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Chrysanthemum tea

If you’re an AKG listener then you may have seen the link for Dig It Down Under over on the show homepage. Dig It Down Under is Riley Jordan’s gardening podcast from Australia, and it’s well worth a listen. I got behind on my episodes last year and am slowly catching up. The first one I chose to listen to was episode 11, the herbalicious special. Not only does it cover edible flowers like crysanthemums and saffron, but it takes you travelling back through time!

I sent Riley an email after I listened to the show because she mentioned chrysanthemum flowers being used for tea – previously I had only encountered Chrysanthemum coronarium being used as a stir-fry vegetable. As 2010 is the year of edible flowers and tea plants, I was intrigued :)

Riley has responded with some lovely links to more information. There’s a pdf file with information about the medicinal uses of chrysanthemum flowers, a Wikipedia article about chrysanthemum tea and an Amercian webshop that has a lovely bit about flowering teas that involve chrysanthemum and other flowers being stitched together into little bundles that unfold while your tea brews – a sight that you need a glass teapot to appreciate!

It looks enchanting, so I’m glad that we can get them in the UK as well, via Exotic teapot, who also sell a range of glass tea pots and a lovely looking glass infuser mug. I’ve got a birthday coming up, so I might be lucky enough to unwrap a flowering tea set. If not then I will have to save my pennies and buy my own!

UKAware 2010

UK AWARE 2010 (a green living expo) is running from 10 am to 6 pm on Friday 16th & Saturday 17th April. This year they’ve taken over a second floor in Olympia Two and have an electric bike track inside the venue! Other attractions include:

• Free seminars – get inspired by some of the UK’s most creative minds


• A fashion show – beautiful clothes for beautiful people.


• Workshops – hands on fun for all


• Green Machines Expo – a huge collection of low carbon vehicles


• A fashion and beauty area – look good and feel even better


• A Kids area – fun for the whole family


• Clothes swapping – bought to you by Daisy Green Magazine


• Hundreds of exciting green organisations showcasing cutting edge products and exclusive special offers


• Green Business Surgery – hints, tips and ideas on how to green your business or how to build your own


• Morsbags: an oasis of creative surprises and haberdashery delights – voted best feature by visitors last year.

Tickets cost £15 on the day, and £10 in advance online, but if you follow my link* you can buy tickets for just £6.

*(That’s an affiliate link and if you use it I make a little bit of money, but you’ll be saving a packet so it’s win-win :)

Adventures with a Kelly Kettle

We went to see my publisher (Permanent Publications, and they’re also the people behind Permaculture Magazine) yesterday. It turned out to be their 20th anniversary, and as you can see we took part in the celebrations.

From left to right that’s Mary Lewis, Centre Manager for the Sustainability Centre, Penny Rose, Maddy and Tim Harland, and me. You can read Maddy Harland’s thoughts on their anniversary over on her blog (and while you’re there, check out her DIY bird box instructions and the lovely pictures of the birds in their garden).

I love being one of their authors because not only are they lovely people but they’re really green rather than light green or green washed, and yet they’re not preachy. They’re into practical solutions and having fun and just getting stuck in. Everyone who works in the office is a big fan of outdoor cooking, something I haven’t really tried yet. And so I’m chuffed to bits that they’ve given me a Kelly Kettle (a very funky camping stove) to try. You can see one in action on Alys Fowler’s allotment and they burn tiny bits of fuel to heat water or cook your food. I’m dying to try it out and make cups of tea in the garden, but it’s too cold yet – but keep an eye out as I will be using it at every opportunity and sharing my Adventures with a Kelly Kettle all summer!

Book review: Lob

“Stand quietly in a park, garden, or the woods one day. Listen! Watch! If you are one of the lucky ones, you might see him. Lob! A green man.”

I’ve never been asked to review a children’s book before, but Lob (by Linda Newbery, published by Random House Children’s Books on 4th February 2010) is no ordinary children’s book – it’s a children’s book all about gardening.

