Ye Olde Country Weather Lore

If a slug is crawling up your milk bottle in the morning, then it's raining, and if ants are crawling all over your orange juice bottle, then the weather is dry.

Small Acts of Defiance

I spent a couple of hours on the allotment today in light rain, clearing the patch where the potatoes had grown and planting some new stuff, mostly things I bought in the garden centre.

I planted a large tomato plant, two rows of purple chard, three climbing french beans, and two sweet pepper plants.

In case you have been living in a cave, or are not British, or are reading this in the year 2107, I'll mention that the weather in Britain for the last two or three months has been consistently atrocious, with rain every day, hardly any sight of sun, and many areas suffering from floods. I haven't been able to get to the allotment, the weather has been so bad, and weeds are choking the plants which haven't been eaten by slugs and snails.

So I know the peppers will not survive, much less produce any fruit. It would take an unusually sunny hot year to grow peppers outdoors in Cheshire, and there is no end in sight to the cold and the rain. But I had to plant them as an act of defiance.

Potato Latkes

Grate two pounds of peeled potatoes and soak in cold water for at least a couple of hours. Strain the potatoes and dry them well, for example by wrapping in a tea towel and swinging them round your head. Do this outdoors. And don't blame me if you accidentally let go of a corner and decorate your garden with grated spuds. If you're chicken you could just pat them dry between sheets of kitchen paper. Put the potatoes in a large bowl and add a grated onion and plenty of freshly ground black pepper and sea salt. In a separate bowl, beat two eggs with two tablespoons of wholemeal self raising flour. Mix the egg mixture into the potato mixture.

Cook spoonsful of the potato batter in a frying pan with hot butter or oil. Serve hot.

They taste fantastic, especially when made with home-grown potatoes and onions and home-produced eggs.

How Green Is That?

I recently got a slow cooker because various people have tried to convince me that it's a covenient and economical way to cook. I've found a way to balance a bowl of bread dough on top of it so that the waste heat from the cooker helps rise the dough.

Thye bread turned out really well, and the potato and coconut slow cooker curry was delicious. Easy, delicious, home-grown and economical. That's the kind of meal I like.

Shopping Habits

Where do you go first when you want to buy something? Everyone has their favourite shops, whether it's a huge supermarket where you can buy everything from a tin of beans to household contents insurance, or an elegant department store where the staff treat you with deference, or a market full of alternative clothes, weird knick-knacks and new age bookstalls.

I like eBay for second-hand bargains. I ought to shop in charity shops more but I haven't the patience. They work best if you pop in a few times a week with a shopping list in your head, ready to snap up the perfect pair of shoes in your size (or whatever) as soon as they come in. I tend to only go shopping when there's something specific I want, so the sheer size of eBay means that if I want, say, a pair of size 7 cherry red pre-owned Doc Marten boots, they have 15 for me to choose from.

I also like Craigslist which is similar to eBay. In fact I prefer it to eBay because it's free, it's local, and it has stayed close to its hippyish roots. There's a funky counterculture feeling to it which tickles me immensely.

I have to admit to spending a lot of money on Amazon. My voluntary simplicity, anti consumerist, downshifted principles fall apart when it comes to books. I buy far too many books. I do also make regular use of my local library, which is a greener way to feed my reading habit. And I frequent my local bookshop. But I am trying to kick my Amazon habit and patronise Abe Books instead. You can search 13,500 booksellers selling over 1 million used books so I should be able to find anything I want there and salve my conscience at the same time. Maybe I should also release some of my books into the wild, via Bookcrossing.

But mostly I try to shop as little as possible. I am appalled that shopping is said to be the most popular leisure activity in Britain today. I am bewildered that a typical large supermarket will stock around 50,000 different product lines. Over-consumption is not only bad for the planet, I think it's also bad for the individuals who over-consume, in the same way that eating too much food or drinking too much alcohol is bad for you even though it may seem enjoyable at the time.

I try to think before I shop. First, I think whether I need to buy anything at all, and second, I think whether I could buy something second hand instead.

Bicycle Ride

Yesterday I took my first bicycle ride for a genuine errand, rather than just practicing how to stop and start and not fall off. I went to the village and back for a bottle of wine, about a 4 mile round trip.

All was going well until I tried to cycle over a railway bridge. I made it over the bridge (barely) but it took everything I had, and afterwards I had jelly legs. I had to get off and push for the last mile, but even then my legs kept giving out on me.

I'm familiar with this phenomenon from when I used to do distance running. Your legs don't hurt, they just won't hold you up. It happens when you push too hard. I used to get it doing speed work (when you sprint for a while, then jog for a while, then sprint, then jog etc.) So I understood why the railway bridge had done for me. When I got back home I sat down, ate a banana and drank some water and I was right as rain in a few minutes, so don't worry. I didn't do any damage, I just tried to do something my legs aren't strong enough for yet.

