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                                                                                                                                                             Lucia Stuart -    Tel: 07810 317 866             

7^th November 2011

Dear Miss xxxx (the teacher) and xxxx (the teaching assistant)

 I’m writing because I wanted to share with you some of the reasons why we are arriving late and to communicate what we are doing about this.

 Zeca is insisting that he doesn’t want to come to school in the morning although I’m pretty sure he enjoys it when he gets there. I try to think of fun things to do on the way in and all the things he’s going to do when he gets there. He tends to like doing things in his own time and can be very stubborn, especially with me.

 I respect his own time and am learning how to not rush him in the mornings. He’s impossible to rush anyway. Somehow we get to a point where he’s dressed and ready to come to school but it takes an enormous effort and a slow pace.  This is a challenge for me as I was brought up to be on time and I really hate being late and I really hate Zeca being late. However, it feels more important that we actually arrive and that we arrive with our relationship and our connection intact, rather than stressed out and with Zeca having been forced to come in tears.

 I’m a bit stumped as to how to proceed with this. As we spoke at Zeca’s assessment the other afternoon, I think Zeca does find it bewildering when he’s late and all the activities have started.But he doesn’t seem to have translated this into an understanding that if he listened to me encouraging him to be on time, he could avoid this.  Maybe this understanding is coming and I just need to persevere a bit.

 I hope this is useful for you and that you can find some way to encourage Zeca to be on time during the day that might make the difference to him.

 Thanks for your help and apologies for Zeca’s lateness so far

Regards

  Ceri Buckmaster

And this was the note I got from the school on 16^th November 2011

 “Your child has arrived late for school 8 times since September. Please make sure that he is in the playground by 8.55am to avoid education welfare involvement.”

And a spreadsheet of his lateness for the term so far. / / / for attendance and arriving on time. L L L for attendance and lateness.

It would be really lovely to talk to someone. It would be GREAT to talk to someone so you don’t need to use that as a threat. I would love to sit down and tell you the strategies I’m using to get Zeca to school on time, how well I’m doing, how connected I feel to Zeca as the thing that seems to be working is if we have some really good play time in the morning and if I get him ready at 8am rather than 8.20 or 8.30am. I’d love to tell you all of this.

I’m glad I’m not the sort of person who would find your note rude, cold and unsupportive. You’re only doing what your computer program tells you what to do, I’m the sort of person who can understand that it’s not your fault.

Can I suggest that you do get in touch with parents who come late to school with their children, because there obviously is something going on that you might find interesting to hear about? Can I suggest that you listen to what’s going on for the family before you repeat the idea that we have to be on time because they will already know that. But you probably do not know what’s going on for the family.

I know you want to be supportive.

//// LLLL //// ////OOOO////  ////VVVV//// ////EEEE////

“I don’t want to go to school”.

Why the fuck can’t he cooperate. I’m sure there are loads of children out there who, when a parent says, “Let’s go now”, they say, “OK Mummy” and skip along.

I’m not listening to him today. I’m furious

I’ve gone out the front door with all bags and clothes to put on him. He hasn’t even got his socks on yet. I shut the door thinking he may come running if he hears the door shutting behind me. Not a chance. He’s gone up to his bedroom to start playing the recorder. I can’t sit it out downstairs. I’m too furious.

I’m furious when I go up to see him and he’s playing the recorder.

“Go away”.

I’m not listening to him. My fury is too strong. I do everything for him. This morning we watched some episodes of Mister Maker on the iplayer and then we made an alien out of a plastic spoon with pipe cleaners for arms and plasticine for feet. We even painted it green. I remember making and doing lots of things before school in the late 70s and 80s; reading, knitting, sewing. It was therapeutic me time before going to the place where I had to go. I can’t remember ever resisting school, even when I hated it. At first it was a place to make things and be active and that suited me well. Later on, the pressures that crushed my desire out of the balance drove me to timidity and depression.

But now, fury. I’m not listening to him. I tell him. I demand. I point my finger. I poke it and waggle it. “I’ll be waiting downstairs to go”.

I go down, grab my book to write and sink into myself again so I write and release the fury onto the page.

I hear him playing with the blinds upstairs. Now, he’s coming down. What’s he going to say?

I’m sitting on the stairs. He taps me hard twice on the back. And again.

