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Sunday, November 11, 2012

PIGS CAN FLY (so can cars) - PART 1


Mans, this blog sites main photographer, doing his paying job. Here he is, directing the crane drivers for our rig, that we designed and installed for Gravitron Effects.                                                                                               Me with iPhone 

'The Mans' posing of me, for once.        Me

Before we get started on food, I must first apologies for getting this blog out a few days late. ‘SORRY MAN.’

This is my lame excuse. As I’m sure you can imagine, I spend heaps of time dealing with food related stuff, like this blog, shooting video blogs, making a promo and treatment for a TV cooking series, writing my cookbook, organizing ‘Urban Feasts’ (this blog is about an up coming one), looking after my little herb and veggie garden, foraging, and just simply cooking. That all adds up to A LOT of time, from which I’m yet to earn a cent. So at some stage I have to earn a buck, and thatz zactly wot I woz doing that kept me from posting this blog, until now. Mans, who has taken most of the fantastic pics for ‘The Urban Hunter Gatherer’ blog is also my business partner and we make our living by flying people and props for the live entertainment and film industries. This week we have had to leave the kitchen and head onto set, to make a real live Roll Royce ‘fly’ into a swimming pool.

Now onto cooking stuff -

Stef, Harry and I (The Urban Feast Team) are well into the throws of planning our third event. We never really planned the first two, opportunities just happened to present themselves, so like all opportunistic hunter gatherers, we went for it. Now another opportunity has presented itself, so again we are going for it.

Andre - a scholar, a gentleman, an artist and a 'father' to many.                                                                               Mans
Martin of 'Cured'  Mans
Andre has a farm (a property owned by the military and managed by The Department of Public Works) not much more then a 10minute walk from the very centre of Cape Town. I first heard about Andre when I lived in the Bokaap, a vibrant residential area in the heart of the city. I knew about Andre, because his cow, Daisy and a handful of goats used to graze on the open plot right in front of my house, so when I enquired about this unusual occurrence, everybody smiled and said, ‘Oh, they are just Andre’s.’ Everyone seems to know Andre.
Years later and living in a different part of town, I decided that I too wanted to know Andre, especially now that I had started writing The Urban Hunter Gatherer blog. When I met him I immediately warmed to him, it’s near impossible not to. He has a huge white beard and an even bigger heart. Andre kindly showed me around and pointed out plenty of stuff that I was welcome to forage. (The figs from my last blog were foraged at ‘the farm’)

Stef from 'Sprung'  Mans
Andre is hugely important in the community. The local residents bring their organic food waste to him, which becomes pig food and compost; and their garden foliage becomes goat food and compost, so he is effectively dealing with heaps of residential organic waste in the most environmentally friendly way possible. But the most important service that Andre provides, is the foster care he offers to disadvantaged and homeless people. He is a father to many. He puts roofs over heads, feeds empty stomachs and looks after elderly folk in the area. Then there are a whole lot of other amazing things about the man, that I won’t go into now.

Anyhow, I believe I’m a spiritual being, but don’t subscribe to any religion and certainly don’t put any religion above another, but by its nature and its timing, it would make sense that The Third Urban Feast should be a 
Christmas celebration, as the menu will exclude Muslims, Jews, Hindus and others. You see, we plan to slaughter one of Andres’ pigs and feed 50 people with her. We will show her our respect by using as much of her as possible, even down to using her fat as fuel for lighting.


The Lads plotting their next move.         Mans
For our feast, we hope that every course on the menu, including pudding will include pig. It sounds outrageous, but we hope that the food will be very accessible to all those who indulge in pig. Martin from ‘Cured’ will look after the curing, smoking and sausaging, while Stef from ‘Sprung’ will head up the kitchen. Other chefs will also be presenting their courses. It is gotta be a huge team effort to make this event a success, but right now I’m thinking, ‘WOT THE HELL ARE WE DOING?’

Concita                              Mans



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