| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Minamoo |
Funky things with wild foods.....I needed to make some foods involving wild things to sell to people after my walk tomorrow (no time to bring them home to cook and a picnic is more fun anyway) so after spending ridiculous amounts of money at the bead fair in Harrogate today and getting home at about 6, I started baking at about 7:40. So obviously I'm still at it cos my oven is carp and all I've done so far is the honey fungus and watercress pies. I ran out of pastry after making nine but I have enough filling for one more. I might get a bit of leftover pastry out of the fridge and make one non-vegan pie. I'm also experimenting with making sour cream and elderberry muffins. I have NO idea how they're going to turn out though. Fingers crossed! |
||||
| Jamanda |
I'm sure it will all be fine - I wish we lived near enough to come on one of your walks. | ||||
| Minamoo |
Do you think that £2.50 is a reasonable price for home made individual pies? They've been made in 12cm flan dishes. They're filled with a sort of bechamel base made with veg stock that's mixed into honey fungus, watercress, and well chopped blanched cauliflower (among other things!).
The muffins will be more like cupcakes in size. I'll be lightly spicing the batter and serving them with a lemon glace icing for people to dribble on top. and cos of the sour cream, they should be super moist. I was thinking of charging £1 each for those. Is that ok? I've never sold food before. 
|
||||
| Minamoo |
I HATE my bl***y oven. This is so unfair. I've been baking and stirring and whatnot for bl***y HOURS!!!!!!!! and the oven has gone and burnt the bases or the tops of 15 of the muffins so badly that there's no way I can sell them. And out of the ones that are left, anohter 5 or so are on the wrong side of sunburnt and I'm just praying that they won't actually taste burnt. I am doing NO MORE baking until I get a new oven. And the really annoying part is that some of these were supposed to be traded with Ren for sloes. And now all I can offer is burnt muffins.  Why does life have to be so unfair sometimes?
|
||||
| Bugs |
I don't know how much time you have before your walk but if it's this afternoon perhaps you could shave the muffins down to the unburned sponge and turn the whole thing in either chocolate, or glace icing - I think the first would be more reliable and if you used dark chocolate it might well be vegan. I am thinking like the Australian thing called Lamingtons which I always wanted to make:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamington For what it's worth I think those prices are fine (for the chocalatised verson you could round it up to £1.30 to cover your extra ingredients?) - rather cheap if you were selling them at an event but as an extra on your courses it's probably reasonable esp as you might be catering for students and others with their eye on the pennies. I don't know about the legalities of selling food though. Edited to add another suggestion for the misbehaving muffins - I'd seen recipes for cake crumb truffles before, which could be a nice touch for your wild food theme - can't vouch for this recipe but the poster says they use it regularly: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=115508&highlight=sponge You'll need to search the page for the word "sponge" as I can't make it link to the individual post. It uses 4oz cake and looks quite economical, might be less fuss than coating in chocolate. Good luck! |
||||
| marigold |
For the future instead of cooking, maybe you could create a small, nicely presented booklet of "Mina's Wildfood Recipes" - maybe just 2-3 sheets of A4 folded in half and stapled together. Cover page with your contact details, 4-6 recipes, foraging hints and tips on the back.
Once the initial effort/cost of setting it up is done, all you have to do is print off, fold and staple enough copies each time you do a walk. You could have different versions by season/type of food etc. Eventually you'll have written enough for a book without much effort... Not sure about pricing - £1.20 each? Don't forget to estimate costs. Ed. to say: No reason why you shouldn't cook as well as offer a recipe booklet, but having a booklet means you've always got something available to sell, even if you are too busy to cook (or have a disaster) 
|
||||
| Minamoo |
That is SUCH a good idea! Thank you so much! I don't think I have any chocolate in the house at the moment but I'll fiddle with the ones that are left when I get back from the walk. That way they're not a complete write off.
I have been thinking about this as people keep asking me if I've got a recipe book whenever I do the walks. I thought I might make it into my Christmas project so when I start my walks next year then I can have them. I've already written one called "How not to kill yourself when foraging" that covers a lot of simple to ID plants and fruits and even tells you exactly where to find them in Leeds. I'm going to update it at some point soon to add to the number of plants and change the name to "How Not to kill yourself when foraging for wild plants" so that I can also do one for mushrooms too. this one wouldn't have a list of where to find all of the individual mushrooms but would include a map of green spaces in Leeds that you could potentially find mushrooms in. At the moment I'm selling the plant book for £2 but there's a voucher at the back of the booklet for £1 off one of my wild food walks. |
||||
| marigold |
That sounds good - vouchers are a brilliant idea .
|
||||
| Ren |
Update on the food!Having been walked off our feet (again!), stuffed full of wild food pies, mushroom carbonara(?) home made ice cream, we have finally got back home and decided we MUST try the muffins.They taste great!! Ricky says he likes the crunchy bits on the bottom!! LOL (He is joking) |
||||
| Minamoo |
hehe. I'm glad you like the muffins. I'm going to use the swap sloes to make some ice cream. I think it would taste amazing. I have loads of melons too so I'm thinking of making a melon sorbet. This ice cream machine is going to be the end of me methinks! lol! | ||||
| sarahloo |
That all sounds yummy! I tried Elderberry muffins recently (thanks to a tip somewhere on DS) and they are fab! I just sprinkled the (frozen) berries into standard muffin mixture before baking - which is what I normally do with blackberries/raspberries etc. Must experiment with other wild berries and fruits too... | ||||
| Minamoo |
What I did was also put a heaped tablespoon of elderberry syrup into the batter itself. Mine contains no sugar whatsoever and is the consistency of very thick honey so pretty intensely elderberryey. I think they turned out pretty well even though they were a little sad (depressed..get it?  ) and slightly burnt.
|
||||
| Ren |
They weren't burnt enough not to be eaten - all of ours have gone - boooooo!! | ||||
| Minamoo |
Mine are on their way to "gone".  Saving some for when I go to Misdemeanor's so he can have some too. I just sat and counted how many people I'd had on my wild food walks and I realised that it's over 200 and quite possibly as many as 250!  How did that happen!?
Edited to add: because they're so cheap that some people* get triple counted in the stats!
You know who you are.....I'm beginning to think I should start a loyalty scheme just for you! One free walk with every 4 full price ones.
|