Random Writings

Rothera has a rather end-of-term feeling at the moment. The field parties have returned to Rothera (and some to the UK), Sky Blu has closed up for the winter, and Fossil Bluff should close today or tomorrow. A lot of people have left, or are about to leave, on the Dash-7, and two of the Twin Otters have headed back to the UK (as of this year they get maintained in Oxford rather than Calgary) this morning. They’re going a very circuitous route – from Rothera to Stanley, Montevideo, up through South America, across to Bermuda, St. Johns and and back to the UK via Greenland and Iceland. The rest of the aircraft will follow them next week. The base already feels a lot quieter. Everyone who isn’t wintering or leaving by air will leave on the RRS Ernest Shackleton at then end of March.

In other news, Rothera has a new webcam and I’ve put it and a load of other Antarctic webcams in the links column. You can now see what the weather’s like!

When I was at Fossil Bluff, I made some chutney and posted it back to a friend in London. He pronounced it “tasty”. I thought that I’d share the recipe, if anyone wants to make their own – although you could probably do it with fresh vegetables rather than dried!

I thus present the recipe for Antarctic Chutney:

– dried onions (some)
– dried apple rings (some)
– dried green beans (lots)
– sultanas (a few handfuls)
– filtered glacial meltwater
– 900ml malt vinegar
– Turmeric (couple of teaspoonfuls)
– Black peppercorns
– Coriander seeds (generous shake)

Put the onions and some water into a pan and heat and allow to soften. Add beans, apple rings, sultanas and more water and keep softening. Once all the vegetables are soft and breaking up, add the vinegar and spices and simmer gently for several hours until the mixture will stick to a wooden spoon. Put into jars. Cool. Eat.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 25th, 2006 at 4:55 pm and is filed under Antarctica.