The Age of Warlords Cookbook

My Manifesto

2011-10-24T19:31:00.000-07:00

I wrote this piece for the crowdfunded book The Future We Deserve just over a year ago. Proof 1 edition is now available and includes this essay. The ideas and changes I talk about continue to develop so it's about time I put it up here.

It seems we manufacture ‘consent’ more than just about anything else in the west. Our media and commercial food industries are staking their claims on the last pieces of moral and aesthetic high ground in an effort to exploit our patterns of conspicuous consumption. Our tastes in food are being driven by our unprecedented access to global resources. This is all at a time when age old aphorisms like “teach a man to fish...” and “there's plenty of fish in the sea” are in the process of being rendered untrue. A time when catastrophic climate change and economic disintegration threaten to test the stability of western civilisations. Food is our fuel and when we are at our greatest need it is the one thing we value above all else.

Rick Stein recently said something that confirmed my feelings about how all of humanity relates to food and how sharing is valued in times of conflict. He was speaking from his studio kitchen after his recent South East Asian Odyssey when he remarked on the resilience of the Sri Lankan people during the recent civil war conflict saying "Food is about good times even if there are terrible things going on all around you". The former fish monger is known for his rapport with the people he visits and the engaging quality of his documentaries and cookbooks. The truth he has recognised is that humans need to share the act of eating and must work collectively to add value to food and to bring meals to the table in tough times.

Powdered egg is the one food that at the toughest of times will become a highly sought-after commodity. At the heart of western delicacies like sponge cakes, souffle, meringue, and many other sweet and savoury dishes is egg whites beaten to soft or stiff peaks. Egg whites are irreplaceable in western delicacies as nothing else can substitute for its particular qualities. My question is “Do powdered egg whites match up to the qualities of fresh egg whites?”.
The west's media are currently obsessed with both the haute cuisine and boutique agriculture sectors. Our current knowledge base is at once expanding with knowledge of exotic and labour intensive ingredients, whilst also contracting due to masking of the true nature of our supply chains.

In many countries with unstable governments, warlords are a fact of life and a constant force affecting economic and social stability. Unstable governments are forced to mediate the engagement of militant groups with the general population. In countries where crops have failed and food production and other economic infrastructure are also compromised those who have weapons have the power to control food. Max Blouin and Stéphane Pallage contend that poverty levels are now being managed to qualify for food aid and deliver control over larger food surpluses to warlords. They confirm the fundamental rule that in a time of scarcity, those with weapons and power have control over food.

African cities have been hot beds of cultural production since the wave of independence of the late 1950's and early 1960's. Despite every kind of economic manipulation and the legacy of centuries of colonialism African cities have produced cultural product that demonstrates astounding resilience. Pioneering Afro-beat musician Fela Kuti whose Lagos night club 'The Shrine' provided respite from dangerous streets spoke out strongly about the effects of economic exploitation by foreigners and his own countrymen. The creative legacy of African musicians speaks to their resilience and ability to use culture to transcend adversity. It is this quality of resilience that the large scale manufacturing of consent has stifled. Empathy and consideration of the conditions and successes of resilient people gives us the power to learn about resilience.

What do our contingency plans for the future say about our motivations? Survivalism lite is the name given to the movement (in the USA) toward relearning basic survival skills and developing stores of food and supplies for catastrophic futures. It is primarily about the preservation of the highest possible level of comfort for the individual and the family.
The Dark Mountain Project also identifies risks to the 'civilisation' project but asks a much larger question “Has the civilisation project delivered us a society that is able to deal with catastrophic climate change and economic disintegration?”. It has begun to answer this question in two ways. The first is an intuitive “No!”, and the second is by stimulating new answers that look beyond the western civilisation to 'cultural contingencies' that recognise the true cost of western affluence.

The Future We Deserve (Proof 1) is now available from PediaPress

Food, love, and war in words.

2011-09-14T01:41:00.000-07:00

I've read background briefings in left leaning newspapers, watched the TV stories about conflict and history in the Middle East, and generally tried to keep an empathetic ear open in the hope of gaining some real understanding about the lives of people there. But nothing has done more to give me understanding about the Middle East than reading about food in times of conflict. Day of Honey: A Memoir of Food, Love, and War by Annia Ciezadlo gets to the heart of life, friends, and family, and reveals the true source of resilience - human engagement over 'something' that must be truly and honestly shared - in this case that 'something' is food.

The power of this wonderful book comes from Annia's ability to engage and empathise with people struggling to survive amid physical danger and grieving societies fractured by suspicion and fear. The intimate details of day to day life that she provides are a testament to her willingness to listen and her hunger for truth. What makes her stories so grounded are the revelations of her senses, switched on to aromas, sights, and experiences. She shows how relations are made honest and more palpable by the sharing of a meal, a discussion about provenance, or the teaching of a technique.

I especially admire Annia's engagement with 'the other'. She is highly reflexive about her role as a foreign journalist, and exercises the humility and sensitivity needed to document culture deeply. By being mindful that 'the other' are hers through friendship and marriage, and sharing their grief, she balances the many pressures she faces and acknowledges that she has greater choices and privileges.

I was deeply, deeply, moved by this book, it's candor and honesty, and by Annia's fearlessness and humility in the face of war.

Day of Honey:A Memoir of Food, Love, and War by Annia Ciezadlo is now available on ebook.

You can find her on Twitter and Facebook.

Malalai Joya says it best

2011-07-07T21:29:00.000-07:00

Malalai Joya is a former Afghan parliamentarian, activist, advocate, and author. Joyas words are desperate and articulate. Below is a video of the speech that brought her to prominence. In it she calls out the warlords among the elite.

Joya's finger is on the pulse because she speaks for those on the ground who know very well that their leaders have an interest in continued conflict rather than supporting and protecting ordinary people.

A recent quote from Malalai Joya in an interview with David Zlutnick Documentary Filmmaker- TruthOut.org from the OnIslam website

"Now, my people, they're squashed between three powerful enemies: warlords, Taliban, occupation forces. With the withdrawal of these external enemies, my people will fight two internal enemies. They will fight steadfastly till the end because of the hatred that they have for the Taliban and also the warlords. In this presence of these occupation forces in Afghanistan, they double our miseries and make these warlords and Taliban more powerful. They make our struggle for justice, for democracy and women's rights much harder, as it now seems like Taliban times..."

