grow some sprouts

That whole thing where people read Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Vegetable Miracle or read Michael Pollan or some other clip in tv of wherever about eating local and organic and growing your own and cooking from scratch. Then they pout and say it is all very well for those on a farm in Vermont, but what about the rest of us?

That whole thing. For goodness sake, grow some sprouts. Even when we lived in a tiny flat in East London, beside the railway line and polluted with no growing space or even washing line space and even the cactus died in the one windowsill that got some sun. Even then we could have grown sprouts. (No we didn't, I wasn't in a sprout phase. But we were earning good money and I bought localish and organic food and did not whinge about it being impossible. I don't think I whinged anyway).

Buy some organic sprouts. Get an old agee jar from the Sallies, or a large jam jar or really any clean plastic container. Pour some seeds into it. Pour some cold water on top and cover with a piece of muslin or other loose weave cloth (those chux multicloths work fine, ditto for thin, worn teatowels). Leave overnight. Drain the water off. Fill with water and drain immediately twice a day for a few days. When there are sprouty things trailing off the seeds, store it in the fridge and eat them. Don't miss out the last step. That is called wasting your own time, although I have done it myself.

These will be good for you, locally grown, organic and yummy.

Stop whinging that you don't have a farm in Vermont. If you were before that is.

This is an encouraging piece of news though. New York Times. I'm not usually an American news girl, but I'm getting to admire Michelle Obama quite a bit.