ANNIE SMITHERS
Green and pink. Pink and green. Two of my favourite spring colours. Whether it be the beginnings of the berry season, the soft downy centres of broad bean pods, or the subtlety of spring lamb, they are colours that keep reappearing in the palette of my spring dishes.
Here, we have a small amount of delicious pink spring lamb, with a large amount of green accompaniment.
For some years now I have been putting my own personal tastes under the microscope of current trends and political leanings. There is no escaping that I am a carnivore. Not only do I enjoy eating meat, but I also love to cook with it. I also happen to live with three vegetarians, which has certainly had an effect on how much meat and poultry I now consume. Another driver that affects the way that I choose how much meat I eat is my constant interaction with small farmers and producers.
All the meat I choose to serve at du Fermier and to put on my own plate has been selected with a very close eye on its provenance and the animal husbandry standards in which the beasts have been kept. The upshot of it all is that I am very firmly rooted in the camp of treating meat as a luxury item.
It is far better for our environment, our economy, animal welfare and our own health to eat less meat but make much wiser choices when buying it. It is not always true that more expensive meat is better. I am also aware not everyone has the luxury of making the choices I get to make or having access to the inside information I have.
However, there are certain rules of thumb I feel are important. The basic one is that the more carefully farmed an animal is, and the more care the farmer takes with protecting the environmental sustainability of the land that they farm, increases the overall cost of bringing that produce to the table. So in my mind, it is far better that we eat less meat, treat it with great respect and pair it with a far greater portion of vegetable and salad components, rather than eating a huge portion of protein, a pile of carbohydrate and a garnish-size sprinkling of greens. And, I imagine, our overall health statistics will
• also slide to the happier side of the register.