Author: Alison Kay

I have foraged a lot of blackberries this summer. And as I’ve walked, collecting, I’ve thought of how much bounty the lanes, riversides and fields would have routinely given us, for free, in the past. How women before me would’ve walked the same paths, their heads full of knowledge of all the plants they could find and eat.
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For me, growing up in the UK, wild blackberries seemed to be the last crumbs of this knowledge. I didn’t realise back then that there would have been and could be so much more wild, foraged food.
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I talk everyday to people on here that are re-learning what amazing nutrition and medicine the ‘weeds’ around us can provide and that gives me hope. Hope that what all the wise women – whose DNA resides in our own – knew will *not* be lost.
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If you’re foraging and/or learning today, thank you!
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The details of this improvised leftover/foraged deliciousness are in my story today.

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Do you know how to get a crispy bottom?
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I’m talking about on a fried egg, of course.
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Or what ‘rumbling’ an egg involves?
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And are you a soft-boiled lover, or, like my co-host @farmandhearth, completely at a loss as to what the English ‘obsession’ with soft-yolked eggs is all about?
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The latest @ancestralkitchenpodcast is an intimate one. Andrea and chat about what’s been happening in our respective across-the-Atlantic food worlds. There’s fat rendering, some delightful book talk and an in-depth egg discussion. We laughed while recording and I laughed while editing. I hope you laugh whilst listening.
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You can download by searching for Ancestral Kitchen Podcast in your app or stream from the link in my profile.
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I’d love to hear your egg feedback 🙂

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Bubble & Squeak… or put in a slightly more mundane way, cabbage and potato!
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Bubble & Squeak is a dish that’s been around a long time in England. It was originally fried leftover beef, cabbage and potato, but we seem to have forgotten about the beef these days and it’s made now with just cabbage and potato.
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The name comes from the noise it makes during cooking. The bubble from the frying and, I guess, the squeak from the shiny cabbage.
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Here I’ve used home-rendered tallow to fry, adding onions to start and next chopping cold boiled potatoes (the small, new kind) and frying with the onion till they started to brown. I then put in the left-over cabbage, some salt and pepper and cooked well.
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Do you have a dish like this in your food ancestry? Potatoes and cabbage are such kitchen stalwarts I know there must be other similar combos out there!

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Being away from home does not mean you have to stop eating good bread.
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Here is an impromptu sourdough spelt pizza topped with leftovers plus my tips for making sourdough bread away from home.
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1 – Feed your starter just before you leave and give it less water than you normally do. This will help it last longer. Refresh it when you get to your destination.
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2 – Take a silicone loaf tin with you for light, flexible bread-making.
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3 – Consider different containers to that which you normally use – I’ve used casserole dishes and foil-covered shallow dishes to bake whilst away.
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4 – If you don’t have access to a set of scales, use this as an opportunity to test your intuitive baking skills – add less water to the dough at the beginning and let your mixing tell you how much more you need.
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5 – Let go of your expectations! Sourdough is good even if it collapses or gets a little burnt. A bread’s worth is not measured by how Instgrammable it is…I promise!
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If you have any sourdough-outside-the-home questions let me know 🙂

The recipe for this pizza is available in my profile.

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My home-made medicinal bitters are ready! Locally-bought herbs plus grappa from the town where I live.
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Check my story for more videos and a link to the list of herbs I used.
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Anyone else make these at home?

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Today, Aug 1st, we will celebrate Lughnasadh (pronounced loo-naa-saa) by eating this home-made spelt sourdough pizza.
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Lughnasadh is a traditional Gaelic festival (that was co-opted into the newer Christianity as ‘Lammas’ or Loaf-Mass Day) that gives thanks for the wheat harvest.
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With food ever present in our lives, it’s so easy to forget that it grows in the ground, there are seasons, it needs to be harvested. Just a few generations ago, these rituals were central to our lives. With industrialisation, they’ve faded, but the importance of nourishing ourselves has not.
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I am so grateful for the energy, satiation and nutrition that grains give me and my family. Properly prepared, they are an amazing food.
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I send you Lughnasadh greetings. If you want to love the grains you have around you and need some inspiration or guidance, you can check out the @ancestralkitchenpodcast episode on grains (#19) or bake up my pizza – the recipe is in my profile.

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Have you made risotto with bone marrow? This is risotto alla Milanese. Most people know the dish for it’s golden saffron colour, but traditionally it was also made with good beef stock and a hefty chunk of bone marrow.
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When @foodofplace opened my eyes to this fact, I knew I wanted to give it a go and got some beef bones especially. The liquid is white wine and home-made beef stock and the fat is butter and bone marrow. I used powdered saffron, some onion and lots of parmesan.
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It is very good. The cheese gives a salty tang, the rice is dreamily creamy and the butter/marrow combo feels to me like saying a deep thank you as I sink into a cushioned arm chair!
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More details in my story today. The recipe is going in the forthcoming @ancestralkitchenpodcast ecookbook that @farmandhearth and I are brewing up. Andrea showed me some cover pages yesterday and I’m all excited about sharing it!

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