Interview with Craig Barr Green - Children’s Author - at the Falmouth Book Festival
Photo © Rob Jones
Oyster Catchers
(Reproduced from Minhall & Jones Food Blog)
Now … I do not like Oysters. In fact I would go as far as to say that I loathe then, and have to think twice before entering a room where I know they are being served.
I have tried them. So I am not speaking from inexperience. A long time ago on a road trip to the Western Isles. I found myself in an Oyster bar in Loch Fyne of all places, and deciding that it was now or never to try them for the first time. In they went. The feeling was just all wrong. And I only just managed to get it over the threshold and into my gullet. My antipathy was solidified a few year later when a friend’s son also tried them for the first time … and couldn’t quite get it past the that threshold. The look of panic on everyone’s faces. Were we about to be showered with the remains of an undigested oyster?
So, my attitude has always been ‘proceed with caution.’
But if that’s the case, why have I been loitering around the Falmouth Oyster Festival all week?
Photo © Rob Jones
The bottom line is that I just love festivals - Book festivals (about to kick off) Arts Festivals (that happened a couple of weeks ago) and of course Food Festivals. I think it harks back to the days when, as a treat we’d all pile onto the train - it was steam trains back then - get off at Paddington and then negotiate the short journey to Earls Court of Olympia to the Ideal Homes Exhibition, where we’d be dragged around the exhibition hall trying various foods, labour saving devices (like spiralisers) and watching demonstrations of how to live this fantastic existence in a time of novelty. I love watching demonstrations, from a distance. I adore the idea of ‘devices,’ though I have spent the last few years divesting myself of all the unused devices I have collected over the decades. Nice idea at the time. Totally impractical when you get it home. Too flimsy to keep till Christmas and pass it off as a ‘thoughtful’ present to an aunty.
Photo © Rob Jones
I don’t seem to be alone. It’s estimated that more than 3000 people plan their holidays around food festivals in Cornwall alone, which generate some £3 million for the local economy. Needless to say, some have not weathered the storm of Covid well, and have struggled to rebuild their popularity.
Not so it seems with the Falmouth Oyster Festival, which was actually much more than simply about oysters. The festival marks the start of the oyster dredging season which runs from October to March, and brings together oyster lovers of course, but also chefs, food and drink enthusiasts, producers and local musicians.
Plenty of street-food outlets too. Yum.
I had a few close shaves with oysters as I squeezed my way through the tent, but I kept my composure at all times.
No plans to change my mind, but certainly no reason to shun this annual shuck-fest.
R
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ATHLETE
Athlete
Αθλητής – Athleetees
Origin:
From the word Athlon which means prize in a contest. Therefore, someone who competes for a prize.
Story:
The first written records of the Olympic Games date back to 776 BC, when a cook called Coroebus won the only event in the competition, an almost 200 metre running race called the Stade, which is where the word Stadium came from. His prize was an olive branch. The games had become common by the 6th century BC. They were held every four years in August and September during a festival dedicated to Zeus. Only free-born Greek males could take part. There were no women’s events, and indeed married women were prevented from attending even as a spectator. They fell out of fashion after the Romans conquered Greece. They ceased when pagan festivals were banned in the 4th century AD, and then revived by the French Baron Pierre de Coubertin in 1896.
The first marathon followed the route of the Greek soldier Pheidippides, who ran to Athens from Marathon to bring news of the victory over the Persians in 490 BC.
Famously, the Roman emperor Nero entered himself into an Olympic chariot race in 67 AD, and declared himself the winner, despite falling out of his chariot during the race.
See also:
Stadium, Marathon, Olympic
ATLAS
Άτλας – Atlas
Origin:
The name of a Titan, a race of deities in Greek mythology. There were 12 in all, the children of Uranus and Gaia.
Story:
Atlas was a Titan, who according to Greek mythology was doomed to support the heavens on his shoulders for eternity, as a punishment by Zeus. He is synonymous with endurance, and instructed man in the art of Astronomy, vital to help sailors navigate, and farmers plant their crops.
The term Atlas has been used to describe a book of maps since the 16th century when the Flemish mapmaker Mercator published his work and dedicated it to the mythological Titan, whom he regarded as the first great geographer.
The Atlantic Ocean actually means the Sea of Atlas, as he was thought to stand in the far west of the known world. The mysterious continent of Atlantis, believed to lie to the west of the Pillars of Hercules – The Straits of Gibraltar – was swallowed up by the sea after a great earthquake.
See also:
Titanic, Astronomy, Synonym, Geography
ATMOSPHERE
Ατμόσφαιρα – Atmosphera
Origin:
From the Greek Atmos meaning vapour and sphaira, meaning ball or globe.
Story:
Used in its modern sense since the 17th century, to mean the gases surrounding the planet. The Earth’s atmosphere is made up of 78.1 % Nitrogen and 20.9 % Oxygen and 0.93 % Argon.
The term was coined by Willibrord Snell van Royen, a Dutch Astronomer and Mathematician who in 1621 invented the Law of Refraction which is basic to modern geometrical optics and the creation of lenses. He was actually 600 years too late as the concept had already been pondered by the mathematician Ibn Sahl, a Persian mathematician who himself was s student of the works of Ptolemy
There are five layers of atmosphere – from inner to outer – Troposphere (turning or mixing), Stratosphere (layered), Mesosphere (middle), Thermosphere (heat) and (Outside) Exosphere. Together they protect us from harmful rays from the Sun and regulate temperatures.
