An
Essential Guide
to an Organic Christmas
We
know its good for us, our children and the environment but where do we
get it? Fulfilling an organic shopping list is not so easy - it is all
out there somewhere but not under one roof. Supermarkets,
Farmers' Markets, Health Food shops, Farm shops, vegetable box schemes,
mail order and the Internet all offer organic lines - we track down the
best of the nation-wide suppliers for your organic Christmas goodies.
----------------------........................-------Scroll
down page for more...
Growing pains
In the wake of BSE, e-coli and GM food scares the market for organic food continues to grow rapidly. Demand for organic food is booming and although the organic sector only makes up 3% of the total food market, organic sales are growing by 40% yearly. Add to this the trend of returning to British produce, a back-to-basics desire to rediscover old English fruit and vegetables, and its no wonder our farmers are converting to organic farming methods and trying to increase supply. UK producers currently only meet 30% of this demand so the majority of organic food is imported.
The media is full of organic food news and the health benefits are well documented (see Health Matters July/August 1999). Its better for us, for farmed animals and for the environment.
The Country Comes to Town
Check out your area for a Farmers' Market (call the Soil Association on 0117 929 0661 or find them at www.soilassociation.org). These markets are a return to the old days when farmers brought their wares to market to sell local food to local people. Today, Farmers' Markets offer some of the best priced organic and local food available - meat, cheese, eggs, fruit, vegetables, wine, juice and a huge variety of home made pies, puddings and cakes. The range is fantastic and if you buy locally your money goes directly into the local economy and benefits local people.
Buying seasonal foods from a local market brings us back to a natural way of eating with the seasons. Strawberries are just not right for the Christmas season. We need warming, rooty feasts: steaming stews and soups; roasted vegetables, meaty casseroles. Traditional fruit pies and puddings; apples, plums and pears spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg. Now is the time to buy parsnips, turnips and swedes and conjure up a root vegetable stew (see recipe box)
An Organic Christmas
Traditional Christmas vegetables - Brussels sprouts, leeks, carrots, potatoes, onions, parsnips, swede, turnips - will all be available in their organic form throughout the winter season. Other seasonal veg include beetroot, cabbage, celeriac, spinach and various squash (pumpkin, butternut, spaghetti).
Recipes for these traditional English vegetables have been written for over one hundred years. Mrs Isabella Beeton's Book of Household Management (1888) suggests the method of boiling for each one - except in her recipe for steaming potatoes
" Ingredients; potatoes; boiling water. This mode of cooking potatoes is now much in vogue… Time; 20 to 40 minutes. Cost; 1d. per lb".
But times are changing and although Farmers' Markets and organic vegetables are nothing new (before industrial techniques were introduced to farming in the 1940's all farming was on organic lines), the ways in which we cook our food has changed. We no longer add a heaped teaspoonful of salt to our vegetables and cook them 'till they drop. Boiling is out; steaming, stir-frying and microwaving are in.
To help combat the excesses of the festive season turn your vegetables into wholesome soups - carrot and ginger, parsnip and apple, leek and potato, French onion, pumpkin soup - all provide nutritious lunches and a freezer standby for that guest who didn't quite make it home. Try new ways of cooking traditional vegetables - stir-fry shredded sprouts with onion, garlic, ginger and the juice from an orange; make crunchy winter salads with shredded red cabbage and grated carrot; grate celeriac and smother with a yoghurt dressing; make a winter vegetable stir-fry with butternut squash, carrots, leeks and a hot chilli (all of these ideas are taken from Green Cuisine - The Organic Vegetable Cookbook).
Organic Food Fights
We buy 60% of our organic produce from supermarkets. And each is trying to out do the other with boasts of hundreds of organic lines. Both Tesco and Sainsburys claim to stock around 500 organic lines and Waitrose over 400. Asda is claiming that it plans to keep the price of organic food down to the levels of non-organic and Iceland which sells a small range of fresh organic food (milk, cheese, bread) and frozen organic food has declared war on the organic food "rip-off". All of these stores will stock a Christmas range including meat, vegetables and fruit. But, a word of warning, not all stores stock all lines and the range of organic vegetables is often limited. I would vote for Waitrose as being the best bet for vegetables but, on the whole, supermarkets are not the best place to buy your organic food.
