Info, news & debate
Low-impact food & drink
Heat your home, feed your soul: cooking on a wood stove
Calling all wood burner owners! Does yours have a flat top? Have you ever looked at that steady, reliable source of heat and wondered if it could do more? Perhaps you’re exploring a more low-impact life, want to save on energy bills, or simply wish to be prepared for the occasional power cut.
Making local food production and land commons more viable with procurement hubs
small, local food producers are having a hard time making ends meet, because small farm incomes are falling, due to supermarkets constantly squeezing farmers/growers, to make food prices cheaper and cheaper. Here’s a potential solution.
An amateur winemaker’s calendar
Amateur winemakers are not a uniform bunch. We are diverse and unconstrained by market forces or labeling laws, or much of any legal prohibition except good common sense.
Does foraging damage the countryside?
Andy Hamilton – ex of Self-sufficientish has written books on foraging, and his new book New Wild Order is out now. Here’s his take on whether foraging is bad for the countryside and wildlife:
How a new land commons movement can support agroecology
There’s huge overlap between the principles of agroecology and of commoning, and growth in the commons movement could mean a shift towards agroecology and away from damaging industrial agriculture.
Wild foods you can forage in January
At this time of year Nature appears to be still, sleeping perhaps. It’s a quiet month for gardeners and foragers alike but those who take time to look a little closer are delightfully rewarded with sweet promises of Spring
Beyond Conservation: The Farmland Commons
The Farmers Land Trust is diversifying participation in our food system and helping to create stronger communities that can not only survive the land, climate, and social injustices of the world, but can thrive while helping to heal them. Learn more about the work of The Farmers Land Trust and the Farmland Commons.
11 easy wild garlic recipes
Spring has sprung and with it comes one of the edible plants for the forager, wild garlic (Allium ursinum). Most people who have dabbled in foraging will know wild garlic (or ramsons) as a great plant to start with as it’s simple to recognise and use in cooking. It’s one of our absolute favourite wild foods. …
Worried about fruit & veg rationing? Let’s grow our own, in our communities
Every so often something happens that punctures our sense of what’s normal. In the UK one of those events was empty shelves that used to display fruit and veg. Then supermarkets began rationing some food items.
Rewilding or local food production?
We like the idea of rewilding, but it needs much more thought when it removes good UK lowland farmland – because then, obviously, land elsewhere will have to brought into agricultural production to take up the slack.
In celebration of soft fruit
A celebration of local, seasonal soft fruit and the memories that it can evoke.
Getting around the egg shortage – The Vegan Society’s top alternatives
With the UK’s egg shortage continuing, The Vegan Society shares top egg alternatives for everything from cakes to scrambled eggs. As the cost of living and the avian flu outbreak continue to impact the farming industry, egg producers are having problems meeting the demand for eggs, resulting in a shortage here in the UK. The …
George Monbiot and friends are wrong: techno-utopianism won’t save us
George Monbiot has joined a campaign called ‘Reboot Food’, working with techno-utopians who would like to see governments remove support for organic food and deregulate the GM industry, as well as producing bacteria-based food in giant factories (‘precision-fermentation’), and getting rid of smallholdings.
Organic smallholdings, not ‘farm-free’ food factories
Another critical review of George Monbiot’s latest book, Regenesis, by Chris Smaje, author of Small Farm Future. This follows on from last week’s review by Simon Fairlie.
‘Monbiotic man’ – will future food be ‘farm-free’?
Simon Fairlie starts a series of articles about whether technology will save us. He supports small farmers over George Monbiot’s ‘Regenesis’ solution.
Not so nasty nettle – an honourable compendium for an overlooked plant!
Recipes for the humble nettle. Read how to pick, choose and cook with this overlooked plant.
New owner sought for low-impact pub and glamping site in rural Suffolk
Aldegarden is a wonderful site in Suffolk, with accommodation, a community pub, and a ‘glamping’ site with yurts, timber structures, a cob roundhouse, gypsy caravan and a converted barn, communal areas, solar hot water and electricity and compost loos. They’ve been in our directory for years. But now they’re looking for new owners for the property and successful businesses.
What is quince and how to cook it
How to cook your homegrown quince!
How To make cider vinegar
To make cider vinegar we need to start with a fully fermented dry cider with a minimum 5% alcohol content. Sulphur dioxide should not have been added for storage, because this will inhibit the conversion to acetic acid.
Why eat raw foods?
A fast synopsis and gentle reminder of the power and necessity of incorporating raw foods in your diet for health and vibrancy…