Archive for the ‘Organic Food’ Category

Wheatgrass juicer + Seed sprouter = Healthy 2010

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

Wheatgrass Sprouter and Juicer

Wheatgrass juice anyone? If youre detoxing in 2010 or just looking to be a little healthier then this one might be for you – the Easy Health Seed Sprouter, one of the latest additions to the shop here at ECOutlet.

This manual seed sprouter is used to grow wheatgrass and sprouts on windowsills, kitchen tops or anywhere with indirect light.  It packs in two trays for growing barley and wheatgrass and two separate sprouting trays divided into four segments so you can grow up to eight different varieties of sprouts including alfalfa, mung bean, beetroot, cabbage, fennel or sunflower.

We like the idea of helping people to grow more of their own produce at home – you know exactly what goes into it and it helps to avoid all the packaging and transport miles associated with supermarket purchases.  It’s generally cheaper too – for the cost of a shot of wheatgrass juice in your local juice bar you can grow enough sprouts and wheatgrass to last a week with this device.

Sprouted seeds are highly nutritious and can be eaten with salads, sandwiches or as an accompaniment to other meals whilst wheatgrass has been praised for its numerous health benefits due to a seriously high chlorophyll content.  Chlorophyll oxygenates the blood and organ tissue, impedes the growth of harmful bacteria in the digestive tract, neutralises toxins and helps purify the liver.  Regular intake of wheatgrass is said to improve blood sugar disorders and digestion and reduces blood pressure.

Wheatgrass juice is generally taken in small shots but not all juicers are suitable for making it.  The Easy Health Manual Wheatgrass Juicer is however perfect for the task as it cold presses the wheatgrass which helps preserves all the natural nutrients.  It does’nt just do wheatgrass, if you’re tastes are more traditional you can still get healthy with some homemade orange, lemon, grapefruit, carrot or apple drinks.

Organic Fortnight…

Friday, August 31st, 2007

ECOutlet - Organic Fortnight

The Soil Association Organic Fortnight runs for the next couple of weeks from Sep 1st to the 16th. It’s an opportunity to celebrate all things organic with events and organic food promotions taking place all over the country. This year the theme is ‘Wake up to an Organic Breakfast’ with everyone being encouraged to start the day the organic way. Organic food farming uses around 30% less energy so it’s better for us and better for the planet too.

The celebrations kick off with the Organic Food Festival which takes place this weekend in Bristol. As well as a very large Organic food and drink market at the event there’s loads of other stuff going on including a demonstration kitchen, talks and tastings, a fashion show and relaxation zone, a kids zone and an organic bar…so something for everyone there. If you can’t make it down to Bristol, check out the Soil Associations listings page for events taking place near you.

Home grown herbs…

Friday, August 17th, 2007

Herbs

Growing a few herbs at home is one of my simple pleasures in life. It takes no effort and always feels good adding home grown stuff to meals when cooking. I normally start sowing seeds around March time and carry on all summer when stocks are running low.

At the minute my basil is looking a bit sparse so I went online last night for some new seeds. Basil is really really easy to grow and though it’s a bit late to be sowing seeds for growing outside, last year I managed to keep some plants on the go in the kitchen until around November time. One of the best sites I’ve come across for seeds is The Organic Gardening Catalogue. They stock all sorts so I’ve treated us to a few different varities of basil and some spicy mixed salad. Salad leaves grow really quickly outside in large pots and can be sown much later right up until October. My only problem with them is the neighbourhood pigeon who has acquired a bit of a taste for rocket and pecked almost all the last crop away!

Another site I came across a while ago via Hippyshopper was Seedy People, a seed swap site. You can go online and for the price of a stamp swap your surplus of seeds for something else you’ve been looking to grow or just experiment with something new. And if you’ve never tried growing any herbs before, Beans and Herbs have some top tips for growing basil at home.

Seasonal, sustainable and simple..

Friday, July 20th, 2007

Acorn House

To celebrate my birthday this week I was treated to dinner at the much acclaimed eco-friendly resaurant, The Acorn House. Over the last year or so I’ve read lots of reviews about the place so was very excited to be finally paying it a visit to see if it lived up to expectations.

I receive nil points as a restaurant critic for forgetting my pen, paper and camera so loosely speaking for starters we had raspberry risotto (different, unusual..we thought) and mozzarella with figs followed by sustainably sourced Sea Bream and a lemon infused veggie pasta option. All absolutely deliciouso and for me up there as maybe the best vegetarian food I’ve ever had in a non-veggie restaurant.

