food: time to cook

we're at my mum's house in France and with a wonderful wood fired stove it seems fitting to cook like this. this is a venison hot-pot and without any photos from cooking i'll hold back on the recipe save to say:

good bacon.
rosemary, bay & thyme from the garden.
diced venison from the forequarter of a fallow doe.
onions.
potatoes, specifically "belle de fontenay" which are waxy but worked well enough here.



My toughest critic, and I wasn't sure how the revelation that dinner was Bambi's mum was going to go down.

Pretty well it works out.

sebastian cox

Having grown up in East Sussex I was surrounded by working coppice and have been intrigued by the ingenuity and sheer productivity of this type of woodland. Clear off all but a few large standard oaks when it's just been cleared it springs back in lush vigour before the coppice stools have once again yielded useful timber. That rotation also means that at any given moment in time a working coppice represents the most diverse range of environments. Ecological benefits because of people's industry, rather than in spite of it.

Like most old systems of production it didn't have waste hardwired into it. Like an old kitchen made use of everything but the squeal, a working coppice makes use of timber that the Forest Products industry wouldn't be able to handle. To small, to individual, too disparate a supply chain, too much hassle. From charcoal, livestock fencing, hurdles, pegs, baskets and furniture nothing much didn't get used. I remember dragging my parents to agricultural shows and being fascinated by the trug makers, hurdle makes, timber framed building demonstrations and pole lathes.

Sebastian Cox works in recognised that tradition. I came across him in an issue of the French edition of Elle Decoration, reporting back on finds from London Design Week. They feature his superlight chair. Instantly it had that feeling of green woodwork, welsh stick chairs and all other such goodness.

I have to admit not all of it is for me. Along side the desire to make wonderful sustainable products we shouldn't also totally loose the desire to humanise and decorate that has always been apparent. What kills me though is that this imaginative bright man is being referred to as a designer. Why do we obsess over designers? Why does Sebastian Cox's credibility have to be rooted in him being an upcoming new designer? He himself says his products are the result of time on the workbench, not at a CAD station. The magic here is that he is a Maker and it's about time we gave designers two fingers and applauded makers, the real heroes.

Sebastian can be found in Lincolnshire or here