Malalai Joya's latest book is titled "A Woman Among Warlords" published through Scribner

My visit to 'rabbit country'

2011-05-26T03:26:00.000-07:00

Early morning in autumnal Ballan

As you may well be aware I have a fascination with wild rabbits and their role as food in tough times. Australia has a rich history of fighting and eating wild rabbits. Rabbits were introduced in the state of Victoria in 1859 for hunting purposes and quickly became an invasive pest. During the great depression rabbitohs sold rabbits door to door. Now both wild and farmed rabbits are highly regulated as a food while the ongoing struggle to develop biological controls over wild populations continues.

So before my recent working holiday in Melbourne (2000 k's on the train) I asked my mate Tony who grew up in the regional centre of Ballarat if he had any ideas about how I might find a rabbit hunter to interview. He told me about a little town called Ballan just outside Ballarat where he recalled seeing a sign at the pub advertising fresh rabbits. I was instructed to find Hudsons Hotel where Tony's uncle Kevin used to drink, and see if anyone can sell me a rabbit.

The unassuming Hudsons Hotel

I had only left myself one day to get a rabbit and/or interview before my train ride back up north. I knew this was not enough to guarantee that I got a rabbit, but I resolved to make the most of the experience. Ballan was a comfortable one hour train ride from Melbourne that took me through hilly grazing country and dropped me in a very autumnal little township smothered in amber leaves. After arriving at Hudsons I had a couple of beers and discovered that the deceased father of the lady behind the bar was the last person to openly sell wild rabbits in Ballan. I booked a room and was escorted down a long faux wood panelled hallway into a demountable extension and as I was putting my bags down I met Dave, local sparky, and the pubs' self appointed welcoming committee. After dinner I checked in with the cooks in the kitchen, I was told I should talk to a fella called Muzzy who I discovered holding court at the end of the bar. I decided to catch up with him when he wasn't so busy and went outside for some fresh air. I bumped into Dave having a cigarette with his mate Benny, and told them I was looking to buy a rabbit, Dave said he'd make some calls as he was certain he could get a frozen rabbit from a mate. I asked both fellas about field dressing and butchering techniques. Benny was very forthcoming and rattled off answers to all my questions with complete confidence. He told me that there were times when he could have shot as many rabbits as he wanted from his bedroom window. He also told me that the rabbit calicivirus that controversially escaped from an island laboratory off the coast of South Australia in 1995 had come and gone and that rabbits were as plentiful as ever. Along with stories about just how abundant rabbits were he informed me that if you cook rabbit for 35 minutes in a pressure cooker the meat will fall off the bone.

I saw this place in the main street. I wonder if they'll stock wild rabbit?

When I arrived in Ballan I had the vague expectation that I was going to talk to an old man about old skills and a dieing art. How wrong I was! Rabbit hunting and processing skills were very much alive. I never got to talk to Muzzy as he seemed to hold court for ages and I had become the special guest of the welcoming committee who was using me as an excuse to get the jukebox cranking. I left at midday before Dave was able to find a rabbit but I left feeling reassured that the skills necessary for dealing with hard times were guaranteed to survive.

Toasted brioche with vanilla dusted lady finger banana, cape gooseberry conserve, and Maggie Beer's vanilla bean and elderflower ice cream

2011-03-28T20:37:00.000-07:00

I'm prone to burn out. I lose faith in the people who are meant to provide me leadership and try though I may I often find myself on the outer and wondering why I insist on speaking my mind. Twice when this has happened I have wound up washing dishes in one of Brisbane's best bistro's. The first time was when I dropped out of uni in 1998 and went to work for Philip Johnson's Ecco Bistro. It was there that I encountered cape gooseberries for the first time since my childhood.

A cape gooseberry in its lantern. Physalis peruviana

The cape gooseberry is not a true gooseberry. It is in fact a type of tomato native to Peru and brought to Australia in the same way that lantana came here, via English gardening fashions. What makes the cape gooseberry so endearing and what fascinated me as a child is the delicate 'lantern' that surrounds them. But what makes them so memorable is their flavour. They vary in acidity from tart to sweet but when the sweetness and tartness are in balance the flavour is thrillingly electric! Over the years I have tried to find words to describe the flavour but only the words 'grown up tasting' come to mind.

Since rediscovering the cape gooseberry I have gone on a long journey and made many mistakes. It has been a true test of my jam making skills. Compared to strawberry or peach jam, gooseberry jam, as the older ladies at my mum's charity The Little King's Movement call it, is exceedingly tricky to perfect. The berries have a high water content and while I have been tempted to cut them up to release more of the pectin in the seeds, I am too attracted to the berries' colour and shape. So producing a jam/conserve of an appropriate consistency requires diligence and commitment. I've developed techniques to release the pectin whilst keeping the golden berries more or less in tact.

A cape gooseberry lantern after a few months in the garden

In 2001 I went to wash dishes at Arc Bistro started by P.J.Macmillan who had been head chef at Ecco. He was ably assisted by Lynette Knowles, an alumnus of Le Bronx which Philip Johnson started on his return to Australia. Knowlesie would make a cape gooseberry conserve using brown sugar which was designed to be served with a banana and poppy seed upside down cake which had halved cape gooseberries placed in the bottom. Since then banana has been my favourite thing to pair with cape gooseberries.

A worthy cause

Each year, dependent on availability, I make a small batch of jam/conserve for The Little King's Movement fete which falls in late September at the end of the cape gooseberry season (they are very seasonal). The jam/conserve is a favourite of the older ladies and also helps to lure my friends along. Over the years interest in my jam/conserve has grown steadily and since I feel that I have sufficiently refined my method, this year I am going to make a larger batch, with a label and all. My friend Kristina who co-owns the charming Flamingo Cafe has agreed to buy some and my mum has given me permission to name it Little King's - Cape Gooseberry Conserve.

Mum and Dad enjoying a special dessert

So the 'hero' of the dish at the top is the cape gooseberry! And in keeping with Rick Stein's 'The hunt for Australia's top food blogger' competition I've made a rustic dessert that reflects Australia's diverse cultural heritage, our significant food people, and Queensland's subtropical climate (cape gooseberries grow wild an hour west of Brisbane). Oh and I provided Splayds (invented in Australia) with which to eat the dessert.

