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29 August 2010
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Summer Flowers | Wildlife Pond |Tawny Mining Bee | Home made Tea Wine | The mystery Rhubarb | Nettles . . Use them! | Chicken Moult | Fruit Tree Register |Super Dairy proposal
Friday, April 9, 2010
Interesting bee around today. Got some good photos.
Many thanks to Damian Grounds at Help Save Bees for the identification of this as the Tawny Mining Bee.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Clay lined pond created, filled with water and guess what . . It works!
After several days of digging out by hand, well with a spade anyway, the garden pond
has finally taken shape. A 4 metre diameter hole was dug out with nothing but a
garden spade and some perspiration. Spoil flying in all directions, the hole reached
its target of about a metre deep in the middle.
Filled with water, the clay lining actually managed to maintain its level all night, all the next day. Looks like it’s water tight.
Proposed intensive dairy farms for Lincolnshire
You may be aware of the proposed large scale dairy farm for Lincolnshire. Simply this is a herd of 8100 cows to be housed in 8 barns (Yes, 1000 cows per barn!). They will be kept indoors for most of their lives on bedding of sand. The feed is a mix which includes some locally produced plants. The slurry is used to in an anaerobic digester to produce power. The cows are Holstein which give good milk yields. There is a vet on site 24 hours a day.
My concerns come from many directions. Firstly why do we need to consider going down this root? The dairy industry has indeed had a tough time. Profits for farmers have hit all time lows. But then the supermarkets have had up to five fold increases in their margins on milk in the last 15 years! Is it worth intensive rearing dairy cows if any efficiency savings end up in the hands of the supermarkets?
Secondly, What about the cows? Kept indoors in large numbers is not natural. It tests the animals ability to survive and tolerate conditions to the limit, just like we have seen with battery chickens. Stress means disease and suffering. They propose a 24 hour vet on site which suggests they are expecting a lot of problems. Once disease strikes, preventative levels of antibiotics and drugs will be administered to try and keep the animals healthy. These will end up in the milk we drink.
This breed of cows are good milkers, but only for about three years instead of ten. Then they are disposed of.
Thirdly, does it provide jobs? The efficiency comes from fewer people looking after more animals. There will be employment but some of it by their own admission will be done by foreign workers.
Fourthly, will it help the dairy industry? The average dairy herd is around 80-
Finally there is the moral argument against these farms. We are not suffering from hunger in this country. We are not short of milk. We over consume most things. This method cannot be argued on a basis of needing to supply. A few pence per litre profit is the only real point in its favour. Can we hand on heart allow animals to be intensively farmed for financial gain? Whose gain? Once the superstore know the milk is being produced more efficiently they will take more of it so the efficiency increases will end up in the supermarkets till.
It is very hard, trying to consider all the facts, to see how this is an improvement in dairy farming. Animal welfare, small scale dairy farming and milk quality are all at stake here. Once changed, there is no going back and if we have made a mistake then both ourselves and our cows will live to regret it!
You can find out more by visiting the following web sites:-
You can make your comments known on the planning application for this superdairy by visiting the North Kesteven District Council planning site
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Fruit tree register a great idea.
Orange pippin have a register where gardeners and land owners can enter the details of their fruit trees.
Simply register on their site and get an account. Enter your tree details, backed up by various information on type, height, soil etc. When you save it, your tree goes into the global database. It is given a unique ID number.
You can use the database to find other trees around the world, or filter for the same species as yours. You can also monitor the start and end of flowering time. Relevant to this time of year now that growth is just starting.
So if you have a single tree or an orchard, go to orange pippin and register your trees. It costs nothing, but helps create a detailed database. You can click on the link on our orchard page.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Well feathers have really been flying. The coup and run have been covered. Now the hens are growing their new ones and the neck feathers look pretty awful. They should soon be back to full plumage soon though.
More to discover on the Quest for the Good Life . . .
You may also be interested in reading about our Chickens or the Wildlife we encourage. Follow our attempts at jam & chutney making, our preferences for home made food. We want to brew more beer, wine & cider to sit and enjoy in front of our stove which burns mostly wood. Read about our philosophy to do with supermarkets and dependence on oil. If you are interested in making your own chicken house or planting vegetables we have some useful downloads for you. If you keep an eye on our news pages, we will publish the latest on the Quest for the Good Life.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Nettle season begins. Don’t destroy them, use them!
Nettles are seen as weeds to most gardeners. A weed is a plant that is growing in
the wrong place but if you find a use for it then suddenly that weed has value. If
grown in a suitable place, with a purpose then you can no longer call it a weed but
more of a herb.
Nettles have had a lot of use throughout history. Vegetable, tea, beer and dye to name a few, but they do have an excellent use as plant food. Picking nettles and putting them in a bucket of water to rot down makes a liquid “tea” that is rich in nutrients and can be watered into plants as a fertiliser.
Pick some new tops and let them wilt. Put a handful of leaves into a jug and pour on hot water. Let it infuse and then filter through a tea strainer. Drink as a tea. Good for hay fever symptoms if you start now and drink on a regular basis. Combine with local honey to sweeten and increase the effectiveness.
Steam some young leaves and eat them as a Spinach like vegetable.
Read more about Nettles and Comfrey Great web site devoted to Nettles
Thursday, April 8, 2010
The curious appearance of the ghostly Rhubarb plant !
Here’s a mystery. We bought two Rhubarb plants from a garden centre. A bit rough,
growing in the packets, but still OK. Our quarter of an acre garden was not planted
up when we moved in at the end of last year, so we had a free hand to plant the Rhubarb
anywhere. We decided to plant them near the house so I rotovated the area first
and dug in some compost.
The two plants started to grow and put up a little new growth. On my evening walk around I went to see how the two plants were doing. Then, there in front of me, not two but three Rhubarb plants!
Now that was a surprise. Not only was the third ghostly plant growing, but in the same area, within a metre of the others, and what’s more it was exactly in line with the two new plants.
What are the odds on picking the same two square metres out of the hundreds of square metres available, and what are the odds of getting them in line also?
Purely down to chance or the workings of a gardener from the past?
Friday, April 9, 2010
Home made Tea Wine. Trying this for the first time. Recipe found on the net. Ever
so simple to make and if it tastes good then it would be a great quick one to help
keep stocks up.
1 gallon tea (use 16 tea bags per gallon)
0.5lb raisins
3lb sugar
2 lemons
Yeast
Make the tea, add the sugar and raisins. Put in the Lemon juice. Leave to cool to room temperature then add yeast. Sieve into demijohn to remove raisins and ferment. Should be drinkable after 2 months.
1st August 2010
With the summer flowers now in full bloom, the insects that help us to keep the pest at bay are making the most of them. Here a Hover Fly visits one of our Marigold flowers. Many flowers nearby had young ones on them .
We now have a blog page set up which we will be using as our news pages from now on. To visit the Quest for the Good Life Blog please click here.