I turn round. I tickle his feet.

“Shall we go now?” I rephrase this, “Zec, are you ready to go to school?”

Still, “No”.

“Zec, I have to go to work”

“I want to come with you. I don’t want to go to school.”

“You can’t. I’m going out. I’m not going to be here”

Where are you going?”

“To Brixton”

“Are there computers there?”

“No, I’m going to talk to someone.”

“I want to come with you.”

“You can’t. This is work I have to do on my own.”

Fury again. “I’m going outside to wait for you. I go out the front. His trousers and school top are outside. His bag, my bag. I don’t feel at all calm. I’m fuming. I can’t get into the spirit I invoked in recent writing and don’t even try, but I’m aware how different I feel now. I feel really unconnected to Zeca. I’m angry, I need his cooperation. I’m bored with his resistance. How can I approach this in a different way? Is he not feeling listened to? I haven’t done much listening today. I don’t feel connected to him today. I’m annoyed.

But I didn’t lose my temper with him. I was short, grouchy, clearly pissed off, but I didn’t lose it with him.

I seem to have accepted that this is the battle I have with Zeca, or rather that this is a battle he is waging with the world and with me, as its apologist.

‘Why do I have to go to school every day?’

Monday to Friday 9am to 3.15pm.

Grey trousers, blue top, grey jumper.

I listened to him.

It wasn’t easy listening to him because I’ve got a sick lurch in my stomach of the panic arising in me.

And all the shit I’ve been clobbered with about getting to places on time.

It’s deep, deep fear about being late and when Zeca invokes the power of the 4 year old and SLAMS down his foot on my fear and squelches it into the ground. No! Your fear is meaningless. These laws are validated by absolutely nothing. I don’t want to go to school. School doesn’t exist. No!

This is after numerous attempts to start from scratch, trying to find a game to play on the way to school, trying to make him fall for going to school while thinking of something else.

“I know! Let’s take your batman mask and show it to everyone at school.”

“No.”

“Do you want to see what I’ve got in my bag. Here. Close your eyes. I’ll put it in your hand. He opens his eyes to stickers that he’s already been given and that were in my bag for safe keeping. He knows he’s seen them before. I commit to my material.

“I know! Let’s find places to stick them on the way to school, signs posts, cars. No not cars. I know where I’ll put a sticker. On the Flodden Road sign.”

“Where is the Flodden Road sign?”

“It’s on the other side of the road. I don’t think you’ve seen it before. Let’s go and put a sticker there!”

“I don’t want to go to school. I want to stay at home today.”

“Ok, well I’m going to do something else.”

I washed up. I went out the front to write. People passed by on the way back from dropping their kids off at school. I dropped into myself again, writing and stopped caring about being on time. The pumpkin outside was going all soggy and tiny black flies were tucking into its flesh. The coffee grounds all around the plants in containers were going mouldy. Russet leaves were piling up in corners. It wasn’t cold.

“Mum!”

I went inside.

“I found some toys inside your bag.”

The contents of my bag were scattered all over the table and he’d found a little train and some plastic insects.

“Oh thanks you’re giving my bag a sort out.”

He was stretching an elastic ghost between two slats of the chair.

“Look! A bridge!”

I tidied up a bit.

“Are you ready to go to school now Zeca?”

“OK.”

We got dressed. I dallied a while to clean his teeth, we were late anyway, he might as well have clean teeth. He raced outside, popping with excited giggles as his new proper school trousers – the ones he refuses point blank to wear, the ones he shrieks in horror at,  that I’d managed today to sneak onto him without him realising – were falling down to his ankles. I pulled them up. They fell down again. Little bare boy legs and orange and blue stripey pants.  An old lady walked past.

“Oh come inside Zeca. We need to put your old trousers on again.”

Zeca’s late today because it’s more important to me to listen to him and if the head teacher has a problem with that and wants to tell me how it is compulsory to be on time, I’ll say I don’t care about mindless rules that drive people apart from their children. The most important thing is that Zeca comes to school and more importantly, he comes because he wants to.

This is a parent’s struggle and as from Tuesday this week, it’s a single parent’s struggle.

The most important thing is that we arrive with our connection intact.