Toasted brioche with vanilla dusted lady finger banana, cape gooseberry conserve, and Maggie Beer's vanilla bean and elderflower ice cream

Brioche slices 8mm thick
Ripe but firm lady finger bananas
Cape gooseberry conserve
Vanilla dusting sugar
Maggie Beer's vanilla bean and elderflower ice cream

Method: Dice bananas into 1cm pieces, add to a bowl, dust liberally with vanilla dusting sugar, and toss gently. Lightly toast the brioche slices and allow to cool a little. Place the brioche slice on a dessert plate. Place the diced banana at one end of the brioche slice and place a scoop of ice cream against the banana pieces. Dollop cape gooseberry conserve at the point where they meet and drizzle a little syrup over the bananas and ice cream, and serve.

Cape Gooseberry Conserve

2kg cape gooseberries
1.2kg white sugar
1 to 2 lemons

Method: Preheat a deep heavy based saucepan on medium heat. Vigorously sweat the berries stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until they begin to simmer in their own juices. Reduce the heat to low and allow them to simmer for 10 minutes, then add 1kg room temperature white sugar and stir till the sugar dissolves. Simmer for at least an hour on low stirring regularly and pressing the berries against the side of the pan to release the seeds. When the berries are almost translucent add the juice of one medium lemon and allow to simmer for 10 minutes. As the berries are becoming fully translucent begin skimming the foam from the top of the mix and start tasting. If the mix is too tart add a little heavy sugar syrup (pre-prepared), if too sweet add a little more lemon juice. When you're happy with the flavour test the consistency by dropping a little of the mix on a chilled plate to test for thickness (the mix should develop a slightly crinkled skin). Continue to skim and be careful not to let it caramelise much. It is better to remove some of the syrup than allow to reduce too long.

Day of Honey: A memoir of Food, Love, and War

2011-03-18T17:47:00.000-07:00

I've never wanted to read a book more than this one! Day of Honey: A memoir of Food, Love, and War explores the idea that the pursuit of food and culture help maintain our humanity in times of war and violence. My heart is warmed whenever I hear it said that the preparing and sharing of food in war time brings comfort and some joy to a difficult life.

Eating for empathy

2011-01-23T22:45:00.000-08:00

It's time to pretend I'm stuck at home in London during the Blitz. I'll be doing this with the help of my new purchase 'Eating for Victory' which is a compilation of official WW2 instruction leaflets on cooking with food rations. I've had a brief look at the table of contents and I've decided to start with 'Crumb Fudge' and 'Dresden Patties' from the 'What's left in the Larder' chapter. It's certain to be enlightening!

Food Riots! Economic pressures in poorer countries and the social effects of food shortages

2011-01-07T01:36:00.000-08:00

Police chase protesting youths in the El Harrache district of Algiers on Thursday. The violence came after price hikes for milk, sugar and flour in recent days.

Image Credit: AP

The brief I have given myself for this blog is to look at the future of food and violence in the west. But of course my often stated agenda is to get westerners to look at life in developing countries and into their own country's past for examples of resilience and struggle in periods of violent upheaval. In that light I recently contacted Amy Bentley Associate Professor of Food Studies at the NYU Steinardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development and author of Eating for Victory: Food Rationing and the Politics of Domesticity after discovering her contribution to the book Food, drink and identity: cooking, eating and drinking in Europe since the Middle Ages. Her chapter entitled 'Reading Food Riots: Scarcity, Abundance, and National Identity' made me think about the social responses to the onset of scarcity and the role that markets and governments have to play in bringing affordable and culturally appropriate food to the people.
So it was timely when today I found a Jan 7, 2011 article at gulfnews.com about unrest in Algeria over "price hikes for milk, sugar and flour in recent days". The article entitled 'World on brink of social unrest over food prices' discussed food inflation in Africa and across Asia quoting unnamed "international organisations" as saying there is going to be a global "food price shock". This seems quite plausible to me as there has been much talk in the US about inflationary pressures around food and with many European governments unable to exercise control over economic factors affecting inflationary pressures.
Amy Bentley's writings on food riots impressed me so much because she demonstrated empathy through her conclusions saying that rioting resulting from price hikes and lack of availability of staple and cultural foods was caused by "intense frustration and anger at being trapped in a global economic web in which they seem to have no agency".

Coconut crisis in Sri Lanka caused by loss of plantations to new housing developments!

Mexico's drug/war lords and the suffering farmers

2011-01-01T22:30:00.000-08:00

Image from www.agoranews.org Behind Mexico's Bloodshed Part 1&2

Some argue the North American Free Trade Agreement has played a part in the current bloodshed in Mexico by driving farmers off the land and fundamentally shifting the economy into the drug trade to the US. While some politicians in Mexico argue that the majority of those who've died were engaged in the drug trade, more and more evidence is appearing that ordinary citizens are being brutalised, tortured, and killed by both drug lords and the Mexican military sent to tackle the problem.

Molly Molloy in 'Who Is Behind the 25,000 Deaths In Mexico?' The Nation July 23 2010

" “armed commandos” dressed like soldiers and wielding high-powered machine guns are witnessed at the scenes of hundreds of massacres documented since 2008."

Bruce Livesey in Behind Mexico's Bloodshed says:

"While free trade wiped out Mexico's traditional agriculture, the drug cartels moved in."

Laura Carlsen in 'The Mexican Farmers' Movement: Exposing the Myths of Free Trade'

International Forum on Globalization February 25, 2003

"The reemergent Mexican farmers' movement reflects not only the serious crisis in the country's rural sector but also a crisis of faith in free trade itself"

Scott Henson, writer of the Texan criminal justice system blog 'Grits for Breakfast' argues in his post 'Stop Digging: US policies enriching Mexican drug cartels' that a range of US policies including NAFTA and US agricultural subsidies have:

"combined to enrich Mexican cartels unimaginably, even financing military-grade weapons purchases, most of which is smuggled in from the United States"

Food is something we have to do as humans. When contrived arrangements cause the production of food to diminish and dependent populations are pressurised, those desperate for a market will go to violent extremes.

