Keep it local and keep it real in 2008

Dec 28 2007 by Jane Hall, The Journal

I TAUGHT my daughters that they shouldn’t necessarily believe everything they were told. Once they’d left junior school, I instilled into them that, while it’s important to respect those in authority, there’s nothing wrong, in fact it’s positively a good thing, to question that which is being told to them and for them to work out what’s real.

That’s no excuse to be rude and continuously ask “why?”, even though I seem to remember that, as a youth, I did – rather annoyingly. It’s just that it’s better to use their own judgment and analyse things while taking in what’s happening.

I considered this particularly useful advice for when they were first inevitably approached by boys who, even more inevitably, would attempt to lead them down the garden path, so to speak. And my experience as a young man suggests this to be particularly good advice.

It’s in my nature to question what I hear; not necessarily to distrust but to consider what I’m being asked to believe and make my own mind up.

It can be a bit of a bind when, trying to lose oneself in the plot of a film in an attempt to believe that it’s real, one finds oneself asking how the director did something or how the actor knew to do what he did.

As a result, a movie rarely moves me to tears, even though I wish it would. But as a result of this attitude I’ve never, for instance, completely believed what I was being shown on the TV, particularly in “factual” programmes such as documentaries and the news. I’ve always absolutely known that the shots of the back of the head of the interviewer nodding away at the interviewee have usually been bogus and put on after the interview was recorded.

And I find it almost an insult when sounds are added to nature documentaries when you know for sure that they weren’t recorded while the filming was being done.

Of course, with TV being an entertainment medium, there’s got to be a little magic or slight of hand going on. And the temptation to make-believe must sometimes be irresistible when making a programme.

So it came as no surprise when, on the lottery show the other day, it was quite apparent that the celebrity was not actually starting the lottery when the balls dropped some time before he got his hand to the button. The BBC appeared to find it a little embarrassing while actually the whole thing was rather amusing.

So far, no surprises. But it gets me wondering where the “magic” finishes and the reality or truth begins.

Once you begin to believe you can fool some of the people some of the time, it’s only a small step before you believe you can fool all of them all of the time. You only have to look at a government that’s been in power for 10 years to see that it’s true.

So, to food. I believe we’re frequently misled as to what’s real and what’s not. For instance, we’ve all seen the adverts for “succulent” meat or “tasty” fish and other such adjectives. So if such food is so good, why don’t the better restaurants use it – particularly when you see how unfeasibly cheap it is?

At Oldfields, we’ve been behind a movement called Campaign for Real Food where the understanding of, and belief in, the food is paramount. It’s why we titled our current cookbook Passion for Real Food.

We’re of the view that, if you don’t totally believe in it, you won’t live by it. For instance, I know of some food places that say that they use local produce but only make a cursory nod in its direction while using cheaper and less good products from elsewhere. And when you don’t believe in what you do, you start to fool yourself and believe you can fool everyone else.

By buying local, we have more chance of understanding what we’re eating and this is a benefit over and above helping our region’s economy and saving on food miles. So in 2008, let’s make a resolution: don’t be misled. Keep it local and keep it real.