Info, news & debate
Food
How a new land commons movement can support agroecology
There’s huge overlap between the principles of agroecology and of commoning, and growth in the commons movement could mean a shift towards agroecology and away from damaging industrial agriculture.
Fresh Salad Every Day? Growing Microgreens at Home in a Small Space
Hear from Mark from Vertical Veg about how you can grow a fresh salad at home in small space!
Wild foods you can forage in January
At this time of year Nature appears to be still, sleeping perhaps. It’s a quiet month for gardeners and foragers alike but those who take time to look a little closer are delightfully rewarded with sweet promises of Spring
Vision for a UK-Wide ‘Market Garden Renaissance’ from the Landworkers Alliance
Landworkers Alliance (LWA) launched its brand new report “Horticulture Across Four Nations” at a panel discussion at the Oxford Real Farming Conference (ORFC).
Beyond Conservation: The Farmland Commons
The Farmers Land Trust is diversifying participation in our food system and helping to create stronger communities that can not only survive the land, climate, and social injustices of the world, but can thrive while helping to heal them. Learn more about the work of The Farmers Land Trust and the Farmland Commons.
Low-impact Cheesemaking
Modern industrial cheesemaking uses a bunch of electricity and single-use plastic, but there are ways to go back to basics and make beautiful cheeses using homemade cultures and off-grid cheese aging setups. In this article I’ll look at several aspects of cheesemaking, and how to approach each one in a low impact way. Milk Milk …
Resistance Festival to help save Monkton Wyld Court
A resistance festival of free workshops and music is taking place at Monkton Wyld Court, nr Lyme Regis. This is in support of the community that has run Monkton Wyld Court for the last fifteen years, and is now threatened by incoming charity trustees. Monkton Wyld Court is the site of a microdairy which dates …
Community Orchards – tragedy or victory of the commons?
Community orchards at their best are many things at once: a social space, a coming together of people to work together on a common task; a celebration of the abundant harvest of fruit; a haven for wildlife and a pocket of biodiversity.
11 easy wild garlic recipes
Spring has sprung and with it comes one of the edible plants for the forager, wild garlic (Allium ursinum). Most people who have dabbled in foraging will know wild garlic (or ramsons) as a great plant to start with as it’s simple to recognise and use in cooking. It’s one of our absolute favourite wild foods. …
Worried about fruit & veg rationing? Let’s grow our own, in our communities
Every so often something happens that punctures our sense of what’s normal. In the UK one of those events was empty shelves that used to display fruit and veg. Then supermarkets began rationing some food items.
Rewilding or local food production?
We like the idea of rewilding, but it needs much more thought when it removes good UK lowland farmland – because then, obviously, land elsewhere will have to brought into agricultural production to take up the slack.
In celebration of soft fruit
A celebration of local, seasonal soft fruit and the memories that it can evoke.
Getting around the egg shortage – The Vegan Society’s top alternatives
With the UK’s egg shortage continuing, The Vegan Society shares top egg alternatives for everything from cakes to scrambled eggs. As the cost of living and the avian flu outbreak continue to impact the farming industry, egg producers are having problems meeting the demand for eggs, resulting in a shortage here in the UK. The …
Small is beautiful, but is it regenerative?
Can small scale farms be sustainable and regenerative?
George Monbiot and friends are wrong: techno-utopianism won’t save us
George Monbiot has joined a campaign called ‘Reboot Food’, working with techno-utopians who would like to see governments remove support for organic food and deregulate the GM industry, as well as producing bacteria-based food in giant factories (‘precision-fermentation’), and getting rid of smallholdings.
Organic smallholdings, not ‘farm-free’ food factories
Another critical review of George Monbiot’s latest book, Regenesis, by Chris Smaje, author of Small Farm Future. This follows on from last week’s review by Simon Fairlie.
‘Monbiotic man’ – will future food be ‘farm-free’?
Simon Fairlie starts a series of articles about whether technology will save us. He supports small farmers over George Monbiot’s ‘Regenesis’ solution.
Not so nasty nettle – an honourable compendium for an overlooked plant!
Recipes for the humble nettle. Read how to pick, choose and cook with this overlooked plant.
Fighting our food waste habit
How improving our food waste habit can save us money and reduce our carbon footprint.
New owner sought for low-impact pub and glamping site in rural Suffolk
Aldegarden is a wonderful site in Suffolk, with accommodation, a community pub, and a ‘glamping’ site with yurts, timber structures, a cob roundhouse, gypsy caravan and a converted barn, communal areas, solar hot water and electricity and compost loos. They’ve been in our directory for years. But now they’re looking for new owners for the property and successful businesses.