After a heavy rainfall there are these winged ants that emerge from the ground. These are hundreds of them crawling over the grass and one by one they launch themselves into the sky where they swirl and flutter around. 

Black headed weaver birds were on the scene today, lapping up some of these high-protein snacks. However birds are not the only ones interested. Children can often be found scooping up these ants to eat and today I joined in, having first taste of flying ant. Not much flavor but crunchy. My colleague Allan says he used to eat them like this too but now he only likes to eat them fried. 

This will be a nice event. If you’re in London, check it out. www.brighterfutureuk.net

(via brighterevents)

Buying a farm

Sutton Community Farm is one of the brilliant projects that my team started and works on at BioRegional. We’ve just had an opportunity to expand our farm by 35 acres, which is really exciting. But we are looking for help.

We are looking for people to buy community shares (details at the bottom). We have just a week to put an offer in to buy the land, which costs just over £1 million. So far we have pledges totaling around £500,000.

If you want to find out more, check out One Planet Sutton where their is a little blog piece I wrote and some more information. Else, contact Anna Francis, our food hero (anna.francis@bioregional.com). 

Bit late on blogging this, but do spread the word far and wide today and let’s see what happens.

Community shares - what are they?

There are lots of examples of people getting together and buying farms, post offices, wind turbines etc. The way these shares work is that people invest a certain amount, get benefits such as discounted produce, are part of a worthwhile project, get involved in activity days etc (if desired) and the shares can be sold (for original price) if they need the money back.

Lent is here and tonight I have had a feast, helping use up the fat, butter and eggs that would traditionally have been on a list of items for abstinence. Today it’s more common to give up something like chocolate or booze, or even clothes shopping. One friend I know just went on a big clothes shopping binge, apparently in preparation.  How things change. Apparently long ago, it was a tradition to serve pancakes with a meat-based stew. I haven’t tried this, but have had a good two nights of pancake bingeing, trying out various combinations of savoury fillings, some American style pancakes (which just seem a fat version of ours), and then ice-cream, chocolate and the old classic: lemon and sugar. OK one more fact. The word ‘shrove’ is the past tense of ‘shrive’ which means confessing one’s sins. The theory, I believe, is that we may enter into the time of Lent with a pure heart. A pure heart, and a belly full of meaty pancakes. 

Lent is here and tonight I have had a feast, helping use up the fat, butter and eggs that would traditionally have been on a list of items for abstinence. Today it’s more common to give up something like chocolate or booze, or even clothes shopping. One friend I know just went on a big clothes shopping binge, apparently in preparation. 

How things change. Apparently long ago, it was a tradition to serve pancakes with a meat-based stew. I haven’t tried this, but have had a good two nights of pancake bingeing, trying out various combinations of savoury fillings, some American style pancakes (which just seem a fat version of ours), and then ice-cream, chocolate and the old classic: lemon and sugar.

OK one more fact. The word ‘shrove’ is the past tense of ‘shrive’ which means confessing one’s sins. The theory, I believe, is that we may enter into the time of Lent with a pure heart. A pure heart, and a belly full of meaty pancakes. 

This is small selection of pictures taken from a book entitled Hungry Planet. It explores what different cultures across the world eat for one week.