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Showing posts with the label foraging

foraging in browns bay

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Today Laurie & I went foraging in our local neighbourhood & found some wild edibles. Read more @ www.trash-zilla.blogspot.com

found food

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On one of my foraging expeditions I found this packaged food dumped in my locality. Judging by evidence from the other trash at the site, some students had moved out & saw fit to dump their "rubbish" in a car park. We have 12 x soy sauce, a Hershey's chocolate sauce, 10x miso soups, noodles, and three packets of noodle soups - lunches for me for several days...thanks guys.

freeganing

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The other night I found these two fresh and entirely edible loaves of bread in a skip. It is interesting to note that some 30% of the food produced in NZ goes to waste/landfill - this when many people in this country are going hungry. Let's call a spade a xxxing shovel here - the major food retailers are not interested in anything else but their "bottom line" and the interests of their shareholders. Shame on them.

INCREDIBLE EDIBLES

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Check out this UK website for all manner of incredible edibles: "Edible Bugs, Bush Tucker Trials & The Worlds Hottest Chillis! We offer an assortment of gourmet exotic delicacies from around the world. Specialities such as Baked Scorpions & Fried Crickets from the North-East of Thailand. For centuries, these have been consumed as part of an everyday diet. Some other popular delicacies include: Sea Urchin Caviar, Escargots (Snails), Sweden's *NOTORIOUS* Surströmming (Fermented Herring), Civet Coffee, Jelly Fish Slices, Sautéed Reindeer & so much more..Check out our Super Hot Chilli Sauces & Worlds Hottest Chillies!" For more on food see www.pavlovasdog.webs.com For my cooking videos see www.youtube.com/martinadlington

A FISHING TRIP

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On Friday my mate Johann took me fishing at the pier at the old Sunderland flying-boat base in Hobsonville. We were a bit late for the right tide conditions, but I did manage to catch this fish - twice! [he went back into the water]...... For more on food see www.pavlovasdog.webs.com For my cooking videos see www.youtube.com/martinadlington

WILD HERBS

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Yesterday at Browns Bay market a stallholder gave me a bag of kumarahou leaves. According to my book on Maori herbal remedies, tea made from leaves of this native plant were drunk for turberculosis, asthma, & broncitis, as a blood purifier, & for their beneficial effects on the kidneys, as well as a remedy for colds & coughs, & as a tonic wash for the skin. Kumarahou is also known as Gumdigger's Soap because the yellow flowers make a soapy lather when crushed in the hand. For more on food see www.pavlovasdog.webs.com For my cooking videos see www.youtube.com/martinadlington

BEETLE EMERGED

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Two weeks after the first mealworm pupae formed, a beetle has emerged. So far out of 50 larvae, 20 have pupated, & most of the others are lying still in the tub - getting ready to undergo their next stage of metamorphosis. After the beetles have mated, they will lay eggs in 7-10 days, which will hatch into larvae after 2 weeks - I will then have some interesting cooking tips for you! For more on food see www.pavlovasdog.webs.com For my cooking videos see www.youtube.com/martinadlington

MEALWORMS PUPATE

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The mealworms I bought a month ago at the pet shop have begun to pupate. They seem to have been happy on their diet of bran, apple, & guava. Their cycle goes: beetles hatching to laying eggs 7-10 days; eggs hatch in 14 days as larvae; larvae pupate in 4-6 weeks; pupae emerge as beetles in 2-3 weeks. Mealworms are edible at the larval stage, so expect some interesting posts on preparing & cooking these insects in the early New Year. For more on food see www.pavlovasdog.webs.com For my cooking videos see www.youtube.com/martinadlington

A MORNING AT THE MUSEUM

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A few days ago John Early, the Curator of Entomology at Auckland War Memorial Museum, generously gave me some of his valuable time to discuss insects & their edibility, & 'extreme food". Our conversation ranged over kelp flies, centepides, bee larvae, crickets, algae, unusual meals in our travels, huhu grubs, mealworms, snails....& much more... Some incredible edibles! Tiger slugs Huhu grubs & beetle When I asked John about the dangers of eating venomous creatures such as scorpions or spiders, he said that as their poisons are protein-based, they are rendered harmless by heat, tho he cautioned that tarantula fangs are best removed before consumption of the spider. We had a fascinating chat about "what Auckland eats" - now that we have a very ethnically-diverse population here, there is far more on offer than there was even 15 years ago. There are English, South African, Chinese, & Indian speciality food stores here now, & we wo

BACON TRASH

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Last night I on my evening trash patrol I found these packets of bacon, still chilled in the skip behind the local supermarket. Date expired 29th September - bacon butties are on me!!