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| From vintage to eco. Cars haven't changed so drastically over the decades really |
An earlier version of myself thought nothing of flying off to other countries at the bequest of my chosen company masters, or as travel lust lured me off to foreign climes. It was a quiet year indeed if I never made it out of Europe. Things have changed. My passport expires next year and I am not expecting to renew it, thereby saving the poor overworked Passport Office another bothersome renewal request to process. Since I renounced plane travel in a fit of guilt, and am in any case attempting to get by on the pittance afforded by growing and selling vegetables, it doesn't seem likely I'll be needing a passport any time soon.
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| My delivery to the veg bag scheme last week: runners, tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes and kale |
These days my world is my plot of land in mid-Wales and the villages and towns within twenty miles. No more stressful tedious journeys to airports to join a mile long queue through security. Instead, I step outside my caravan each day to find myself at my workplace. The pheasants greet me with a chorus of squawks and noisily fly off across the river where no one will bother them for a bit (at least until today, when shooting season starts). A grey heron has been making an appearance recently, each time in the same spot. It stands stock still for a while before lazily strolling towards the tree cover, then lifts itself into the air with its huge wings and flies off along the river.
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| Spot the heron |
Last Friday however was a big day out. Along with two friends and co-growers, I travelled south over fifty miles (beyond even Aberystwyth!) to reach a place called Denmark Farm. Despite the name it was neither in Denmark nor a farm. This confused me for a bit until I realised it used to be a farm until the 1980's when it was converted into a conservation site with wild flower meadows, bogs and such like to improve biodiversity. The Denmark bit is still a mystery.
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| Birds eye view of my veg plot (I was up a ladder picking sloes) |
The Fed had called us to be there along with other growers in mid Wales. Not the FBI, thankfully, as I suppose even they would consider their remit not to reach so far as to hunt down Welsh horticulturalists. No, this Federation is of City Farms and Community Gardens and it is very much their remit to encourage the growing of fruit and veg in a communal way. A group of perhaps fifteen of us were gathered to share the different ways that community veg growing is currently happening in mid Wales, to get some mutual encouragement and support, and to learn from each other's successes and mistakes.
A couple of the participants were real farmers. They have many acres of grazing land and keep sheep and cows for a living. And yet they have also established a 'Transition Town' in their locality and are doing their best to ensure the community is more self-reliant for its food. They had held meetings, found out what people wanted to do (community veg growing being the main thing), and found a suitable site where raised beds were built in which people could grow veg. One of the farmers had asked the local chippie if they would take potatoes from him if he could supply them, which they would, so he's now converted part of his land from sheep grazing to potatoes. He told us he knows that other farmers in the area consider him an oddball for taking these steps, or a “bloody idiot” as he put it. I certainly haven't heard of any other Welsh farmers pushing others to take sustainability seriously but it was refreshing to hear these two talk about their efforts.
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| A tidy bit of Denmark Farm |
After lunch was a foraging tour led by a botanist, at the end of which we brought together the various leaves of ash, bramble, wild strawberry and yarrow we had plucked from nature, and made tea from them. How British of us. They had a very mild flavour which was unfortunately totally dominated by the biscuit I was given at the same time. Despite the masses of brambles and several ash trees within spitting distance of my caravan, I don't expect I'll be erasing Normali-Tea from my shopping list any time soon.
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| A yurt at Denmark Farm |
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