See also:
Sphere, Planet, Mathematics, Nitrogen, Oxygen
READ MORE
ATOM
Άτομο - Atomo
Origin:
The Greek prefix ‘a’ meaning not, and temnein, to cut – so ‘Uncuttable, Indivisible.’
Story:
Coined by the philosopher Leucippus of Miletus and his pupil Democritus around 400 BC who believed that all matter could be reduced to small particles called Atoms, too small to be seen.
The big questions was, is a single atom of water still water or simply a component of water, unrecognisable as water. This differed from the theories of Plato and Aristotle who believed all things could be divided into Air, Earth, Fire and Water. Plato even wanted to burn all of Democritus’s books.
Revived as a concept by a 15th century alchemist and poet at the court of the English king Edward IV who mentioned it in one of his poetic works. As an idea it caught on in subsequent centuries and in 1803 John Dalton published his atomic theory and the periodic table.
The whole concept was superseded by subatomic research in the late 19th century, culminating in Rutherford discovering that atoms have an internal structure, namely Protons, Neutrons and Electrons.
Of course, nowadays we know that even protons and neutrons can be subdivided into Quarks and Gluons which are the smallest things physicists can measure - So far.
The word Quark by the way is totally made-up, allegedly by the nuclear physicists Murray Gell-Mann. He found the word in Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce who claimed he had heard the word on a visit to a German farmer’s market referring to curd cheese. Gell-mann suggested its actually meaning was the ‘cry of a gull’ and suggested perhaps it should be pronounced so that it rhymes with bark. Quarks exist in six flavours, grouped in pairs – namely ‘Up and Down,’ ‘Strange and Charm,’ and ‘Top and Bottom.’
See also:
Atomic, Platonic, Physics, Proton, Electron, Neutron
READ MORE
Surf and Turf
I like free things.
Seaweed is free.
I’m afraid of seaweed.
OK so the task in hand is to somehow marry those three contradictions and my first foray into the wonderful world of shoreline foraging seems to have been a great success.
Naturally enough - since I don’t intend to poison myself - I did a lot of research beforehand. By research I mean a swift perusal of Wikipedia and asking ‘friends that know these things’ what I should be careful of.
I was given the following advice ….
“Don’t pick any seaweed near a sewage waste pipe.”
“Don’t harvest seaweed if it’s too far up the beach (dogs).”
“The bright green stuff that looks like spinach/lettuce is nice.'“
And so I found myself this afternoon on one of Falmouth’s beaches, enjoying the ambience, the tide out and ….. swatches of bright green seaweed everywhere. Closer inpection and it looked like spinach or lettuce. Later checking confirmed it was Ulva, Sea Lettuce of Laver. Result.
Gathered, water squeezed out, and into my pocket (mental note, always carry a plastic bag in future.)
Back home and …. what to do with it? Recipes online a bit dull.
Fried up some garlic and chopped bacon. Added the Ulva. Added to pasta and topped with a chopped boiled egg and some feta-style cheese. Topped with some Seaweed crisped up in the Air Fryer - spritzed occasionally with olive oil.
Delicious. That in-your-face smell of the sea.
Sorted.
RJ
Cake on the Beach - Discuss
I’ve always had a very ambivalent attitude towards food on the beach.
Perhaps if I recount the experiences I have had over the (many) years, you’ll understand where I am going with this. I think the common denominator is - it’s never quite successful.
First - let’s get Ice Cream out of the way first. OK on the prom. Watch out for seagulls which can turn a beautiful sunny day into a horror movie within seconds. Also .. and I think this was a common problem in North Wales … when the wind picks up, so does the sand. And Sand + Ice Cream is a no no.
A picnic basket - creates an appointment to eat. So any fun you might have been having making sand castles, paddling or making moats had to end, to allow the corporate family mastication to take place. Whereas now, baskets can be cornucopias of fine foods, ours consisted of sodden spam and tomato or soggy salmon sandwiches on white bread, wrapped in clingfilm to ensure maximum disintegration. Not good.
In the seventies, my mother discovered Tupperware by post. I recall we had a set of stackable trays, which could be prefilled with … cold roast chicken pieces and salad (which in those days was tomato, cucumber, egg, onion and lettuce. Perhaps a dab of salad cream if you were lucky.) OK in principle, but they became a spectacle to passers by. So what should have been a relaxed eating event, became a performance or worse, a comedy show.
Later came barbecues. Sand problem again unless you erect a wind break. But also the danger of smoking out the other beach revellers. You could make yourself very unpopular indeed.
More recently, I’ve favoured a more rustic arrangement with some doorstep bread, selection of cheeses and meats, crisps… and perhaps a cheeky glass of wine or beer. Then a nap.
And then there’s CAKE.
OK so … a very pleasant amble to Castle Beach in Falmouth to soak up the Autumnal bonus sunshine. I stopped for a coffee… and was faced with a very tempting array of cakes.
I’m just note sure Cakes and Beaches go together. But i can’t put my finger on why not. These days I eat cakes in every dwindling amounts. Not because I don’t like them, but more because a ‘couldn’t eat a whole one’ regulator kicks in. I did buy a piece of Polenta Cake… but I took it home and am eating it in stages. If I had eaten it there and then, I fear I would have just found a place to bask, on the rocks, and would have felt full, fallen asleep and woken to find my shoes floating off into the Atlantic.
That’s not the feeling I want on the beach these days. I want to feel enlivened inhaling copious amounts of ozone, feeling the sand between my toes, and generally feeling all is well with the world.
Discuss.
R.
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