Mark McKellier's Blog (61)

White House Garden to Feature Bee Hives Too

From Treehugger.com

First Family Joins Bee Keeping Trend

I went to pick up my bee hives this weekend - and the supplier looked exhausted. He was out of veils, smokers, hive stands and even bees. It seems many people are rallying around our favorite pollinators in their time of need - after all, rumors of the return of Colony Collapse Disorder are rife. Now the bees have a new and powerful… Continue

Added by Mark McKellier on March 27, 2009 at 8:17am — 1 Comment

Artificial Sweeteners: They're Enough to Give Some People a Headache

From The Washington Post

By Jennifer Huget

I'm not a fan of artificial sweeteners. I don't care for the way they taste, and one variety in particular gives me headaches. So imagine my dismay when I recently shopped for my favorite chewing gum and found its tiny but satisfying amount of real sugar had been replaced with aspartame, one of the leading fake sweeteners on the… Continue

Added by Mark McKellier on February 17, 2009 at 2:56am — 2 Comments

UK Gov stumps £4.3m bee health funding

From The Register

The environment secretary Hilary Benn today announced an extra £4.3m "to safeguard and undertake more research into the health of bees".

The Department for Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (Defra) explains: "Over the last two years Britain's bee colonies have suffered significant losses due… Continue

Added by Mark McKellier on January 29, 2009 at 5:40am — No Comments

How eco is a Christmas Tree?

From The Guardian

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree

In these eco-aware times, what sort of Christmas tree can be justified?

Leo Hickman has the answer

It's at this point each December where I begin to feel as if I'm being haunted by the ghost of Christmas dilemmas past. Every year most of us go through the ritual of… Continue

Added by Mark McKellier on December 17, 2008 at 6:53am — 3 Comments

Wagamama gives customers tipping information on menus

From CatererSerach.com

(old news but relevant after previous post about tipping)

Fast growing Japanese noodle chain Wagamama is to include information about its tipping policy on menus over fears customers will stop rewarding staff.

Wagamama, which has 59 UK outlets and 33 international sites, said it was planning action because it… Continue

Added by Mark McKellier on November 20, 2008 at 5:09am — No Comments

UK Government starts consultation on changes to tipping rules

From CatererSearch.com

The Government today launched a consultation on proposals to ban hotels and restaurants from using tips to make up national minimum wage.

As well as inviting comments on the main proposals – which followed a long-running union campaign - the consultation will also look at ways of improving information for… Continue

Added by Mark McKellier on November 20, 2008 at 5:06am — 5 Comments

UK beekeepers demand action on hive decline

From Associated Press via www.chron.com

Honeybee deaths are below those in U.S., but some say it is getting worse.

Beekeepers swarmed Parliament and the prime minister's office last week, demanding more funds for research after the number of Britain's honeybees dropped by nearly a third in the past year.

The British bee losses have not been as dramatic as those in the… Continue

Added by Mark McKellier on November 11, 2008 at 8:19am — 3 Comments

World without bees: a sting felt far beyond the breakfast table

I've just finished reading 'A World Without Bees' - and it scared the hell out of me! I would highly recommend it to everyone - in theory, no bees will mean 96% of our grown food will disappear, as there will be nothing to pollinate it.

Ian Douglas from The Telegraph reviews… Continue

Added by Mark McKellier on October 10, 2008 at 9:17am — 1 Comment

Which old cookbooks are ripe for reprint?

Tim Hayward blogging on The Guardian website today asks 'Which old cookbooks are ripe for reprint?'

"Like many lovers of food and words I'm left rather high and dry by the supposed bounty in bookshops today. Sure there are plenty of cookbooks on the bestsellers list but they all seem to come with a glittery-toothed sleb on the front cover and bear more resemblance to a 60,000 word, lavishly… Continue

Added by Mark McKellier on August 20, 2008 at 9:33am — 1 Comment

Fairy godmother magically appears and offers you a choice.

£1000 a day for the rest of your life, or 1p on day one, and then each day that figure would double.

You have 3 seconds to decide.

Decide now.

1...

2...

3...

By the 10th day, you’ve received £10,000 if you chose the first option.

It surprises many people, but if you choose the second option, you’d have received £20.47 already, and on the 10th day you had reached that total with a £5.12 instalment.

