I decided to get some supplies so took some paper bags I had in my larder and marched up to Gloucester road – home of many of Bristol's health food shops.  I managed to get some hazelnuts and a big bag of brown flour.

If I'm honest the Sumac bread (see earlier blog) was starting to taste a little rank – well not starting to it was just plain rank, I wouldn't advise it at all!  I made myself a couple of bannock loaves using the flour and flavoured with allotment herbs, then made stew using local potatoes, corn from my allotment, freshly picked sorrel and plantain leaves flavoured with herbs from the allotment.

 It wasn't bad but by evening I fancied a change from medieval pottage like meals so had a jacket potato with corn and some Jew's ear fungus I found growing on an elder tree earlier that day. I snacked on hazelnuts, apples and the bannock loaf through out the day and drank mint tea (from the allotment), Sumac and apple juice.  I felt I was starting to get into the swing of this a little more.

Wednesday –

Wednesday was set to be a challenge. I was due to meet my editor in London for a meeting.  I decided to make breakfast a little interesting I would make some hazelnut milk and hazelnut butter. Half way through this early morning food preparation I dropped the large container for the 'milk' and instinctively caught it in my left hand – the one with the broken wrist.  This sent a shock wave right down my arm and I doubled up in immense pain. I'd saved the milk from spilling but now my wrist felt like Vanessa Feltz had sat it on it with her full weight.  It stayed like that for the rest of the day!

The recipe can be found here – the hazelnut butter is just the by product of the milk, it's the husks of the hazelnuts mixed with a little oil, the oil was rape-seed oil grown in the UK. I wasn't sure if this was cheating a little as the rape seed oil did come in a plastic contain but I had bought it previous to the experiment.  I sought to remedy this and try and buy some UK oil in the near future. So breakfast was mushrooms on bannock loaf toast with the hazelnut butter, an apple, a glass of hazelnut milk. 

I took the hazelnut butter, some foraged rocket, the remains of the last bannock loaf and some apple juice to London with me as a snack to nibble on throughout the day. 

On the way to the meeting my wrist was still in agony so I had to make a decision to buy some painkillers.  As far as I know pharmaceutical codeine is not a UK product.  My alternative would have been to find some opium poppies and process them to make opium. However I didn't want to come out of the experiment a junkie! I could have also chewed on a little willow bark for the aspirin compounds but I thought enough is enough – it's not technically a food and I am in a lot of pain so after a couple of Co-codamol I continued to internally justify my decision.

The meal was at St John's Bread and Wine, famous for its 'nose to tail eating'.  Andy and I arrived a good 15-20 minutes before our editor – it seems we're always kept waiting in these situations! 

This did at least give us time to peruse the menu and it's UK vegan offerings. Pretty quickly we realised the 'nose to tail' eating was not a euphemism for how full up the food made you feel! There was very little in the way of vegetarian food let alone vegan – great UK ingredients ruined by the addition of some animal part or animal product. A recent review in the Guardian stated 'There are few parts of the animal, from intestines to marrow bones, that haven't found their way on to a plate at St John'

 Puffballs were on offer but only with the addition of bacon, beans and onions but only with duck eggs, brains, liver, kidneys, I could see pretty quickly I was going to struggle!  They laid down some bread and I munched on a couple of slices (without butter) wondering if this along with corn on the cob was to be my meal for the day!

Soon our editor arrived and happily informed me that the chef had forewarning of my dietary requirements so would be making allowances. This didn't however stop the waitress sniggering when we asked for a vegan meal! 

I started with some corn on the cob then moved onto some puffball without bacon followed by some grilled tomatoes on toast, all of which were absolutely delicious. The chef came out half way through this course and told us that he did indeed know we were coming but we got him at a very busy time so apologised for what I'd eaten and offered to make a couple of proper vegan courses!

Another salad appeared with a light vinaigrette dressing – the waiter had to go back and check there was no mayonnaise in the dressing and once deemed egg free I munched happily through my greens. Thinking this would be it I couldn't help but feel a little peckish still. I'm not used to fancy restaurants and their small portions; as a more often than not single man, my dining out is usually confined to veggie and vegan cafes', pubs or stands at festivals. Judging by the prices at St John's I wouldn't be developing a taste for restaurant cuisine any time in the near future and I was glad that the publishers were footing the bill for this tasty but small offering of haute cuisine.

I shouldn't have held my breath, or stomach, so soon. The chef was good to his word and brought out a wild mushroom and bean dish with some wild greens (Good King Henry).  By the time I finished my apple sorbet I could barely move. St John's had done me proud and proved you can eat a vegan meal almost anywhere.

Thursday –

The Dinner Party –

Thursday began like most of the other days, home made bread and jam, apple juice followed by foraged apples for breakfast and a soup with allotment produce for lunch.  The evening meal was going to be a little different however as I was due to attend a dinner party.  The party was hosted by a good friend of mine who to protect his identity I shall call Daniel.  A few years ago following a serious illness, Daniel had his lower intestine removed.  Consequently he can't digest any food with high cellulose content, in other words he can't eat a lot of vegetables or whole grains.  Meals with Daniel are always going to be a challenge because of this but with the added complications of my experiment it could prove to be near impossible.  I called him half way through the day to see what was on the menu; it was to be a simple meal of macaroni cheese.

 The macaroni would have certainly come for Italy but I'm ashamed to admit I chose to ignore this fact and instead asked him to prepare me a meal without the cheese sauce.

 I brought along some UK flour, a bottle of UK sunflower oil in a glass bottle I bought that day and the hazelnut milk to make my own white sauce. In addition to this I picked a homegrown salad of green leaves and tomatoes from my allotment.  The white sauce was pepped up by a little mead also brought along as my UK bottle of wine. Honey for some isn't vegan but as a vegetable grower I know the importance of bees. Wild numbers of bees are dwindling so the more honey we make the more bees there are to pollinate our crops.

 Andy examined the bottle half way through the meal and asked where in 'England is Zimbabwe?' The mead was indeed bottled in the UK bit my haste to buy a UK wine meant I overlooked where the honey had come from. I should have questioned why the 'fair-trade' label stood proudly on the bottle but just assumed all mead was from the UK!

I made up for this booze faux pas later in the pub by drinking organic ale brewed in Wiltshire – local enough for me!

Friday-Sunday

By the close of the week I found myself becoming increasing opportunistic. I'd chat to allotment holders and offer them bits of surplus from my allotment in exchange for theirs.  This was all pre-meditated but I would still act surprised when they'd offer a big handful of beans or the odd carrot.  My foraging also became highly honed and I couldn't pass an apple tree or nut tree without stripping it of fruit or nuts.  It's now two weeks later and I'm still living off a lot of the food I found in this time. I have jars of apple sauce waiting to be used, apples in the freezer ready to be made into juice and a large bucket of cider fermenting happily in my garage.

The experiment was challenging not at least as I had to quit smoking. I'm ashamed to admit that after the final day I started straight back up again! However the UK and plastic free parts of the diet are still very much in place.  I think twice now before heading to the shop and try and pick up some paper bags before buying loose goods from shops like scoop-away. I've always aimed to eat locally over organic anyway and along with the addition of allotment and foraged food I don't find that a problem. I still eat the odd banana and I've gone back to drinking tea but both of those are fair-trade and I see no harm in buying ethically sourced goods we can't grow over here!