THE MODERN MINT BLOG

Mar14

The Foie Gras That Tastes Like Nature

Ethical Foie Gras? Is That A Real Thing?

 

Foie gras – can it be ‘grown’ ethically? The video showing how this farmer works suggests it can…

We first read about this in a book called The Third Plate by Dan Barber. I loved it and I love how Eduardo the farmer, who farms on the Dehesa in Spain, has a ‘take half leave half rule’. When talking about how the geese eat his olives…

“They’re always quite fair. If you make sure the geese are relaxed and happy, you’ll be rewarded with the gift of fatty livers. That is God’s way of thanking us for providing so much good food for the geese.”

This sharing attitude eventually makes him more money!

But it is not just him that has to share. The geese do as well, when they lose half of their eggs to hawks. That is half of his potential profits, but is it a problem?

“I don’t think so. It’s why nature has a goose lay so many eggs. There has to be enough to pay the revolutionary tax for living outside.”

How great is that?

A Foie Gras That Looks Funny

Eduardo’s foie gras is different. Normally foie gras has a yellow colour, which comes from corn. But his livers are grey, so people wouldn’t buy them. Then one day his geese spent the time on his farm eating lupins. He noticed it changed the colours of their livers to the yellow that was expected.

So now he allows the geese to feast on lupins.

They also eat the acorns from the Holm Oak, which is what gives the famous Jamon iberico its distinction too.

“The geese eat tons of acorns, but if they don’t move around, if they don’t eat all this grass, the acorns are nothing.”

He thinks the grass makes the acorns taste sweet, so more grass means the geese eat more acorns. Healthy animals not just eating fat, but getting balance in their diet.

“The aim of a goose it to seek conditions that are conducive to life, to happiness. When they come here, that is what they find.”

And so Eduardo finds many wild geese come to his farm, and stay. Can you imagine a chicken going to a poultry farm in the UK and wanting to stay?

foie gras chickens

 

The Taste Of His Foie Gras

Is described as a sweet, deeply flavoured livery liver. ‘It was a whole lot of liver flavoured by a little fat,’ rather than the other way around, as you normally find with foie gras that is farmed.

“The fat should be integrated, should carry the flavour.”

Eduardo says he seasons his livers in the field, before the harvest. That if they are fed plants with a salinity to them, they will be salty, whilst other plants provide peppery qualities. So he makes available the plants they might like, then they decide what to eat.

It makes me wonder could you raise other animals on land that flavours them as you go. Pigs on coffee plantations perhaps? After all, with wine people talk about how the terroir (the land) gives a flavour to the product. It also suggests each part of the food chain that the final product feasts on must be good.Or else the flavour is affected all the way along.

The Personality Of A Goose

Eduardo knows you cannot force a goose, you cannot mollycoddle it.

“What’s winter to a goose that’s had food delivered to him for six months? Geese are too smart for this. Why gorge when they know the next meal is coming? They cannot be tamed. They have to feel wild to kickstart that instinct for gorging.”

They must work within the bounty of the seasons, they must forage in amongst the trees of the Dehesa as well as in the pasture. This work foraging also helps change the flavour, as the animal is working, moving the body.

Dan Barber speaks in his book about how tasting this foie gras makes you think about the goose, the ecology behind it, the culture and cuisine that supports this system of eating….

“Our modern way of eating supports the opposite. It dumbs down nature. It makes a duck liver – or a loin of lamb, a chicken breast, or a cheeseburger – taste the same whether you’re in Scarsdale or Scotsdale, in June or January. Which, in a way, dumbs us down too.”

You can read more about ethical foie gras in the brilliant, brilliant book by chef Dan Barber ‘The Third Plate’.

Jan28

Monty Don British Gardens Episode 4

I hadn’t seen the new Monty Don series ‘Monty Don’s British Gardens’ but I was sent a message one evening to say stick it on – episode 4 especially! On the episode were three gardens I make and clip the topiary in… the photo above is my quizzical boxwood emu… which looks ridiculous out of context of the wider topiary garden it sits in… but hey! Showcases what you can do with boxwood, when given enough time to let it grow! But also on the episode were Waltham Place, one of my favourite gardens and a place I teach topiary …

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Nov01

Topiary Art In Hong Kong, The Henderson

Here are a couple of photos of the topiary work I have been doing in Hong Kong for the Art Garden at the bottom of the brand new skyscraper, The Henderson. The building has been designed by Zaha Hadid Architects and this November 2024 the garden at the base of the structure will be planted up, with lots of topiary originally designed by Gillespies Landscape Architects, grown by Tarzan Nursery in China, and then clipped and refined into shape by…. me. Will update with photos from The Henderson Art Garden when all is completed and the garden is opened, but …

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Apr16

EBTS Boxwood Growers Forum

Through the European Boxwood and Topiary Society I worked with Chris Poole and Sue Mesher, members of the EBTS board, and we set up a Boxwood Growers Forum. This was to discuss how to make sure this wonderful topiary plant stays in the public conscioussness – we know many growers, suppliers and distributors have stopped selling it as the cost of replacing boxwood that has blight, or is nibbled by the boxwood caterpillar, makes it unviable to offer to clients and gardeners. But Boxwood is a phoenix plant, and there are ways to deal with the problems associated with Buxus. …

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