For this week’s Five Friday Favourites, we’re taking a look at video and audio podcasts that cover growing and making your own food, plus one that looks at general money-saving tips.
The links below connect directly to the audio and video streams, which you can subscribe to using iTunes or an RSS reader and listen to or view using your computer or a video-capable media player, such as the iPod.
Martin’s Weekly MoneySaving Musings (right), is a video edition of money-saving expert Martin Lewis’ weekly email. It’s tightly UK-focused, so great for Brit subscribers, and packed full of useful material contributed by both Martin himself and users of his busy forums. Video quality is fair, but neither the podcast itself, nor the presentation style, are up to the standard we’ve come to expect after watching shows like Delicious TV Vegetarian or gardenfork.tv (both below).
Tales from Terry’s Allotment is an audio-only programme, so is great for having on in the background while you do other things. It’s a gentle stroll around Terry’s Welsh allotment – as the name would suggest – looking at what’s currently growing, and what jobs need doing. All recorded on site you get a great feeling of being outdoors with Terry and his interviewer and again, being UK-based, it’s well-suited to British gardeners who may be doing the same jobs on their own plots. Terry Walton will already be known to some subscribers from the Jeremy Vine show on BBC Radio 2.
Delicious TV’s Totally Vegetarian (left) doesn’t ever stray into the garden – except for the odd barbeque – but this American video podcast is great for anyone who wants to cook their own food. It’s purely vegetarian, and the recipes are simple enough for anyone to tackle (although as presenter Terri frequently makes use of a blender you may need one yourself to follow along). Being American-produced, some ingredients have different names to the ones we use, and some measurements are given as cups, which we don’t often use for measuring in the UK, but either way it’s a well-produced, well-presented cookery show that’s as good as anything you’d find on British TV. The recipes themselves can be found on the associated website.
Alternative Kitchen Garden is another audio-only podcast, and like Tales from Terry’s Allotment is UK-produced, so all of the tips are relevant to British subscribers at the time of year you’re listening. The advice is no-nonsense, simple, and easy to follow, although the presentation, by Emma, is a little dry. The only trouble is, the 6th January issue covered things that, although still current, you should have started working on between 21 and 26 December, which is a little late. More information can be found on the show’s weblog.
gardenfork.tv takes you right from the plot to the table, with both gardening and cooking, and branches out into all sorts of DIY tips, like how to strip paint, get rid of beetles and take photos. The style is laid back and the recipes simple, and we like the re-use of an old camper oven for doing the baking, which is true to the spirit of Blagger-style self-sufficiency and making do. The associated episode blog includes all of the recipes included in the shows. More than a few appearances are also made by the presenter’s dogs, which although perhaps not the best example of kitchen hygiene, give the show a quirky life all of its own.
Technorati Tags:
cooking, garden, gardening, self sufficiency, self+sufficiency
Related posts:
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Nik,
Thanks for reviewing the Alternative Kitchen Garden. You should find this week’s episode much less dry – it has only just stopped raining here in Oxfordshire ;o)
hi, I live in hamilton nz ,I grow lots of my own food on my little 1/4 acre paradise. I am a qualified butcher and smallgoodsman and still cure my own hams and bacon at home as well as preserve apples , plums , pears etc from our little orchard.
I love to make things in my shed, toys and wooden gifts for peaople.
I like reading what you have on your site.