More practice required, I think. I'm determined to get the family cycling to school next September. I've just won an auction for a pink girls' bike on eBay for Eleanor, so now we all have bikes. The summer holiday has just begun so daily cycling trips are in order - avoiding bridges.

Dead Zone in Gulf of Mexico Set to Break Records

Agricultural fertilisers which run off fields and flow into rivers form dead zones when they are washed out to sea. The fertilisers which feed farmers' crops also feed the microscopic plant life of the sea - algae. Huge sheets of algae form which starve the surrounding waters of oxygen. Nothing can live below - no fish, no sharks, no whales, coral, nothing.

The Gulf of Mexico dead zone is expected to be a record-breaker this year, exceeding last summer's 6,662 sq miles (17,255 sq km). That's pretty close to the area of Wales (for some reason, these things almost always are). Imagine that - a region of sea which should be teeming with fish and other life, covered in a blanket of green algae but otherwise dead.

So next time you're wondering whether it's worth paying the extra for the organic fruit and vegetables, ask yourself instead whether the cheaper cost of conventional fruit and vegetables is worth a 6,662sq mile dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

I Believe...

I believe that the choices of millions of ordinary people are what shapes the world, not the actions of big organisations like governments or companies.

Companies only do what their customers demand, and governments do what their voters demand. Even despots have to keep in mind what their citizens demand - ask the Ceauşescus.

In the end it is the day-to-day choices of ordinary individuals that shape the world. So it is very important to make the right choices.

Do you agree, or do you think the wealthy and powerful make all the running, and it makes little difference what you do?

Elephant Escape

I was watching a news story on TV about two elephants who escaped from a Canadian circus. They did no damage apart from leaving some dung on someone's lawn. My 7-year old daughter Eleanor commented "I don't what those people are complaining about. At least they got some great manure".

That's my girl!

Big Green Switch

How are you all getting on with this month's challenge - to calculate your carbon footprint? I've found a great new website to help you reduce your footprint. It's called Big Green Switch, and it's a friendly, simple-to-use site aimed at the "keen to be green" - people who would like to become a bit greener but who aren't sure where to start.

For example, it has a list of fifteen suggestions to get started - simple but effective things you can do to green your lifestyle. And I was pleased to see a few things on there I haven't got around to myself yet, such as foil behind the radiators. That's a good idea for a future Bean Sprouts Challenge.

They also have a simple-to-use carbon footprint calculator (you'll need an electricity and a gas bill, and some idea of how many miles you drive per year). I just checked my footprint with it and it said I produce 5.81 tonnes of carbon per year, compared to the UK average of 9.4. Which isn't bad, but could still be a lot better when you consider that the worldwide average is 4 tonnes, and the average Indian, for example, produces 1.2 tonnes. Apparently domestic energy use is my downfall - above the UK average (probably because I work from home). Time to get some foil behind the radiators!

Rockin Blogger

21st Century Mummy has voted me a "Rockin' Blogger". Thanks, Mummy (I can call you that, can't I?).

I'd like to pass the award along to two other blogs that rock:

• The ever bonkers Wild Burro


• The totally unhinged Marvin the Magnificent

If you pop over to read them, don't expect much about saving the planet or recipes for wholemeal yogurt (although I wouldn't rule it out). But do expect to laugh your socks off.

Coconut Shy

We went to the summer fair at the kids' school last weekend. Tom won three coconuts on the coconut shy before I told the bloke to stop letting him play.

Does anyone have any good coconut recipes?

More importantly, does anyone have any tips for getting the meat out of coconuts easily?

Edited at 11:06

Thanks to Steph for pointing out this website that explains how to easily deal with coconuts. I just opened three coconuts and got out the milk and the meat, all in under ten minutes. Plus the bit where you wrap the coconut in a plastic bag, swing it over your head and smash it down on a concrete step is brilliant for working out your frustrations. Maybe Clodhopper should give it a go.

Empty Boat

There's an old Taoist parable I like a lot, about an empty boat.

If you are rowing your boat down the river, and another boatman crashes his boat into yours, you will shout and curse at him and tell him what a fool he is, and all day you will feel angry about the stupid boatman, and you will go home and tell your wife about the idiot boatman who crashed into you.

But if an empty boat crashes into yours, you will push it away with your oar and carry on your journey. You won't think about it any more.

So when something happens to frustrate you, tell yourself "It doesn't matter. It's just an empty boat", and don't think about it any more.

I like that a lot.

Spuds!

Summoned our courage and went to the allotment yesterday - the weeds were pretty awful but we got stuck in.

Ed cleared a bed we had weeded and dug but never planted anything in, and I dug up over 10 stones (over 60kg) of desiree and pink fir apple potatoes. There are still kestrel, red duke of york, and random unknown potatoes still waiting to be dug.

We also picked some blackcurrants, spanish onions and radishes.

