Monday, October 5, 2015

Wild greens and honey


Throughout the year Martin Friedle and I have met to forage for wild greens in his vegetable garden, the local park and various other locations around Brunswick. This is a significant practice for him because for two years Martin has been on a Restricted Calorie Ketogenic Diet. A strict diet developed by Bio-Chemist Otto Warburg who received a Noble Prize for cell specialist research leading to the discovery that cancer cells need sugar. 



                                        Martin at home in the vegetable garden

One result of this diet is a type of ritualised isolation. Because the diet excludes sugars and carbohydrates designed to keep key tones up and sugars down, the resulting metabolic changes he has undergone require several meals per day. Cooking dishes outside of the family taste zone as well as meal times. One of the goals for our meetings has been to create dishes that could cater to the family palate.

                         
                 Experimental cooking with Dandelion roots and leaves



Dandelion is a highly nutritious plant with diverse varieties eaten the world over for thousands of years. All parts of the plant are edible, with the fresh leaves less bitter and considered more nutritious in spring.


                                                  Preparing Dandelion root for cooking.

Martin is also a hobby Beekeeper with a hive in the back garden. With a background in science he is also an accomplished composer, recently presenting new work titled Dance of the Bee, created as a musical exploration into our 5000 year relationship with the honeybee.

                                           Martin and bees (photo by Mim Whiting)