You will also find hundreds of organic products at your local health food shop and the range is increasing by the week - this is the place to buy all your organic ingredients for Christmas cakes, puddings and pies. Stock up your storecupboard with the staples for the Christmas season and try organic juices and wines, chocolates and dairy treats. You won't have to trawl the aisles trying to spot organic sections and there is always someone on hand to give advice. Some health food shops also stock a good variety of organic vegetables.
Organic Home Delivery
If you can't get your vegetables from a local market or health food store, then try an organic vegetable box scheme. Fresh vegetables delivered to your door on a weekly basis. 50,000 families and 30% of organic growers in the UK are now involved in these box schemes. Unlike supermarkets they are generally more committed to using UK suppliers and their vegetables are fresher and cheaper. So you can take the effort out of Christmas food shopping - the supermarkets are a nightmare at this time of year.
The Better Food Company (call them on 0117 904 1191) offer a nation-wide home delivery service with hundreds of different lines of delicious organic food - over 20 different organic loaves (all vegan) from a white loaf to a Fougasse-flat bread with garlic, rosemary and olive oil. Lots of fresh produce (including aubergines, peppers, French beans, mango, pineapple and melons) available most of the year and meat, fish and poultry. Shopping from their list is easy and cost effective. Simply phone in your order by Tuesday and receive delivery on Thursday.
Last year, The Better Food Company launched their organic Christmas hampers including Belgium Chocolates, fine wines, gourmet oils, hand made biscuits, seasonal cakes, home made preserves and chutneys.
Sweet Treats
Stock your organic larder with traditional Christmas puddings, mince pies and celebration cake from the Natural Collection (call them on 01225 442288 or find them at www.greenstore.co.uk). Their range includes organic, vegan and gluten free treats. Chocolates, chocolate cake made with Green and Blacks chocolate, rich fruit cake and cookies. Their catalogue includes hundreds of fair traded gift ideas as well as organic beers and wine.
Another on-line option is Simply Organic (call them on 0845 1000 444 or find them at www.simplyorganic.net). Home delivery of a wide range of Christmas goodies including organic chocolate Father Christmas's for the kids and smoked salmon for you. They are a nation-wide organic supermarket with a large range of organic goods.
Cook Your Goose
Order your Christmas Day organic meat direct from Longwood Farm (call them on 01638 717 120). One of the UK's largest organic providers. As well as geese, turkey, pheasant, and wild duck, they offer a Three Bird Roast - boned turkey left with whole drumsticks, stuffed with boned chicken and pheasant breasts and layers of sausage meat and stuffing. Or a Chicken Pillow - boned, stuffed chicken, barded with bacon and tied in the shape of a pillow. Or a Lamb Cracker - loin of lamb stuffed with minced lamb, apricots, raisins, herbs and tied in the shape of a cracker!
Longwood Farm offer a wide range of other organic fare which can be ordered, bought from their Suffolk farm shop or from the organic markets at Spitalfields and Portobello Road, London.
Christmas Drinks
Lessen your hangovers and allergic reactions with organic alcohol. Organics Direct (call them on 0171 729 2828 or find them at www.organicsdirect.co.uk) provide a full range of organic booze and are offering a 20% discount on a case of organic Carte d'Or champagne, a beautiful classic bubbly. Now only £196! They also deliver Christmas hampers including cakes, puddings and pies, as well as a full range of other organic foods. For an original gift you could try their Organics Direct Gift Vouchers to spend on food and wine or even organic clothes and linen.
Back To Our Roots
The levels of pesticides in our everyday foods was highlighted in a government report published in September 1999. Most non-organic foods contain pesticides, herbicides or fungicides which are potentially toxic, carcinogenic and damage the immune system. For more detailed and up-to-date information on the amounts of pesticides in our food see www.foodnews.org which tells you the pesticide content of hundreds of food products.
Buying organic food takes us back to the tastes, textures and shapes of food that our grandparents enjoyed - free from pesticides. Organic carrots may be knobbly and dirty but they won't make you sick! Enjoy a traditional Christmas with all the organic trimmings.
Knobbly roots
The question of what to do with those strange knobbly roots (celeriac, jerusalem artichokes) and a surplus of greens (swiss chard, cabbage, spinach) is answered in the new organic vegetable recipe book:
Green Cuisine: The Organic Vegetable Cookbook
by Anna Ross. £9.99.
Published by Green Peppercorn.telephone +44 0117 952 3055.
Dr Anna Ross is a cook and freelance writer on organic food issues.
