I have been producing food-related videos on my YouTube channel for some time. My current work is also focussed on food as the core of how we can adapt to the coming ecological collapse; and making new videos demonstrating these issues is a part of those future plans.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2023/4, 28th January 2023:
‘Food!: It’s Political!’ (whether you like it or not)
Food is the basis for lifestyle: Food is the connection to our authentic, biological nature as living creatures, sharing the world with a host of other creatures, in a complex global ecology. Get that right, and all the other things are ‘negotiable’.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/24, 4th August 2022:
Coffee, the addictive obsession of the affluent class, can tell us more about modern society than just retail trends; it is an indicator for how the modern neoliberal system operates, and its current shift toward new economic extremes.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/8, 11th March 2022:
DIY Oat Milk Versus the Eco-geddon of Shop-bought Plant Milk
Contemporary ‘consumer’ veganism has an over-packaged/over-priced credibility issue. This is especially true of plant-based milks, and their impact compared to ‘DIY’ options. In this post I explore how you can avoid this by making your own oat milk – cheaply, easily, and with minimal waste.
Ramblinactivist 2021/15, New Harvest Moon 2021:
‘The Autumn Raspberry Harvest’
Consumerism isolates & disconnects: The media hypes the desire for this lifestyle, while we struggle to obtain the cash to buy it; and in this process its hyper-individualism turns our focus inwards, isolating us from other people and the natural world.
Preserving food is not just 'cooking'; preserving food requires that you think about the future. Hence why growing and preserving food can be a window into planning a new future.
Download the PDF version of this post.
An audio podcast of this post is available on the blog page.
Ramblinactivist 2021/8, Sap Moon 2021:
‘The Anti-Consumerist DIY (vegan) Chocolate Cake’
Avoiding the mass-marketing & manufacturing systems that play upon our obligatory festivals to sell over-priced, sickly-sweet cakes.
An imminent birthday means I need a cake for the obligatory celebration. Do I: (a) Buy; or, (b) Bake – a cake? For me, though, there is no choice!
Any food that messes with brain chemistry always has an exploitative, value-added cost penalty – which when it comes to cake I refuse to pay.
Download the PDF version of this post.
Ramblinactivist 2021/6, Imbolic 2021:
In this video I show how to make a cheap and simple snack food that’s ideal for keeping well fed when travelling or working: “Lembas Scones”.
One of the reasons I got into nutrition in my teens was that I did a lot of outdoor activities. Having light-weight food for travel, and packing a whole lot of nutrition in a small space, made vegan wholefoods far preferable to the canned or dried rubbish generally on offer to campers in the 1980s.
As I show, “Do-It-Yourself” is a far better option to help you live a simple, cheap and low impact lifestyle.
Download the PDF version of this post.
Ramblinactivist 2021/3, Imbolic 2021:
What are the most important tools in your kitchen? My most important ‘tool’ is a pestle and mortar.
In this post and accompanying video: I focus a little on the issue of the costs of food; the theory behind vegan protein sources; and I prepare a meal for the family and explain the economics of that – but mostly I show the simple brilliance of using a pestle and mortar.
Download the PDF version of this post.
Ramblinactivist 2019/2, 1st September 2019:
Blackberrying by the first
Autumnal new crescent moon
A busy day, with so many twists and turns, my much-desired walk takes place in the gloom of dusk. I’d been given some wind-fall pears; it seemed an obvious plan to try one of the blackberry-picking sites I’d scouted on recent walks to stew them with in a pie. More importantly though, with the first new moon of the Autumn, I wanted to cook-up something I hadn’t tried in a long time: a video.
Ramblinactivist 2017/7, 27th September 2017:
‘Autumn Blackberry & Apple Pie –
Welcoming the Autumn with a forage’
The sudden arrival of a lot of fruit requires some action to deal with it. I decide to go and forage for blackberries on the edge of town to provide a little extra 'wild' nutrition. In this short video I outline the law on foraging, and how to pick blackberries, and then take you through the process of cooking a very simple apple & blackberry turnover – which in this case I'll store in the freezer ready to cook in order to make the fruit last into the Winter months.
Ramblinactivist 2017/4, 17th June 2017:
‘The Free Range 'Feral' Stick-Fire Cooking Grate’
Cooking outdoors is a fun skill to learn to expand your ecological awareness and personal resilience. Cook well outdoors from fresh or foraged food, and you can cook well anywhere. Problem is, where do you find the 'ecologically sound'/fossil-fuel free kit? The Free Range Stick-Fire Cooking Grate is a small, light-weight, trestle-style cooking grate designed to burn small sticks which, with a few tools and components, you can easily build yourself.
Click here for the website with plans and information about building the stick fire grate.
Ramblinactivist 2017/3, 18th May 2017:
We all have to consume; it's a necessary reality of existence. However, in the 'Consumer Society' the most radical thing you can do is not to consume 'as directed' – by finding alternative options that meets your needs while enacting a set of principles in opposition to that overbearing and exploitative economic paradigm. This principle was self-evident during one of Britain's darkest consumer crises of late... 'the hummus shortage'.