| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Jonnyboy |
River cottage springon now. channel 4 |
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| sean |
Is this new or just C&Ped together from old stuff? | ||||||
| Jonnyboy |
All new. | ||||||
| Mary-Jane |
We're watching it. | ||||||
| lottie |
Re: River cottage spring
Being taped--I'm feeling generous so O.H. is watching the football---hope it's worth the DVD time |
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| jocorless |
Well that was fun - Best piece of pure RC stuff I've seen in ages | ||||||
| Mrs Fiddlesticks |
perfect. And taking on Delia (the Queen of Cheaty Cooking) with a shepherds pie challenge was brilliant! 
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| RichardW |
Its on again on 4 + 1 | ||||||
| Rob R |
Re: River cottage spring
Why didn't you mention it earlier?  I've been at the farm 
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| Jonnyboy |
go to the channel 4 website and watch it at your convenience, or if you have a laptop in your convenience. | ||||||
| lottie |
Just watched the DVD---looks like our paddock behind the bungalow did 2 years ago---more of them to get on top of the brambles and we've only been here full time since last summer and much older---piece of cake for them 
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| Rob R |
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| Barefoot Andrew |
Recorded it... probs won't get to see it until next week.
A. |
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| Barefoot Andrew |
I hope he washed his hands before fingering his touchpad... A. |
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| Fee |
More importantly, afterwards!
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| bernie-woman |
I'm with Jo - I loved it 
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| Vic |
Me too! Particulary the veggie apprentice butcher...
The whole setting up an urban smallholding thing is just great. |
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| Fee |
Can't see it on Catch-Up No doubt it'll be repeated though 
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| Rob R |
I don't travel into big cities much but I am always surprised at how much waste ground there is in our cities that could be productive. We're not a hungry nation whilst they lie untended.
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| Behemoth |
They are usually owned, earmarked for development or potential resale for development and as such sitting tennants may be an inconvenience. Frustrating though. |
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| colour it green |
i missed it but it is being repeated on Sat ..apparantly.. | ||||||
| tahir |
Excellent, better remember to record it | ||||||
| Fee |
Yeah, I must remember to set a series link to record them all
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| Stewy |
It's repeated on More4 at 9pm tonight, have a look here.
http://www.rivercottage.net/tv/ |
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| twoscoops |
A perfect excuse for opening a bottle of Beaujolais on a Thursday. Can't wait. | ||||||
| LynneA |
Really enjoyed it.
One thing that occurred to me with regards to meat. I have almost always cooked "cheaper" cuts of meat, to the point I struggle when I have a more choice cut. I suspect that I'd casserole a minute steak 
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| wellington womble |
It's here - I'm going to watch it later.
http://www.channel4.com/video/river-cottage-spring/catchup.html?intcmp=watchpage_box1#popover |
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| ros |
and they tend to be cheaper cos noone else wants them. what if there is a sudden demand as the general pop learns more? thought the programme was great though |
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| alison |
Just finished watching it on sky+.
Excellent programme. Right back to the original style of RC. Loads of ideas again too, that I may have to see about putting in place. |
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| Blacksmith |
Caught most of it and Sky+ it.
Very good programme.
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| Barefoot Andrew |
Watched it last night - excellent.
Hugh's new head chef (what happened to Gil?) looks a bit like our Rob But doesn't sound like him...
A. |
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| alison |
I got the impression the new chef was from the shop, as Gil was still there, having cooked the lungs dish. | ||||||
| Treacodactyl |
He was in the show, making the lung stew IIRC. I think Hugh has more than one restaurant and quite a few staff these days. I'm not sure I watched the same programme as everyone else but I wasn't that impressed and it seemed a but badly done to me. One example was the asparagus, it was being planted too late as it shouldn't be shooting and the stuff they harvested seemed too far gone. Although I know Hugh's reason for trying to get his guest to eat liver, hearts and lungs if many meat eaters won't then it seemed a bit strange to get a veggie to eat it. Better than virtually anything else on TV but there's isn't much competition these days. |
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| Jon |
As far as im aware, Gill is alive and well and is still head chef at the RC HQ, Tim who was helping Hugh pick the asparagus is the head chef at the RC shop and canteen in Axminster. | ||||||
| Barefoot Andrew |
Ah. When I say "watched it" I mean the first 45 mins Ran short of time so I've still got the last bit to see...
