I’m Bob Dickinson, otherwise known as From Scratch With Bob.
While I’m a lover of good food, I’m also a big believer that where our food comes from is often more important than what we do with it. I started sharing food content when I was cooking for my local soup kitchen and decided on a whim to make a video of what I was making and post it online. Since then, I’ve shared more about my food ethos and have found a community of people who see the importance of conscious consumption too. People who, against all odds, try each week to skip convenience foods, get back in the kitchen, and make something with their own two hands.
Although food is now my job and I cook every day, I don’t always find it easy to decide what’s for dinner.
I too have struggled with, and genuinely continue to struggle with, keeping the fridge full every week, staying inspired with new recipes, and finding time to plan and prep meals for myself and my family. Quite often, it only takes a busy week to throw off the routine! However, one thing that has helped me enormously, is breaking the usual routine of doing a weekly shop at the supermarket and venturing outside of it instead.
While supermarkets are fantastic places, full of pretty much everything we could need and want in our kitchens, I’m honestly not a lover of popping to my local one for my weekly shop. The chaos of parking up, darting through the bustle of other customers, googling different brands mid-aisle… it’s just not my idea of a good time. This is just one reason why I like to avoid the supermarket whenever possible, and source my food from other suppliers, such as farmers markets, small farmers, and local green grocers.
When I lived in Australia, I had my routine down to a fine art. I had suppliers for all of my produce, most of which were at my local farmers market every week. For beef specifically, I bought from a fantastic company who delivered it straight to my door. Making good food decisions became easy. I would often buy meat in bulk, so I could just top up with veg and be ready to go each week.
But then, when I moved back to the UK, I was starting from scratch again. Clearly, sourcing food is important to me — I believe every time we make a purchasing decision, we’re deciding who we want to support, and essentially voting with our pounds and pennies. I didn’t want to get into the habit of buying at the supermarket again with no other options, so instead I researched local producers and found some I was happy to get behind. This didn’t happen overnight — it took time, and when I had a free moment, I would research the farmers and producers around me. Slowly, I built up my list of suppliers, finding organic vegetables from a little honesty-box type stall near my home, and fresh milk just up the road. The one thing that was missing was meat.
The meat supplier was, surprisingly, a more difficult box to tick. When I looked into companies that produced slow-reared, outdoor bred and grass-fed beef, usually they were very small farmers who only really sold to friends and family. Or, when I did find some fantastic butchers, their meat came from different suppliers at different times of year, making it tricky for me to trace. The question of buying in bulk was tricky too, and I struggled to find somewhere I could buy a whole or half cow, something I preferred so the mental load of buying beef could be ticked off my list just once or twice a year.
Gladly, my search came to an end when I found Edenmoor. They ticked every box for me — animals that are slow reared, live life outdoors, are fed well, and above all are treated with respect. It was easy for me to see they were doing the right things. So, I spoke to the team, found out more about their beef (the very patient people were happy to answer all my questions!), and I ordered a whole cow to be sent to me.
I’m all for buying in bulk, but if the idea of buying a whole animal sounds a bit crazy to you, you don’t have to dive right off the deep end!
It can be as easy as increasing the amount you buy little by little, as long as you have the freezer space for it. My advice is to buy a few cuts of meat more than you usually would, potentially ones you haven’t cooked with before, fill up your freezer, and then shop the freezer, not the supermarket.
I find buying in bulk incredibly helpful when you’re trying to cook from scratch consistently. It removes the question of ‘what are we having for dinner?’ every single night. It reduces the decisions you have to make — if you have a leg of lamb, some steaks, and a whole chicken in the freezer, then you’re only choosing between three options, not a whole supermarket’s worth. Then, you can let seasonal veg or a new recipe you’d like to try make the rest of the decision for you.
For me, I plan to work my way through the cow, going back to old, well-loved recipes for the cuts I have cooked before, and allow myself to be tested by those I am yet to try. Though I’ve barely made a dent in the meat, even after cooking a few pieces, I have a newfound appreciation for it. It’s pushing me out of my food comfort zone and allowing me to try different cuts and recipes I might not have considered before.
When it comes to meat, I know many people make their buying decisions based on taste.
Maybe you heard that one supermarket’s Aberdeen angus steaks were voted to have the best flavour, so now, that’s what you buy. Maybe you’ve heard corn-fed chicken is much more succulent, so when you see it on the shelves, you pick it up. While I don’t blame anyone at all for making these decisions (we’re literally hounded with marketing messages about food every single day), I do think it’s a narrow way of looking at meat, and if we broaden our view, there’s much more enjoyment on offer for us.
Take grass-fed beef, for example. I know many people will argue that grass-fed meat isn’t necessarily better, and that grain-fed can be just as flavoursome and tender. But what does better mean when it comes to me? To me, I get a lot more enjoyment out of my meat if I know the kind of life it’s had, and I’m happy with where the product has come from. Sure, if you put grass-fed and grain fed next to each other on a plate, I might not be able to tell which is which. But the way I feel as a consumer will be wildly different depending on which I choose.
I choose grass-fed beef because to graze on grass is the closest thing to a cow’s intended lifestyle as it can get. When I choose grass-fed, I know my animal has spent most of its life outside, living as it should. I know my money has gone towards supporting farmers who aim to give their animals the best, more natural life possible, despite how it may impact profit margins. I can sit down to eat, knowing I made the best conscious choice I could as a meat eater to ensure the animal had a happy life, which gives me more satisfaction than flavour ever could.
Paired with knowing which farmers looked after the cow, spending time in the kitchen cooking it, and pairing it with vegetables that either me or someone local to me has grown, turns dinner into an experience of appreciation.
Appreciating the work of farmers to bring this food to me. Appreciating what the meditative time spent in the kitchen did for my mood. Appreciating those I get to share dinner with. It’s about so much more than how the food tastes.
At the end of the day, it comes back to our intention behind food. How we choose it, cook it, and consume it. For me, choosing the best meat I can source isn’t about strict food rules, but about making decisions I can stand behind and finding more enjoyment and meaning in food than just what will fill my belly. Whether you’re wanting to start with small, conscious decisions, or whether you’re wanting to overhaul the way you shop and eat, the steps are the same — it’s just about a little more thought, and a little more appreciation, for the food on our plates.
Find my BBQ Beef Short Rib recipe in the Edenmoor Journal.