The main character is little Lucy, who loves visiting her grandpa and helping him in his vegetable garden. He teaches her all about seeds and watering and weeding, but Lucy is not grandpa’s only helper. Lob is a little eternal man, who lives in the garden and keeps out of sight. Only special people can see him. Grandpa has been able to see him for many years, and Lucy learns to see Lob too. Lob helps out in the garden, weeding, tidying and polishing grandpa’s tools.

Linda Newbery really brings to life the magical qualities of a garden, and Lob may well encourage kids to get out in the garden – if only to see whether they can spot Lob for themselves.

However, Lob isn’t all about magic and sweetness and light. Without giving away the plot, I can say that Lucy and Lob’s idyll doesn’t last and they both have to face up to harsh realities. When I started the book I thought it might make a nice bedtime story for my nieces (they’re three and five), but they’re too young for Lob for a while yet. I know age ranges for children’s books are controversial, but the rBooks website suggests that Lob is suitable for 7-9 year olds.

I will say that the magic returns for a lovely, happy ending that involves lots of plants! All-in-all Lob is a magical book, and would make a great read for a child that’s into gardening or just loves being outdoors. And there’s the potential for really bringing Lob to life, by recreating Lucy’s artistic endeavours, as well.

And a partridge in a pear tree

Starlings are long term residents in my garden: this was 2004

This morning I have spent an hour recording the number of birds in my garden as part of the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch – an annual event in which people all over the UK help to gather information on which of our garden birds are thriving and which are struggling.

You record the highest number of birds of a particular species that you see at any time during the hour. Mine was 7 starlings, 5 sparrows, a pair of collared doves, a blackbird and an enormously fat woodpigeon.

There’s still time to take part – you just need to spend an hour today or tomorrow birdwatching. You can register and submit your results online, and print out a recording sheet that helps you to recognise some of the more common birds.

If you discover that you like being an amateur ecologist then there are plenty of other ways to get involved with wildlife recording. Nature’s Calendar uses data recorded by amateurs to track the changing seasons (it’s called Phenology). And there’s more information on Phenology on the BBC’s Spring Watch site.

Plantlife have an annual Common Plants Survey monitoring the changes to countryside flora and there are local plant recording groups all over the country. Or perhaps you’d like to help the Woodland Trust with their hunt for Ancient Trees (they even offer a knitting pattern for a special tree-measuring scarf!).

Gardeners are being encouraged to report sightings of both our native ladybirds and the invading International Biodiversity Year and there are more ways to get involved with that via their website.

If you’re involved in another recording project (or even a more hands-on wildlife project) then you can add your links in the comments.

2010 Alternative Kitchen Garden Seed Swap

It’s Seed Swapping time again! This year I am only offering home-saved seeds from my garden here in Oxfordshire, UK. If there is more information available on the seeds elsewhere on this site I will link to it; if you want to ask a question then you can email me. I only normally send seeds to UK or European addresses. If you’re elsewhere in the world and would like to discuss the possibility of a swap then email me.

What would I like in return? Probably nothing (which makes this more of a free seeds giveaway than a swap!) because my seed box is bigger than my garden – but regular visitors to the site will know that I have a soft spot for unusual edible and otherwise useful plants, so if you think you have something that will catch my eye than let me know.

To claim a packet of seeds, email me with your name and mailing address. First come, first served. When they’re gone, they’re gone!

I am part of the Blogger Seed Network, a worldwide list of independent bloggers interested in the free trading of seeds.

The Seeds

Dwarf marigolds, which I use as a companion plant for peppers and tomatoes, and which are good for wildlife.

Good King Henry

Achocha – a climbing, fruiting vegetable that’s one of the Lost Crops of the Incas (seeds saved in 2008, not 2009).

Welsh onions, a perennial clumping onion with flowers bees love.

Sorrel

Calendula, the pot margiold. An edible flower that’s also a good companion and a wildlife favourite.