On day 20,… Continue

Added by Mark McKellier on August 12, 2008 at 4:12am — 1 Comment

Guinea Pigs Dress Up For Dinner

From Sky News

Guinea pigs dressed up in fedoras and frilly skirts have been the unwitting participants in a fashion show at the third annual Festival of… Continue

Added by Mark McKellier on July 22, 2008 at 7:11am — 1 Comment

Gas prices up. So what!

I heard today that Americans are complaining about the increase in gas prices - you're now paying $4 a gallon.

Want to know what we have to pay in the UK?

£1.30 a litre

that's $9.14 a gallon!

(assuming 3.7 litres to a US gallon and an exchange rate of $1.90 to £1)

Just putting it into a global perspective for you ;)

Added by Mark McKellier on June 9, 2008 at 6:28am — 3 Comments

The 100 mile diet with Michael Chiarello

From PlanetGreen

By Sara Frieden

Challenging yourself to eat entirely locally can seem pretty intimidating. But, as world renowned chef Michael Chiarello explains on Supper Club with Tom Bergeron, making your diet totally local is really a lifestyle change. On the show, Chiarello puts… Continue

Added by Mark McKellier on June 4, 2008 at 6:01am — No Comments

Victory Gardens: War on Waste

From Treehugger.com

It's not quite war time, although sometimes it feels like it... Endless articles on the "credit crunch", cutbacks and soaring food prices are putting a chill in the air. During WW2 the British were digging Victory gardens in squares and public parks across the country. They were growing their own food in very tight compact spaces as a response… Continue

Added by Mark McKellier on May 30, 2008 at 6:45am — 5 Comments

Recycle Your Corks with ReCork America

From Treehugger

Don't pitch your corks after you polish off your wine!

There's a lot to like about cork as an eco-friendly material: it's harvested (primarly from the Cork Oak tree, or Quercus suber) in a way that doesn't harm the tree, making it almost unendingly sustainable (harvested in moderation, of course); it's almost totally waterproof, making it suitable for both indoor… Continue

Added by Mark McKellier on May 27, 2008 at 6:05am — 2 Comments

Gordon Ramsay orders seasonal-only menu

From BBC News

Video Interview

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay says British restaurants should be fined if they serve fruit and vegetables which are not in season.

He told the BBC that fruit and vegetables should be locally-sourced and only on menus when in season.

Mr Ramsay said he had already spoken to Prime Minister Gordon Brown… Continue

Added by Mark McKellier on May 9, 2008 at 2:12am — 6 Comments

Why I won't eat at your restaurant...

My top 5 reasons are:

1. You don't source your ingredients locally or seasonally, preferring to buy from a multi-national wholesaler who only cares for profit and not the amount of carbon their trucks destroy my planet with. Because you don't buy your ingredients seasonally you customers have the choice of bland monocultured fruit and veg that's got as much nutrition as the nasty plastic packaging it came in.

2. You don't care about animal welfare, preferring to buy… Continue

Added by Mark McKellier on April 28, 2008 at 6:40am — 8 Comments

Food Shortages Drive Global Prices to Record Highs

From Treehugger.com

A fast-unfolding food shortage is engulfing the entire world, driving food prices to record highs. Over the past 50 years grain prices have occasionally spiked due to weather-related events -- such as the 1972 Soviet crop failure that led to a doubling of world wheat, rice, and corn prices. The situation today is entirely different, however. The current doubling… Continue

Added by Mark McKellier on April 24, 2008 at 6:06am — No Comments

Britons emulate celebrity chefs at weekend but increasingly turn to convenience food in the week

How UK's food tribes mix and match

by James Meikle at The Guardian

Britons emulate celebrity chefs at the weekend but increasingly turn to convenience food during the week, according to a new analysis of how we eat.

Preparing meals from scratch is more popular than it was four years ago as eating together becomes a "leisure experience".

Half of us eat ready meals every… Continue

Added by Mark McKellier on March 25, 2008 at 10:49am — No Comments

Red Fish - The Greenpeace list of most over-fished species

From Greenpeace

There are some fish that we all should just say NO to eating. They are in danger of total collapse. We should give them a break and let them recover.

The public shouldn’t have to bear the burden of checking seafood red and green lists. Instead, we will start at the source. Supermarkets need to remove the worst fish from their counters. Get them out of the… Continue

Added by Mark McKellier on March 11, 2008 at 7:29am — 2 Comments