Granular Chelsea: The Tree Nursery Visit

November marked our second visit to the Belgian tree nursery ‘Solitair’—and the smiles on Dan’s face and mine said it all.

Catching the first Eurostar out of St Pancras, we arrived at the nursery by midday, only to be greeted with extraordinary news. The two exceptional character pines we had tagged on our previous trip—affectionately known as ‘The Brothers’—had suddenly become available at 10 p.m. the night before, despite having been allocated to a private project. Thus our trees were soon “in motion,” with the help of a fork lift we spend a few hours mocking up the Chelsea garden. Exploring how their branches might be oriented, how they would engage with the built elements, and how they could be positioned so that they almost—though not quite—kissed each other

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Noma Projects

Building on two decades’ worth of culinary innovation, Noma Projects was founded in 2022 to share ingredients from the past, present, and sometimes even future of restaurant noma: a place in Copenhagen where the team has an endless fascination with the idea that there is always more deliciousness out there, just waiting to be uncovered.

While giving home cooks new essentials to add to their pantries fills their team with excitement, it’s only part of what they do. Through their Taste Buds membership club, along with a range of publications and events, Noma Projects hopes to generate the kind of knowledge and inspiration that helped them to realize that food just might be the most important thing we have.

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Making the Morna

The team at Tom Raffield share how their new creation, the Morna Pendant, came to be.

The team at Tom Raffield always exploring new techniques and tools to help them create unique lighting designs. There’s nothing that excites their expert workshop team more than facing a design challenge and coming up with new and innovative ways to bend wood, meet sustainability practices and create bold new designs.

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Naturhus

A Naturhus consists of 3 parts: the Greenhouse; the Core house; the eco-cycle system. The greenhouse creates a Mediterranean climate around the house with fantastic outdoor spaces.

The greenhouse allows for a closed local cycle of plants that absorb the nutrients in the wastewater and turn it into fruits and vegetables. A Naturhus entails a luxurious living, low energy consumption and ecology in practice. The inhabitants is surrounded by natural materials, year-round flowering roses, wine, kiwi, apricot, figs, almonds and peach. The patios around the house are used from early March to late October. The greenhouse protects humans and the core house from rain, snow and wind and the insulated house can be built more easily and with great freedom.

The vision is a sustainable building that produces food, instead of waste. A house that generates energy instead of just consuming it and introduce reflection and learning about what you eat and what you flush down the drain. What you flush down comes back to your own eco-cycle system and into the tomatoes you eat for breakfast.

A sustainable architecture that promotes a truly sustainable lifestyle.

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Vegan Sticky Tofu with Kimchi Rice

Recipe.

One block of firm tofu, drained and pressed to get liquid out. Break into rough, bite-sized chunks and toss in cornflour. Lay on roasting tray, drizzle with olive oil and bake in high oven for 20-30 mins turning so it all gets crisp.

Make the sauce in a jar; maple syrup, soy sauce, cider vinegar, minced garlic and ginger, toasted sesame oil, chilli flakes, teaspoon of miso paste.

Once the tofu is cooked, put the sauce in a frying pan and get it bubbling, then mix in the roasted tofu and coat well. All the sauce should stick to the tofu (rather like sweet and sour chicken).

This is now ready (it is nice if you drizzle with sesame seeds but we only had toasted pumpkin). We had some basmati rice leftover from yesterday’s curry.

Stir fry in wok with with a bit of grated ginger, kimchi, edamame beans or any other veg. Roast tenderstem broccoli in a bit of olive oil/salt/chilli flakes. Fry veg dumplings and drizzle with vegan mayo mixed with sriracha.

YUM!!