Elderflowers and Strawberries

The seasons first asparagus 6 weeks ago, the first elderflowers made into grantita and cordial, and now strawberries. It must be summer, and seasonality here plays a key role. It's key in so many vital ways - for me, eating seasonally is the heart of eating with pleasure, anticipation and respect for the natural cycles, rhythms and work that has produced what we put into our mouths. Working somewhere where my dessert menu reflects whats in season is very exciting and feels completely natural.
So it is a pleasure to work out what's new this week, what shall I do with the strawberries? What else can I do with the elderflowers, more flowering every day across the village and collected on my way to work. Having Simon equally interested and passionate about seasonal eating is the support needed to really enjoy the challenge and fun that goes into planning and making the dish. I've always loved jam making and preserving as a way of keeping a short season of fruit going for much longer. The love of blackberries can then continue across winter into spring. I think relatives got bored of jam for Christmas from Hana again, but I never tire of making it. Simon gave me the title of chief preserver and I'll hold him to it.

So currently I'm making a wall of elderflower cordial, elderflower sorbets, fresh strawberries macerated in elderflower syrup served with pannacotta (or is it meant to be pannacotta served with strawberries, for me the main event is whats fresh and in season right now). It's ice cream churning day today so I have a few delicious ideas up my sleeve, yes strawberry is on the cards but also hokey pokey (a New Zealand classic) and maybe apricot and almond, mint choc chip......ideas still welcome guys. My life is my ice cream...(not strictly true).

The girls have left the house now, in search of New Zealand sights, and have been replaced with an equally lovely German girl Julianna. All is nice and peaceful, I've also moved out of the 3rd bedroom (aka the dungeon) so sleep is happening. Bliss.

Mixed

Ok, so Ive just watched the video the girls and I made yesterday and laughed my socks off. How um....hmmm well we get in these moods sometimes. Celebrate the crazy.

Not quite two days off after all. I've just been cooking for and talking French with a lovely bunch of 20 who Fleur couldn't say no to. The art of saying No. I'm not too good at that either clearly or my morning would have been spent very differently. It was kinda nice having the kitchen to myself though, reminded me of being back at CAT (centre of alternative technology, not a cattery or giant cat or whatever other images that cues up) and cooking in my own wee kitchen for the staff. In the early days I could never sleep before cooking for the staff, my head was always buzzing with the planning and implementation of cooking for 70 veges and vegans. I loved it though. I often have sleepless nights here too, just thinking about work and the next day. Its hard to turn off when you really enjoy something or when your job is a challenge.

This whole not sleeping due to job thing lead me to think about President Obama. How the hell will he sleep? How do these people do it. They quite literally have the weight of the world on their shoulders, all that responsibility, and if you're not a blundering power-hungry oath like Bush then that responsibility must be crippling, exhausting, heavy in the extreme. No wonder Obama looked serious rather then elated after the results came in. Here perhaps is a man who comprehends the enormity of the task at hand. Who would actually want that job?

As a decent individual who actually cares enough to want to make a positive impact on the country, the planet, the task at hand suddenly seems sickening. I wholeheartedly commend his bravery and hope that good intentions don't get all twisted up in the politics of hopeless, meaningless destruction and plundering of our planet and people.

Last week I was happy to read some positive news about Rwanda. After the genocide the new president brought in laws that upheld equality of the sexes, and as a result over 50% of government positions are held by women. "Is that because Rwanda wiped out its male population?" asked a colleague. Well, yes partly (after the genocide 70% of the population was female), but I like to see some positive come out of the tragic.

And now it seems that Hutu/Tutsi conflict is continuing in Congo as the rebel leader General Nkunda renews tensions in the name of protecting native Tutsis from the Hutu extremists that crossed the border from Rwanda after 1994. 100,000s of people are wandering, displaced from their homes followed, hounded by death, rape, disease, starvation, terror...

How is it possible that all this continues to happen, and my friendly colleague now asks "which African country is it this time?" then "oh OK" and returns to his coffee.

Video central

So here I am actually properly introducing the flatmates - lovely aren't they...and I didn't pay them to say nice things about me either (maybe they're hoping for chocolate cake in return for compliments? Good plan girls, good plan) Sorry about the possible sickness induced by the turning of the camera...we are no experts it seems.

I realise that my camera is too rubbish to adapt to inside/outside light on cue so you are momentarily plunged into darkness for a while there. My house isn't really a cave, honest.

Its been a fine old day so far - Tai Chi with some lovely old folk in the school hall, then lunch in town with the girls, fruit shopping and wandering in the sun. I just got a couple of lovely emails too from people asking when I'm coming home, and it feels like a perfect amount of time to be here, returning in May for another summer. All is very well. I was VERY happy about the US election results as you can imagine, and bemused by New Zealand's result, swinging a little more to the right after 9 years of Helen Clark and Labour, bringing in a the National Party who aren't all that different anyway. As John Key said " the proof of the pudding is in the eating of it", so we shall see what change lies on the rocky road ahead.

The above video is actually Take Three! The first time we didn't turn it on, the second time this happened....

Times of change?

I feel nervous. This time four years ago I clearly recall being huddled around a radio with my People and Planet colleagues, all of us looking glum and sapped of that little inkling of hope that maybe, just maybe, change is coming. In the form of a new US President. One that isn't a ridiculous war mongering figure of a man, who stole the election 4 years previously. Surely the American public know this and would never vote for him again? Surely some inkling of true democracy will shine through this time.... Four years ago I actually cried at the result. Another four years of THAT. Well, this time I guess I'm hoping on Obama, but a large part of me wonders how much change he will actually bring beyond the significance of skin colour. With 4 wars lying in wait for the new president in a brimming in-tray of economic turmoil, remembering of course that war is the biggest industry in the US, what will a new face, black or white, actually mean?
We wait. I don't think I will cry this time. I am far more cynical than I was at People and Planet, which is a shame in some ways.

The New Zealand elections also happen this week, after a flat boring campaign between two very similar Parties. Sound familiar? I find it increasingly difficult not to be completely disillusioned with politics, even though I still find it hard not to keep one eye on whats happening. I think I'd rather be having an argument with the ice-cream machine (no mean feat!) than thinking about the reality of our world.
On a positive note - In Rwanda women now make up 55% of parliament, including many prominent positions and the speakers corner! How cool is that! After the genocide left the population 70% female a distinct shift has happened. That little bit of news tucked away at the back of the 'world' section made me smile today.

Work is going swimmingly! I may have found a yoga class too, which was on my life-want list. Good O.
E-mail me! Would love to hear from peeps back home. I just got my visa through (2 DAYS after posting it to them!!) and the thought of being away from home for another 6 months is okay...but not great. Time does pass quickly though...I must be getting older. Everyone always makes such a fuss about how time speeds up as you get older don't they!