Hi Weed

Thanks for that - wonderful tempting anarchy of the best kind - I'm still laughing - and I have a 24 hour Tesco only 20 mins walk away...

People at my work will love it - a lot of them are psychologists!

Hi In Suffolk last July I visited the excellent Wooten's Nursery near Halesworth and noticed that they were wearing tight fitting gloves when potting out plants. I got back and bought a hundred "examination gloves" for around £4. They are excellent. I have always preferred to hand weed wit...

Hi Last year I discovered "examination gloves" which were being used at Wooten's Nursery in Suffolk for the potting on process. Thin close fitting vinyl with very good senstivity at around £4 per hundred. Great for onions and hand weeding. I'll maybe make another post to flag this up in ca...

Hi Alan I also try to do at least one new thing every year. This year it includes Lady Christl potatoes and Kodiak peas (which no-one seems to know anything about). Re-runs after past failures include melons (now that I have a greenhouse)and Alderman peas (now I have a new veg. plot that is disease ...

Hi

Interesting stuff - have you noticed the energy that is released when minor adversities break the normal habits?

Off to watch Carole Klein

Hi

Fascinating. (All the young dudes is Bowie by the way) I listen to the ambiant sounds when typing - but just off now to the kitchen for a bit of real Dylan poetry.

Hi I'm a bit misceivous too - you know I don't drive past Tesco to go another 6 miles to the Co-op - just interested that others do the same. Here in N. East Scotland we are seeing the slow death of small town shopping centres which are a direct result of the supermarkets. Local people seem to like ...

Hi North Scotland - near the Moray firth. It's minus 5, clear and crisp after a day of intermittent light snow showers and sunny intervals. Just got in from checking the greenhouse heating - hands cold on the keyboard. What's the weather like for you? - I see a lot of snow forecast for Wales the S.E...

Hi I was intruiged by the very rapid govenment statement that we may never know the cause - I take that to mean we won't be told and therefore will never know. Too many commercial and political interests are at work here for me to feel easy. I still wonder why there was so much media sensationalism ...

Alan

Any comments?

Hi The media has been surprisingy restrained (by media standards) over the whole bird flu story. I keep hens and need to know how this happened in Sufffolk. It's not just migratory birds that can find their way into the Holton factory - what oher connections might there be in the glodal world of pou...

Hi I've just sown peas (meteor), lettuce and spring onions in a heated propagator on the kitchen windowsill. Once germinated they will go into a cool (frost free) greenhouse before planting out in a polytunnel. And in a couple of days I'll sow raddish directly in the tunnel. It's good to be sowing a...

Hi Alison This has to be a quick reply because of lack of time right now. "Sustainable" is a term that, like "organic" is easy to use but difficult to define. By pragmatic I mean a thoughtful approach which takes on board the basic science that underpins what we do, the evidence ...

Hi The messages are interesting - seems to me that the term "organic" has no clear meaning anymore - just one of those words that make some people feel good in themselves and others feel very satisfied with the profit margins that goes with the label. We need a different way of describing ...

Peter There could have been 2 "no" options qualified by "but information should be provided on distance travelled to sale point grsdings" and "whether it is fair trade" I would like to know how it was grown, how it was distributed and how well the growers are treated. T...