From the Alliance of Community Trainers, ACT

 The Occupy movement has had enormous successes in the short time since September when activists took over a square near Wall Street. It has attracted hundreds of thousands of active participants, spawned occupations in cities and towns all over North America, changed the national dialogue and garnered enormous public support. It’s even, on occasion, gotten good press! Now we are wrestling with the question that arises again and again in movements for social justice—how to struggle. Do we embrace nonviolence, or a ‘diversity of tactics?’ If we are a nonviolent movement, how do we define nonviolence? Is breaking a window violent? We write as a trainers’ collective with decades of experience, from the anti-Vietnam protests of the sixties through the strictly nonviolent antinuclear blockades of the seventies, in feminist, environmental and anti-intervention movements and the global justice mobilizations of the late ‘90s and early ‘00s. We embrace many labels, including feminist, anti-racist, eco-feminist and anarchist. We have many times stood shoulder to shoulder with black blocs in the face of the riot cops, and we’ve been tear-gassed, stun-gunned, pepper sprayed, clubbed, and arrested, While we’ve participated in many actions organized with a diversity of tactics, we do not believe that framework is workable for the Occupy Movement. Setting aside questions of morality or definitions of ‘violence’ and ‘nonviolence’ – for no two people define ‘violence’ in the same way – we ask the question: What framework can we organize in that will build on our strengths, allow us to grow, embrace a wide diversity of participants, and make a powerful impact on the world? ‘Diversity of tactics’ becomes an easy way to avoid wrestling with questions of strategy and accountability. It lets us off the hook from doing the hard work of debating our positions and coming to agreements about how we want to act together. It becomes a code for ‘anything goes,’ and makes it impossible for our movements to hold anyone accountable for their actions. The Occupy movement includes people from a broad diversity of backgrounds, life experiences and political philosophies. Some of us want to reform the system and some of us want to tear it down and replace it with something better. Our one great point of agreement is our call for transparency and accountability. We stand against the corrupt institutions that broker power behind closed doors. We call to account the financial manipulators that have bilked billions out of the poor and the middle classes. Just as we call for accountability and transparency, we ourselves must be accountable and transparent. Some tactics are incompatible with those goals, even if in other situations they might be useful, honorable or appropriate. We can’t be transparent behind masks. We can’t be accountable for actions we run away from. We can’t maintain the security culture necessary for planning and carrying out attacks on property and also maintain the openness that can continue to invite in a true diversity of new people. We can’t make alliances with groups from impacted communities, such as immigrants, if we can’t make agreements about what tactics we will employ in any given action. The framework that might best serve the Occupy movement is one of strategic nonviolent direct action. Within that framework, Occupy groups would make clear agreements about which tactics to use for a given action. This frame is strategic—it makes no moral judgments about whether or not violence is ever appropriate, it does not demand we commit ourselves to a lifetime of Gandhian pacifism, but it says, ‘This is how we agree to act together at this time.’ It is active, not passive. It seeks to create a dilemma for the opposition, and to dramatize the difference between our values and theirs. Strategic nonviolent direct action has powerful advantages: We make agreements about what types of action we will take, and hold one another accountable for keeping them. Making agreements is empowering. If I know what to expect in an action, I can make a choice about whether or not to participate. While we can never know nor control how the police will react, we can make choices about what types of action we stand behind personally and are willing to answer for. We don’t place unwilling people in the position of being held responsible for acts they did not commit and do not support. In the process of coming to agreements, we listen to each other’s differing viewpoints. We don’t avoid disagreements within our group, but learn to debate freely, passionately, and respectfully. We organize openly, without fear, because we stand behind our actions. We may break laws in service to the higher laws of conscience. We don’t seek punishment nor admit the right of the system to punish us, but we face the potential consequences for our actions with courage and pride. Because we organize openly, we can invite new people into our movement and it can continue to grow. As soon as we institute a security culture in the midst of a mass movement, the movement begins to close in upon itself and to shrink. Holding to a framework of nonviolent direct action does not make us ‘safe.’ We can’t control what the police do and they need no direct provocation to attack us. But it does let us make clear decisions about what kinds of actions we put ourselves at risk for. Nonviolent direct action creates dilemmas for the opposition, and clearly dramatizes the difference between the corrupt values of the system and the values we stand for. Their institutions enshrine greed while we give away food, offer shelter, treat each person with generosity. They silence dissent while we value every voice. They employ violence to maintain their system while we counter it with the sheer courage of our presence. Lack of agreements privileges the young over the old, the loud voices over the soft, the fast over the slow, the able-bodied over those with disabilities, the citizen over the immigrant, white folks over people of color, those who can do damage and flee the scene over those who are left to face the consequences. Lack of agreements and lack of accountability leaves us wide open to provocateurs and agents. Not everyone who wears a mask or breaks a window is a provocateur. Many people clearly believe that property damage is a strong way to challenge the system. And masks have an honorable history from the anti-fascist movement in Germany and the Zapatista movement in Mexico, who said “We wear our masks to be seen.” But a mask and a lack of clear expectations create a perfect opening for those who do not have the best interests of the movement at heart, for agents and provocateurs who can never be held to account. As well, the fear of provocateurs itself sows suspicion and undercuts our ability to openly organize and grow. A framework of strategic nonviolent direct action makes it easy to reject provocation. We know what we’ve agreed to—and anyone urging other courses of action can be reminded of those agreements or rejected. We hold one another accountable not by force or control, ours or the systems, but by the power of our united opinion and our willingness to stand behind, speak for, and act to defend our agreements. A framework of strategic nonviolent direct action agreements allows us to continue to invite in new people, and to let them make clear choices about what kinds of tactics and actions they are asked to support. There’s plenty of room in this struggle for a diversity of movements and a diversity of organizing and actions. Some may choose strict Gandhian nonviolence, others may choose fight-back resistance. But for the Occupy movement, strategic nonviolent direct action is a framework that will allow us to grow in diversity and power.