Is it 'end game' time yet?

2010-12-23T01:45:00.000-08:00

It seems pretty clear that ConspiracyWatch.net with their investigator Tom Retterbush seem to think the apparent rise in gun purchases in the USA is cause for concern. If they didn't, why would they title their story thusly.

"Record Gun Sales as Americans Prepare for Financial Collapse"

They even mentioned people stockpiling non-perishables, petrol, and water. Seems pretty end-gamey to me.

A Worldwide Day's Worth of Food

2010-12-23T00:25:00.000-08:00

A Worldwide Day's Worth of Food

This is great! What an amazing array of diets and liefestyles! So artfully arranged.

Found on twitter. The link to the photo essay (thanks @michaelpollan )and also yours truly operating as @empathiser.

Powdered Egg Whites: The first experiment.

2010-11-12T22:20:00.000-08:00

Well finally, as promised nearly a year ago, I have had a crack at a powdered egg whites dish. All the ingredients are either from my pantry or our little herb garden.

This was the end result. Delicate and very tasty corn cake ramekins topped with a grilled red pepper and Italian herb salad. I gave these to the girls from Stag who were recording in my house mate's home studio, and sweating it out to lay some new tracks on his valve driven reel to reel. I explained this blog to them and asked if they would appreciate a small meal like this if they found themselves in a war time situation. They said absolutely!

I learned a great deal from the process. According to Pace Farms who sell massive amounts of powdered egg whites for commercial use in Australia, powdered egg whites should be mixed at a rate of 7:1 water to egg white powder. I made a huge oversight and failed to consider just how little I needed for my purposes. I used 100grams of egg white powder when I only really needed 25grams which is the equivalent to 6 medium egg whites. This meant I had to continually move up to a larger mixing bowl and ended up wasting loads of egg white mix.

While I did achieve soft peaks after lots of hand beating with my Swift Whip. I feel I haven't fully demonstrated the ability of powdered egg whites to adequately substitute for fresh egg whites. I feel I really do need to make a souffle or macaroons to prove the point though I feel access to a temperature controlled oven during The Age of Warlords would be limited.

It was my hope to make fluffy corn cakes in a heavy based pan as a single burner is likely to be what most families will possess or afford to run. I will have another go at corn cakes and try fluffy pancakes as well. I'll need to get myself one of those dope dealers scales and some baggies to measure quantities.

Corn Cake Ramekins topped with a Grilled Red Pepper and Italian Herb Salad

Corn cakes

300grams corn kernels

300grams creamed corn

25grams powdered egg white (equivalent to 6 medium egg whites)

powdered garlic

dried onions

chilli flakes

water

salt

Red pepper and herb salad

fire roasted red peppers

aged balsamic

extra virgin olive oil

fresh parsley, oregano, basil, and thyme

Follow me on twitter @empathiser

The Future We Deserve an excellent project!

2010-09-17T22:27:00.000-07:00

The Future We Deserve is a collaborated book about possible futures that takes account of the very real possibility of castastrophic climate change and economic disintegration. It will be a collection of writings from dreamers, pundits, thinkers, inventors, campaigners, and activists looking at ideas, answers, technologies, culture, feelings, economics, and social strategy for an uncertain future.
Vinay Gupta is the inventor of the Hexayurt (a portable, lightweight house deployed in Haiti after the recent earth quakes) and a curator of The Future We Deserve. He contacted me recently saying he loved the Age of Warlords blog title and asked me to write an essay for the book. Needless to say I am very excited as I have been following the Dark Mountain Project as it develops and would be glad to make a contribution to discussion around their challenging ideas.
The Future We Deserve book will be made reality using Creative Commons licencing and funded using Crowd Sourcing through Kickstarter

This is what I've been talking about! Terra Vivos

2010-07-02T01:58:00.000-07:00

Holy crap! This is more than survivalism lite. This is the ultimate corporate expression of fear of The Age of Warlords.

While I would have hours of fun exploring the Vivos underground hotel style bunker website. I'm going to let you go there and explore it for yourself. I will tell you that they have 11 threat scenarios, one of them called Planet x - Nibiru where a rogue planet passes by causing the earths poles to shift.

I'd like to thank The Colbert Report 28/06/10 for bringing it to my attention.

Uncivilisation: "A crisis in the environment movement"

2010-07-01T06:18:00.000-07:00

Flaccid. That's the word most often used to describe the debate between George Monbiot and Dougald Hine of The Dark Mountain Project at the inaugural Uncivilisation festival.

GeoMon admitted that "There is a crisis in the environment movement". He admitted that there is no one environmental movement but many movements working to similar aims. He also argued that not only are non-renewable resources going to last for longer than we think (tar sands and coal seam gas), but that the machinery of Industrial Capitalism is highly resilient and able to adapt to ensure it's survival. GeoMon argued that Industrial Capitalism has been drawing the lions share of great minds to itself for so long that it cannot help but have the advantage over all others when it comes to protecting its position.

Dougald Hine articulated the elements of the Dark Mountain manifesto but was out-gunned by GeoMon's depth of knowledge (he did most of the talking).

What came through strongly in the discussion was that the Dark Mountain Project is an environmental movement of sorts looking to push a different angle.

Despite GeoMon's erudite ways I still see the power of The Dark Mountain Project manifesto though I believe that they need to model the collapses in creative and well informed ways.

Audio recording of the discussion between Dougald Hine and George Monbiot.

http://www.archive.org/details/MonbiotHineUncivilisation2010

Vigorous/Vitriolic debate in the blogoshere.

http://dwighttowers.wordpress.com/2010/05/31/dire-mountain-more-abysmal-than-abyss-mal/

The inventor of the Hexayurt Vinay Gupta. Good discussion around GeoMon.

http://thesietch.org/mysietch/keith/2010/05/31/a-church-full-of-underminers-and-george-monbiot/

GeoMon vs The Dark Mountain

2010-05-27T01:11:00.000-07:00

This weekend may see the most significant public debate about the future of the earth and the West's role in helping to save the environment or at least saving some semblance of life after civilisation.