Ed thinks that we need to do little and often on the allotment. I'm glad he's come to this decision himself - I didn't want to constantly nag him, but I was getting depressed by the state of the plot, and feeling too overwhelmed to tackle it alone.

We'll go over there again tomorrow and plant something in the beds we cleared - probably salad and fast "catch" crops. And we'll try to clear a little more.

Comic strip from Throbgoblins.

Cherry Picking Time

Not such a good season as last year, but still lots of morello cherries to be made into jam, pies, ice-cream, wine and cherry brandy.

First Bee Inspection

I've carried out my first solo bee inspection. It went really well and my confidence is building by leaps and bounds.

I've learned that:

1. The way I've set up the hives, I can't easily smoke hive 1 at the entrance

2. I don't have a whole lot of room for manoeuvre, the space is rather cramped

3. Smoking bees really is magical - they change from inquisitive and noisy to quiet and calm at a puff of smoke, but...

4. The hardest thing about beekeeping is the fine art of keeping your smoker alight

5. That's not quite true - the hardest thing about beekeeping is finding the bloody queen. If anyone can breed a strain of bees where the queen is fluorescent pink and flashes like an LED, I think they'd be onto a winner

Skooperbox Competition Results

Bean-sprouts' first competition was a big success. We even received entries from people who didn't want to win the prizes, they just enjoyed doing logic puzzles. Three winners were pulled from a hat this morning, and packages of Skooperboxes are now winging their way to Rosemarie from Canada, Barry from Northampton and Jacqui from Leek. I hope they enjoy using their recycled biodegradable dog poop scoopers.

Thanks to Augustus from Skooperbox for donating the prizes. If any other green companies would like to donate prizes for competitions, we'd love to hear from you.

Allotmenteers Rock

I've said it before, allotment people are the greatest. I had an email from a friend on the allotments saying she hadn't seen me for a while. I confessed that I hadn't been down for a few weeks due to the appalling weather, and now I'm dreading going because the weeds must be neck-high.

She emailed me back to say she spent half an hour clearing weeds on my plot, and gave me an update about what's ready for harvest. I felt so touched, I almost cried.

10 Reasons To Eat Organic

1. It's better for you.

2. It's better for your children. Because of their smaller size, children are more affected by pesticides in their food than adults, but feeding them organic food has been proved to significantly reduce their intake of pesticides.

3. It's better for the farmers and their families if they don't have to use pesticides and other toxic chemicals. This is especially true in countries which have less strict health and safety legislation.

4. It's better for the farm animals. Joyce d'Silva of Compassion in World Farming said "Organic farming has the potential to offer the very highest standards of animal welfare."

5. It's better for wild animals. In one study, organic farms were found to contain 85% more plant species, 33% more bats, 17% more spiders and 5% more birds than conventional farms.

6. It's better for the planet because it doesn't lead to soil erosion. Conventional farming is responsible for unsustainable soil loss, but organic farming actually builds the soil.

7. It doesn't lead to waterway pollution.

8. It doesn't depend on oil-based agrochemicals.

9. It uses less energy because it relies on people rather than machinery. David Milliband said “in many, but not all cases, [organic food] produces fewer greenhouse gases”.

10. It tastes better, and don't believe anyone who tells you they don't. Many years ago my sister Stephanie was helping me chop some carrots for our lunch and she ate a slice of carrot. Immediately she started exclaiming "Oh, oh, these carrots are wonderful! Why do they taste so good?" She hadn't known they were organic carrots.

Convinced? Why not sign up for an organic veg box to be delivered to your door?

Remember there are only two more days to enter our Skooperbox competition. There have only been seven correct entries so far, so your chances are excellent of winning a package of Skooperboxes, the recycled biodegradable dog poop scooper. All correct entries will be entered into a draw and winners will be announced on Wednesday.

We've Got Bees!

Wow! What a day that was!

A friend of mine with a big van and a bee suit (thanks Tony) drove me to Ally's place in mid-Wales. Ally and her lovely partner B sold us 2 colonies of bees in pretty WBC hives. That sounds quite simple doesn't it? But actually it took all day and was quite complicated. Ally and B also entertained us and fed us delicious soup and plenty of tea and coffee. They're lovely people and I'm so glad to have met them. They're going to be fantastic parents.

Driving for almost 3 hours with two colonies of irritated bees was a peculiar experience, and I have to admit the occasional feeling of "What the hell am I doing? I've changed my mind. Let me out!" But we had no escapees at all, probably due to the unstinting amounts of gaffer tape we used to hold everything together. We finally got back to Poynton after 11pm, moved the hives into my front garden and opened the entryways - the bees were making quite a racket inside the hives but they didn't come pouring out looking for blood.

This morning I can look out of my living room window and see the hives with bees busily coming and going. It's a really good feeling. There's nothing quite as relaxing as watching somebody else hard at work is there? And I could do with a rest now.