From the Alliance of Community Trainers, ACT Starhawk Lisa Fithian Lauren Ross (or Juniper)

Rosehips can be made into a tincture right now

On Thursday 13th October, I gave a walking talk in the green spaces around the Garden Museum (the area in front of the museum and Lambeth High Street Recreation Space). All participants introduced themselves by stating their name and a plant that is calling to them at the moment or this year on some level, be that aesthetically, or functionally or intuitively.  We wandered around the spaces looking at the plants listed below. In the Recreation Space we collectively made a tincture with rosehips.

Invisible Food is a project that has been running for over 3 years and trains people to look at their surroundings in different ways, to appreciate the natural environment for its nutritional potential & potential for health and wellbeing.

ABOUT  TAKING: We can take in various ways from nature. We can collect seeds, we can collect leaves and berries. We can dig up roots. We can cut stems to take a cutting.

ABOUT NOT OVERTAKING: In London and indeed everywhere, we have to be very conscious about what we take. We have to take consciously, to not over-take, to not take more than we need, to not take what other creatures need more than us. There are some glorious built-in safeguards in nature to ensure equal distribution, in that some berries are toxic to some species but not to others, so some species’ food supplies are protected. For example, holly berries are toxic to humans – so we can’t eat them – but the birds can eat them throughout the winter without any harm.

ABOUT NOT BEING MECHANICAL WHEN WE TAKE:I’m interested in exploring how not to be mechanical about our interactions with nature. For example, don’t be mechanical about seed collecting. LOOK AFTER the seeds once you’ve collected them. Don’t stuff them in a drawer to go mouldy because you haven’t put them in a suitable paper bag and shaken them regularly. It’s the time and the love you put into them that make a difference. I have a teacher who says to me Always thank the plant. See how that feels.  This is interesting to explore because once the taking becomes mechanical, abuse and exploitation can easily occur. Mining great big gash holes in the earth’s surface, cutting down the rainforest, cutting out our own lung.

ABOUT NOT JUST WORKING WITH PLANTS ON A COGNITIVE LEVEL: It’s really important to not just learn about the plants on a cognitive level. Don’t just read about them, learn about their properties and uses and try to ‘gain knowledge about them’. Develop your intuition with them. Be open to the plants. Try to listen. Be still with the plants. See what comes through.

ABOUT NATURE’S GENEROSITY: Finally, it’s stunningly clear when you think about it but nature really wants to work with us. Nature is so generous in all her leaves, fruits, roots, woods, and nature wants us to take. It’s our gift to nature that we take it with us, in our mobile state. It’s nature’s gift to us that it can root us.

