd heard from The Forgotten Works (congratulations to stand-in violinist Nick Wilding) and King Creosote who put in a storming performance. You can hear more of King C here.

Special thanks go to Stuart McLuckie, Geordie and Irene at Cellardyke Hall, plus  Sadhbh, Tariq, Laura and Jo.

There’s details of the project in Niger which helps small-scale farmers affected by climate change that we were raising money for here.