Uist Wholefoods Co-operative

I got Maw Broon’s cookbook as a present a couple of years ago, and thought it a bit of a gimmick, a spin off from a cartoon series, tweely disguised as a reproduction old recipe collection. On one level, that his what this book is. It is a ‘copy’ of an imaginary book of handwritten recipes, complete with facsimile newspaper cuttings, copies of old advertisements and ersatz stains. What it also clear is that this has been very well done. This book is as close to my granny’s book as I can remember, reproduced with great attention to detail.

For those of you who don’t know (and there can’t be many of you) ‘The Broons’ is a long-running cartoon strip of a Scottish family, living in an urban area, but still with close ties to a rural past. It seems to be set in the 1950’s but the era and the city are never named. The matriach of the household is the eponymous Maw Broon, a stout and tidy character with a warm heart, built to carry livestock and keep the men in order.

The origins of the book are clear, but what has become apparent about this book over time, is that it is full of ingredients that use local Scottish produce, good traditional recipes. I have found myself referring to it quite often, and being pleased with the results. It is now one of the first books I look at if someone offers me something that I haven’t cooked before. This is good plain fare, done well.

Maw Broon’s Cook Book caught the attention of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, whose aim is to help readers find the best food and wine books published that year. The book won an award in catoegory for Scottish recipe books. It has been cited as being a repository of a heritage of Scottish cooking, including recipes that have not been recorded elsewhere, and might be in danger of disappearing.

For some, the disappearance of these recipes might seem to be a good thing. The dumplings, pastries and pies are loaded with lard, and the recipe for tablet includes enough sugar for one person for a week. Those on a healthy eating crusade will be able to find a lot wrong with a diet based on this book. In context though, when these recipes were the only ones handed down to young housewives, the working man and woman had a day full of heavy duty activity, and families had many mouths to feed, so that portion control was tighter.

In short, this is a great book for local food and local ingredients, but don’t forget that eating healthily also includes moderation and vegetables. I like it.

More information about the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards can be found at www.cookbookfair.com

More experiments with lovage. I had seen it written that lovage went well with chicken, so I adapted this recipe from the Waitrose website.

Ingredients:

• One Organic free-range chicken, jointed (easy to do this yourself)
• 500ml good cider
• 2 tsps ground allspice (from the wholefood co-op)
• 40g organic butter
• 2 crisp desert apples, sliced into wedges
• 250g mushrooms, sliced
• 2 good sprigs of lovage; use the leaves very finely chopped. (from the garden)
• 4 tbsp double cream

Method:

• Put the cider in a large pan and simmer until reduced by half
• Put the chicken joints in a plastic bag with the allspice and a little salt and rub the spice into the chicken. The bag stops me making a big mess
• Melt half the butter in a deep-sided frying pan, and fry the mushrooms and apples until golden. Lift out with a slotted spoon and set aside.
• Melt the rest of the butter in the same pan and add the chicken pieces until lightly browned.
• Stir in the reduced cider, and bring to the boil, then turn down to simmer for 20 minutes to cook the chicken
• Add the mushrooms and apples along with the very finely chopped lovage and the cream. Season to taste and heat for a further five minutes.

We had this with mashed potatoes and peas. It was good, but the lovage did tend to turn into clots of leafy stuff. Maybe I didn’t chop it finely enough. If you like a thicker gravy, I would suggest mashing 20g of flour into 20g of butter and adding that instead of the cream.

Uist Wholefoods Co-operative held an Open Day at West Gerinish Hall on June 4^th.  We hope that this event will be one of many that we will hold throughout the year and around the islands to introduce the public to members of the co-operative and provide an opportunity to talk in depth with like minded people. A wide range of the products available was on display and (proving to be very popular) a wide range of baking (sweet and savoury) using products from the range. We were also fortunate to have a large variety of samples from the many suppliers involved in the Co-operative for everyone to take away and try at home. These ranged from hand creams and washing up liquids to tea and coffee, juices, biscuits, crackers and spreads.

