Just what are we eating?

No matter how hard some people try to be self sufficient it is virtually impossible to be entirely self sufficient for your own food supplies, there are some things that have to be bought. We buy as little as possible but we still buy milk, butter, tea coffee sugar, grains and cheese.
 When it comes to cheese we would always go for a 'matured' Cheddar. Being very stupid people we believed that the word 'mature' meant just that, a cheese that was made from milk, rennet, salt and then matured for several months before it arrives in the shops. We were wrong. Cheese can now be made and sold as 'mature' after as little as 78 hours. We are being conned, yet this is apparently  quite legal.
 Bacon is sold as  cured bacon, yet it is often made from pig to shelf in just two days, this is not curing meat, it is pumping it full of chemicals to make it appear cured.
 Many of the chemicals used in manufacturing food does not even need to appear on the label, things like enzymes, used on ready to eat fruit salad and prepared vegetables, they help to make the product 'appear' fresh. Washed salad leaves, washed in what? Apparently in chlorine, then packed in a controlled environment, what does that mean? The food has been treated to a gassing process to maintain the 'freshness' of the product.
We are being conned, big time. We don't buy ready made anything thankfully, we like to think we know where our food has come from but does the label on the food mean anything? Not a lot. 

How could it be that a pizza analysed by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, which carried a “country of origin Ireland” label, came to be made with 35 different ingredients that had passed through 60 countries on five continents?
For an insight as to what is happening in the food industry click on the following link, you will be in for a big surprise. As for us, well cheese is off the menu until we can find a matured cheese that is just that, matured by age, not chemicals. 

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/feb/21/a-feast-of-engineering-whats-really-in-your-food

Last week saw us eating out, for us a rare occasion, we had missed going out for my birthday at the end of January, I just could not be bothered to get ready and then for Simon to have to drive the best part of an hour to get to a restaurant that serves food worth traveling for, plus we wanted a change, but good restaurants are few and far between in rural Ireland, however talking to friends the subject came round to food, or rather good places to eat , they gave us several recommendations. As last Wednesday was our wedding anniversary  we headed out to one of our friends recommended eating houses, we weren't disappointed, the food is quite retro, maybe that's the latest thing,

but the garlic mushrooms were great, the homemade soup was delicious,

Excellent steak and prawns.

followed by Surf and Turf, (steak and tiger prawns). They even managed to cook my steak as I like it, blue, most places always overcook steak too much for me.
 Simon opted for a curry, something that I never make as I don't do hot or spicy, he declared it very good, it's unusual for Simon to describe anything as very good.
 The let down was the absence of any craft beers which are at last catching on here, so we opted for a bottle of  Rioja, it was superb, this was reflected in the price! However it was probably one of the best Riojas we have ever had. We are now looking forward to trying some of the other restaurants that our friends have recommended.

Suddenly spring seem to be with us. We have a greenhouse full of  seed trays, plus the propagator is full, spinach, spinach beat and parsnips have been sown in the raised beds and the spring flowers are all in full bloom. The  Snowdrops and most of the crocus are now over and have been replaced with

Daffodils, Hyacinths lots of Primroses and Primulas 

and the Camilla's are looking fantastic, we have more blooms this year than we have ever had before possible due to the good pruning I gave the bushes last year. Soon the tulips will be out

and the first Anemone is in bloom with lots more showing buds.

Bumble bees enjoy a touch of spring.

We have even had bumble bees seeking pollen and nectar from the winter pansy's and the Hyacinths that are in the window boxes.

It's always an exciting time of year, seeing plants that you had forgotten suddenly make their appearance. Even the Prunus Nigra  is in bloom. It might still be chilly at night, but spring is here.