Flat-leaved parsley

‘Lilac’ peppers

French bean ‘Aiguillon’

Goji berries

White alpine strawberries, originally grown from seed supplied by Patrick from Bifurcated Carrots last year.

And I have one packet of melon seeds saved from a friend’s melon last autumn. He wasn’t sure which variety it was, but it was productive in his greenhouse (in a poor summer) and he thought it was very tasty (I’m not a good judge of melons!). Oh, and the flesh was orange :)

An evening with Bob Flowerdew

Bob’s fish are safe from herons

At this time of year the Oxford Botanic Garden runs its Winter Lecture Series. In previous years I have been to see Ken Thompson and Jekka McVicar. I’m signed up for two of this year’s series, and went to see Bob Flowerdew yesterday evening.

Bob is well-known for being a devout organic gardener, and for attempting to grow all kinds of unusual things, so I was hoping he would be the mad-cap version of himself rather than the slightly watered-down version he often is in the mainstream press.

He spent the first few minutes on his organic soapbox, which was a bit dull for anyone already converted; had he not done so he may not have overrun, but it didn’t really matter.

Bob is a big fan of using grass clippings as a mulch, since they’re free and you’d have to dispose of them in some manner anyway. He also uses raised beds that are more like mounds – they have no sides, since the materials we use to make sides have to be bought, and have a tendency to harbour pests anyway. Mind you, he has the space to make it work, which is a luxury many of us garden without.

He made a good point about green manures – although he’s a big fan of using green manures to add fertility and protect the soil structure over winter, most common green manures are the ones that farmers use. And while they’re easy to plough in with a tractor, some of them can be quite hard work in the vegetable patch. So instead of common green manures he uses the poached egg plant (Limnanthes douglasii), of which he is a great fan – as you will know if you’ve read any of his books), claytonia and corn salad. The latter two provide edible greens and fodder to his chickens. All three are much easier to kill off and dig in, making them more suitable for garden use.

He reminds us to make good use of our microclimates. Many of the common vegetables and fruits are marginal in our climate (especially further north in the UK) and will benefit from being grown in the warmer sections of the garden. Growing plants on ridges angled towards the sun can make them feel much more at home as they’ll catch more rays and be warmer. And small fields (and hence gardens) can be several degrees warmer when surrounded by a hedge as it acts as a windbreak.

You can create artificial microclimates in your garden. Bob uses semi-circular walls of used tyres as a heat sink behind his peach tree. It absorbs heat during the day and lets it out at night, and yields can be up to 5 times higher. He says he’s never had any problems with chemical run-off from the tyres (and he uses a lot of them in his garden).

Log piles around your garden pond will provide homes for beneficial wildlife and also prevent herons from landing and wading into the pond to eat your fish – apparently they don’t like landing directly on the water.

Bob doesn’t recommend that novice gardeners get caught up in companion planting as it can be a difficult technique to master, but he does like growing scented flowers in his garden. He has a thornless rose (he was speaking too fast for me to catch which one, but I will see if it’s mentioned in his books) with a lovely scent and eats the petals in his salads. He loves night-scented stocks and the treacleberry (Smilacena racemosa) which has lovely scented flowers followed by edible fruit.

He mentioned another flowering plant that had a lovely scent in the evening, a South African annual with a name beginning with Z that I didn’t quite catch – which is not surprising as it turns out to be Zaluzianskya capensis, the Night Phlox.

Oh, and he’s very fond of strawberries. Bob says grow more strawberries, you can never have enough of them.

According to the lady who introduced Bob, the Oxford Botanic Garden has been developing a large collection of edible plants (vegetables, fruit and herbs), so I will have to pop along later in the year and see what has changed since I was there for FoGroBloMe ’08.

2010 UK Seed Swaps

Here’s a list of the UK seed swaps I know are running this year. Don’t forget to check they’re still on before travelling a long way to an event, and to see whether they have any restrictions on the seeds you’re allowed to bring along. If you’ve got an event that you’d like to add to the list then either add it in the comments or email me the details and I will add it.