 Members of the Co-Operative arrived bright and early setting up the tables and making the hall warm and welcoming.  The doors opened at 11am and until 3pm nearly 40 visitors came through the doors. In this more relaxed environment where the emphasis was on TRY rather than buy -  we were able to talk in depth to visitors about their dietary needs, the vast product range,  about environmental impact and all things foody.  Tea and coffee were available where visitors chose their brew from the vast array of  bags and blends on offer.  The baking/tasting table was very popular  with one visitor commenting that she was not expecting everything to be so tasty – helping further to dispel the myth that everything “wholefoody” tastes indigestible.

Our Chairwoman writes “These Open Day events are a way for us to dispel the myth that the Co-operative is just about mung beans and muesli.  For some strange reason the words “Wholefoods Co-operative” seems to carry with it the image of  a collective of  hardy vegans, knitting tofu and wearing hemp.  Suffice it to say none of us has attempted to knit tofu! This is of course a wee joke but there is some truth about healthy, ethical products appealing to a certain fraternity.  However, we are a group of people, ladies and gents alike, that enjoy cooking and eating ethically sourced products, having access to unprocessed whole foods and having access to hard to find products according to our dietary requirements.  We exchange ideas, recipes, product reviews and will endeavour to spread the message that there is more to us than mung beans and muesli.”  

The comments we hear most are:   ’I’ve heard of you but not quite sure what it is you do’ and ‘I got a catalogue years ago but didn’t really understand how to order’ .  We were able to chat with visitors about how to become members, how to access our website, where to find recipes and ideas and not least go through the simple ordering process. 

The catalogue carries a range in excess of  3000 products which came as a huge surprise to nearly everyone we spoke to. Many of the items are also available in catering sizes making this a cost effective method of sourcing ingredients that are used in bulk. Almost everything you could possible need except  chilled and frozen foods are available.

In order to cater for the non-computerised in the community we offer a phone-in ordering service, a catalogue is also available at Lionacleit library to browse through.  Through a network of members we can also arrange to deliver orders to those without transport.  We want to make it as easy as possible for all the inhabitants of the islands to have access to the Wholefoods Co-operative.

To gain some insight as to how the Open Day event was viewed by our visitors we asked for feedback forms to be completed.  We will use these comments and observations to tailor further events and ensure we give visitors as much information as we can.  A draw was also held on the day choosing a random feedback form that had been completed.  Our congratulations go to Amanda Rae, Kilpheder who wins a hamper of wholefood  goodies.

We would like to thank Fiona Ballantyne, Christine Johnson, Charli and Gemma Patterson  and Jackie Warner for their hard work and dedication in staging this event, together with members who donated baking, and Angela Monk for tracking down all the samples. In addition grateful thanks go to all the suppliers who provided us with literature and  samples for visitors to try.

If you didn’t manage to get to the event at West Gerinish look out for posters of forthcoming events or visit our website for all the latest news. 

I have been continuing my adventures with wild food, and finally overcame my anxiety about trying orache. I am not 100% sure which variety I picked in the end; it was not exactly like the pictures in any of my wild food books. For reference I looked at ‘Food for Free’ by Richard Mabey, Prehistoric cooking by Jacqui Wood, and ‘Edible Seashore’ by John Wright. This last book is one of the River Cottage Handbooks, reviewed elsewhere on this site. All three books recommend orache as a wild food, similar to spinach but not producing as many leaves per plant. The Orache plant family is related to ‘Fat Hen’, an edible weed that I find on my compost heap, and plants in the goosefoot family.

This was also the first road test of the Richard Mabey book, and it let me down by not discussing or referring to the huge range of orache plants. The Prehistoric cookery book also hints at the possibilities, but it was the Edible seashore book and google that were the most helpful.