The first ever Dark Mountain Festival will be held in Llangollen north Wales and George Monbiot (GeoMon) who has had a running debate with the Dark Mountain Project will be there to debate in person. George has always insisted that the West take responsibility for environmental destruction and Dark Mountain Project founders Paul Kingsnorth and Dougald Hine head an ever growing movement that is deeply critical of Western civilisation and recognises that we may well have missed our chance to stop catastrophic climate change. Both GeoMon and the Dark Mountain Project are highly critical of the West's actions in it's stewardship of the earth but differ over the message that should be delivered to the people.

I admire George Monbiot a lot. He lives his values and writes articulately, always providing useful references. Most importantly he doesn't fly around the world giving talks and attending conferences instead choosing limited travel by train. George has been the steady voice of eco-reason for me which is why this particular conflict is so significant. The Dark Mountain Project came into my field of view only a few months ago but given the changes in our knowledge of the current and imminent threats to the global climate and the obvious lack of international will to act, their point of view continues to become more and more relevant.

Musician Chris TT who has an association with the Dark Mountain Project sums up the debate quite well in this article. He argues that the essence of the debate is about the reluctance of environmentalists to admit they are privately pessimistic about the future and don't share this pessimism due to the perceived need to grow public optimism. I'm inclined to agree with him.

While I have much admiration for GeoMon I feel that he has got his knickers in a twist over this debate. In his May 10/2010 article in The Guardian GeoMon responds to the Dark Mountain thesis contending that Western civilisation is much more resilient than they assert listing a range of new fossil fuel resources and extraction methods. I didn't find his argument compelling. It seemed that he was arguing that the very practices that he rails against would sustain the system he knows to be the problem.

Paul Kingsnorth in his May 19/2010 article The need for growth makes a strong argument for how utterly dependent Western civilisation is on economic growth and that such growth is necessarily dependent on eco-destructive practices. Kingsnorth and Dougald Hine sharpen their critique of the green movement in their reply to GeoMon entitled The environmental movement needs to stop pretending asserting that more than anything else our lifestyles need to change.

I find this debate to be exciting and extremely important! While I feel that the Dark Mountain Project tend to grandstand a little and GeoMon is defending what may well be a lost cause I feel that between them they have begun to flesh out the defining issue of our age. What seems a little amusing here is how GeoMon comes out looking a bit like an establishment figure.

The Dark Mountain Project have taken a very radical position which I find attractive. There is something very positive to me about new culture and contingency plans for a future that lack of political will seems to make very possible. While I wish for global cooperation and renewable energy solutions for the future I very much see the need for a critique of Western civilisation and the world that it has delivered to us.

My food hero!

2010-05-25T06:33:00.000-07:00

I was watching the Sri Lanka and Bali installment of Rick Stein's Far Eastern Odyssey tonight when he stopped to mention the impact of the civil war which was in full swing at the time of filming. He said something then that sums up my sentiments exactly "Food is about good times even if there are terrible things going on all around you".

Despite his tendency to be accident prone and rather awkward in the studio kitchen I love Rick Stein. There is a simplicity to his approach to food that reflects his fundamental decency and capacity to relate to ordinary people. I have his book Mediterranean Escapes and have watched many of his television programmes like Food Heroes and have sensed in both that his recipes reflect the connections made with real people.

I think his works also reflect the camaraderie he has with his production team. I can feel the sheer pleasure he takes in being with people while they do all manner food related activities. I get a real sense that he and his production team are able to put individuals and the general public at ease while shooting.

It came as no surprise when I heard Rick utter that wonderful quote. It tells me that the lives and conditions of ordinary people are not far from his mind.

Finacial Times refuses to publish Niger delta anti Shell ad

2010-05-20T00:03:00.000-07:00

This is the ad that the Financial Times would not run on 18th May 2010 highlighting the effects of Shell's practices on the Niger delta. The ad, which was timed to coincide with the Shell AGM and capitalise on the public disgust at the BP leak in the Gulf of Mexico deserves as much exposure as possible. Shell have a lot to answer for in Nigeria.

This article about the Niger delta coincided with the release of a book in 2008 by Michael Watts entitled "The curse of black gold". It gives a vivid description of the levels of destruction and profound ecological and social corruption caused by Shell and it's friends. This article by Guardian blogger Roy Greenslade outlines just how flimsy the Financial Times reasoning for pulling the ad was.

The problem of Shell and oil in the Niger delta has been visited and revisited over and over. The saga of the Ogoni people and their spokesman Ken Sarowiwa has brought the actions of Shell out into plain site many times. Fela Kuti regularly critiqued the destructive power of greed and wealth and decried the fact that it was many of his own country men who brought such destruction and corruption to his country while holding hands with the Europeans.

I recently watched the documentary "Music is the weapon" where Fela Kuti outlines the conditions of his city Lagos, that was 1975. Even now artists like Daddy Showkey explain how the ghettos of Lagos are a killing field where bodies lie untouched in the street.

How little the world seems to care. The Financial Times stymied a rare and timely opportunity to prick the collective conscience of 'the west'.

Top ten "unliveable" cities: not my kind fun facts!

2010-03-22T06:42:00.000-07:00

I was in my local coffee shop the other day when I spotted the above 'fun facts' style "article" in the glossy magazine that comes with the weekend national paper. I looked around the page and found no related article dealing with the issues raised by this set of 'fun facts'. I found this disturbing, cynical, and in a way macabre.
The Economist magazine makes a big deal of it's yearly liveability rankings with most attention given to the top ten most liveable cities. The article published by the The Economist does not list the top unliveable cities just the liveable top ten. The Economist links you to the Economist Intelligence Unit where the top ten and bottom ten are provided. If you want any more from the list you will have to buy the information.
This list is made offensive by the lack of attention paid to the human experience of living in these cities and the historical colonial contexts that have delivered them to us in such a parlous state. The list reeks of British and French colonial exploits. Some of these cities represent hot beds of cultural production and adaption with their denizens being shining examples of resilience amid catastrophic circumstances. There is much that is fascinating, important, and eminently readable about these cities. It would have been quite possible to put a positive spin on the list but it seems that the fashion for 'fun facts' and the apparent cynicism of editorial staff put a stop to that.
I am fascinated by these cities and take a keen interest in their culture, and history. Every part of their tortuous existence has helped to create peoples and cultures that celebrate survival. It is a sad shame that some editors living in the rarefied air of their office blocks feel that the experience of so many struggling and suffering people can be over looked. They say these places are unliveable, but for whom? Certainly not the people who live there!

