food & farming

A collection of 50 posts

podcastshelf

Fed with Chris van Tulleken

This is a podcast series from BBC Sounds which explores the story of chicken, its progression from scrawny jungle fowl to the most widely consumed animal protein on the planet, and what that says about us. It is almost an urban myth that modern humans think food comes from supermarkets,

food & farming

Are Supermarkets Paying Fair Prices to Growers?

This morning (13/11/23) on BBC Farming Today1, a grower of cauliflowers pointed out that in 1976 when he left school the price was 75p each; today he is selling caulis at £1.20.  In ’76 his first new tractor was £9,500; today a new tractor is £150,

food & farming

The Food We Eat: West Northamptonshire Sustainable Food Network

As residents of West Northamptonshire we at CA-WN have two key missions: o   to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions because they are contributing to global overheating o   to prepare ourselves for living with the weather extremes that are the consequence of a critically altered climate - winter days of sub-zero

food & farming

Eat More Veg Month

World Vegan Day on 1 November spotlights the vegan movement with World Vegan Month** continuing the worldwide celebration throughout November. At our October monthly meeting award-winning vegan chef Natasha Caton spoke enthusiastically about ‘we are what we eat’. While many of us would find it impractical for our daily menu

meeting reports

CA-WN AGM and Monthly Meeting notes - October 2023

Our October meeting started with the AGM including Election of Officers, followed by a presentation from Natasha Caton of Sol Haven on Sustainable Food, and finally a short update on CA-WN activities and events.  The meeting was recorded with the consent of those present. Separate recordings of the AGM and

meeting reports

CA-WN Monthly Meeting Notes 21 September 2023

Our guest speaker this month was Simon Derrick, Global Head of Sustainability for Blue Skies and founder of the Sustainable Business Alliance. Simon gave a presentation on the subject of 'Trade, development and climate justice: the case of Blue Skies in Africa'.  Present: Dave Anderson, Ella Sage, Eugenia

food & farming

Fertility and The Three Sisters

At the time of writing, late July 2023, the local grain harvest is just starting. The combines will be out in the Winter Barley. But there is a long way to go and typically the weather has changed to a pattern of Atlantic lows giving us sunshine and showers from

food & farming

GBGW 2023: The Great Food Challenge

Great Big Green Week 2023: Food & Farming

business

Eat Curious - growing more than plants... an insight into sustainable food production

I recently had the good fortune to eat three delicious meals in a row; two lunches with a breakfast in between; cooked by someone else. What a joy it was – an exquisite symphony of flavoursome curries, rice, side dishes and snacks courtesy of Northampton-based food development company, Eat Curious. Don’

food & farming

LEAF OPEN FARM SUNDAY at Brixworth Farms

Sunday 11 June, 10:00am to 4:00pm

food & farming

Water – Too much / Too little

Writing at the end of April, I am wrapped up well and summer seems a long way off.  But it is at this time of year that water companies and farmers look anxiously at the levels in their reservoirs as well as river flows and groundwater levels.  If we have

bookshelf

Ravenous by Henry Dimbleby with Jemima Lewis

In 2021, Henry Dimbleby published the much acclaimed ‘National Food Strategy’. This was one of the most carefully thought through and readable government documents that I have read and yet most people, including members of the government, have not read or acted upon it. In reply, in 2022 the Government

food & farming

Offsetting and Carbon Trading

I am very suspicious of offsetting. An old friend was persuaded by her heating oil supplier to give money to forestry in India. She has travelled to India many times and has a soft spot for the country and its peoples, so she was easily persuaded. In theory, the trees

podcastshelf

Farming Today

Farming Today has been going for ever – I remember my granddad getting up to listen to it every morning in the 1970s. But it has definitely moved with the times and these days isn’t just about combine harvesters and the price of pigs. We all know that food systems

food & farming

Mellow Yellow

Rupert Knowles – CA-WN Farming Correspondent Some of you may be old enough like me to remember dancing to Donovan’s 1966 hippy hit song by this name. But today, it is Farrington’s oils that invoke the magic of flower power. Farrington’s cold-pressed rapeseed oil is produced at Bottom

recipes

Vegetarian Roast Cheese, Cashew and Walnut Loaf

Patsy Hollingum writes: I’ve been making this for our Christmas dinner for around ten years now. It sounds more complex than it is, the end result is well worth the effort, and it takes far less time to roast than a turkey. It is just as tasty served cold,

recipes

Beans Means … Texture and Flavour

Following on from the earlier post about lentils Patsy Hollingum turns her attention to beans. I am a fan of BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme and earlier in 2022 the topic was beans, a subject to which the team devoted two episodes: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/

food & farming

Farming Decisions

I was reading articles in Farmers Weekly about the rise in cost of farmers’ inputs such as fertiliser and diesel, and the rise in price of outputs such as grain and milk. This led me to thinking, ‘just how do farmers make short and long-term decisions on managing their businesses?

recipes

Patsy Hollingum is taking the pulse ...

In my store cupboard at the moment I have no fewer than 10 different types of pulse, plus one on my current shopping list. Some of you will be familiar with the word, without knowing exactly what it covers, so here’s a little rule of thumb: a pulse is

food & farming

Amazing Maize Maze

In early September 2022, I visited the Pick Your Own farm at Harpole for a chat with the owner, Teresa Drage. I wanted to find out how her enterprise had been affected by the hot, dry summer. Manor Farm has been in the family for many years. It is a

food & farming

Apples and Orchards, wild and domesticated

By Clare Robertson-Marriott To understand current human dependency on globalisation it might be useful to consider the provenance or origin of the things we buy: food items, textiles, cars and so on, and to accelerate the development of endeavours with a local or circular economic focus. We could begin with

recipes

Hard Times Bread Pudding

By Patsy Hollingum This is a recipe for old fashioned bread pudding using stale white bread. It’s a good way to use up really stale bread, including the crusts. As it is a recipe for using up “left-overs” I have not given exact quantities, however, don’t go over

food & farming

Farmers and bees are buzzing!!!

Show time. The barley is turning gold and the combines will shortly be busy in the fields. The magical months of May and June are over. July is a relatively slack time of year when farmers visit the shows. In 2022 I visited two: Cereals 2022 near Duxford in Cambridgeshire

recipes

Vitality Soup & Family Frittata

VITALITY SOUP Cooking time: 20mins Vegan, dairy free, gluten free A combination of early vegetables and wild seasonal gems that can easily be foraged in Spring. Soften an onion, add 600g asparagus, handful of young nettle tops, 2 handfuls of wild garlic and chopped garlic clove, cover with 1-1.5

food & farming

Climate-Friendly Farming

Rupert Knowles - CA-WN Farming Correspondent New-born lambs are scampering after their mothers all over West Northamptonshire. I was driving up a farm track north of Braunston last week and they went skipping ahead without the sense to veer to left or right. The pastures to the side undulate with