 Anyway, off we set with our bucket, across the dunes and down to the shore to see what we could find. We found a lot of orache, several varieties, growing in the dune grasses, on the edge of the machair, and then on the higher parts of the shore. We found a whole area of frosted orache (Atriplex laciniata), good big plants with lots of shoots. The plans were low, lying, growing straight out of the sand. The leaves were frosted and rough, and there were clusters of small buds towards the tips, arising in the joints where the leaves leave the stem. I took one shoot of each plant we saw, and ended up with about three good bunches. This was enough to feed three people; like spinach, it cooks down a lot.

When I got home, I rinsed it off to remove the sand, and then cooked it in garlic butter for about three minutes. It was very good indeed, better than spinach, and a good side dish. Next time I see it growing well, no worries, I would pick it again.

In terms of nutrition, it was extremely fresh and extremely local, so there was minimal wastage of nutrients. It was better cooked, and the books agreed with me on that one. It is hard to get data on the nutritional value of Orache, but it is reputed to be rich in calcium, vitamin c, vitamin b1, and iron.

Similar to the last recipe. Child no 2 said she liked it and then had more. This is a big result. We served this with asparagus as a starter, and then with roast potatoes and beans.

Ingredients:

Method:

Recently we had an AGM. Here are the  AGM 2010 minutes Please take a look as it is full of news.

I took an Italian recipe for stracotto, and substituted to try and use more local seasonal ingredients. This is really tasty.

Ingredients:

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Method:

More on the theme of eating locally. Scots Lovage is a seaside plant, whcih can be found growing wild mostly in Scotland. I have only seen it grown in gardens as a large and ungainly perennial. In fact, it was already in our garden when I moved in. It is incredibly tough, and had stood up to years of neglect and the attentions of sheep. It is described in ‘Food for Free’ (Richard Mabey) as a stocky umbelifer growing wild in Scotland, and useful for treating scurvy.

Garden lovage prefers a fairly good soil, not too dry, and some shade. It copes well with being planted close to the sea in salty soil. It dies right back in winter, only the tops of the roots showing. In spring, reddish green foliage spikes come up in April, and by June, the plant is nearly six feet tall. The leaves are divided, and a clear green,with hollow stems. The flowers are an unappealing cluster of little yellowy green florets, usually beset with flies on still days. The cultivated variety is somewhat larger, with while flowers.

When it comes to eating lovage, I take the leaves and stems, particularly in spring, and use it in place of celery. The seeds can also be used like fennel or caraway, although I have never tried them. The leaves taste curiously of strong celery, but with a twist of lemon and salt. It goes very well indeed with beef in a casserole, and removes the need to add salt to the stew.  It also goes well with chicken, and I use a very small amount chopped finely to add to tomato salad.

I have been developing my ideas on eating locally, and started looking into what was around, uncultivated and free. Several late night conversations later, I have a few leads. One of these discussions has led me to researching the subject of wild food by reading books. The most entertaining, relevant and helpful has been ‘Edible Seashore’ by John Wright. This book is number 5 in the River Cottage Handbook series. If they are all as good as this, I think I shall be buying more. Why is it so good?

Information: Everything in the book that I know about seems correct, and with more detail on the subject than I was aware of. He also discusses common problems and pitfalls of identification very clearly. For example, he has a great chapter on finding, cutting, cooking and eating ‘Alexanders’. At one point he covers which plants look similar, with a very clear photograph right next to the text. His description on the taste leads me to believe that he has eaten ‘Alexanders’, and also convinced me that I have other things to try first. He also describes how to get winkles and razors, and his descriptions are spot-on.

Illustrations: The photographs are clear as could be. Even the photographs of edible seaweeds are clear enough for an amateur to recognise dulse, or gutweed. I haven’t taken to book with me to the beach yet, but it will be happening.

Facinating detail: The description of the mating habits of lobsters, or his observations on the popularity of winkles in Victorian London, both good examples of why I was reading this book from cover to cover, instead of just using it for reference.

Wit: I have never laughed before at a chapter on legal pitfalls.

The only weakness was perhaps a few gaps in the list of what could be gathered. That said, it is a worthy and inspiring starting point for wild food.  I commmend this book to you.

If you look at these photos on facebook, you’ll see what happens to an order.