NEW BLOG

My blog has a new home - head over to www.cavblog.co.uk

See you there!

New Countryfile Magazine Podcast up

The BBC Countryfile podcast is back! In its new monthly format, available on the 1st of the month, we focus on one event every month. This month we're celebrating the humble apple, and Apple Day in particular. Find out some crazy apple-tastic facts and listen to my chat with queen of the apple, Sue Clifford. You can download the podcast here or subscribe via itunes by clicking here.

Introducing Connie Elizabeth Scott

Introducing the arrival of Connie Elizabeth Scott born this morning at 10.15, weighing 6 pounds 15.5 ounces.

Mum and daughter doing beautifully and big sister very excited!!

I'm on the radio tomorrow...

Oh, by the way, I'll be banging on about food on Radio Gloucestershire tomorrow morning at 11am in my usual slot on the panel of Vernon Harwood's country matters show. We're talking, among other things, about the effect that the credit crunch is having on local and organic food. If you click here you can listen live or listen again...

Food glorious food

I'm amazed how much my attitude to food has changed in the last five years. Now, anyone who knows me knows I've always loved my grub and will happily eat anything (except for whole tinned tomatoes. Horrible things. Yuk) But my desire to experiment and try new things was restricted to restaurants and eating out. I'd have a go in the kitchen but I must admit I found cooking a bit stressful and scary so stuck with what I knew and, when I was living on my own, a good (well, perhaps not so good) supply of ready meals.

The Cav of then would have freaked out royally if he, as I did today, defrosted a frozen rabbit bought at the farm shop last week to find the kidneys and liver still attached. Now, the more experienced cooks among you may well scoff that I would find this something worthy of blogging, after all a quick nick with the knife they are free, but there's no way I would have been so calm about it back then. I doubt I would have even tried a rabbit stock-pot either, let alone adapt the recipe from Marco Pierre White's recent Great British Feast series. So, I am, and I think quite rightly, proud of myself.

And the stock-pot was, in a word, lush too (and the liver was delicious pan fried!)

The other thing that's changed I guess that eating at home was something I did in a bit of a hurry and always sitting in front of the telly (hey, I was a guy living on his own in a flat. At least I wasn't sitting in my boxers. Well, not all the time anyway.) Food was nothing more than fuel. OK, it was fuel I enjoyed but something I wolfed down. These days its not mere fuel in my eyes, but something to be savoured, enjoyed and shared. Sure, we still eat in front of the box every now and then, but that's a real rarity. I love the fact that we sit down at the table. Meals have become an event, and as our little brood is about to grow from three to four (baby number two is expected in a couple of weeks) I hope that family time around the dinner table is something we'll enjoy for years to come.

Yum!

The fruits of my trip to the farmers' market have been enjoyed. Pan-fried pigeon breasts with fresh peas, beetroot, boiled wilja potatoes and a sweet red wine gravy. For desert, cheddar strawberries, black currants and raspberries with ice-cream.

It was so good, I just had to share...

Farmer's Market of the Month

The Countryside Magazine team have decided that they love Wednesdays. Outdoor Editor Jo thinks its because the joy of a new weekend is on the horizon and she’s just about recovered from the last one. I was born on a Wednesday but am not, as the popular nursery rhyme suggests, full of woe. Adam Stone, staff-writer, says its because he’s a fan of any day with a silent D, but as he’s leaving the magazine on Friday to head off for pastures new we’re humouring him.

No, there’s a reason I’m not full of woe on a Wednesday. It’s Bristol Farm Market day. Every week I head out to stretch my legs and aim only to buy a cup of soup from the soup man and every week I come back groaning with produce.
Today’s goodies include soft fruits (strawberries, blackberries and raspberries), peas-in-the-pod and corn-on-the-cobs, forest mushrooms and a pack of pigeon breast. Oh, and a cup of soup – pea and mint today, yum!.

The only downer was that my favourite stall – Day’s Cottage apple juice and cider – weren’t there as they’re on well-earned hols. (You can read more about them as they’re one of our Local Food Heroes 2008, crowned in the next issue of Countryfile Magazine on sale next Tuesday.)

I can’t help it. Perhaps it’s an addiction, but I can’t walk through the place without getting sucked into the stalls. I suppose there are worse things to be addicted to.

What about you? Are you a farmers’ market addict? If so, why not nominate your favourite market for our Farmers’ Market of the Month. Every issue, we feature a reader’s recommendation for a market along with a photo of themselves by their favourite stall or the going-ons at the market. It’s a great way to give your local producers some welcome publicity.

Why not send in your own nomination, along with a photo to editor@bbccountryfile.com or post it to: Farmers’ Market of the Month, Countryfile Magazine, 9th Floor, Tower House, Fairfax Street, Bristol, BS1 3BN.

Food vs. environment

"‘At the moment we are in a position where we can devote our countryside to the environment and import our food but you can’t have it both ways," says Agricultural analyst Mark Hill in last nights Our Food Our Future on Radio 4. "You can’t have cheap food and a nice environment at home if global food production is in short supply. You will, one day, have to make a choice as to what is important to you.”

I listened with interest. Since the abolition of set-aside and the rising price of crops is it any wonder that farmers have decided to plough up the grasses of set-aside to plant profitable produce? Sure there may be lapwing’s nesting there, but should their habitat take preference over our food? These are tough questions to answer.

Of course, as you expect, conservation groups are quick to point out that commercial farming can be wildlife friendly. In a recent issue of Countryfile Magazine when discussing the finalists of the Nature of Farming Awards, Dr Darren Moorcraft wrote, “These aren’t nature reserves, they are commercial farms that are producing food. If the UK is going to be sustainable then these farms show the sort of management that we should be aspiring to.”

So, is the future conflict in our fields not going to be fuel vs. food as many have thought but environment vs. food? Did our reliance on cheap food mean that we had the luxury of habitat protection?

Me on Countryfile

Well , that's it, after a year of editing Countryfile Magazine I finally made it onto the show. Well, almost. I'm seen lurking in the background of our 20th Anniversary shoot and then sharing a drink with the presenters in Adam Henson's farmhouse.




Well, everyone has to start somewhere...