Check this link for an article on Port Moresby

The Road, some thoughts and a list of meals

2010-03-15T21:50:00.000-07:00

Last night I finished reading Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road' and then went and saw the movie. This was the right thing to do because in my mind the both are part of one experience.
While I have some issues with the screen play and it's adherence to the detail of the novel and the subsequent effects on the narrative development and certain key themes, I think the movie was effective.
My great point of difference with 'The Road' is in the nature of the special world created by the writer. By this I refer to Joseph Campbell's notion of the hero/protagonist and the rules governing the special world where the hero and the audience finds themselves and makes their journey. In 'The Road' we find that the world is a place where almost all but a few humans and possibly a pet dog have survived some sort of cataclysm. It is but one of many scenarios of human destruction that may precipitate the Age of Warlords.
The choice of the destruction of most life is a device that places the focus on preserved food. There are no opportunities to hunt or farm and the world is seemingly heading towards sterility. This is a clever device that allows the writer to focus on many of the fears of 'preppers' and survivalists. It is the most dramatic of Age of Warlords scenarios as desolation, personal violence, and cannibalism are a day to day issue.
I have made the most of Cormac McCarthy's dramatic focus and made a list of all meals (eating events) in 'The Road' (the book). The list bears out the true nature of the foods we are likely to rely on at the most desperate stages of the Age of Warlords.

Pg 3 corn meal cakes and syrup
Pg 8 a poor meal, cold
Pg 16 smokehouse ham and tin of beans
Pg 26 a can of coke from a vending machine
Pg 29 cold rice and cold beans
Pg 31 last of the cocoa
Pg 34 crackers and a tin of sausage, last half packet of cocoa
Pg 40 colony of dried morels
Pg 41 morels and fat pork, can of beans, tea and tinned pears
Pg 49 last of the morels and a can of spinach
Pg 72 a can of white beans
Pg 76 a can of sausages and a can of corn
Pg 79 a can of beets
Pg 80 last tin of food, pork and beans
Pg 88 corn cakes-sans rat turds
Pg 91 two corn cakes each
Pg 92 a handful of raisins
Pg 94 grain and dust from a hopper
Pg 107 handfuls of dirty snow
Pg 125 dusty hayseeds
Pg 127 dried up apples with seeds
Pg 131 dried up apples, grape flavoured drink
Pg 133 dried up apples, water
Pg 141 a can of pears, a can of peaches
Pg 151 a bar of chocolate
Pg 153 ham, eggs, beans, coffee, biscuits
Pg 162 ham, green beans, mashed potato, gravy, peaches and cream, coffee
Pg 165 canned ham and crackers with mustard and apple sauce, tea
Pg 174 with the old man-tin of fruit cocktail
Pg 178 with the old man-beef, crackers, coffee
Pg 185 a cold lunch
Pg 187 corn bread, beans, franks from a tin
Pg 193 curbside crackers
Pg 204 leftover skillett bread. last can of tuna fish, a can of prunes
-205
Pg 212 the last of their provisions
Pg 224 preserved green beans and potatos
Pg 254 a can of peaches alone
Pg 269 a can of apple juice for the boy
Pg 278 cans warmed over the burner
Pg 296 half tin of peaches for the boy

Preppers! Many Americans are getting ready for the end of the world!

2010-02-24T04:59:00.000-08:00

A little while back I mentioned a "rapture inspired blog" that had recipes for powdered egg. At that stage I had only just begun to find out about the practice of 'preparedness' and it's connection to some American churches. I felt it prudent not to question religious practices though it's clear that 'the rapture' and other forms of human disaster are the prime motivation. I did do a little research into the history of 'preparedness' doctrine in one significant Christian church and found a repeated directive from a modern church leader rather than a biblical reference.
While I have been aware of the enduring popularity of survivalism in the USA it is clear that 'prepping' or as Paul Harris in his article Americans stock up to be ready for end of the world noted it had been dubbed "Survivalism Lite" is an entirely new and rather more populous phenomenon. I have had a look at a fair few of the many preparedness sites online, not all are religiously inspired, many offer useful information about food preparation and good old fashioned skills, but there is very little discussion about the deeper questions.
To me the 'prepping' movement (if it can be called a movement) seems to be driven by a sense of self preservation and fear of death and suffering. Preppers clearly are preparing to hunker down in their homes with supplies of food, medicine, and weapons to help them weather the storms of violence and other horrible happenings that the rapture or one of many forecast disasters may bring. This strikes me as being not inspired by empathy and a sense of rebuilding community, but by individualism and the desire to live the most comfortable possible life.
As someone who was raised a catholic and who still values the principles of selflessness that Christianity shares with many of the values of secular-post-enlightenment philosophies, I find it hard to reconcile myself with preparedness as a practice. When the Western world enters the post-civilisation period ie The Age of Warlords, the bigger questions will be the same but the noise and fog of politics and power will have shifted and reveal an immediate need for community. The true Christian values that informed the enlightenment and subsequent democratic development will be as relevant as ever. I question the rightness of using increase and privileged now to protect ourselves from a possible future.

Processing wild rabbit for food can be very diseasy!

2010-01-30T21:44:00.000-08:00

Roa - Rabbit - from Prescription Art

While researching for info on identifying and processing rabbit carcasses I came across important info about disease risks. I discovered that rabbits can carry the bubonic plague virus which can be easily transferred to humans through contact with the carcass and through fleas living in the animals fur. Rabbits can also transfer Tularemia (Francisella tularensis) through spores on the fur and through eating the meat (look for spots on the liver). Both of these can be deadly and even though we have treatments for each condition these may well be unavailable during the age of warlords.

