How organic is "organic"

How organic is "Organic"

I was harvesting some potatoes at my allotment yesterday when I dug up the above article. The irony of the word Organic and the soil association symbol displayed on such a decidedly non biodegradable material was so mind boggling that I felt the need to share it with you guys.

If you look at the label you can clearly read "British bunched beetroot. "which suggests to me that it found its way into the allotment soil via my kitchen peelings bucket via the compost heap and finally was spread on the ground as mature compost.As I follow J Jenkins composting protocol the above item could have been composted for a max of two years or a minimum of one year, as I always allow a whole year maturation period after the last addition to my compost heaps. If we assume that that application of compost went down just before planting the potatoes that adds a further six months, which gives us a minimum of a year and a half of exposure to quite a rigorous environment of biological assault. On the other hand it could have been in the ground for much longer maybe four or five years. While the elastic rubber band is showing signs of biological digestion, the plastic tab being still quite readable is not.

Also readable is the name of the retailers. Tesco. It suggests fairly strongly that while Tesco is willing to sell "organic" its heart is not really in it. Is it not fair to say that the "Tesco's" choice of a plastic label suggests their interest in selling "Organic "is in the financial premium that organic commands?

Apart from anything else this purely financial interest in Organic does not bode well for the  Organic movement in as much as when companies who have no interest in the principals of organic growing, begin to take more of a financial interest in the movement, they will want to take a more active part in the decision making of the movement, which will inevitably lead to a dumbing down if those principals.(he who pays the piper calls the tune).

There are two outcomes I want to achieve with this article. I would like it if big distributors would show a real commitment to the principals and purpose of organic by 100% compostable wrapping and labelling. I can only see this happening by consumer pressure. That means you, getting informed about the planet destroying threat of plastic, and then writing letters and communicating with your retailers and each other.

I would also like it if you realise that big retailers can only be trusted so far, and start growing your own as far as possible then source locally.

SAVING SEEDS FOR THE FUTURE No 2

Saving Seeds for the Future

A Novel Use of a Trampoline.

Thanks Emma for filming this short clip. It starts off with me clipping the root ends of some ripe seed plants which have been previously pulled up and left to dry.Removing the root ends takes care  of the mud and dust which would otherwise take a lot of time to clean out of the seeds.

Towards the end of the video  ,all the seeds were accidentally spilled back on to the trampoline. which gave me an opportunity to demonstrate a "bounce "method of winnowing. (effective to a point).

Despite this accident I was able to save the seeds quite well. This year I was able to save good amounts of Swede, Brussel Sprout, Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Sorrel seeds. Plenty enough for next years planting, giving away to gardening friends,and for use in sprouting and growing micro greens.
Incidentally Elephant Garlic is fast becoming a firm favourite.Not only does it produce humongous garlic bulbs it also produces beautiful flower heads which are very attractive to bees and other pollinators,and work well in flower arranging,At the same time as this it produces small bulb-lets which can be used to grow next years new plants.

weeds?

WEEDS?

Please don't think we go out and buy a piece of heavy duty plastic sheet whenever we want to supress a few weeds. This piece obliged us by blowing into our garden during a gale. Ordinarily we use old carpet salvaged from skips, which serves the purpose very well.

PICKLED GARLIC

If you grew a lot of garlic last year, you may find, what with the warmer weather approaching, they are now beginning to sprout. This is the time to act quickly, if you don't want to end up loosing the last of your crop. The picture shows us with a well sprouted garlic, some garlic already in the jar and some homegrown kale seeds. Incidentally, the hand image of a bewildered giraffe,has no meaningful relevance to the text and is just for fun.

O.K. so peal your garlic and cut off the dried root end,(this cut will be sufficient to allow the vinegar to seep  in.)Pack them down into sterile jars,with mustard seed poppy seed pepper corn thyme leaf, kale seeds cumin or caraway or coriander, any one two or three of these will impart a nice flavour. Or none it will still taste great.be sure to leave a half inch at the top.

Make a mixture of 50/50 live cider vinegar, clean water, with one teaspoon of salt per pint, and pour that into the jars until full. It is important to keep the garlic submerged so a piece of apple or cabbage stem on top so that as the lid is screwed down the garlic is held under the surface of the liquid. Even a very clean stone will do.

As the garlic ferments it will produce bubbles of carbon di oxide, and can make quite a pressure inside the jar so that it is a good idea to release this from time to time. sometimes the garlic develops a slight blue sheen however this is nothing to worry about as it does not effect the eating quality of the end result.

I would think that they will be ready to eat in three weeks or so, and would last a year or even two, but as they are so delicious ,I have never been able to keep a jar for more than six months so cannot vouch for this personally.

