School Meals

[Shallot Man]

Can I flick the waters, if at school meal time, we had one healthy dish at half the cost, or dare I say it FREE, do you think it would work, should you agree why not email your MP, I have. shallotman

[Geoff]

Might but what is healthy?
Personally I would prefer a youngster to eat an apple complete with all manner of residues than no apple at all but the organic thought police wouldn't allow that. As we have said many times we want pragmatic produce to be available that is contaminant free but produced at a reasonable price because it hasn't been treated with dogma.
By the way if you are fed up with taking growing advice from a jeweller you can take it from a chef instead - Jamie Oliver is giving veg growing advice in Gardener's World magazine.

[alan refail]

Personally I would prefer a youngster to eat an apple complete with all manner of residues than no apple at all but the organic thought police wouldn't allow that.

Geoff

They might as well stick to the turkey twizzlers in that case

[Johnboy]

Hi Geoff,
Being that school meals and Jamie Oliver have come up there may be something that you are unaware of.
I applauded the stand taken by Jamie over school meals and voted for him but as soon as his campaign finished the Soil Association stepped in and took over. They introduced their normal draconian methods and the children have done what all children have done down the ages, they rebelled.
Now the whole system is in jeopardy the SA have faded into the background and are leaving Jamie to take the blame. That sounds rather typical of the bunch of meddlers who repeatedly step outside their remit. They have been doing this for over 50 years.
To be honest the only reason I can see why the SA would get involved is to further the sales of their Organic Commercial Growers and now they cannot or will not supply the necessary vegetables at the right price the whole thing is in uproar.
JB.

[Elderflower]

Gosh, JB

[Johnboy]

Hi Elderflower,
I apologise for using language that is not really suitable for your delicate ears.
What I should have said is that there is an absolute wealth of wholesome food fit for children to consume without resorting to junk food. This food can be cooked and served in a way that children would find attractive but when draconian methods are used from the off the outcome is very predictable.
Sadly it would appear that Alan, as an ex-teacher, I would have thought understood this but apparently not.
JB.

[alan refail]

I could make an offensive reply to Johnboy, but I will remain calm.

Suffice it to say that the "Let's rubbish Soil Association/Organic" lobby is maybe protesting so much that nobody's listening to them any more.

Then again, I may be wrong

Alan

[Elderflower]

Hi Johnboy!
My ears are not at all delicate
As a retired teacher myself I`ve had my ears regaled with language that`d make your hair curl!
I retain the habit of putting on a mock-shocked expression though.

[Weed]

Does that go with 'the' teacher's look Elderflower?

[Johnboy]

Hi Alan,
Well I think that you are totally wrong here because
you have never actually read anywhere that I have rubbished "organics" I have had a go at some organic practitioners and have been anti Soil Association for well over fifty years. You obviously are not au fait with their rise to fame, if fame is the right word to use.
Alan you are entitled to have a pop at me after my comments but I suppose it is the "organic way" to play the martyr, you know, the "we shall overcome some day" attitude.
For your information I have been growing crops since 1943 and for over 45 of those years I was totally organic and then the SA entered the scene with so many lies that I simply gave up and used what I wanted to use, not what I was being told I could and could not use. When growing sanity flew out the window and in flew a bunch of dogmatic blithering idiots who have done next to nothing for you or any other home gardener.
The main support for the SA comes from people you have never, or will ever, plant a seed to feed themselves.
As a percentage of the population the SA membership is totally insignificant and they are told what to do and how to do it. Organic gardening has been made out to be so easy and people encouraged to be organic, go organic and this is fine until people put their spade in the ground for the very first time and then the ball game ends. Hence spates of allotments taken, covered with carpet, and then abandoned. Or worked for one year and abandoned known as the "glossy magazine syndrome."
Common sense is now not permissible under SA dogma. I still try very hard not to use any pesticides, but if I am in peril of losing a crop I will use them. I have not used any for three seasons and on the last occasion I used only 1.5L of made up solution.
It's called being "Pragmatic!"
JB.

[Shallot Man]

Hi Johnboy. At last someone who I can agree 100% with, are we the only two dinosaur's left. Shallotman

[Elderflower]

Hi Johnboy,
The word `pragmatic` strikes a chord with me.
A S.A. member at our allotments asked me if I was organic or non-organic. When I said I considered myself to be `pragmatic` she snarled, "Oh yes, I know what that means." and she practically spat, "Slug pellets!!"
How the old dictionary definitions change with use eh?

[Chantal]

I'm with the dinosaurs. I haven't so far resorted to spraying veg with anything at all and use micromesh, with slug pellets under the netting where none of the good guys can get at them. I do spray with glyphosate if things get too bad round the plot edges.

As you say JB, pragmatic.

[Johnboy]

Hi Elderflower,
I am unaware that the word Ignorant has changed it's meaning because she who spat the words 'slug pellets' is certainly that and a bit more.
She who spat at you is an anti-chemical person and that means that growing anything is of secondary importance and what she grows will be classified as organic to her. To me that sort of person is best avoided and I regret that my answer would have been "mind your own Beeswax!"
I care passionately about the vegetables I grow and I have been growing long enough to know if something can or cannot be cleared without the aid of a chemical.
Slug pellets used to be made of some chemicals that have proved to be harmful to certain animals if they were stupid enough to eat them. Strangely the only people who ever found a dead Hedgehogs on their plots were "Organic" and didn't use pellets. I put this down to down-right lying on their behalf as part of their over imaginations.
Because of adverse publicity from, dare I say, the SA, all manner of interpretation gets put on things
and because half the time these people have not the foggiest what is the truth or not they spout a load of total nonsense. Slug Pellets were reformulated several years ago and are decidedly less harmful to animals but the SA have decided to continue telling people that they are evil and have even failed to note the reformulation in their literature and with such sayings as, slugs and other pests do not go for plants grown organically which any sane person would realise is a load of old baloney.(Please note the difference in language for sensitive ears!)
The newly introduced Advanced Slug Pellet is even better. It may not be quite as effective as normal slug pellets but they are certainly good enough and are totally harmless to animals and Human Beings. (you know the ones that went round nibbling them!)
Do you know Elderflower I have a ring fence around my growing area and it has been there for over 25 years and there are scores of animals within this fence and Hedgehogs cannot get in and out yet there is a thriving population which means they breed well within the fence and for years I put slug pellets around everything and never ever saw a dead one even with the old formulation pellets.
Attached to the organic movement is an awful amount of myth and legend which seems to be perpetuated and extended as they go. They even have the audacity to claim the fundamental principles of horticulture that has been taught in Horticultural and Agricultural Colleges for over 60 years as Organic. In truth best practices have been collated and taught and basically there is no fundamental difference with the growing methods only the treatments used whilst growing. And before any organic person dare contradict me 60 years ago there were some awful chemicals used and as more and more has been learned best practices have been amended.
The word 'Pragmatic' was first used on this Forum by Chris Toon and I realised that it was the word I had been looking for for many a long year and I adopted the word to describe my method of growing. I shall for ever be indebted to Chris for this.
JB.

[Weed]

JB

A trip to an organic garden this year would have shown beyond all doubt that the organic slugs and snails thriving there are the largest and healthiest you could see.

The SA apparently do approve one variety of slug pellets but the name escapes me