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The ground beneath our feet

Tim Young — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 15:32:29 GMT

Most parents probably have phrases they find themselves using far too often. “Say thank you”, “clean your teeth”, “don’t pick your nose”, and so on. This year the phrase my children have become heartily sick of hearing at our allotment is “don’t tread on the soil”, usually exclaimed urgently as one them wanders across one of our vegetable beds. Again.

Tree planting

Tim Young — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 09:43:11 GMT

Easter is a busy time in the year for the allotment, and ours is no exception – weather permitting we’ve been getting down to the plot most weekends, and our house and garden are full of seedlings in various states of growth. We’re in relatively good shape at the moment – most of our beds are dug, we’ve got spuds, onions and some squash in the ground, a bunch of brassica, pea and tomato seedlings at home, and we’re still enjoying the last of our purple sprouting from last year – which is absolutely delicious. The most exciting thing recently though has been planting an apple tree. It’s a semi-dwarfing Fiesta from Walcot Organic Nursery, and although at the moment it’s more of a stick in the ground than a tree, there was something particularly satisfying about planting it.

Getting busy with nursery food

Tim Young — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 09:58:15 GMT

No matter how many times I see it, I'm always shocked by the statistic that nearly one in four of our children are overweight when they start primary school. I know – because I've two small children myself – that trying to get young kids to eat a totally balanced diet is a non-trivial pastime (indeed some days getting Young's kids to eat any kind of diet can be a challenge) so I don't instinctively blame anyone for this sad state of affairs. It's just that it makes me, well, sad.

Happier animals

Tim Young — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 16:54:54 GMT

It was great to see John Craven take a look at labelling of food and what labels actually mean for animal welfare on last night's Countryfile. Obviously I'm biased (as I work here), but I thought on balance it was pretty clear that if you want the best animal welfare then seeking out the Soil Association label is definitely worthwhile.

It can be done

Tim Young — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:45:20 GMT

Just got out of the Food for Life Partnership workshop at the conference. I can listen all day to the impact the programme has had in schools, and I was particularly taken with both Doug Bone, the head of Wandle Valley school in Sutton, and Stephanie Wood from School Food Matters.

Starting where people are

Tim Young — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 12:19:11 GMT

We're in the morning discussion session of today's conference, and Julian Walker-Palin the Asda representative on the panel has been taking a bit of stick with questions from the floor. In response he made a good point, well - the views of his customers (as expressed through big surveys) are real, and they count; they can't be ignored because they're not convenient, or they don't chime with our views of how the world should be.

First harvest

Tim Young — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 12:35:53 GMT

Sunday was a red-letter day for us and our allotment – our first harvest. With the gleeful help of the kids we filled an ice-cream tub full of broad bean pods, and a bowlful of lettuce leaves for lunch.

Digging in the dark

Tim Young — Thu, 26 May 2011 15:52:39 GMT

No, not a metaphor for my life (or if it is then that’s a story for another time), but unfortunately a fair description of my recent ‘leisure’ time. With daylight now extending past nine, I’ve spent several evenings in the last week ‘popping’ up to the allotment after the kids are in bed to try and catch up and get some more beds ready for the seedlings that should already be planted.

Official warning

Tim Young — Fri, 20 May 2011 15:52:22 GMT

I received a short email the other day from our allotment site rep: “The recent site inspection raised concern about the amount of grass on your plot. Can you please do something about it in the next couple of weeks so as to avoid you getting an official warning”. Eeeeeek.

Care and the community

Tim Young — Thu, 05 May 2011 16:50:03 GMT

I spent yesterday on Top Barn farm near Worcester, attending a fantastic day about care farming. Care farming is a relatively new term for a practice that has been around for a while – using the farm environment as a therapeutic setting for people with a variety of educational, behavioural or mental health needs. By providing regular, structured activities on the farm that allow people the opportunity to participate in meaningful work in a natural environment, the idea is that the land can be used for therapy and training and build the confidence of those taking part.

More digging

Tim Young — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:34:09 GMT

The sunshine in the last couple of weeks has been fantastic in Bristol, so much so that we took the previous weekend off digging because we were too busy sunning ourselves. Whoops. To make up I took Friday morning off, and me, my wife and my youngest Theo spent the morning working on more dandelions. We got another chunk clear, but I estimate we're still going to need another ten hours digging and path building before we've cleared the space for our six bed rotation. . . and with the first of our broad beans hardening off and our potatoes chitting merrily, we're going to have to get a move on. Hopefully with the clock's going forward at the weekend we can sneak off in a couple of evenings to catch up a bit.

The green light

Tim Young — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 17:19:42 GMT

I’d heard before we took on the allotment that it could be good for the soul; apparently all that digging and fresh air can do wonders for one's inner karmic zen (or whatever). I’m not sure how my inner karma is doing so far, but on Sunday, as I peeled back one of the black winter covers, I was certainly in need of some zen. I was expecting a strip of beautifully clear earth; I was confronted by my very own seed bed of dandelions.

Pathfinders

Tim Young — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 09:25:20 GMT

Well, it didn’t rain at the weekend, and we finally made it down to the allotment on Sunday morning, with both boys in tow, and a boot load of bark chip mulch. The aim of the day was to peel back the plastic covers, and lay out a series of beds and pathways.

Rain, rain, go-away. . .

Tim Young — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 17:28:20 GMT

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.

Thank you

Tim Young — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 15:33:00 GMT

So that was my third Soil Association conference, and I enjoyed it thoroughly – possibly my favourite of the three I’ve attended. Overall there it felt like there was more of a focus on exploring specific viable solutions to the problems we face, as opposed to just enumerating what all the problems are.

Plain speaking

Tim Young — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 13:53:31 GMT

A comment from the floor in the last session that we need a ‘plain food campaign’ struck me as a fantastic idea. Lots of the debate was around the complexity of the organic message, and getting that across to people – what’s organic about? What is a healthy diet? What are consumers interested in?

Engineering choice

Tim Young — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 12:31:54 GMT

Last night’s final plenary session ‘what’s stopping progress’ was a great discussion between Tim Lang of City University, author Joanna Blythman, Riverford’s Guy Watson, and Colin Cox who works on Manchester food enterprises. A lot of the most interesting discussion was around the idea possible ‘nudges’ to individuals behaviour, and the scale of the nudges that might be needed.

Caroline Spelman's video link...

Tim Young — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 14:04:18 GMT

...seems to have split opinion on the conference floor. My fellow blogger Ed Dowding has just called it 'dissapointingly political', while one of the Omsco representatives (I think Huw Bowles, but don't quote me) was much more positive. Perhaps the best comment was from panellist Jan Hutchinson, who thought the Secretary of State was setting a new record for simultaneous smiling and talking.

Made it!

Tim Young — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 12:36:43 GMT

Catching the seven o'clock train from Bristol is never easy, but we made it up in time for Helen's opening. Great to hear her pay tribute to Patrick, and her thoughts for the future - stressing the need for the Soil Association to play a part in the 'big society' by being much more open to working with others and setting old differences apart - 'we should stop lobbing stones from the hills'.

Manchester here I come

Tim Young — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 14:00:59 GMT

Our conference is next week in Manchester. The past Soil Association conferences I've been to have always been great, and I've never been to Manchester, so really looking forward to this. And (technical issues allowing) I'll be blogging from the conference, so I'm really excited about this.