It has been a very long time since I posted a blog here, good people of the internets. I do hope you're all well. I just thought I’d stop by and share a recent venture with you, a ‘sustainable’ dinner party hosted by my fine flatmate Debbie and I last Tuesday, March 20th.
Our flat, the Den, had previously hosted a couple of successful themed dinner parties, a Christmas Dinner and a Burns Night Supper. And now another meal was called for, said our hungry friends. But what should it be at this time of year? An Easter dinner party seemed a bit premature...
After a little deliberation the plan became to have a dinner party with the lowest carbon footprint possible. How hard could it be?
Ha!
Well that would be decided by what makes a low carbon meal. A little time spent on the internet and it was deemed that such a dinner would have various aims. Forgive me for forgetting where I got these from. My student days of accurate sourcing abilities have faded, I'm afraid.
Anyway, we would attempt to 'minimise emissions related to production, packaging, processing, transport, preparation and waste' by serving food that was not 'industrial meat, dairy, overly packaged or processed' (so local farm-bought is fine - though still better to avoid cows, right?)
Instead, we should aim to eat locally grown and seasonal food. We should also reduce waste through proper portion sizing, recycling packaging and composting scraps such as potato peelings.Of course, some things would be easier to achieve and therefore would make for obvious successes. For instance, all our guests walked to the Den and walked home again. But that’s largely because we live close to each other in a city it’s safe to walk in. Still, no carbon miles accumulated there.
Other aspects were harder. It turns out March is a pretty poor time to attempt a seasonal meal – it’s a time for planting, not for harvesting. The BBC’s ‘In Season’ recipe section is also quite unhelpful, in so far as what it classifies as ‘in season’ does not mean ‘in the UK’. But despite these hurdles, I think we came up with a pretty tasty menu.
To start, we had soup. It was supplied from leftovers from my awesome workplace, Union of Genius, which avoided waste there. First points, kerching! We had caldo verde, a chunky chorizo, kale, potato and garlic number. Alongside it there was a bit of poppyseed bread, which was also left over. The bread came from local artisan baker Dough Re Mi, so that’s another wonderful local business supported.
For the main we came up with fish and chips. Sea bass are supposedly ‘in season’ at the moment so a chum was dispatched to one of the city’s best fishmongers, Eddie’s Seafood, to get us some. We baked it in the oven with lemon and rosemary and it turned out great, all light and flakey and fragrant.
Our chips were made from organic potatoes and organic yams seasoned with thyme and garlic. They were accompanied by organic kale and organic purple sprouting broccoli with chili and lemon. All the veg came from the Den’s weekly veg box from local organic farm, East Coast Organics. Sadly the herbs, lemon and chilli came from Tesco. Shhh.
To finish I had a look through the cupboards to see what we could make. We ended up with a Dan Lepard recipe for clementine and oat muffins, which were had with a dash of cream. It was already in the fridge, so using it totally counted as not wasting it. Anyway, they were very clementine-y but were a bit dry, so the cream was gratefully received.
We still lost points for dairy there though, as the muffins contained eggs too. And yes, there was butter on the bread earlier too. But perhaps we can claw back some points, dear reader, since the muffins were baked and served in little metal pots, not paper cases? Okay, that was largely because we didn’t have any paper cases, but not using disposable packaging was better for the environment anyways. Win.
Lastly, the drinks. We had Copella English apple juice, Crabbie’s ginger beer and from local wholefood store Earthy, organic white wine and Scottish Black Isle organic beer. I can recommend their oatmeal stout but the honey heather ale did not live up to Fraoch’s standard, I’m afraid.
The food portions proved just right, if a little smaller than I would’ve liked, so there was no food waste there. Hurrah! Furthermore, all scraps such as potato peelings and unwanted fish skins were composted. Union of Genius composts all its food waste, so I was able to blag a biodegradable compost bag from my charmingly amenable and generous boss, Elaine, and use that - plus take it back full the next day for composting. Double hurrah!
As far as I recall, all packaging was recycled too. The only exception was the tray the fish came on, which was tragically polystyrene. The washing up was even done with Ecover washing up liquid, not our regular Fairy. (Once upon a time someone bought some of the long-lasting stuff en masse, and sometimes I wonder if it will ever run out.)
All in all, I was pleased we made the effort and with how the meal turned out. Our guests certainly gave it a positive review and everyone seemed to have a lovely time. Regardless of their own sustainability credentials, everyone recognised a low carbon meal is an admirable goal and a worthwhile theme and totally went in for it.
It wasn’t impossible but it was difficult – mostly to find food with a low carbon footprint. To do it on a regular basis would require a change in diet or patterns of eating.
I think most city dwellers are already encouraged to recycle and local authorities make that fairly straight forward. Choosing to shop locally or from independent retailers isn’t much of a leap of imagination – if, again, you’re prepared to make some basic changes to your diet and accept that there may be less choice than in a supermarket.
As for avoiding waste? Throwing away food is pretty inexcusable, if you ask me, in this day and age. Everyone has a freezer but better still, we could all make less and eat less (gasp!) It’d be better for your wallet, better for your waistline and better for the environment.
Food for thought, eh?