Acorn House’s eco-friendly credentials stem from the numerous practises they have put in place to be as environmentally conscious and sustainable as possible. These include composting or recycling all waste, avoiding industrial farming, using green electricity, not using air freight, buying locally sourced sustainable and organic produce, providing in-house filtered tap water over bottled water (Belu is available if bottled water is requested) and a monthly changing menu based on in-season food. Another nice touch and a good example of Acorn House’s attention to detail is the complimentary matchox we received on leaving and which turned out to be a pack of seeds to take home and plant. Everything was spot-on, I cant wait to go back for more..

Courgette Saga – Final Instalment…

Tuesday, June 12th, 2007

Big Courgette

Courgette fritters for two:

1 courgette (grown on the patio in an old bucket)
1 bowl of milk (you could use egg yolk)
1 cup of plain flour (season with salt and pepper)
Virgin olive oil

Simply slice your home grown courgette, dip the slices in milk and then flour and fry gently with olive oil. Serve with pasta and pesto sauce with some lemon juice.

The seeds were planted back at the start of March and last night I had my first home-grown courgette dinner. Those with a garden or vegetable patch might be thinking what’s the big deal but for a garden-less city dweller like me it’s quiet a rewarding little exercise…..and it did’nt just stop with the courgette. Accompanying my big wobbly veg was some pesto using basil grown on the windowsill and a freshly picked, non-packaged salad harvested from the pot next to the courgette! It just goes to show that even with a small amount of outside space you can successfully have a go at growing your own. Tasted very yummy too!
While I’m on the subject, look out for the cinema release of ‘Grow your own’, a new UK film centred around allotments, more details on the calendar page.

Ego Outlet Friday…

Friday, June 8th, 2007

Caterpillar

We’ve got a new blogger today, every Friday ECOutlet’s Marco will be amusing us with his own personal take on leading a greener lifestyle starting with the Hungry Caterpillar Dilemma…

Recently I’ve been trying to grow my own fennel bulb because I was fed up of buying long range vegetables from the Waitrose. I never really believed I would cultivate a big fat fennel bulb but I knew I could show off a little and garnish something with it’s feathery tops. Then the caterpillar came along and dashed all my fennel garnishing dreams in one dreadful night of gorging and bingeing on the patio!

A true gardener would probably have taken the juicy grub between his green vengeful fingers and crushed him..pop. I decided to be a lttle more New Testament about the whole sorry saga and instead sent him into exile (above the kitchen window!). Now this is where is gets really sad, we have since named him and feed him vegetable tit bits each night after supper…in case you’re wondering, he’s called David Banner.

The Courgette Saga – Episode III….

Tuesday, May 8th, 2007

Courgette flower

For all you people out there waiting with baited breath for a courgette update….well, the news is positive!  I moved them out onto the roof terrace last week, a bit earlier than recommended but with the warm weather they had already out-grown their windowsill position.  After re-potting them into larger 5 inch containers, the only problem so far seems to be the wind.  It was fairly strong all last week and resulted in a few of the now very large leaves snapping off.

You can see from the photo though that we have had a few flowers appearing recently, I counted 10 on one of the plants alone.  Hopefully the fruits will be showing up soon, stay tuned, it’s terribly exciting I know…

and the winner is….

Friday, March 9th, 2007

ECOutlet Salad

Salad leaves….

It only took 4 days from sowing the seeds for these little shoots to appear.  As Matt was the only one to guess correctly, we have a winner.  A bodyflik will be on its way over to you today Matt, be sure to flik next time after you shower!

Dirty weekend in Bath!

Monday, February 19th, 2007

Bath Spa

We just got back from spending a couple of nights in Bath as a treat following the launch of ECOutlet.  Our saturday morning detox visit to the Thermae Bath Spa, the only place in the UK where you can bathe in natural hot waters, hit the spot and helped recharge the batteries.

The apparently beneficial properties of the natural spa water weren’t exactly to our tastes at the Roman Baths but we did score well when it came to food.

Demuths is a vegetarian restaurant based just around the corner from the Abbey and we enjoyed some proper hearty food in a cosy chilled out atmosphere.  Getting to Bath from London was very straight forward and stress free, it took less than 90 minutes on the train.  Our CO2 emissions for the journey amounted to about 20kg each which is a vast improvement compared to flying off somewhere for the weekend!  If you’re looking for short break ideas, Bath definitely comes highly recommended from us.