I'm lucky enough to work in an exciting field: tree declines in Western Australia.
During the last 6 months I've been able to have numerous discussions with some brilliant minds and this posting will capture some of this thinking.
I've also been reflecting on being a self-taught learner (autodidact) - which I feel is a very valuable thing to be, if I can claim that status? I admire this sentiment from Margaret Mead: "I learned to observe the world around me, and to note what I saw." The way I see it, we must pay attention, put two and two together and remember what we have learnt.
My big boss took me to the window the other day and pointed out the line of dead trees - Tasmanian Blue Gums. They'd simply run out of ground water. Plenty of other vegetation had survived, but these were the thirsty crowd.
I thought about that, suddenly putting two and two together... humans are using water that the trees have historically counted on to get them through droughts, possibly tipping them over the edge.
Water is important. I looked it up - we humans in Western Australia are using up to 50% ground water in our 'tap' water... leaving that much less for the plants. Bearing in mind we don't draw from every aquifer.
Having been interested in environmental matters for some time, it occurred to me that this was the first time I'd taken the 'lack of water' issue seriously - previously I was always thinking about human need/use. I felt ashamed but then began to realise that this is probably true for most environmentalists. I bumped into Jarred, pastor and peace activist, on the train and he couldn't believe that we use so much ground water. It is interesting to see that for most of us, water is 'out of sight and out of mind', but it can be reconstructed as not simply a commodity but life itself for the various ecological communities we live amongst.
Some weeks have passed since I experienced this paradigm shift. I was discussing this with a guest lecturer who I was lucky enough to hear speak on world food security from a plant pathologists point of view. He mentioned coal seam methane extraction and associated fracturing of the aquifers. Certainly, this is a permanent degradation of the previously separate bodies of water and fossil fuels - to farmers' detriment.
I trust that I can remember this lesson and be a systems thinker and not just a consumer.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Marmalade
I know how to make marmalade and have been Googling for a good basic recipe and I swear, my mum and I are complete cowboys.
So, rather than lead you astray, here is a proper recipe:
http://www.deliaonline.com/how-to-cook/preserves/how-to-make-marmalade.html
The best thing about marmalade is that it always has enough 'setting agent' because lemons made of 30% of the stuff, so no worries about ending up with a runny sauce and running to the shops to buy jam setting.
Cowboy version follows:
___
Ingredients:
-Citrus
-Sugar, theoretically same weight as citrus
- Bung your citrus (lemon, lime, orange (seville is good, blood is interesting), cumquat, bergamot, mandarin etc) through the cutting blade on the food processor (older lemons are good as less pith (white)). Fill your pot only 1/3 to 1/2 full, or you'll be cooking for longer.
- Soak overnight with minimum water to cover fruit.
- Next day, chuck on stove and simmer till fruit is tender - can take a while, fish out pips towards the end (the proper recipes tell you to put these in muslin at the beginning - pffft, they float). Also fish out any really large citrus bits that are unattractive, slice artistically/ finely - whatever.
- put saucer in freezer.
- bung in sugar - theoretically the same weight as the fruit, but doesn't matter - much less is fine - say 1/4+ of the weight of citrus, then to taste. theoretically pre-heating -pffft ... poppycock I say.
- Cook for 40 mins or longer.
- Sterilise jars: In the last twenty minutes, find glass jars and their lids, put in pot, cover with cool to warm water and put the pot lid on, bring to boil, boil for 10 mins and then turn off heat. When the marmalade is ready, fish out, tip water out, chuck on newspaper, should dry themselves with the heat. Leave on newspapers so you don't make much mess pouring marmalade.
- To test if its ready, take a cold plate from the freezer and dribble some of the marmalade on it, if it 'sets' ie. has a 'skin' when you run your finger through it, its ready. If you're not using a cold plate, don't burn yourself!
- If its liquid, you need to cook more to get rid of water, or add a bit more sugar. Lick plate to clean it and return to freezer.
- When its at setting point, think about adding liquor. I don't like it.
- Put marmalade in jars and immediately put lids on.
- If you want it to keep for years, put the jars back into the water pot (water level to just under the lids), bring to the boil and then turn heat off and allow to cool in pot.
- If you can't be bothered with sterilising the full jars, just put the jars in the fridge, should still last a year or so.
Enjoy, label if desired (marker pen or Fowlers jam labels from the supermarket), distribute to friends.
___
Jam is exactly the same concept, but you need to include some of the following:
-unripe fruit as it has more pectin
-lemon
-apple
-jam setter = same as pectin
Best to have at least several lemons on hand.
So, rather than lead you astray, here is a proper recipe:
http://www.deliaonline.com/how-to-cook/preserves/how-to-make-marmalade.html
The best thing about marmalade is that it always has enough 'setting agent' because lemons made of 30% of the stuff, so no worries about ending up with a runny sauce and running to the shops to buy jam setting.
Cowboy version follows:
___
Ingredients:
-Citrus
-Sugar, theoretically same weight as citrus
- Bung your citrus (lemon, lime, orange (seville is good, blood is interesting), cumquat, bergamot, mandarin etc) through the cutting blade on the food processor (older lemons are good as less pith (white)). Fill your pot only 1/3 to 1/2 full, or you'll be cooking for longer.
- Soak overnight with minimum water to cover fruit.
- Next day, chuck on stove and simmer till fruit is tender - can take a while, fish out pips towards the end (the proper recipes tell you to put these in muslin at the beginning - pffft, they float). Also fish out any really large citrus bits that are unattractive, slice artistically/ finely - whatever.
- put saucer in freezer.
- bung in sugar - theoretically the same weight as the fruit, but doesn't matter - much less is fine - say 1/4+ of the weight of citrus, then to taste. theoretically pre-heating -pffft ... poppycock I say.
- Cook for 40 mins or longer.
- Sterilise jars: In the last twenty minutes, find glass jars and their lids, put in pot, cover with cool to warm water and put the pot lid on, bring to boil, boil for 10 mins and then turn off heat. When the marmalade is ready, fish out, tip water out, chuck on newspaper, should dry themselves with the heat. Leave on newspapers so you don't make much mess pouring marmalade.
- To test if its ready, take a cold plate from the freezer and dribble some of the marmalade on it, if it 'sets' ie. has a 'skin' when you run your finger through it, its ready. If you're not using a cold plate, don't burn yourself!
- If its liquid, you need to cook more to get rid of water, or add a bit more sugar. Lick plate to clean it and return to freezer.
- When its at setting point, think about adding liquor. I don't like it.
- Put marmalade in jars and immediately put lids on.
- If you want it to keep for years, put the jars back into the water pot (water level to just under the lids), bring to the boil and then turn heat off and allow to cool in pot.
- If you can't be bothered with sterilising the full jars, just put the jars in the fridge, should still last a year or so.
Enjoy, label if desired (marker pen or Fowlers jam labels from the supermarket), distribute to friends.
___
Jam is exactly the same concept, but you need to include some of the following:
-unripe fruit as it has more pectin
-lemon
-apple
-jam setter = same as pectin
Best to have at least several lemons on hand.
Delia Smith shows you how to make marmalade in simple illustrated steps.
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