Holly – from midsummer to midwinter when the days grow shorter, the god of the earth and the underworld reclaim the sun. The tree that symbolises this is the holly. Even in the depths of winter we are reminded that life begins again. This is why traditionally we bring evergreen into the house as a reminder of the growing season. Not edible but an important winter plant for decoration, both outdoors where it grows and to bring inside.

Chickweed – soothes inflamed tissue and absorbs impurities from the skin. Eczema. Digestive and lung problems

Sow thistle – young leaves

Dandelion root – allows liver to break down toxins, leaf -  potassium, magnesium, calcium, B vitamins, Vit A. Eat the whole plants, fritter the flowers, caper the buds

Thistle – young stems, peeled and eaten raw, young shoots as greens

Red dead nettle – use flowers as colour contrast in green salad. Use leaves as you would stinging nettle

Cleavers – High in Vit C, calcium, iron.  astringent and diuretic (so good tonic). Can be used by herbalists for tonsillitis, throat infections, cystitis, eczema. Dry seeds substitute for coffee

Nipplewort – young leaves and shoots, best before plant comes into flower

Hawthorn – for the blood, regulating high & low blood pressure, relieves stress, insomnia,all problems of the heart.

Oregon grape – make jelly, root used by herbalists as anti inflammatory, anti bacterial, alternative to Goldenseal

Nettles – stabilise blood sugar, good for kidney cells, soothes the lungs and bronchial tissues, Vitamin K (amongst many other vitamins) prevents bleeding and stimulates breast milk

Black nightshade – collect young pre-flowering plants as greens, avoiding risk of gathering plants with green berries.

Yarrow – good cold remedy reduces fever, Stop bleeding. Aids digestion, anti-inflammatory

Daisy – Vit C, good for coughs and colds. Daisy leaf sandwich Mr Funny

Horseradish – chop up young leaves finely in mashed potato, dig up root to make sauce

Mallow – huge amounts of protein, more than nettle. Anti inflammatory

Rosehips  – cordial. Extremely high in Vit C. Rose petal jelly

Here is a poem by Kate Gallon on the riots

Today

I will sleep with my boots on

My bag is packed

I will wait and watch with the News on

The door is locked

I will think- is this happ’nin’where you gone?

The odds are stacked

Today I will sleep with my boots on

Today I will sleep with my boots on

The duvet is floral

I will hear the strain of the sirens’ song

The floral is trampled

I will not claim to know what went wrong

The trampled are choral

Today I will sleep with my boots on

Today I will sleep with my boots on

The mouths are covered

This is my undivided attention

The scarves are swallowed

This is my undivided attention

Fuckin’ Politic’ly Muffled

Today I will sleep with my boots on

And tomorrow

And the day after.

We’re all in our riot gear.  After all.

We’re all in our riot gear

The mouths are scarfed

Blackberrying in Ruskin Park

The ice cream ball maker makes ice cream which varies a lot upon outside temperature, shaking frequency, the mix of ingredients, the ice used. We spread out around the pond and passed the ball to each other for around 15 mins to  shake up the mixture. It was extremely tasty, blackberry being the best fruit I’ve tried in it so far. You need 600ml / 1 pint double cream, about 25g / 1oz caster sugar, around 100g / 4oz fruit. Mash up the washed fruit and the sugar, then add the cream. Pack the ice cubes into the container, add rock salt to the gaps around the cubes, this is to ‘enhance the freezing ability’ as it says on the box of the ice cream maker, although doesn’t that seem to contradict the salting of the roads in icy weather. Can someone please enlighten? (Arnaud sent in the answer, see REPLY below)

Mashing the blackberriesRolling the ice cream ball maker around the pond... for 20 minutes ....Scooping out the ice creamAn excellent picnic

We tried mallow / ewedu stew made by John who'd followed the recipe in the London Salad. Delicious!

