Lynda Brown: My brother rang last week to alert me to a feature on Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine Show about how because of last year’s atrocious rainy weather, veg hadn’t got any nutrients, and how it was worse for organic veg. What actually happened was that ‘leading scientist’, Professor Mike Gooding, Head of Agricultural Policy and Development at University of Reading was putting it about that fruit and veg and cereals maybe less nutritious and tasty (eg rain leaching out nitrogen means less protein – he was referring mainly to cereals here, less sunshine means less sugars etc). And that though organic growers were more resilient because they grew a more diverse range of crops, organic veg were potentially worse off because they hadn’t got recourse to quick fix artificials.
14 January 2013 |
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Emma Heseltine: There are a lot of farmers getting stressed at the moment. There may be a heat wave further south but here is business as usual, rain. The thing is we want hay. Silage is all well and good but we don’t have a tractor so moving it about is a complete nightmare. Haylage is alright in big square bales, it comes out in slices that can be loaded into the quad trailer. But hay is the thing. The problem is that hay needs hot weather and about six days of it to dry it enough to bale.
29 July 2012 |
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Emma Heseltine: This morning I am given a reminder of why I love my job (as if I need one). Finally Helena has decided to have her calf, and thankfully I’m about to see it. She has picked her spot and is giving it a go.
08 July 2012 |
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Emma Heseltine: Today we are having a scything course at Wallace Field. The Monday gang and myself are being taught the finer points of slicing and dicing with the grim reaper's favourite implement.
01 July 2012 |
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Tim Young: This is supposed to be a blog about our allotment, but at the moment the only thing the two things seem to have in common is that I’ve been ignoring both for a while. And given the constraints on my free-time of wage slavery, I thought at least I could give this virtual plot some TLC. The earth of the real plot, I’m afraid, remains neglected.
03 March 2011 |
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Richard Plowright: There have been many changes at Stowey Rocks since March, most notably the arrival of our daughter May on 7 April. There are moments in our lives when events cut through the paraphernalia that clutters our existence and we are laid bare. May's birth was one such life affirming event.
30 June 2010 |
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Richard Plowright: A period of high pressure with sunny days and cold nights has come to an end to be replaced by more typical wet and windy March weather and already I am wishing that I had made better use of the dry spell to 'work down ground' as they say in these parts.
31 March 2010 |
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