While I have been unsuccessful in finding a useful guide to carcass identification I did find a great guide to safe processing of rabbit carcasses. The Cooking Inn has a great guide to dressing procedures for handling farmed and wild rabbit carcasses that shows what to look for in a properly dressed rabbit. Unfortunately a properly dressed rabbit has had its head, tail, and front and rear fore-legs removed leaving no obvious features clearly identifying it as a rabbit carcass.
The right leg is left in tact when preparing the carcass for skinning as it is the best point to attach a hanging hook. Given that it is advised that rabbit hunters process their catch in the field while it is still warm leaving the pelt on the rabbit I would ask that the right leg be left on the animal for identification. A cats paw is very easy to spot!

Here is a link to an event I would have loved to have attended. Rabbit Discovered was an event celebrating slow food with wild rabbit as the centre piece of the meal. People attending were given a demonstration of how to safely prepare and portion a wild rabbit carcass with opportunities to have a go at processing the carcass themselves.
From what I've been able to gather wild rabbits can now be sold un-eviscerated (un-gutted) allowing the purchaser to identify any issues with the liver revealing Tularemia.

But not this stuff!

2010-01-22T05:06:00.000-08:00

I said I loved canned food but this stuff won't be going into my pantry! There's been a bit of an ad campaign for this stuff and another brand called "Chop chop chicken" lately and I have always wondered about chicken in a can. Why is it that they're trying to sell a product like this to us now?

Blech! Noted Culinary Anthropologist Margaret Visser tells of how in Europe and North America the eating of a fowl on occasion was deemed a luxury to which everyone had a right. A roasted bird as the centre piece of a special meal would be quite a luxury in the age of warlords.

Joan Gussow's dark vision of a future chicken fed by pipes and harvested for flesh seems a little closer. It says shredded chicken breast on the can but I wonder where they get the bits from?

I wasn't impressed when I opened the can.

And even less impressed when I checked the texture, disappointing! The shred was too fine with no real 'meaty' shreds (so to speak).

Shortly after this photo I spat my first mouth full in the bin and chucked the rest of the can away!

I like canned food!

2010-01-04T02:42:00.000-08:00

The other night I admitted something in conversation that kind of surprised me. We were discussing organic certification and food miles when I said "I like canned food!". I wasn't just espousing an intellectual value, and it's wasn't a retro thing or some attachment from childhood or a reaction against trendy packaged pasta sauces or vege stock in a sachet. It's not a 'warholesque' visual thing either. I was expressing a kind of 'romantic' aesthetic sense about canned goods.
What informs this aesthetic sense? It's the integrity of the design of the product, that it achieves it purpose humbly and consistently in a way that is unmatched. It's the idea that towns have grown around canneries and that many canneries grew from farmers cooperatives. It's that canneries are such a poignant example of value adding technology, like smoking fish it is preserving but with industrial age technology.
When human societies developed food preserving techniques they were able to take greater advantage of abundance and survive the hard times. Pickles, preserves, brewing of alcoholic beverages, smoking and drying all played a significant part in the growth of civilisation. These are important food technologies that we will need to appreciate and be knowledgeable about in the coming dark age.

I'm a bit of a stickler for cooking food from scratch. I have been cooking dried beans from scratch for a long time and feel that I have finally able to make them as tender and delicious as canned or fresh beans. I like dried beans because they are convenient, and they store well and keep for a long time but I have learned that it takes a lot of water to soak, boil, rinse, and cool dried beans.
In the age of warlords we will be thankful for canned beans. I'm certain that access to water will be severely limited for most of us in 'The West'. Canned food in general will reduce our need for water use in the kitchen as the hard work has already been done.
We have become accustomed to free flowing potable water straight from the tap anytime. Unlike many places in the developing world we don't spend a large portion of our time just getting access to water. But as society crumbles and the infrastructure that delivers our water to us in such a convenient way becomes impossible to maintain we will have to adapt!

Check out this site RawFoodExplained.com it has great tips for reducing water consumption in the kitchen and elsewhere. Now is probably a good time to start practicing some of these methods. It also may be a good time to pick up a good second hand pressure cooker.

Research is exciting but sometimes disturbing!

2009-12-24T06:03:00.000-08:00

I bought 100 grams of organic egg white powder yesterday. As promised, I'm going to tackle getting stiff peaks with powdered egg white. This will be a good challenge to do over the xmas break when I'm not distracted. I'm going to do it without electricity using my Swift Whip. If it works I'll make macaroons.
There are two main areas of research for this blog; online and in the kitchen. I'm excited about the kitchen challenges and plan to take some good photos and fine tune some recipes. But I'm doing some thinking about some of the disturbing areas I'll have to delve into to get important background and instructional information.
I was prompted by my research in to the Siege of Malta to find instructions for identifying a cat carcass from a rabbit carcass. My first searches were disturbing! Really disturbing! My first image search threw up some confronting images which caused me to call time out. But I feel that this is an important area to explore as it is these sort of confronting ideas the age of warlords has in store. So I vow to find a good guide to carcass identification. I expect this will give me some angles to approach bush meat and road kill.
I was excited to find out about some of the British ministry for Food publications. Good Fare and Good Eating are credited with helping Britain to keep the life and culture in food during rationing. Both books played a part in the story of London and The Blitz. Britain is said to have been at it's healthiest point in it's history toward the end of WW2.

The Seige of Malta

2009-12-14T02:08:00.000-08:00

I was talking recently with a Maltese-Australian chef about his 7 month stint back in his motherland. He was telling me about the importance of fresh bread (Hobz) in Maltese culture. He said that in Malta if bread isn't still warm from the oven it is regarded as not worth eating. I asked him if they ever used bread in left-overs recipes and he said they may have stuffed the small Hobz loaves with tomato, fish, olive oil, and herbs. He said recipes like this would have been used during the early days of the Siege of Malta during WW2. I mentioned that I read of cat carcasses being offered as rabbit, he said that even to this day in Malta you always have to check your rabbit carcasses as cat is still offered as a substitute.
Malta was vital to the Allied war effort and came under the sort of sustained attack experienced during the Blitz in London. Malta was highly valued in the Allied war efforts in North Africa as a point of supply and as a strategic base for Allied forces in the Mediterranean. During roughly 2 1/2 years of constant siege the people of Malta suffered terribly as very few supply convoys made it to the island intact. It's probably the case that very little bread was baked after the start of the siege. Locals often lived in caves surviving on minimal rations and many fell victim to a polio epidemic.
Malta has a long history of siege being strategically placed between Italy and North Africa. The local cuisine is constituted of fish, vegetables, herbs, pasta, and bread. Hobz loaves are small with a delicate crust, contain a little shortening, and have a short baking and leavening time.

