New research published

Horticulture Week
20 February 2009

Home deliveries of fresh produce may be better for the environment than shopping locally, according to new research by the University of Exeter.

Researchers compared carbon emissions generated from trips to a farm shop with deliveries of organic vegetable boxes. They found that if the average car journey was a round trip of around four miles (6.4km) or more, home delivery accounted for fewer emissions, even if the farm shop used no lighting, heating or chilling.

Researcher David Coley said that while food miles had been useful to get people to think about the issues around carbon emissions and food transport, the many factors that lie behind putting food on the table needed to be looked at "before we can say what is better or worse for the environment".

Self suffiency for all?

The recent snow has got me thinking about self suffiency and the ways of modern life. I was wondering how long we would survive as a nation if we were shut down completely by something like freak snowstorms or such.
Not that long I would imagine...how would we live without shipped in food, electricity, commmunications via internet and phone, no gas or oil? Of course we are not set up for this but should we be? And could we if we needed too?

It might be fine for people like us with a little land to prepare for this eventuality but not everybody has some land to grow food, wood for heating and harness wind, water or solar energy. I would like to know if there would be enough room for each family to live in a self sufficient way, and if not then how many families could this island support.

Could we even make smaller changes like no electricity for one day each week or would this be unbearable. Being able to stop the torture simply by the flick of a switch may be too much temptation. What if we used only a little grid supplied heat and power only in the 'off-season' of late autumn and winter and then focussed our energies through the summer to grow, harvest and preserve enough food, heat sources and power sources to keep us. Surely in the summer we would all be to busy to need television, heating and elaborate meals. Would this mean more people could enjoy the pleasure of this life we have today? Would we be prepared to do it even if it meant the earth and its resources as we know them would last twice as long?

Personally I'm a both a wishful consumer and dreaming self supporter. The dream for me has both sides. I would like to grow enough fruit and vegetable to keep our family and friends generously for 365 days a year but wouldn't want to have to pay the mortgage aswell. I'd love to build my own house from materials gathered from the land..hand hewn timber beams, strawbales, sheep fleece and clay are available locally, but I still have a dream of owning a Range Rover one day!

Maybe as a generation we've grown up confused about what we should be doing. The marketing men have done a fantastic job of telling us we can't live without the latest fashion or gadget and we believe them but we also believe that we should be doing more to cut our energy use or fuel consumption. I'm sure there is a growing movement of people out there starting out on the road to self suffiency but if you look in magazines like Smallholder its full of adverts telling you that you need a fancy hand built poultry shed costing hundreds of pounds to keep a few hens or that people are living on a smallholding on weekends and the husband spends the week in the city earning the cash that pays for it all.

So basically my thoughts are that we could do it, we have before and I'm sure we'll do it again before long.

Just a thought...

Snow, snow and more snow..

Old bessy stuck in the mud again! I've asked for a four
wheel drive version for my birthday but don't think anybody
was listening.

Silly hat season..

Fantastic views but I couldn't see a foot in front of me on

Saturday morning. Thick skinned pigs don't seem to mind

though as long as there's food on the 'table'

A great week for the kids but not really condusive to on farm progress, but it does give you a bit of a lift being out in the bright sunshine after being in the dark for what seems like ages. A bit of a contradiction I know but it seems like its been dark permanently for the past 3 months but when the sun comes out an dthe days start to get longer its as if the summer wasn't that long ago..maybe its the promise of spring that brings the positivity out.

Anyway nothing really to report on this week. Growth in the polytunnel has stopped due to snow blocking out the light and the sub zero temperatures, not helped when a cheeky robin thought that the relative warmth of the polytunnel seemed a good place to nest. All would have been well had he then not decided to go out a few times during the day..unfortunately putting some holes in the plastic skin on each attempt.

The fruit trees are starting to bud up and we are hoping they don't come too soon to be killed by the heavy frost that we usually get in April. The hares have started to annihilate the christmas trees we planted last year as these are an easy source of food sticking above the snow. Must get some mesh guards made up before they eat the lot!

The sheep are getting some of the older hay that we made 2yrs ago to tide them over until the snow melts and the piggies are eating everything they can get hold of now the grounds too solid to root the carrots up. The carrot bed has been well turned over by them and will benefit from the deep frost getting down to a good level and aerating the soil.

Ketchup comparisons

Our thanks go to a customer who recently pointed out the difference in ingredients between the organic ketchup we sell and heinz organic ketchup..with all we read these days about food labelling and understanding whats going into our food it still surprises me what gets into some food products.

A lot of our customers are buying 'organic' for health reasons but may not look further than the initial organic label. Organic may have connotations of health and a less processed product but this may not always be the case now that the big corporations are also selling organic lines. you really must check the small print, the labels placed on products being sold by supermarkets may give you the wrong impression.

We are seeing more labels with photos of farmers outside in the fields yet the animals that produce the packed meat may have never seen those fields. I don't believe this should be allowed and it should not be up to the consumer to arm themselves with the finer details of the food standards agency guidelines for labels when popping out to get a chicken for dinner!

The traceability of a product can help to understand what has or has not gone into the food your buying and also give you an idea of how the animals have been raised. The best choice is surely to buy from a local producer who can tell you or even show you how your food is being produced without any spin like 'traditionally reared beef' or 'Scottish smoked', which may mean beef that has been produced in an American intensive feed lot as it has been 'traditionally' or salmon that has been intensively farmed in Scandinavia and then frozen, shipped to a factory in Scotland where it can be chemically smoked and become 'Scottish smoked salmon'. These statements are based on the truth but it doesn't give a fair representation.

By asking a local producer or retailer how and where it has been produced not only will you get the information you need to make an educated decision regarding your purchase but also send a message that 'you' the consumer is looking for good quality, local produce and understand what this means.

Labelling can provoke some discussion regarding businesses like ours that sell local produce but also sell items such as bananas, mango etc. Do we need to state 'not local' on our organic bananas or should we take it for granted that customers understand this? What about locally sourced? if we buy the bananas from a local wholesaler is that a fair statement? We could buy them cheaper from a national wholesaler with a centralised distribution system as the supermarkets may do and not support any local jobs but that is not what we choose to do. Where should a local box scheme draw the line when sourcing produce 10 miles? 50miles? What if the seasons don't accommodate local growers and we need to go further away? Should we stop trading until we can source or grow more produce? And then where do our customers go? To someone who is not concerned with these issues?

Its difficult for us to know what to do sometimes but we are guided by our customers, our own ethics and what 'feels' right. This may not seem good enough for some and may be too picky for others...as a consumer its your decision that makes the world go round and there are many problems that could be solved by consumers making more educated decisions.

As the blind date guy used to say..the choice is yours!