Ruth Hancock gives insights on producing good food locally, with a look at the bigger picture
As she says on her blog description:
“Running a small scale, local vegetable box scheme. growing and supplying seasonal, naturally grown vegetables. With hens and ducks alongside. who help with the gardening, and lay delicious eggs too.”
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This is from a blog entry from September last year:
Because some of us have been working to build resilience, and regenerative practices into our food and farming systems, for years, through lower input systems, nutrient recycling, and promoting biodiversity for pest control. Alongside boosting good nutrition, and productivity through soil care, and a hands-on methodology, rather than chemicals, and big machinery based approach. Finally, this more earth benign way of farming and growing is gaining some respect, even in more mainstream policy circles.
For too long the food system has been exploitative and extractive, mainly for a quick profit. that profit rarely finding its way back to the farmer. And it hasn’t really fed us, as a population very well, either. Our farmers were encouraged to think of their land merely as ‘the factory floor’ to which they added petrochemical based inputs.
But soil and biodiversity, need to be enhanced for best productivity, and soil conservation effect, which can also promotes soil carbon sequestration. There are many ways these methods could be extended, and used more widely, with the right encouragement in place. In addition, we need to be reducing the overall carbon load, of our food system, by reducing waste, and relocalising, much of our food sourcing. This would benefit everyone, by making better fresher food available, re-stimulate our farming sector, and create more jobs. The alternative is cheap imports, produced to the lowest environmental standards, which will further drive climate change, and degrade our diets, even more.
So i’ll stay here, and others can go from the ‘stead, in my stead.
Alone we often feel like we can’t make so much difference.
But together our voices are amplified.
Maybe this is the moment to be seized.
Heres being hopeful 🙂
Ahead of this Fridays climate strikes | broadviewfromasmallfarm.blogspot.com
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And from her website Fresh and Green:
At Fresh and Green we supply seasonal, naturally grown vegetables and herbs. We grow our produce in fertile, well composted soil in the Otter valley without using any artificial fertilisers or pesticides.
We supply our customers through a weekly bag scheme having harvested and packed our vegetables early in the morning so they will reach you as fresh as is possible.
The vegetables we supply are seasonal and we aim to offer as much variety as possible.