The Canny Scot

food

In an effort to get them out of the enormous pile of debt and bad investments our banks and companies have made, our dear government, in its usual departure from common sense, has given even more money to those insolvent companies and banks in the hope that they will have learned a lesson and make wiser investments. The triumph of hope over experience again.

Recipes

Shanks, ham and lamb
I remember when I was little my granny used to make ham shank soup. Then when I returned home from abroad I saw both ham and lamb shanks in the local butcher's (my local butcher is G. & D. Sinclair). These are so cheap. You can use both of them as the base for a really good, hearty soup, or use the meat and stock from boiling for a risotto, or you can roast the lamb shank. - Canny Scot

Grow your own
This really is the best way to get cheap, fresh food. You will be able to grow organically if you want, and even if not,, you will at least know what has been put on your food. You don't need a garden, though you can grow more if you have one. You can grow on a balcony, or even a windowbox. A south facing windowbox is excellent for herb, tomatoes, strawberries, and much more. On a balcony you can get or make a small raised bed kit if you really want to increase your yield. Then you can grow more or less what you can in a garden. Otherwise you can use containers of diffierent sizes for whatever you want. And if you don't have a garden, balcony, windowbox, then don't despair, there is an excellent, but rather old book, Home-grown food by David Wickers, which will astonish you by what you can grow indoors.

Herbs
When you buy fresh herbs at the supermarket, don't buy the cut ones. Buy the ones in pots even though they are a little dearer. You can keep these growing on a windowsill for ages, so you won't need to buy cut herbs again. You can also split some and have more than one pot on the go - thyme is great for this. Parsely, rosemary, sage, tarragon and many others can be potted up into a larger pot to provide fresh herbs every day.