Even if your garlic are a little sprouted (see picture) they will be fine However, if any clove is mouldy (blue or green mould)or if excessively soft or in any way translucent,into the compost bin with it.

Happy fermenting.

Be Vigilant

I was walking about town the other day, and I saw this sight. Masses and masses of autumn leaves in plastic sacks. This set off alarmbells straight away. The fact that the leaves were packed in heavy duty plastic sacks ,as apposed to compostable sacks, made me realise that the council had no intention of composting these leaves,and were planning to incinerate them instead. .As an organic farmer you can imagine how destressing this was to me 

I rang the council (Ealing London) and had it confirmed that the leaves were destined for land fill or incineration.,the reason being that there was too much  contaminate in the leaves, in the form of heavy metals.and litter.

This reason was in reality only a half truth in as much as A there wasnt much litter in amongst the leasve.B with very little effort the litter present could have been selected out at point of collection.C any remaining litter,of a noncompostable nature could easly be sifted out at the final stage of composting.
then there was the original question Why were the leaves in plastic.noncompostable bags anyway?Even though the council had decided to land fill with the leaves,compostable bags should have been an essential.the reason being that the councils decision to use heavy duty plastic is extremely distructive and poluting to the land fill process itself,inasmuch as,firstly any material that composts in plastic will be anarobic therefore producing a lot of greenhouse gas methaine. secondly the plastic residues themselves pose a long term toxic legacy in the landfill site.and thirdly should the land fill site catch fire ,a not uncommojnn event,then the plastic will release a cocktail of some of the most poisiones fumes known to man ,including the notorious gas dioxin, in famious for causing cancer birth defect, cronic illness and death. Further more the problems of incinerating plastic, has been well documented too.
Again the considerations about heavy metals in the leaves do not really stand up to close examination. It is my fear that all leaves whether they were collected in the vicinity of heavy traffic or not(example parks or relatively low traffic streets)were going to be treated in exactly the same way. What a waste of clean leaves!
Actually incineration of heavy metal contaminated leaves is also a very ill-considered method of disposal as any heavy metal will be released into the air via vector smoke along with a cocktail of cancer stimulating chemicals. or into ground water via vector ash which would contain the heavy metal in an extremely water soluble form, once again along with the cancer inducing chemicals which are an unavoidable result of burning autumn leaves and  especially plastics.

 If the leaves were composted, the heavy metals would be released into the soil slowly over a period of up to five years, as apposed to a couple of hours. during this five years the heavy metals would be exposed to continuous moderating enzymatic influence of bacteria and fungus, which would have an extremely moderating effect, making it much less harmful to people plants and animals.
All in all it is clear that the council has adopted a policy wich is corners cutting. Perhaps one could be a bit stronger.neglent? short sighted? polluting? irresponsible?
What do you thing.? anyway thats what our councils are up to thats how they choose to spend our council tax. and apparently its up to us to insure that they step up to the line. Dont let them get away with it. If we are going to protect our planet we really have to stop interfering with the trees natural service of cleaning up .
 I would like to see this page turning into a Champaign to (A) move the traffic out of our towns and cities (B) move more trees into our urban spaces(C) compost and use all of next years fallen leaves as soil enhancing  plant food.

what is that horrible smell?

A couple of days ago someone queried a horrible smell in the neighbourhood. It was Identified as slurry spreading. It was interesting to read the reaction from various peeps .It ranged accepting it as an inconvenience to living in the country through to being something benefical to ourselves and to wildlife in general No one thought of it as being some thing out of order.

what people dont realise is that there is the world of difference between manure which has a very acceptable smell,and slurry from slurry pits, which has a vile smell. .Not only does it smell disgusting it is the icon of industrial farming. it is the smell of animals being raised in the inhumane conditions of slatted houses.It is the smell of chemically exploited land raped year after year for nothing but profit. It is the smell of genetic modification and momoculture .It is the smell of our bees going extinct. It is the smell of the death of our rural communities. In fact it is the smell of death and in my opinion ,it is not an acceptable smell.

Save seeds for the future no1

saving seeds for the future no1

this short video is to encourage you to save seeds from your favourite flowers and veg.Its probably easier to do than you think.There are a number of advantages of allowing your plants to go through their complete life cycle . you will be protecting the genetic diversity of your food plants. you will be attraction a range or beautiful wildlife into your garden. also you will save on the cost of seed purchase for yourself and hopefully your gardening associates.(start a seed swap club.)
Not only that I am sure that seedsaving will deepen your gardening experience,and your relationship with your garden plants