Author Archives: Ema Williamson

Welcome to 2014. It’s a fine time to start some new projects, don’t you think? 

We have quite a few surprises up our sleeves. Firstly, for the next year we will be exploring each of the twelve points of our manifesto. During the first week of the month, expect a post devoted to each of the points. 

And the other projects that are on the way? Well, you’ll have to be patient for those – but we promise they’re worth it. Hint: we’re fitting a kitchen into a box.

Our manifesto was constructed over several months, with a bit of inspiration from Keri Smith. Every idea was carefully refined; not a single word was left untouched. But this year, to become even more acquainted with the principles of gastronomic permaculture, we’re going in depth with the manifesto. 

And so, the first point.

We declare that gastronomic permaculture integrates ourselves, our food, our community and our earth. It recognises that every meal Is accomplished in an ecosystem, and it is the convergence our three basic needs: nourishment, security and love.

In true permaculture fashion, we begin with Zone 0. We begin with the central point of gastronomic permaculture. Really, we think it’s the central point of cooking and eating in general: nourishment, security and love.

When you eat (you see, we’re assuming you’re not a zombie or otherwise undead creature), you are participating in an ecosystem of activity. There is the natural system – the soil, the water, the air – and the human system – the farmer, the store keeper, the people you are cooking with and feeding. There are pre-existing conditions; there’s no getting rid of them. Gastronomic permaculture works to integrate every zone of interaction.

Every meal you make begins outside of your kitchen and ends outside of your kitchen. The vegetables you saute may have been grown in your garden, or down the road in the neighbour’s garden, or hundreds of miles away. The olive oil in the bottle on the counter might have come from multiple countries; the salt from seas you haven’t seen. There were hands aside from your own that crafted the food you cook with; there might be hands aside from your own that prepare the food you eat. Hopefully, there are other hands you can break bread with. The things you discard might go to a landfill (via your waste bin) or you will find a way to remake some of them – as stock, maybe. Or perhaps they’ll go to a compost pile (either your own or that of a local farm), where they will rejoin the soil from whence they came.

Every meal is one stop in a cycle. And in every meal is an echo of our three basic needs: nourishment, security and love.

To send out the old year and bring in the old, we concocted an experiment. Probiotics meet sweet treat. A kombucha float.

Kombucha itself is an ecosystem of nutrients. And once you have a mother grown, you can produce kombucha as long as the mother remains healthy. It also give you an opportunity to settle the faint of heart, but that’s a post for another time…

We’re pretty big fans of kombucha. We’ve tried to sample every flavour we can get our hands on and Tim even did his final chemistry project on the fermented tea beverage. Somewhere along the way we got the idea to make a kombucha float. We created an “ice cream” from yoghurt and coconut milk, and Tim brewed a jar of kombucha. Given the contents of both, it’s a veritable festival of cultures.

It’s a good way to ring in the new year. Something sweet and snazzy. Something with a dose of good stuff in it.

Kombucha Float

Liquify a 1/2 cup honey (we suggest you use a pot on the stove). Combine with 2 1/2 cups Greek yoghurt and 1 cup full-fat coconut milk. Either connect the whisk attachment to your mixer or grab a whisk. Combine and whip it a bit.

Pour into any kind of dish that can be put into the freezer. Then, obviously, put the dish into the freezer. Every 20 minutes to 1/2 an hour, stir/scrape the frozen/freezing mixture until it is thick.

Scoop the frozen, creamy mixture – “ice cream,” if you will. Place in a glass (or a wine glass, if you want to be fancy, or a mason jar, if you don’t want to be). Open kombucha flavour of your choice and pour over “ice cream.” Make as much as you want, or as little. Sharing is recommended. A straw might be a good idea. Regardless, enjoy.

Also, you can find us on instagram now, if you’re into that kind of thing.

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