The Adlington Post

Today Laurie & I went foraging in our local neighbourhood & found some wild edibles. Read more @ www.trash-zilla.blogspot.com

On one of my foraging expeditions I found this packaged food dumped in my locality. Judging by evidence from the other trash at the site, some students had moved out & saw fit to dump their "rubbish" in a car park. We have 12 x soy sauce, a Hershey's chocolate sauce, 10x miso soups, noodles, and three packets of noodle soups - lunches for me for several days...thanks guys.

The other night I found these two fresh and entirely edible loaves of bread in a skip. It is interesting to note that some 30% of the food produced in NZ goes to waste/landfill - this when many people in this country are going hungry. Let's call a spade a xxxing shovel here - the major food retailers are not interested in anything else but their "bottom line" and the interests of their shareholders. Shame on them.

Check out this UK website for all manner of incredible edibles: "Edible Bugs, Bush Tucker Trials & The Worlds Hottest Chillis! We offer an assortment of gourmet exotic delicacies from around the world. Specialities such as Baked Scorpions & Fried Crickets from the North-East of Thailand. For centuries, these have been consumed as part of an everyday diet. Some other popular delicacies include: Sea Urchin Caviar, Escargots (Snails), Sweden's *NOTORIOUS* Surströmming (Fermented Herring), Civet Coffee, Jelly Fish Slices, Sautéed Reindeer & so much more..Check out our Super Hot Chilli Sauces & Worlds Hottest Chillies!" For more on food see www.pavlovasdog.webs.com For my cooking videos see www.youtube.com/martinadlington

On Friday my mate Johann took me fishing at the pier at the old Sunderland flying-boat base in Hobsonville. We were a bit late for the right tide conditions, but I did manage to catch this fish - twice! [he went back into the water]...... For more on food see www.pavlovasdog.webs.com For my cooking videos see www.youtube.com/martinadlington

Yesterday at Browns Bay market a stallholder gave me a bag of kumarahou leaves. According to my book on Maori herbal remedies, tea made from leaves of this native plant were drunk for turberculosis, asthma, & broncitis, as a blood purifier, & for their beneficial effects on the kidneys, as well as a remedy for colds & coughs, & as a tonic wash for the skin. Kumarahou is also known as Gumdigger's Soap because the yellow flowers make a soapy lather when crushed in the hand. For more on food see www.pavlovasdog.webs.com For my cooking videos see www.youtube.com/martinadlington

Two weeks after the first mealworm pupae formed, a beetle has emerged. So far out of 50 larvae, 20 have pupated, & most of the others are lying still in the tub - getting ready to undergo their next stage of metamorphosis. After the beetles have mated, they will lay eggs in 7-10 days, which will hatch into larvae after 2 weeks - I will then have some interesting cooking tips for you! For more on food see www.pavlovasdog.webs.com For my cooking videos see www.youtube.com/martinadlington

The mealworms I bought a month ago at the pet shop have begun to pupate. They seem to have been happy on their diet of bran, apple, & guava. Their cycle goes: beetles hatching to laying eggs 7-10 days; eggs hatch in 14 days as larvae; larvae pupate in 4-6 weeks; pupae emerge as beetles in 2-3 weeks. Mealworms are edible at the larval stage, so expect some interesting posts on preparing & cooking these insects in the early New Year. For more on food see www.pavlovasdog.webs.com For my cooking videos see www.youtube.com/martinadlington

A few days ago John Early, the Curator of Entomology at Auckland War Memorial Museum, generously gave me some of his valuable time to discuss insects & their edibility, & 'extreme food". Our conversation ranged over kelp flies, centepides, bee larvae, crickets, algae, unusual meals in our travels, huhu grubs, mealworms, snails....& much more... Some incredible edibles! Tiger slugs Huhu grubs & beetle When I asked John about the dangers of eating venomous creatures such as scorpions or spiders, he said that as their poisons are protein-based, they are rendered harmless by heat, tho he cautioned that tarantula fangs are best removed before consumption of the spider. We had a fascinating chat about "what Auckland eats" - now that we have a very ethnically-diverse population here, there is far more on offer than there was even 15 years ago. There are English, South African, Chinese, & Indian speciality food stores here now, & we wo...

Last night I on my evening trash patrol I found these packets of bacon, still chilled in the skip behind the local supermarket. Date expired 29th September - bacon butties are on me!!