Thursday, 30 April 2009

Subversive broad beans

The photo is of rare purple flowering broad beans. The variety was once fairly common but is now rare. EU regulations don't help. To try and ensure consistency of quality of seed, all seed types have to be categorised and checked.
Because these beans are rare it means it's not worth anyone's time & money to get them categorised, which means that the seeds can't legally be sold in the EU, which means they get rarer, which means....
But I can keep beans from this year's plants and use them next year. And I can give them away.
Whoever thought growing beans would be subversive?

Friday, 17 April 2009

It's really good

It's not often that anyone gets out their mobile to tell their friends to get to the church activity because it's really good, but that was what happened at Countytastic yesterday. The event was a children's country show organised by the Three Counties Agricultural Society www.threecounties.co.uk . So what were we doing that was so good?

We had hot cross bun decorating, we had egg decorating, we were playing in the soil and planting in the soil, we were making pancakes - starting by grinding grain in an old flour mill.

Why were we doing it? Because it was fun and the children enjoyed it and because it's all rooted in the Christian faith.

PANCAKES
Pancake day, Shrove Tuesday, is the day before Lent starts. That is a time Christians remember Jesus spending 40 days in the wilderness. During Lent Christians give up 'special' foods, and so before Lent it's time to party using up the rich foods. Known as 'Fat Tuesday' - Mardi Gras - and 'Goodbye to Meat' - Carnival - it's a time of special food and celebration.


PLAYING IN THE SOIL
That is the picture of what God is doing in the story of human creation. The original word for soil is 'adamah' and the word for human is 'Adam'. Playing in the compost, God makes a person he calls ‘Compo.’

GROWING IN THE SOIL
The earth produces our food. Jesus uses the image of sowing and growing to explain our relationship with God. The word of God, he says, is like scattered seed. Some falls on the path and is eaten by birds. Some falls in shallow ground and has no root. Some is choked by weeds. But some lands in good soil and produces a rich harvest. St Paul uses the picture of seed being planted or buried in the ground to illustrate the Christian hope for eternal life

HOT-CROSS BUNS.
The cross on the bun is a reminder of Jesus being executed on Good Friday.

EGGS.
Have long been a symbol of new life. For Christians they are a reminder of Jesus raised from the dead and bursting out of the tomb.

Wednesday, 8 April 2009

Milking the recession???

Unlike the UK government, the Irish are tackling the recession by trying to reduce government spending. This means there's more Irish cheese on the market because there's less money to keep it in storage to produce "mature" cheese.
With the Irish and UK market having an oversupply of cheese there's been downwards pressure on the farm milk price.
Add to that the increase in the dairy herd on New Zealand's south island and the reduction in demand for dairy products from China.
That all adds together to mean that farm prices are down to between 20-24p a litre at a time when costs are going up. Complying with NVZs (Nitrate Vulnerable Zone regulations) are increasing expenditure for dairy farmers.
Experts say that the situation should sort itself out in the next 6 to 8 months as more UK producers give up the struggle or decide that investing for the future isn't worthwhile. Whether in the future we'll have the capacity to produce the milk we need is another matter. But we can always get powdered from New Zealand.
And the price of milk at the supermarkets? Tesco and Sainsbury are both currently charging 86p for 2 pints. That's the equivalent of just under 76p per litre!

Monday, 6 April 2009

An insult to farmers

That was what the NFU called the government proposals for sharing the cost of animal disease control between the livesttock industry and the government. I can understand why.
The proposals work on the basis that if the industry has to pay a greater share of the costs to keep itself free of disease, that this will provide an incentive to farmers. This is insulting to farmers for many reasons.
  1. Farmers already have substantial costs to bear from disease. The compensation for Foot and Mothh, bird flu or TB only meets a small part of the costs. Increasing costs for farmers wont increase motivation
  2. Farmers aren't in the business just for the money! If they werre they would be doing something else! Most farmers have a genuine concern for the welfare of their animals
  3. A lot of disease controls are not in farmers hands - they're in government hands. Foot and Mouth (except when it leaks from a Government laboratory) is an imported disease. Farmers have no control of border crossings or scrutiny of portss and airports. That's in government hands.