Good siege of Malta site http://merlinsovermalta.gdenney.co.uk/

Powdered egg

2009-11-30T01:07:00.000-08:00

When I think of The Age of Warlords Cook Book my meandering thoughts often end with powdered egg. Why? Because the egg is at the heart of so many western delicacies and when eggs are scarce there is very little to use as an alternative. As an amateur baker of 22 years I've found that nothing quite matches up to egg for fluffiness in a sponge, meringue, or macaroon.
But it's also because when we run out of eggs and chickens, and corn flour just isn't cutting it, and we've tried all the alternatives, and just want a delicate cake, powdered egg will be the only substitute.

I am one of many who have scorned powdered egg. I have in my ignorance, disregarded it because it imitates something that is in abundance. But not any more. I vow to learn to cook with powdered egg! I will report back and share with you some of the challenges and limitations. The first and greatest challenge will be creating stiff peaks with powdered egg white and water.

Check out this link to WW2 recipes with dried egg "they are just as good as fresh eggs", from the British Ministry for Food.
Also check out this faux-blog trying to steer gym junkies away from powdered egg with their liquid egg supplement "It’s an excellent product, whether you’re slamming a protein shake between meals or making a breakfast omelet — it’s a much better alternative to egg white powder".
And lastly have a look at these powdered egg recipes from this rapture inspired site that also features Ark Prep 101. Ark Prep 101 is a preparedness program that uses a fun family game with coloured lists of monthly preparedness tasks that sit in a colourful wall mounted ark. "Thanks for sharing Alisa!"

Contingencies are important in planning!

2009-11-18T00:03:00.000-08:00

Which future are we making contingencies for? Hey Western World.....What's the plan?

I went and checked around and found a site called Life after the oil crash and checked out their Preparedness Store which featured Nitro-Pak freeze dried ration packs with a thirty year shelf life and battery powered and freeze dried everything including Organic Chili Beef. It was like a camping store for people who don't know if they'll be coming back.
The site has ad listings from online book sellers and search engine corps, you know the ones. There were a range of books with titles like Long term survival in the coming Dark Age which is released by Paladin Press who entered the publishing market with a book titled 150 Questions for a Guerrilla back in the seventies. There was even a cookbook, The San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook which makes me wonder what kind of market profiling went on. I get the feeling this particular cook book is rather reliable.

Our troubled future. GeoMon on food, and diesel dependency!

2009-11-17T23:01:00.000-08:00

Well the future of which I speak may well be closer than you think. The sage of rage against the ecocidal machine has alleged that the peak oil estimates we have been given may be dodgy. The point of peak oil is a crucial one, after that point oil prices will only go up. It is extremely important that we know with as much certainty as possible when peak oil will happen. Knowing how diesel dependent modern agriculture is Geo Mon (George Monbio t) asserts that the knock-on effects of the early onset of peak oil without a prior shift to non diesel dependent agriculture would be catastrophic.
He counters the prevailing myth of modern farming productivity saying "The amazing productivity of modern farm labour has been purchased at the cost of a dependency on oil."

This makes food an even more urgent element in our troubled future. The questions are: How soon will peak oil arrive if it hasn't already? and How quickly can we dramatically reduce our dependency on diesel for farming.

As we crumble

2009-11-06T20:42:00.000-08:00

"Little that we have taken for granted is likely to come through this century intact."
The Dark Mountain Project has as it's goal "uncivilisation". This does not involve a fixed set of objectives but the process of recognising and responding to our dramatically changing future. A future without the abundance that we in the west have come to expect and manifestly co-opt from the world.
Literature, art, and other expressions of culture commonly characterise modern times as "a struggle to reach the mountain top" or "standing on the shoulders of giants", or we contemplate "Oh how far we have come!". Somehow while we all admit to human frailty but seem to blindly accept the idea that as time moves on we inevitably become less brutish and more enlightened. We lionise the present but do we think with favour about our future? Do we truly comprehend what our present is predicated upon?
Larry Elliot of The Guardian contends that the fall of the Berlin wall represents the beginning of the pre-eminence of capitalism, a mere twenty years! He paints a picture of a veritable steeple chase of obstacles set before the globalised economy without getting into the likely constraints supplied by depleting resources like oil, coal, silicone, and the rare metals on which our affluence has come to depend.
We battle and poison religious, social, and political relations over oil and many say we will do the same over water. We destroy lives for food. What else? How will we respond to true constraints? Where will we who have known only unconstrained growth for sixty years find the resourcefulness we need to endure?

The Age of Warlords has begun!

2009-10-13T04:54:00.000-07:00

Take the conditions in the suburban ghettos of Lagos, Nairobi, or Kinshasa and superimpose them on the place where you live now. Think of what would happen if suddenly militias ran the streets and you had to survive on the food in your pantry, and food smuggled in or the food growing on your window sill or in a neighbours back yard. Imagine how you would cope as time wore on. What food would you and your community value as you huddle in small communities under the shadow of a local warlord?
These ideas create dramatic images of a future that is scary but one I feel compelled to imagine. I try to give these scenarios some humanity to temper the sense of horror
But if these things are difficult to imagine then try recalling images and memories from Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunder Dome, Tank Girl, or one of the many movies set in a post apocalyptic nightmare. The makers of these films show images of suburbs being laid to waste and vast distances between encampments being controlled by brutally violent militia. Imagine how with all the pain and loss and with electronic communications infrastructure limited and little connection with the world, would not the feeling of isolation and the grind of each day push you to appreciate the simplicity and joy of a shared meal or a special food?
The Age of Warlords has begun! We in the privileged west (the shrinking minority) do not feel it yet but all over Africa as in many other countries the grinding, hustling, relentlessly violent age is well and truly in place!
The Age of Warlords Cook Book is about how we who have almost always known abundance and privilege might respond to the coming of wide spread war and disorder brought on by resource scarcity, climate change, and growth obsessed capitalism. It is an exercise in speculative empathy and an exploration of food, culture, community, and resilience in a violent future that is the present for so many humans!