Plants in Ruskin Park wild life area we looked at:

Blackberry http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Rubus+fruticosus

Ribwort plantain http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Plantago+lanceolata

Wild lettuce http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Lactuca+quercina

Greater Burdock http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Arctium+lappa

Water mint http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Mentha+aquatica

en route to Max Roach

Chickweed http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Stellaria+media

Sow thistle http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Sonchus+oleraceus

Common Lime http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Tilia+x+europaea

In Max Roach

Nipplewort http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Lapsana+communis

Common Mallow http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Malva+sylvestris

Bristly ox-tongue http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Picris+echioides

Cat’s Ear http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Hypochoeris+radicata

Shepherd’s Purse http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Capsella+bursa-pastoris

Then the plant that was difficult to identify exactly, seemingly fat hen at the back and possibly goosefoot at the front. Here are all possibles

Fat Hen http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Chenopodium+album

Goosefoot http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Chenopodium+fremontii

Good King Henry http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Chenopodium+bonus-henricus

Recipes:

Plantain cream for bites and stings

4 tbsp fresh chopped plantain leaves
150 ml boiling water
2 tbsp olive oil or sunflower oil
2 tbsp almond oil
1 tsp beeswax
2 tsp emulsifying wax
2 tsp glycerine
1 tsp vitamin C powder

1. Wash and chop the plantain leaves. Divide into two – put one half in a bowl and the other half in a pan. Cover the plantain in the bowl with the water and leave to infuse for 10 minutes.
2. In the pan, add the olive (or sunflower) and almond oils to the plantain and heat gently to simmering point. Don’t allow to boil – if it starts boiling, take off the heat immediately. Once at simmering point, remove from the heat and leave for 10 minutes to cool.
3. Drain the infusion, taking out the plantain leaves. Set the liquid to one side.
4. Drain the infused oil into another pan, extracting the plantain leaves. Heat the oil again. Add the beeswax and emulsifying wax and melt, stirring – you are aiming for a foamy consistency.
5. Add 16 tbsp infused water to the pan and whisk to achieve a consistency like salad dressing. Add the glycerine and vitamin C powder.
6. Pour into sterilized glass pots and seal.

USE: Apply to affected area as often as needed.

STORAGE: Keeps for 3 months in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

 Ash key pickle

One thing to make sure is that you pick your Ash Keys when they are very young, and the small seed within the ‘wing’ has barely developed. You can see the seed if you hold the Ash Key up to the sunlight.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of Ash Keys without stalks
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 4 bay leaves
• 8 peppercorns
• 1 tsp allspice
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 cups cider vinegar
• water

Suggested Instructions

1. Wash your Ash Keys, then place in a pan covered with cold water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 minutes.
2. Strain off the water and return to the pan with some fresh water, then bring back to boil and simmer a further 5 minutes.
3. Drain off the water again, allow to ‘dry’ slightly and then pack into warm dry jars, but allow an inch of space from the top of the jar.
4. Put the spices, salt and sugar into a bowl and add the vinegar.
5. Put the bowl into a saucepan (cover it), add some water (not to the bowl but just into the pan) and bring slowly to the boil.  Allow to gently boil for about 5 minutes, then remove the bowl and let it sit for about 4 hours or until it is cold.
6. Strain the liquid through a muslin or sieve into a jug and pour over the Ash Keys filling the jars right to the brim.
7. Screw on the tops
8. Store for 3 months and let the pickle ‘mature’.

Wild herb Jamaican Patties

How to Make: Caribbean Patty Crust (butter version)

The classic Caribbean patty crust is yellow to orange in colour and this colouring is either derived from the oil used to make the patties or from turmeric or annatto seeds.

Ingredients:

280g flour
1/2 tsp salt
200g butter (I used goat butter)
240ml cold water
1 tsp ground turmeric or 1/2 tsp Jamaican curry powder or 1/2 tsp ground annatto seeds
120ml milk for brushing (I used coconut oil)

Caribbean Patty Crust Preparation:

Method:

Sift together the flour, turmeric (or colouring) and salt into a bowl. Cube the butter then add to the flour mix and rub in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine meal. Add just enough water to bind the mixture as a firm dough. Turn onto a lightly-floured surface and knead for a few minutes, or until elastic.

Roll the dough out to about 3mm thick then cut into rounds about 15cm in diameter (use a plate as a template). Traditionally these are filled with a whole range of meat or vegetable-based fillings, are folded into half-moon shapes, sealed, glazed with milk then baked in an oven pre-heated to 220°C for about 20 minutes, or until golden.

If you want a crumblier pastry then when you roll the pastry out, melt some lard, brush this on top of the pastry, fold over then roll out again. Repeat this process of rolling, brushing, folding and rolling 4 times in all. This way you will get a layered pastry that will puff up and become crumbly during baking.

And here’s the chickweed pesto recipe.