Boletus erythropus

The season for this is normally late summer to early autumn, however I found one this evening while out hunting for kindling wood.

Most people don't pick this mushroom, since it has the red pores which are normally associated with the (possibly deadly) poisonous Boletus satanas, and the (merely) poisonous Boletus satanoides. However I do, as I suspect do all the commercial fungi collectors who pick the stuff which ends up as dried 'porcini' at Waitrose at £5 for 100g.

Boletus erythropus causes stomach upsets when raw but is edible - and good - when cooked. Hence the reason why shop-bought dried mushrooms must always be thoroughly cooked, since you really don't know what's been sneaked in there under the guise of 'cep'.

A glut of cucumbers

The cucumber vine in the greenhouse has gone mad: every day there are two or three more on it. There being only so much tsatziki or Greek salad one can eat, I've started turning them into cucumber vodka:

Peel two large cukes (or don't if you want an attractive green colour to the vodka for cocktails). Slice in half and remove the seeds. Chop into 1 inch chunks and fill a large clean jar. Cover with vodka and leave in a dark cupboard for five days. Strain with a coffee filter and bottle.

For cocktails, you could just add it it to Pimm's, however I'm experimenting with lychee and rose martinis. Or just on its own, from the freezer.

MORE TH>N 'Green' Car Insurance

Oh dear.

From the MORE TH>N website:

"We have created MORE TH>N Green Wheels Insurance to give our customers the opportunity to take responsibility for their carbon 'tyre-print'. It helps people to understand how their driving style affects the environment by giving them access to information such as their rate of acceleration and braking, the number of short car journeys they take and how long they leave their car idling.

This exciting new eco friendly car insurance product is part of our commitment to the Together campaign which believes that, by offering customers positive environmental choices, large companies can make a real difference in the fight against climate change - you can find out more at www.together.com."

Sanctimonious greenwash bollocks. Anyone concerned about fuel consumption will already know that 'changing into the highest gear as soon as you can', 'driving slowly', and 'not leaving the car idling' saves fuel.

Anyone not so positioned really doesn't care.

However, to get really sniffy, as a marketing 'idea', it is about five years behind the curve. My guess is that someone at Royal & SunAlliance had a box of gizmos they had no use for.

Give-stuff-you-don't-need-away: now that's green.

Wildlife in this heat...

...must be desperate for water. I've given the greenhouse a good hosing, thinking of this little chap who lives there in a mossy nook:

Butterflies, bees and birds also appreciate shallow dishes of water provided for them / wet ground where the sprinklers are on.


Not exactly 'green' I know, but what the hell - some things just enrich us.

Mean and green

The Lotus Elise. My one indulgence.

Hand-built in Norfolk, there's no carbon footprint in manufacturing, just an (albeit six-toed) human one.

The car returns 35mpg on combined urban/non-urban use since it is incredibly light: the aluminium bonded chassis, fibreglass monocoque body and 1.8 litre 2ZZ-GE metal matrix composite engine result in a kerb weight of less than 850 Kg.

Plus there are no silly add-ons like cupholders or air-conditioning (just take the roof off) to add weight and hamper the blistering performance: 0 to 60 in 4.9 seconds.

Ferrari performance for a quarter of the price and none of the running costs or social stigma (people let you out at junctions in an Elise). What's not to like?

The car scrappage scheme

What's the point of this? I can't believe it is ever 'greener' to scrap an older car in favour of a new one, given the carbon footprint of modern automated manufacturing methods.

Especially if classics like this (sadly not mine) are scrapped in favour of a Kia Picanto:

Barbecue Season

LOL. "Now that BBQ weather's here" is something I often read. Ermmm... if it isn't actually tipping down with rain, I'm barbecueing.

Getting the thing started is simple with scrunched up newspaper / a few sheets torn out of the phone book - useful since telephone directories can't otherwise be recycled - topped with dry twigs and a few pieces of lumpwood charcoal:

When the flames are leaping, cover in more charcoal, or just wood.

Wood takes longer to develop the required ember base for cooking, but the results are well worth it - beechwood is my favourite for flavour. Choose similarly sized pieces so that they all reach the ember stage at the same time.

Once I've finished cooking and the embers are dying down, I then close all the vents and throw on some fresh beech twigs, followed by a piece of trout or salmon. Whack on the lid for 20 minutes until it's cooked through, and the resulting hot 'smoked' fish will be succulent, flavoursome and enough to convert even the most ardent fish hater.