Category Archives: Experiments with Food

‘Cucinati al umido’ – Italian for what I just said.

Posted on July 22, 2020 by sagesomethymes

I now have a spice cupboard. Well I have spices in my cupboard. Two spices. Paprika and Chilli. They are enabling spices. Over the years I have discovered that much is possible with these two friends in the house. And … Continue reading →

Festive Season Survival Kit

Posted on December 18, 2017 by sagesomethymes

What a year it’s been! It’s time to celebrate! And here, no matter who your family or friends are, is a festive season survival kit to take with you everywhere and indulge in as needed. It’s easy. Just pack the … Continue reading →

Posted in Experiments with Food, The Sages, Uncategorized | Tagged be here now, celebration, Christmas cake, Cognac, common sense, confidence, craft beer, esky, festive season, French Cognac, getting on with people at Christmas, golden spiced rum, herbs and spices, laughter, picnic basket, Rum, survival kit, surviving your family at Christmas | 2 Comments

Little Green Cannon Balls

Posted on June 7, 2017 by sagesomethymes

I got a text from my niece recently asking me to help her with her homework: an assignment on migration. It reminded me that I’m a migrant. In fact this year is the 40th anniversary of my family’s arrival in Australia. … Continue reading →

Posted in democracy, Experiments with Food | Tagged Apartheid, cucurbit. Johannesburg, Gem Squash, gourds, Italian migrants to Australia, Migrants in Australia, migration, pumpkin, South Africa, zucchini | 2 Comments

The Courage To Eat Plums

Posted on May 25, 2017 by sagesomethymes

Recently I discovered a secret source of wild berries. Or they discovered me. I was walking innocently along a footpath while on a lunch break when my shoes became stuck in a patch of violet slime. After using the edge of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Experiments with Food, Habitat | Tagged Adani Coal Mine, blueberries, Diprotodons, foraging, Illawarra Plums, Indigenous Seasons, native bush foods, Podocarpus elatus, Queensland, urban food forager, viticulture, wild berries, wine making | 2 Comments

A Christmas Trifle

Posted on December 19, 2015 by sagesomethymes

There’s something about Christmas that brings out the need to prove myself. Usually in an area that I have absolutely no prior experience in. This year it’s dessert. I’ve volunteered to bring dessert to my partner’s family Christmas lunch which … Continue reading →

Posted in Experiments with Food | Tagged Christmas, custard, jelly, raspberries, sherry, trifle | 1 Comment

Crying in the Cathedral

Posted on July 20, 2015 by sagesomethymes

In Australia, left leaning, liberal thinking, chardonnay sipping, bleeding hearts types are living through hopeless times. It seems there is very little we can do except wait for the next election. At least there is a next election. I was … Continue reading →

Posted in climate change, Experiments with Food | Tagged candles, citizenship laws, climate change, democracy, elections, English Civil War, Federal Government, hope, legal system, meditation, Minister, Parliament, pragmatism, prayer, scrambled eggs, soul, soup, St Mary's Cathedral, The Pope's encyclical on Climate Change, voting | 6 Comments

The Cunning Peasant Never Reveals His Sources

Posted on May 6, 2014 by sagesomethymes

I’ve done a lot of food foraging in my time but it’s usually of the domestic variety. You know, my mothers’ freezer or pantry. So I was a little surprised to recently find myself bent over double, holding a knife in … Continue reading →

Posted in Experiments with Food, My Mother and Me | Tagged A Year in Provence, anarchist hippie, budget emergency, chicory, dog poo, eat local, free food, good life abroad, harvest, hippie, homemade wine, Italy, living sustainably, local produce, olive oil, parks, peasant food, preserves, psychogeography, rabbit food, rabbits, seasonal food, sel sufficiency, Sicily, sustainability, urban foraging, wet the beds, wild food, wild greens, wild weeds | 1 Comment

Wild Avocados

Posted on November 27, 2013 by sagesomethymes

Foraging has come back into fashion. People used to do it in wartime, in famine and in the 1980’s. When I was an easily embarrassed teenager, my parents used to forage for rocket in public places. They would keep plastic … Continue reading →

Posted in Experiments with Food | Tagged avocados, foraging, rocket, wild food | 3 Comments

Cakeless Cake

Posted on October 13, 2013 by sagesomethymes

As the old saying goes, “You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs.” Luckily I didn’t want to make an omelette, not because I don’t like breaking eggs but because I didn’t have any. What I did have was a … Continue reading →

Posted in Experiments with Food | Tagged apple cake, apples, cannellini beans, dry ingredients, eggless cake, flour, flourless eggless cake, self raising flour, vegan, vegetarian | 1 Comment

The Horses of Excess

Posted on September 19, 2013 by sagesomethymes

As a child I loathed broad beans. They were squat, flatulent vegetable matter. Bowls of these slimy skinned pods filled our fridge every spring. We would spend Saturday afternoons shelling them, and then their particularly earthy odour would colonise the … Continue reading →

Posted in Experiments with Food, Time | Tagged Asparagus, Broad beans, dinner, food, Pasta Primavera, saturday afternoons, Self Help Books, spanish onion, Spring Equinox, vegetarian, Yoga | 1 Comment