A. |
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| James |
I'm sorry but I found it all a little smug and patronising.
I cant put my finger on exactly what I dont like about it...after all, I agree with what he's doing, but I just find him excrutiatingly smarmy and annoying. And I just can't help thinking that there's a massive organisational infrastrucutre layed on by C4 that is played down hugely in the final cut. I suppose I have the same love/hate relationship withHFW as I do with Jamie Oliver. I cant stand the man. If I met him, I'd probably whant to punch him, but he does make good food, and he has done a lot for the way the British eat. Which is good. I'm afraid I didnt get much from last night's RC. There was too much repition of the chicken campaign, and I felt it jumped about without actaully delivering any substance. I finished watching it feeling a little bored, empty, and a bit annoyed (a similar feeling to one I get after reading The Observer colour supliment). I ended up ranting about the rightious middle class 
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| lottie |
I've always had a healthy dose of cynicism about HFW---but I take from the programmes what is useful. | ||||||
| James |
yeh, thats what I try to do also (which was why I watched it, even though I knew it'd annoy me.). Not convinced I could take much from that program. And I'm sorry, but are they trying to tell us that a few hours work with a fork will get rid of all those bramble roots? |
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| Rob R |
I noticed that too. I think everything you really need (about the basics of smallholding/growing your own) is in the original River Cottage series. HFW has moved on to a different audience now & is tackling it in a different way, a lot of things have changed at River Cottage as an organisation, which is a lot of the reason why I rarely post over on the RC forum now. |
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| lottie |
We hacked/pangaed all our bramble overgrown paddock by hand with help of eldest son---sort of slash and burn then kept going over remains with a flail mower attatchment on the rotovator for a year to stop it growing back---rotovated enough of it for spuds now---but it isn't instant |
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| Stacey |
Me and my husband cleared vast be-brambled jungles with just a fork when we moved here. |
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| tahir |
Not even a full set of cutlery 
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| Stacey |
You casting nasturtiums on my hinterlekshul capacities? 
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| Jonnyboy |
Nah, he's slagging off your family silverwares.
Most people agree that HFW's books are far better than his TV. Take it for what it is. After all, as TD said, what's the competition? |
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| Quail By Mail |
Having watched it I'm still trying to get my head around the fat-ish girlie teenager who doesn't eat vegetables and runs away from HFW at the thought of nibbling anything green.
There's just something gross about someone without veg in their diet (exluding chips as 'veg' of course). So I'll be interested to see if RC can put her on the right course. |
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| Rob R |
I take it you've never seen the BBC3 programme Freaky Eaters? It's more common than you could ever imagine. 
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| Jonnyboy |
Rob's right. It's increasingly common. | ||||||
| Stacey |
Oh, here we go
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| Rob R |
Where we going? | ||||||
| Northern_Lad |
Camarthan. |
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| Stacey |
Down Groundhog Road by the look of it |
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| Rob R |
Carmarthen? |
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| Northern_Lad |
Probably both. They spell the same place lots of ways to try and confuse you, down here. |
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| Rob R |
I must have missed out on that trip. |
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| Northern_Lad |
Surely you remember it; just off Badger Baiting Lane. |
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| Rob R |
What's the postcode? I'll check it out on Google Earth. | ||||||
| Northern_Lad |
YO42 4PN | ||||||
| Rob R |
Nah, there's no sign of veggie-phobes anonymous down there. | ||||||
| Stacey |
Must be full of fat people then | ||||||
| Rob R |
That's not a very nice thing to say, a lot of those freaky eaters weren't particularly overweight ('specially not the one addicted to crisps). | ||||||
| Stacey |
No sh!t sherlock
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| Rob R |
Eh?