January

Chorlton Plant (and seeds and magazines) Swap
Saturday 30th January 2010, 2pm – 4pm

12th Annual Hampshire Potato Day
Sat 30th & Sun 31st January 2010, 10am – 3pm

Crediton Seed Swap
Saturday 30th January 2010, 11am-2pm

West of Scottish Seed Exchange Network Seed Swap
30th January 2010, Noon-3pm

February

Forest Row Seed Swap
Saturday 6th February 2010, 10am – 1pm

Lewes Seedy Saturday
6th February 2010, 10.30am – 3.30pm

RISC Seed Swap, Reading
13th February 2010, 1pm – 4pm

Minehead Seed Swap and Potato Day
February 13th 2010, 10am – 1pm

Transition Horsham – Seedy Saturday
Saturday 13th February 2010, 10.30am – 2.00pm

Transition Tunbridge Wells Seed Swap
Saturday 13th February 2010, 10am – 12 noon

Kew Bridge Eco Village Seedy Sunday
Sunday 14th February 2010, 11am-3pm

Seed Swap Herefordshire
20th February 2010, Saturday 10 am – 3 pm

Fordingbridge VegEvent 2010
Saturday 20th February 2010, 10.30am – 3.00pm

Hartfield Horticultural Society Seed Swap
Saturday 27th February 2010, 10am-2pm

Totnes Seedy Saturday
27th February 2010, 11am til 3pm

Carmarthen Seedy Saturday Spring Fayre
Saturday 27th February 2010, 10am – 3pm

Arundel Agenda 21 Seed Swap
Sunday 28th February 2010, 1.00 – 3.30pm

Seedy Sunday Machynlleth/ Sul yr Hadau
Sunday 28th February/ Chwefror 2010, 10.30am – 4pm

Stonebridge City Farm Seedy Sunday
Sunday 28th February 2010, 12- 3pm

March

Bedford Seed Sharing Saturday
Saturday 6th March 2010, 9.30am – 12.30am

Kingston’s 2nd Annual Seed Swap
Saturday 6th March 2010

Winchester Seed Swap
Winchester & Itchen Valley “Grow Your Own” Day
7 March 2010, 10am until 1pm

Word cloud mug

That’s the Wordle word cloud for my blog feed today – the words I’ve been using over the past few days or weeks. Isn’t it pretty? (Click through for a bigger version to see the words.)

I liked it so much that I turned it into a mug design at Zazzle.co.uk:

If you’d like to buy one I can (via my other podcast, the Emma and Pete Show), save you money on your order. Use the discount code Emmapetesho1 to get 10% off £25+ orders and Emmapetesho2 for 12% off £35+ orders. If you use those codes then I get a few pennies that I can put towards feeding the chickens.

If you’re not in the UK then you can order the mug via Zazzle.com. Your discount codes are EMMAANDPETE1 to save you 10% on orders of $50+ and EMMAANDPETE2 to save 12% one orders $70+

International Year of Biodiversity

2010 has been declared the International Year of Biodiversity (IYB) by the United Nations. Biodiversity is simply the range of life on earth, and lots of human activities have a devastating impact on it. We all know that species are becoming extinct at an alarming rate, that the rainforests are being destroyed and that climate change is already affecting how and where plants and animals live.

There are lots of ways you can get involved with the IYB, and if you can do one thing to promote biodiversity then they’d like you to spread the word as well.

Two events this weekend have caught my eye. The first is the RSPB’s annual Big Garden Birdwatch, where amateur birdwatchers all over the UK spend an hour or so counting the birds that come into their garden, to gauge how well wild bird populations are doing.

And in America January 30th is National Seed Swap Day. If you’ve got excess seeds that need a good home, or you want to pick up something new for your garden, then why not head along to a seed swap or host your own? If you want to have a biodiversity theme then include seeds and plants that are good for wildlife, with open flowers (for bees), edible seeds (for birds) or even hollow stems that could provide an over-wintering spot for beneficial insects.

