Having sold nearly all the 200 copies of the first edition of the Potato Recipe book we are having a second edition printed right now!
This morning we launched the "Pan-fried, Peeled and Proud Potatoes from Stroud. A Recipe Book." Stroud Town Mayor Andy Read was kind enough to join the launch and press photos.
elow is the press release regarding a project we have been working on for some months - come and see us there on Saturday then buy your seed potatoes from us in February.....
The book is a Transition Stroud initiative and is edited by the aptly named Maris Piper and Desirée de Romano. Desirée said: "Bringing the different elements of the book together has been a joy. Stroud provided suitably gifted people just when they were needed; Dennis Gould stepped forward to do the cover, photographer Fred Chance heroically offered to do the design and layout, poet and artist Jeff Cloves (AKA Edward Rex) was inspired to write a Potato Pie Poem and to create the beautiful illustrations that bring the book to life.
Philip Booth, organiser of the Stroud Potato celebrations said: "This recipe book is part of our celebration of the many different varieties of potato and how they can be used. Supermarkets don't offer much choice of potatoes, but growing your own opens up all sorts of opportunities. On Saturday 5th February in Merrywalks we will be selling over half a tonne of different seed potatoes supplied by Dundry Nurseries. This is about encouraging folk to grow different varieties and encouraging people who have never grown veg to give it a try."
The book will sell for £4 (or £3 Stroud Pounds) with all proceeds going to Transition Stroud to support local, low carbon projects. Make Christmas shopping easy and buy one for everyone you know, safe in the knowledge that you are supporting your local community and the environment.
Hasselback Potato recipe
This is a Swedish version of baked potatoes named after a dish at the Hasselbacken Hotel's restaurant in Stockholm. My Norwegian partner introduced me to them - just one more reason why I love her!Man cannot live on bread alone, but can he live on nothing but potatoes? That was the question posed by Grist. This is what they wrote:
Chris Voigt, chief of the Washington State Potato Commission, is finding out firsthand by eating nothing but 20 potatoes a day for two months. (Why 20? To eat enough calories to maintain his current weight.)
Voigt was feeling steamed (or perhaps boiled) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's recent spurning of the spud when it blocked the vegetable from a list of subsidized foods in low-income programs. "The potato is not the scourge of the Earth," he said. And with plenty of nutrients like potassium, Vitamin C, and protein, it's definitely not. But going on yet another of America's extreme diets may not exactly be getting to the root of the problem with potatoes. (For that, I'll direct you to the deep-fryer.)
Already practically Mr. Potato Head with a job like his, this stunt will surely bake in that title for Voigt, who admits 20 potatoes a day does not constitute a balanced diet. Half way through the gastronomic experiment, he seems to be feeling rather full and rather bored with only eating potatoes dressed up with a little oil, herbs, or bouillon. Which explains why he's now making videos of mashing potatoes with a potato launcher.
See Grist story plus video here.
10/10/10 saw events in 188 countries joining together to raise awareness about climate change. See more here about 350.org. In Stroud there was a gathering near Nailsworth at the weekend at the Thistledown centre - in 2009 there were several events.
In relation to this blog in Loja, Ecuador, students from the local school got together to clean up the paths around their school and town, and to harvest the potatoes in their school's organic garden. See here and see photo of the 350 made out of potatoes. Meanwhile here there is a blog on how to do potato cuts to get across the 350 message.
Over 110 fires are being lit this weekend (9/10 October) all over Poland in "The Great GM Free Potato Celebration." Pots will be boiling and jacket potatoes baking as a symbolic reminder to the nation that our common potato is under threat from contamination by a newly introduced genetically modified potato variety. Also Poles living abroad are planning to organise special potato events.
The fires echo other actions that have taken place around Europe over the years - indeed we have had various actions in Stroud including a march through the town, actions to try and stop trials in Gloucestershire and a couple of 'fires' (well candles) on Rodborough Common (see photos).
More than 70% of Europeans have already rejected GM foods, according to opinion polls. You can register your opposition to GM with an Avaaz poll that has just been extended after it hit over a million people saying no to GM. They now want to see 1.5m. Please consider signing here. It is extraordinary...the public keep saying no to GM yet the big companies keep pushing. See for example here my letter about the threat of the UK GM potatoes back in 2006.
The European Commission is currently looking for a way to de-regulate GM crop introduction within the EU. Under pressure from the World Trade Organisation, the Commission is hoping to devolve responsibility for licensing new GM varieties to member states."Allowing genetically modified potatoes out of the laboratory and into our fields is the height of irresponsibility and will lead to the cross contamination of the most widespread staple food in Europe." Sir Julian Rose, President of International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside (ICPPC).Meanwhile in Gloucestershire Julie Girling MEP has asked for comments re GM (see more info here). This follows the vote that saw most MEPs vote against labeling of GM (see more here) and the EU Commission approve growing GM crops for the first time in 12 years (see here). Lastly see fact file re GM here and last year see here news that the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) released a landmark position paper signed by physicians across the U.S. calling for a moratorium on GE foods due to possible health risks.
"Countries are right to challenge the European Commission and Poland should be one of them. We are witnessing a dramatic erosion of our human rights to have free access to uncontaminated foods. Only an outright ban of GMO can save our food chain from becoming one vast experiment on human health." Jadwiga Lopata, laureat of Goldman Prize (ecological Nobel) and Vice President of ICPPC.
