Vegetarianism and me

Now, i have often flirted with vegetarians....oops or did i mean vegetarianism?
Probably both!

Infact i'm a bit of a fruit and veg aholic, especially if we've grown it ourselves. There is something magical about the whole process of growing something, even if it's just a few spuds.

You know, digging and preparing the ground, and watching with excitement how the first hard frosts break up the large clods into wonderfully crumbly soil ready for planting. Children, eagerly pushing in the chitted potatoes and watching daily for the first signs of fresh green leaves. Earthing them up and best of all, forking them out of the ground.
It always amazes me how many potatoes grow from just one small potato.

The smell of freshly dug up spuds is truly wonderous and one that cannot be captured by the supermarkets no matter how soon they think they can get them from the field.

Cooking them and eating them.....well thats my favourite!

It's just not about the humble spud, i know, and there is such a fantastic array of fruits and vegetables available to us now.

I often wonder about the human cost in producing such delights, not to mention the costs in resources (most of which, once used are gone forever, turned into nasties for our lungs)

The sheer number of grains and pulses available to buy and cook for our edification is astonishing.

I have a whole series of books, probably written in the 70's...101 ways to cook pasta, chicken, soups etc.
I wonder when someone is gong to bring out a 101 ways to cook quinoa....me, i don't know what it is, where it's grown, it's food value or indeed what to do with it!
So come on, there must be someone out there who can take advantage of our ignorance and enlighten us for a small fee.

I've always grown up with vegetables......no Rhys, my father might have had little education but he was no vegetable, although he often grew some spectacular ones!

I think a meal would be particularly dull without the colourful addition of fruit and vegetables, however, for me a slice of succulant lamb.....yes i know it's the same thing as those delightful bouncy, fluffy creatures bleating in the next field...only dead, is something well worth looking forward to.
I quite enjoy chicken, turkey, pheasant and bunny. Bunny pie, in our house is rabbit and vegetable stew with a thick wholemeal pastry crust....thinking on it, it's probably the beer that makes it so delicious.

Now i would be quite happy to live on cereals, pulses and fruit and veg and no meat for a generous ammount of time, but to live without a bacon butty......that would be pure torture.