My plan is to keep up with the IYB throughout the year.

Sow, or throw?

As a prelude to planning my 2010 garden, I have been doing a stock take – creating an inventory of my seed collection in Bento which allows me to search on keywords such as ‘Oriental’, ‘Tea’ and ‘Edible Flowers’ and means that I don’t have to keep lists of plants lying around or in my head.

Until yesterday I’d been cataloguing the new seeds, the ones just lying around. Yesterday I started in on my seed box, the old seeds – and I found out just how old some of them are. I have seeds almost back to when I started gardening, and lots of packets of seeds that are past their Sow By date.

Old seeds are a problem for gardeners with small gardens, or gardeners like me that want to grow new things every year – there’s never enough space to sow all of the seeds in the packet. If you have gardening friends or go to lots of seed swaps then you can give away your excess; you could also donate them to a local school garden or a gardening charity like Thrive. However, no one is going to want opened packets of out-of-date seeds.

So I am trying to work out what to do with them. Seeds have a definite lifespan (and there are tables where you can look them up), but I could do germination tests on all of these packets and see whether any of them are still viable.

There are various different types of seed here (and I haven’t finished going through the box yet, so the pile will grow), but I could try sowing all of the leafy veg seeds in a big pot and seeing what comes up. There may be some plants fit for human consumption, but plants that we eat only when they’re mature (like calabrese and broccoli) could provide the chickens with a supply of greens as well.

Some of the organic seeds might be suitable for sprouting, but non-organic seeds are not as they will have been treated with nasty chemicals like fungicides. With things like peppers I could just sow them all and see what germinates, then sow fresh seeds if I don’t end up with enough plants. I seem to remember reading something somewhere about someone (Bob Flowerdew?) using old seeds as a free green manure.

It looks as though a variety of approaches are needed to deal with my old seeds – unless I just cut my losses, throw them away and start afresh this year.

What do you do with your old seeds?

Book Review: Wicked Plants

Flipping through a book on plant pests and diseases is enough to give most gardeners the creeps, but how many of them are aware of the other deadly things that go bump in the garden at night – the plants?

I’ve wanted to read ‘Wicked Plants’ by Amy Stewart ever since I saw her extremely clever video trailer, embedded above, and I finally got my hands on a copy at the end of last year. It thus became the first volume on my 2010 book list.

It’s a fascinating read for anyone interested in useful plants (although I’m not suggesting any readers are intent on poisoning their relatives!) or botany in general. It is set out as though it were an old book – the pages are mottled by ‘age’ and the illustrations are all lovely line drawings and etchings.

Amy’s definition of ‘wicked’ is quite broad – not all of the plants are poisonous. Although she starts with plants used to produce arrow poisons, she moves on to intoxicating and narcotic plants, invasive weeds and carnivorous plants, and those that enslave animals (and humans) to spread their seeds through various means. There’s a brief section at the end listing poison gardens throughout the world that are open to visitors (the most famous being Alnwick, which I hope to visit later this year).

If you’re a kitchen gardener then you probably don’t know that early American settlers suffered from a disease called pellagra – caused by a niacin deficieny when their diet consisted almost entirely of corn (Zea mays). The native Americans knew to prepare their corn with slaked lime or calcium hydroxide to render the niacin into an absorbable form. You probably do know that the leaves of rhubarb are poisonous, although they’re perfectly safe to add to compost heaps.

Absinthe, once the popular tipple of Bohemian Paris, is flavoured with wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), which contains a chemical called thujone that can cause seizures and deaths. In Europe, absinthe is legal as long as the thujone level is below a certain threshold; in the US only thujone-free absinthe can be sold. (My friend Jen is growing her own wormwood).

