Guest Post for Manna by Kip, the Messy Vegetarian Cook

Vegetarianism hit me fast and hard at the age of twelve. I was attending an open day at the Maryland Department of Agriculture when it happened: whilst chewing on a sample of fish, I turned around only to come face to face with its brethren in a tank. I spit the fish into a serviette and have never since conceived of animals as a source of food.

It was at age 29 I realised why people became vegan. I felt bombarded with information which begged me to change my diet; my father randomly explaining to my mother the specifics of dairy manufacturing (really, I'd never thought about it), the sudden acquisition of vegan friends, the realisation of human rights implications in relation to farming animals... It was information overload.

Guest Post for Manna by Laura Porter

I love the idea of creating meals from foraging and harvesting nature but I’m far too much of an Urbanite to want to hang out in fields too often. But I heard a rumour that it was elderflower season, and I like St. Germain elderflower liqueur, so felt the need to try and find these flowers.

I searched Google images but most photos showed close-ups so I was none the wiser on what the bush/tree looked like. The only tip I’d been given was it smells like cat’s wee or bananas.

I read it can be found by canals and railway lines and as I have both nearby I decided to drag a friend and the kids along with me so we could make a day of it even if we never found any elderflower. 

Guest Post for Manna by Natasha Burge

It has been said that when a man tires of London, he tires of life, and I must wholeheartedly agree. Out of all the cities I have visited in my life, and there has been quite a few, London is by far and away my favorite. There is something magical about London, with its mixing of grand tradition and funky modernism, and its irresistible quirky sense of humor that is displayed in the architecture, the clothing style, and in the dry, side splitting jokes of the people themselves. If my heart truly has a place to call home it is the city of London.

I'm an enthusiastic gardener each spring but when nothing grown, except weeds, I lose heart each summer. Nevertheless, I've sown veg seeds again this year: carrots, parsnips, spring onions, cabbage, etc - and I've diligently watered them daily and I have some incredible bindweed this year but not much else.

As a Londoner with limited garden space I felt inspired when I heard about the One Pot Pledge which is a campaign to get us to grow our own food in a garden pot.  It’s a scheme for gardening newcomers and I'll still count myself in that category after 15+ years of failed growing. They hope to attract 30,000 people to try the idea (why this number, I don't know) but I've signed up and my One Pot Pledge membership number is 1315.

What’s all the noise about?

How many times in the last forty + years have we screamed and yelled that something huge was happening?  That we had woken up and figured out that there is killing going on under our satiated noses, that we are being fed a BIG lie by the corporate profit motive and the viral expansion of our own greed that it represents…