Farmer's Market

As part of the bean-sprouts festive challenge to find local ingredients for your Christmas dinner, why not visit a farmer's market? They're much more fun that trudging round the supermarket, and you can often find surprising things to buy, such as ostrich sausages. There is an excellent website where you can look up your nearest farmer's market.

Here are a few tips for getting the most out of your visit to the farmer's market:

• Go early and have a good browse round before you buy anything.
• Ask for a taste before you buy, but only if you're seriously considering buying.
• Not all markets are equally good. Some are no better than the grengrocer in the high street, with veg from the cash and carry rather than from the farm. Ask questions about the produce.
• When you find a good one, visit it regularly and tell all your friends. They need our support or we'll lose them.
  

Photo courtesy of Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation.

Terminator Technology

I've kept seeds from some of my crops to grow next year. I have plenty of packets of seeds, but I thought it would be fun to save a few as well. Ed saved some sunflower seeds last year but they must have been F1 hybrids because when they grew they had tiny little flower heads on top of very tall stalks, unlike the parent plants which had tall stalks and large heads.

That was pretty funny, but it wouldn't be so funny if you were a small farmer. Agriculture has always been based on selecting, saving, sharing and replanting seeds. Genetic modification is a threat to that, especially terminator technology which is the modification of plants to produce sterile seeds. You can see why the biotechnology industry likes this idea - it forces the farmers to keep buying seeds every year. But it undermines sustainable farming.

Don't panic - the technology doesn't even exist yet. But the agribuisiness industry is developing it, and the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity has placed a moratorium on field-testing until it can be proved that the technology is no risk to people or the environment.

I mention it because it is an issue I was only vaguely aware of before. But now that I am involved in growing some of my own food, and saving my own seeds, I can understand much better what a threat this is.

Spuds

I dug up my spuds today.

They're very small but that's because I only got them in very late.

They were free anyway so I'm glad I grew them.

Next year we'll plant them much earlier and get a better crop.

Cash crop

I sold some of my produce today, for the first time. A little while ago, the farm shop offered to buy any surplus fruit and veg off me, and today I took in three huge yellow marrows and the grocer gave me £2 for them. Now I'm a market gardener, instead of a subsistence farmer!

To celebrate, we all went to the Poynton Show, the largest agricultural show in the North West. We usually go every year and it's always great fun. Last year we missed it because we were at Disneyland Paris, which you'd think trumps the local agricultural show by quite a wide margin, but the kids were upset when they realised they were missing the Poynton Show.

Delightful peas

There are a few new feaures on the site. In the sidebar on the right is a poll. This month I'm challenging people to stop boiling a kettleful of water when they only need a cupfull. It's a really easy way to boost your green quotient, it doesn't cost anything (in fact it saves money), and it doesn't take any time (instead it saves time). Vote in the poll and tell me if you're up to the challenge.

You'll have to scroll right to the bottom to see the other changes. First of all is the Rustle The Leaf comic strip which I believe will be updated once a week. Click on the link if you want to view the older strips. Whilst you're at it, you could also click on the One Million Europeans Against Nuclear Power banner and sign the petition. I know it's a contentious issue and some people think nuclear is the best non-polluting alternative to fossil fuels. If that's how you feel, don't sign it, I won't mind!

Down on the allotment I picked a couple of peas. The peas were tiny, too small to pick really but I couldn't resist. I even tempted Tom to try one and he said they were "delightful". I agree - they're astonishingly sweet, downright sugary. It's funny, they're much sweeter than the blackcurrants we picked a little while ago, and far sweeter than the morello cherries.

One of the childhood memories that kept coming back to me when we got this allotment was of a visit to some friends of my parents. They had a pea patch in the garden, and my sisters and I absolutely ravaged it, stripping it of peas and eating them on the spot. I don't remember getting in trouble for it, but I don't remember ever being invited back either. I won't mind if Tom and the other children eat all the peas straight off the plants. It'll just be nice to see them getting vegetables in them.

Compost heaps

The kids helped me make two compost bins out of the pallets we picked up yesterday. I've already cut down a bunch of comfrey to put in the first one, and trained the boys to pee on the heap. Eleanor will have to pee in the toilet shed, but perhaps I can give her a bucket and she can carry it back to our plot and pour it on the heap. I've also emphasised to the boys the "pee only" rule. No other toilet products are allowed on the heap. Not human products anyway. The chicken manure will certainly go on the heap.

We made a small bonfire out of the scraps of leftover wood, which kept the kids fascinated for a couple of hours. Next time I'll bring some spuds or sweetcorn or marshmallows. The kids ended up roaming around the plot looking for stuff to burn, and I had to chase around after them asking people "Did you give that to them or have they just pinched it?".

Peas and beans are starting to grow - too small to pick just yet, but it's a matter of days.

All Things Organic

As part of my Tesco withdrawal I signed up for an organic box scheme from www.all-things-organic.co.uk and today our first box arrived. Sam and I were very excited as we rummaged through our goodies. So far I'm impressed - there was a good balance between lots of variety and a decent amount of each product. The veg is even washed and picture-perfect, which makes me a bit suspicious about what happens to the differently-attractive produce. Part of the charm of organic food is washing the mud off yourself, and showing everyone the potatoes that look like Dennis Healy or whatever.

We're awash with carrots and tomatoes since I already had some in the fridge, but the delivery guy said we can request "no more tomatoes" in the next box, which will come in handy when the allotment starts producing. In the middle of a glut of runner beans the last thing you'd want would be a delivery of beans you have to pay for. They can even include organic dry goods (such as pasta and tea bags) or organic wine.

All Things Organic is specific to this area - apparently all veg comes "from Cheshire & Lancashire farms", but they are part of Organics 4U www.organics-4u.co.uk which deliver anywhere in the UK (in case any of my faithful readers think they might try it themselves).