As well as Coca plants and Cannabis species, the book covers the Opium Poppy (Papaver somniferum), a plant that I am going to grow, quite legally, in my garden this year as one of my edible flowers – the seeds are used in baked goods. In my climate the plant isn’t going to produce the narcotic substances, but apparently possession of opium poppy plants in the US is illegal. An interesting snippet from the book is that heroin was originally extracted from opium poppies and distributed by the drug company Bayer as a cough syrup in 1898. It wasn’t completely banned until 1923.

Although the book is a fascinating read, it’s a little too detailed to make it a light read. It would make a great coffee table book to dip into, or an interesting reference book for the shelf.

There is a tendency among gardeners and environmentalists to think of natural plants products as safer than their synthetic replacements, but this book reminds us that nature can be nasty as well as nice and that it’s important to know what you’re growing and eating and particularly foraging for when you’re out and about in the countryside. It’s also a good reminder that a well-behaved and useful plant in one climate can become and invasive monster in another habitat, so we should be careful about the non-native plants we introduce into our gardens.

I have a couple of weeks before I’m due to start the next book on my 2010 reading list – The Living Landscape, by Patrick Whitefield, and I hope that in the meantime the snow will melt and I can actually see the landscape!

Do it yourself and save

In the weeks before Christmas I was beavering away in secret on some practical gardening pieces for the Guardian, which are appearing in their ‘Do it yourself and save‘ supplements this weekend (along with lots of lovely stuff from other contributors).

There are two supplements. Part one on Saturday is all about Home and Garden and shows you how to tackle jobs around the house from little things like fixing that broken tile, to daunting tasks like mending a broken washing machine. There are fun and creative tips too, including how to upholster a chair and grow a window box.

Part two on Sunday is all about Grooming and Gadgets and helps you to rescue your wardrobe by turning pink clothes white, sew on a missing button, fix and clean precious jewellery or even trim your own fringe (and have fun doing it). What’s more you could also save yourself a tidy sum in the process.

The Spirit of 1940

YESTERDAY NEEDS YOU!
Experience ‘The Spirit of 1940’ and share your story

1940 was a remarkable year in which Britain experienced the blitz, saw the start of food rationing and sent evacuees away from their homes. To commemorate the 70th anniversary of this astounding year, factual channel Yesterday is releasing a selection of TV shows that celebrate the spirit of 1940 during wartime in Britain, and now Yesterday needs you!

Ration Book Britain is coming to your screens on 15 January, and marks the launch of six specially commissioned shows. To celebrate the first show, Yesterday are asking for your help in compiling an online library of stories and memorabilia from WW2.

What are your memories of the Second World War? How did you experience life with rations? Yesterday would love to know, and is inviting you to share your experiences with others by asking for your help in collating memories and stories from times gone by.

Getting involved is easy. You can send us your own stories, pictures or scans from a scrap book. Did you keep photos of your wartime sweetheart that has always stayed with you? Or how about sharing a favourite recipe that your grandma used to make? Were you a child growing up during the war, or perhaps you’re a youngster now and can persuade your grandpa to dig out his medals? We are also looking at the techniques people used in the 1940’s to make the most of their gardens and vegetable patches.

You can send your memories in any format by email and we’ll pick the best to display on the Yesterday website for all to see. Getting involved is easy, simply visit www.visityesterday.co.uk or email your stories to your1940story@uktv.co.uk.

The first commission from The Spirit of the 1940s begins with Ration Book Britain, a brand new, one hour special that begins on 15 January 2010 at 5pm. This particular show will commemorate the 70th anniversary of the start of food rationing in Britain, with a unique look at this period of austerity in British history and the impact that rationing had on individual lives.

Helping to document 14 years of food rationing is chef and passionate food lover Valentine Warner, who’ll use all his culinary skills to recreate some of the important wartime recipes, while we’ll also hear firsthand memories from the people tasked with keeping Britain fighting fit throughout the WWII.

Tune in to Ration Book Britain exclusively on Yesterday: Sky 537, Virgin 203, Freeview 12 on 15th January 2010 at 5pm. For more information visit www.visityesterday.co.uk.