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| Stacey |
My original point was in response to the veg-phobic teenager being described as fat-ish.
a) I didn't think she was particularly fat-ish b) I've met fat vegans |
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| alison |
I agree Stacey.
In fact, I thought she looked quite normal, and had nice skin, in spite of not eating veg. |
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| Treacodactyl |
I'm just gutted I can't call the attractive vegetarian lady Hugh was trying to convert to meat 'pasty'. | ||||||
| Rob R |
Ah, thanks for the explanation, I didn't see that bit so I don't know (though I might try watching on 4od). | ||||||
| Stacey |
I particularly noticed her skin - it was lovely. |
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| Stacey |
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| Quail By Mail |
Of course non-veg eaters are a plenty but it's bound catch up with them sooner or later. I just feel they're missing out that's all, and I'm sure I'm not the only one for thinking it. | ||||||
| Rob R |
Just been watching some of it, will have to leave it for a while but one thing I don't think you can accuse Hugh of is preaching to the converted & that is probably why some of his early fans no longer follow his programmes with so much gusto- they are converted & he's not preaching to them anymore. |
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| Jonnyboy |
I didn't think the girl in question was fat. But I do see a lack of fresh fruit and veg in our diets as an increasing issue.
I don't know any kids who eat the same diet as ours, and I personally know one 5 year old who will not eat any fruit or veg who has been referred to a nutritionist by her schoolteacher. |
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| toggle |
I know the feeling, I've never met another kid that declares raw sprouts a treat. |
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| lottie |
My kids ate fruit and veg no problems, their kids eat fruit and veg, but having their friends to tea used to be a nightmare. It's the way you're brought up I think. | ||||||
| toggle |
There's a few things that are a matter of taste or genetics. Like the sensitivity to sulphur compounds that make brassicas inedible to some people.
There's also letting them choose their own tastes to a point, not turning it into a fight by not accepting that they have individual likes and dislikes. |
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| lottie |
Once you enter into a food fight with kids you're on a loser---I've never forced mine to eat anything---but I've never run about coaxing them to eat--- offering them different things --or let them snack on rubbish when they've left a meal. Kids appetites vary anyway but they soon learn to use food as a control thing if they;re bright---watched it with my sister in law and her girls. |
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| Jonnyboy |
I'll admit to lying about the kidney in a 'steak' pie to them.
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| Helen_A |
DS likes raw sprouts - but will kill for fresh raw broccolli. I've got him interested in Asparagus atm as well. Helen_A |
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| Rob R |
I think there are two main issues there, one being the lack of fresh fruit & veg to many people, a child may never have encountered veg as anything but processed frozen or tinned stuff. I feel quite fortunate to have had that as part of my growing up.
Secondly, and I'm thinking of friends & relatives children who maybe don't eat so well here, is the choice they are given as to what they are allowed to eat, which is not always a good thing. It gets them into habits before they've reached an age where they can really evaluate, and then those early choices continue into adulthood. |
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| toggle |
There's choices and choices, there's giving a kid a choice to eat crisps for breakfast if they want to and giving them a quid to pick a scoop of their choice of fruit from the market. | ||||||
| Rob R |
I agree, she wasn't at all fat, just had a decent sized rear end on her.
Also true, fat's more easily laid down in the body as a result of simple CHO's, like glucose, than from more complex animal fats, so it doesn't matter wether they eat veg or not. People who do eat less fresh fruit & veg (and more meat that itself hasn't eaten any fresh veg) will have fewer of the antioxidants & beneficial fats in their diet that help prevent a lot of nasty diseases in the longer term. As for the vegetarian, having only seen the latter half the other night, I thought she might have been coerced by Hugh into being the butcher's assistant, but she seemed to be all for it! (And we all know that reformed vegetarians make for better people than life-long ominvores ).
