Dig for Victory - Mark II

ceridwen

Personally....I just thought allotments were so "the future" - ie one of the ways we need to go..:rolleyes:

nodwah

:rotfl: How that's stirred everybody up

It;s funny tho' this woman's views are at odds with most of the rest of the Guardian - the Guardian and the Observer have their own allotment! for something that's always been a leftie paper I'm very disappointed that she doesn't have solidarity with the underclasses who have to get their hands dirty:rotfl:
But hard manual labour is sooo last year, we'll all be getting whippets next!:rotfl:

Austin_Allegro

nodwah wrote: »

:rotfl: How that's stirred everybody up

It;s funny tho' this woman's views are at odds with most of the rest of the Guardian - the Guardian and the Observer have their own allotment! for something that's always been a leftie paper I'm very disappointed that she doesn't have solidarity with the underclasses who have to get their hands dirty:rotfl:
But hard manual labour is sooo last year, we'll all be getting whippets next!:rotfl:

Seems to me the Guardian, like the left in general, are composed of two camps that sit uneasily with each other - the old fashioned northern non-conformist lower middle class liberal/left, and the champagne socialist, southern, metropolitan media chattering classes. Ms Williams definitely falls in to the latter, whereas the former probably appreciate allotments!

melanie22_2

ceridwen wrote: »

Well....you could try eating those snails:D Rather you than me on that one;) But yes....I think its "nuts" (not of the nutritional variety) to trust "them to come up with something"...I don't think so. I see they now have a scientific advisor talking about "food security".....well, let's just hope he speaks at a rate of knots and they listen and act.

I watched a programme once (HFW i think) who explained that if you kept the common garden snails in a tub with a healthy supply of parsley to eat their guts would be cleaned out and ready to eat within 3 or 4 days...Again rather you than me but the info is there lol.

SEE

Austin_Allegro wrote: »

Seems to me the Guardian, like the left in general, are composed of two camps that sit uneasily with each other - the old fashioned northern non-conformist lower middle class liberal/left, and the champagne socialist, southern, metropolitan media chattering classes. Ms Williams definitely falls in to the latter, whereas the former probably appreciate allotments!

And there was me thinking they were a bunch of Bollinger Bolsheviks;)

Larumbelle

melanie22 wrote: »

I watched a programme once (HFW i think) who explained that if you kept the common garden snails in a tub with a healthy supply of parsley to eat their guts would be cleaned out and ready to eat within 3 or 4 days...Again rather you than me but the info is there lol.

I wouldn't feel squeamish about doing this, if I liked snails. But I'm not big on them. It was indeed on a H F-W programme, Cook on the Wild Side I think. On the same show he also tried cooking and eating woodlice (apparently they taste like prawns - not so surprising really as they are close relatives). On TV Dinners he caused a minor scandal by eating human placenta, so garden snails seem pretty tame by comparison!

On the subject of class, well, yes that silly old columnist was the worst kind of upper middle class twit, but lets not forget that H F-W himself came to us via Eton and Oxford

mardatha

Where is the lady who lives up in the Cheviots? am sorry I forgot her name -- I wondered how her planting and weather was coming on.. I just got started setting seeds on the windowsill and now we have heavy snow, it puts you off trying for spring tired of winter & snow now !

ceridwen

For those who've been following this thread - you might like to know that "The Transition guide to food" (ie the Transition Town Movement book on food) will be published in June. Cost £9.95 - but advance orders are being accepted now on Amazon for £6.56 (inc. free postage). Written by Tamzin Pinkerton and Rob Hopkins.

Topics covered include much of what we are interested in here:
food projects
allotments
awareness raising
back garden growers
community gardens
community orchards
Community Supported Agriculture
ethical sourcing
farmers markets
farmers groups
food co-ops
gardenshare
great reskilling workshops
local currencies
local food directories
market gardens
school projects
seed, plant and food swaps

daska

rhiwfield wrote: »

Ceridwen "....errrr....I wouldnt be planning on allowing any of the land for parking spaces though.....room for a bike rack would be a good idea and future-friendly. I would see it as a waste of good foodgrowing land to use any of it for carparking...and believe people need encouraging out of their cars as far as possible"

Got to agree with you and Silvercharming on this. All I was thinking is that available land would be some distance away and might be difficult to get to. Maybe look along a bus route?

Without wishing to be a party pooper - what about those who have mobility difficulties, not just disabled people like myself but say a single parent with a young child? How would you get the items you needed to and from the allotment on a bike when the space is already taken up with a child seat? Or on a bus when you're having to handle a push-chair as well?

rhiwfield

Thanks for the tip Ceridwen. Over the past week OH has been buying me magazines etc so that I dont go stir crazy waiting for torn muscles in back to heal so that I can stand again (thankfully thats now happened )

One article was by Monty Don in the Feb issue of Country Smallholding and one section really caught my eye:

""this governmentt in particular knows nothing about food and less about agriculture. They are not interested. They just dont see it as important. It is something other people do"

while Prof Lang, a member of the Food Council, highlighted threats to food security, reading Defra's July 2008 formal discussion paper made you feel all snug and cosy that the world is all ok
http://www.defra.gov.uk/foodrin/policy/pdf/Ensuring-UK-Food-Security-in-a-changing-world-170708.pdf

Interestingly Monty's main conclusion that the solution is in our hands, firstly because if the GYO momentum can be magnified then it can have real impact and secondly because he doesnt think govt will do anything worthwhile!