Food on TV

I wouldn't say I watch a lot of tv, although I do have my favourites. Just like half of Australia I watched 'Masterchef' and have been watching 'Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution'. On Masterchef I found the little talks that chefs would do about their 'food philosophy' quite interesting. Most would talk about fresh foods cooked 'simply' to let the flavours of the foods shine. Sure thing. There was one celebrity chef that really sung to my tune, though.

Good on you Jamie Oliver. Seasonal produce. Locally grown produce that is currently in season. LOVE IT! Gordon Ramsay would bang that drum as well on his "Kitchen Nightmares" series. Following the seasons in terms of food and produce makes so much sense to me. The food is fresher, specially when it doesn't have to travel half way around the world before it gets to my plate. The food is 'greener' as less carbon is used in the transportation of foods.

I wish I could say that I am growing all my own vegetables in our gorgeous garden, but in reality I don't have the time and productive garden space to do it all. My family and I are also guilty of liking to eat out of season foods - we all have our favourite fruit and veg. I actually struggle with that on occasion in the produce section of the supermarket.

I bought a 'Marie Clare Seasonal Kitchen' cook book thinking that it would be a great seasonal companion to my vegie garden. Unfortunately a quick flick through it before buying it (no doubt with two small children both trying to pull me in different directions at the same time) was not enough to get a good idea of that rational behind it.

Critically looking at it I realised that the recipes looked delicious. I also realised that they often had a mix of in season and out of season produce for where we live. The Seasonal Kitchen, was more about the kinds of foods that you like to eat in certain seasons.

So many of our favourite recipes have this same mix of in and out of season produce. So there the dilemma lies. I have now been buying only Australian grown produce with preference to locally in season produce. My little girl is getting 'no' probably as much as she always has, but I am making sure to give her a more meaningful response than "it's too expensive". Sometimes I hear myself saying "darling, strawberries aren't in season in our area at the moment, so although those very expensive strawberries might look good, they have been in cold storage while traveling a long way before getting to these shops. They won't be as juicy and sweet as the strawberries that we grow at home and will probably go mouldy very quickly." Perhaps I go overboard a bit...

But then I saw Jamie Oliver and his Food Revolution in Huntington, West Virginia, USA. I actually felt sick in my stomach when a class of lower primary school students couldn't name whole raw vegetables. I have all sorts of comments on that but won't go into it. It did reaffirm to me that everything that I am doing with my own children and with children that I teach, in relation to sustainable productive gardening, really is so important.

PJG