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| Rob R |
Exactly. I was given a choice, but it was the choice within food groups, rather than between them (often because there wasn't always 'packet' food in the house). |
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| lottie |
When my youngest came to the market with me he loved choosing a treat for himself to eat---usually fresh lychees if there were any[imported I know but what the heck] or cherries--TBH stuff I didn't buy a lot of 'cos they were usually pricey. |
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| wellington womble |
Trouble is there are more to convert than are converted. I felt the programme jumped around a bit too, but having not watched much lately, I'm not used to dynamic media! I think as a child, I only ate carrots and peas in the vegetable department - I loathed salad and fruit, and still do - but I have hugley expanded the range of vegetables that I eat, becaase I have the choice to choose my own. Giving kids a choice of vegetables is a good thing, allowing them to choice whether they eat them at all is not fair - it's a choice they aren't equipped to make yet. |
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| Rob R |
Exactly! Without knowing how it came across to complete newbies (who perhaps don't even know someone who is already into it, and I presume who he is at least trying to appeal to), it's hard to judge. One effect it has had though is River Cottage Diaries! Nothing for ages and then two sold in one day!
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| lottie |
My kids usually had more than one kind of veg on their plate---they either ate them or they didn't[usually they did] no comment or nagging-- mealtimes are supposed to be enjoyable---but when you've 5 kids they can't all pick and choose what veg they want[nor can husbands ] what was on the plates tended to be whatever was seasonal---homes aren't restaurants. Fruit was different---they could choose and help themselves to whatever was in the fruit bowl. My husbands sister used to end up cooking different things for everyone----and I used to dread them coming for a meal they were all so picky.
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| thos |
I was hugely impressed with the trailer C4 is putting out. | ||||||
| Fee |
This week's episode is on shortly
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| jocorless |
I've got 2 that love raw sprouts! |
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| Jonnyboy |
It's enjoyable. But for the 'very converted' it appears to have come full circle and then some. Perpetual spinach, signal crayfish...
Enjoyed the bees though. Will really have to get some, and pigs, and that polytunnel. Time for a mortgage top up.
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| Stacey |
I find myself enjoying it but then I find I like most things that HFW does. He doesn't irk or offend me in the way that some other 'slebs wif a message' do. It feels as though he has integrity - hope I'm right. | ||||||
| Rob R |
Wow. I'm impressed Hugh bashing has become quite a Downsizer passtime.
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| Stacey |
Has it? He just seems very straightforward to me - no gimmicks, no bling. What is it he's criticised for?
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| tahir |
Primarily because he's a businessman (not a negative in my view), I spoke to him last year about involvement in a not for profit project and he was very excited about it, unfortunately it never happened. He seemed a nice bloke to me. | ||||||
| Rob R |
Being smug & middle class, I think (not that I think that is what he is, that's what I think he's criticised for). | ||||||
| Stacey |
Whilst I agree he's defintely middle class (upper middle by the sound of him I don't find him smug or patronising in any way. I find the way he talks to all sorts of people to be very open and 'equal'. Still, that's just my point of view
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| Stacey |
I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder about ethical 'business' people but I expect it's just jealousy. |
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| jocorless |
I just love that Hugh keeps doing what Hugh does - Its a bit slicker these days because he's got a much better team around him but the core message is still the same - It has always been about basically making the countryside pay for itself without compromising on ethics standards of food production.
He is a lovely guy - what you see on the telly is more or less what you get in the flesh and he has changed a lot of peoples attitudes to food over the years including I suspect many of us here |
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| Rob R |
I don't find him at all offensive or patronising, he's an obliging enough chap (when you consider the kind of demands people must put on him& the way other 'celebs' are). He's not perfect, but who is? OK I have one gripe with him- I 'discovered' EtRC when I should have been revising, so I blame Hugh for my educational failings 
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| Jonnyboy |
Hugh, via ACOTWS, ETRC and more importantly the RCCB has been hugely inspirational in my conversion to a downsizery existance. I don't think I'll ever stop recognising that. Or that his impact on someone he doesn't know exists won't be undervalued.
But that doesn't say that constructive criticism shouldn't be given where due, or that we can recognise that as a lot of people are well down 'the road to river cottage' his message will become increasibly less relevent to us |
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| Fee |
Well hopefully he's converting some more people just discovering his programmes as we type 
I have to admit, he does irk me a little bit sometimes these days, since Chicken Out really, he irked me a lot in that. |