Elm Farm Organic Research Centre

The Bat Penthouse in the eco barn renovation at Elm Farm

Back in November, right before I went down with *swine flu, I went with some other members of my local Carbon Action Group to an open day at the Elm Farm Organic Research Centre in Newbury.

They were showing off their newly refurbished barn, which had undergone an eco renovation with ground source heating throughout, solar water heating, rainwater for flushing toilets and sheep wool insulation. Where possible they used recycled building materials, and all of the buildings have attic space for the resident bat population.

The aim of the ORC is to develop organic farming methods that are sustainable; their belief is that organic agriculture has taken somewhat of a wrong turn, becoming industrialised and neo-conventional. Being certified organic is not enough, there needs to be a change in mindset.

The ORC’s vision of an organic farm is one that relies on self-regulating closed systems and local resources, leading to a reduction in fossil fuel use and an acceptable output from a balanced system using appropriate technology. External inputs are seen as supplements, not necessities. Peak Oil is not the only issue we face – phosphate supplies will only last 30 years.

The most interesting talk for me was Dr Bruce Pearce’s presentation on the ORC’s research programme. They are working on cereals, doing trials of varieties, mixed variety ‘populations’ and breeding work. Wheat breeding is aiming for improved performance and the stability under unpredictable conditions that is required for organic farming and needs a wide genetic variability in the plant population. They are researching the use of different genotypes that complement, or compensate for, each other, and populations that evolve and adapt.

Initially they hand-crossed 20 wheat varieties to give a population of 190 crosses. These offspring were all planted, leading to a harvest of very diverse seeds. These are then sowed and re-sowed, to see how the population changes over time. This project is in its 9th year, with 25 farmers all over the UK (organic and non-organic) and two trial sites participating. The farm sites are all assessed, but more in-depth assessment can be done on the trial sites. The project also works with millers and bakers to assess the wheat quality; one of their partners is Andrew Whitely from the Real Bread campaign. Seed populations cannot currently be sold, because they are not the distinct and stable varieties required by the seed regulations.

They’re also looking at spring barley and oats and minor and neglected crop species such as Einhorn and Emmer (ancient wheat species), mixtures of legumes for fertility management and agroforestry, in the hope of improving the resilience of agriculture.

The fertility management programme is looking at which are the most appropriate legume species to add nitrogen whilst reducing nitrogen pollution. They’re trialling a range of species at six research hubs and on 35 farms.

On the livestock side there are projects looking to improve environmental and economic sustainability, improving organic standards and on-farm feed production. At Sheepdrove Farm they have a silvo-poultry system, where shrubs, bushes and trees are used to give the chickens the woodland edge habitat they evolved in. There are nutritional and health benefits for the chickens, as well as biodiversity improvements, and the project has been running for several years. The chickens are very happy!

Another project has multi-aged flocks, with chickens living in ‘family’ groups. There are positive interactions and no resulting health issues, but it can make management difficult on commercial sites because of the need for harvesting specific animals and cleaning out sheds. New introductions into an existing population could bring in health risks.

The agroforesty project looks at using tree crops to produce food, fuel, fodder, timber, gums and resins, thatching materials, medicinal and craft materials, soil management, shade, animal welfare improvements, microclimate modification, pest and disease control, natural fencing, biodiversity enhancement, pollution control, carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas mitigation. The objective of the project is to improve output!

Executive director Nic Lampkin also had an interesting take on GM crops. It is his belief that ‘the whole (farming) system is broken, not the plant varieties’, and that yields from GM crops are no better than from organic farms. There is no evidence of yield increases; yield is not a single-gene effect.

Overall it was an interesting couple of hours, even though the research is focused on commercial-scale farms and producers rather than gardeners and smallholders. If you’re interested in small-scale agroforestry or silvoculture then take a look at The Agroforestry Research Trust website.

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*(in fact, it was probably where I contracted swine flu!)

February 9th 2010
1:32 AM GMT

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