The Fife Diet

I have a longing to be one of those people who gets organic veggie boxes delivered to the house, visits farm shops at weekends to do the shopping and has a small allotment that produces wonderful salads, fruits and flowers. But I am not like that. I mainly shop at Tesco, making a detour to the local butcher when I have time and every so often popping into random shops that sell specific produce like the Valvona and Crolla deli in Edinburgh.

I do not live a lifestyle that lends itself to my little day dream. I live in Dundee, work in Edinburgh and stay three nights a week there courtesy of a fantastic friend-rental deal I have with my roomy Calum. So food shopping has to take into account living in two places, eating at random times, a nod to healthy eating in Edinburgh and in Dundee to the huge amounts of food my husband can consume without putting on any weight at all. This does not make food shopping easy. But, in hope that at some point I manage the daydream, my efforts will go into finding out about all of these things and hoping that those who get home from work at a normal time and don't have to co-ordinate the contents of two fridges in different cities can benefit from them.

The first I would like to highlight is the Fife Diet - now, this is maybe a phrase that conjours up visions of fried food and a glut of fatty meats and badly cooked root vegetables. But please do not be so narrow minded because in fact Fife produces amazing foodstuffs. The Fife Diet asks people to sign-up to eating food from Fife, for a year, monitor their progress and share their experience. This is a celebration of local goodness not an exercise in self-denial. Like most regions Fife has loads of fruit and vegetables, fantastic farm-reared lamb, beef, poultry, and amazing seafood. The project was inspired by Vancouver’s 100 Mile Diet and aims to bring people together who are into preparing for a low-carbon future. To be honest, although I care about the low carbon stuff and the environment etc I do think that the only argument you need is that when you have fantastic food right on your doorstep why not eat it? It has inspired me to re-prioritise. Yes, I have a busy lifestyle complicated by having two living places - but wouldn't it be better to spend Saturdays enjoying the beautiful Fife countryside and picking up something that is yummy and good in many different was - taste, environmental impact, fun to shop for - rather than the usual stuff from Tesco?

The second is a website dedicated to veggie boxes and what wonderful meals you can make out of them. I have to say the downside to veggie boxes may be that you don't know exactly what you are getting and it may be you end up with five turnips and an onion. So some inspiration on how to manage your veggie box contents I reckon would be an essential. It includes a function to find out the identity of vegetables you haven't seen before and one on 20 minute recipes - useful for days when time is precious.