Organic, growing, living and consuming in the UK (original) (raw)
| Organic, growing, living and consuming in the UK | [**entries**|friends|calendar] |
| ---------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
I created a place for those with a thirst for wellness and a compassion for all life. It is called the Life Dynamix Wellness CommunityHere you can meet others with similar interests, spread your message of wellness, and have your health questions answered by one of our wellness experts. These services are at no cost to you - this is our way of saying thanks for making Life Dynamix part of your world :) Click Here to Join The Circle. I will be added to your friends network automatically. I hope to see you there :) To Magic & Possibilities!STEVEN
[ **mood** | frustrated ] Just spoken to our local council as to why they have stopped taking our plastics.They said "we only took your plastic trays for your convenience previously as they cannot be recycled - we can now only take plastic bottles"My partner thought he saw one of the recycling guys tip some plastics into a black bin the other month but wasn't sure - he was right, they have been taking our plastic trays (the ones with the recycling triangle) and putting them into land fill.I knew the triangles have different numbers but the woman I spoke to said there is no where in England at present that can recycle ANY of the plastic trays no matter what the number in the triangle is.Is this true? We buy our fruit and veg from Riverford Organic (minimal packaging) and are desparately looking for suitable suppliers of other products. We try so hard to ensure we buy products that have minimal packaging and/or the packaging APPEARS to be recyclable (sp?) but feel I need to go live in a mud hut and eat leaves to stop adding to the screw up.cross posted
Fordhall Farm in Shropshire is a mixed livestock farm which has been run without agrochemicals for over 65 years. By this Sat 1 July, Fordhall Farm need to raise the final 7% (another UKP 58,550) of the market price of their land, to save the farm from being auctioned off in lots on the open market. The Fordhall Community Land Initiative wants instead to continue sustainable family farming on the land, preserve the natural diversity, set up a 'pasture to plate' education centre, provide work experience for schools, volunteers and students, and show-case sucessful community involvement in working UK farms. Fordhall Farm is not currently Organic registered. However, they intend on re-entering certification upon gaining security at the Farm. Visit http://www.FordhallFarm.com/ to read more, find out how to actively support this project, by buying shares, or giving an interest-free loan.
I hope everyone is aware that it's the Soil Association's Organic Week soon, 3-11 September, which features the features the world-renowned Organic Food Festival at Bristol’s Harbourside on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 September. I'll be going!(x-posted to greenliving_uk)
I love our Farmer's Market.On Saturday I bought enough beef for 2 meals for 2 people, some venison sausages, 2kg potatoes, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, and 500ml of milk, all for £16. All but the milk was organic, and the milk is very nearly so (free-range with no hormone or anti-biotic injections). And it's all local too!
Just taken the plunge and signed up to receive a fruit & veg box fortnightly along with a dozen eggs from an organic scheme that operates around here. Hah! One less thing for me to go to the supermarket for. Although I'm not aiming to go completely organic I am trying to get to a point where we only buy things from local independent shops and producers and rarely visit the supermarkets.
I want to recommend a great book - The HDRA Encyclopaedia of Organic Gardening. It covers everything you need to know about Organic growing, and replaces Geoff Hamilton's book as my No 1. In fact, geoff's book now seems very basic in comparison. My favourite thing about it is that it has a vegetable garden plan, complete with pictures of the plots. I've had an allotment now for a couple of months, but since I'm more or less a beginner to growing lots of veg (as against a few bits and pieces where they could be squeezed in) I have been a bit lost as to what exactly to do.So, until I know better, I'm following the plan in this book - which is planted in more or less the same form as my allotment anyway! Hurrah.
[ **mood** | amused ] This is pure entertainment, but it is topical entertainment. If it's innapropriate to have it here then misspotsitt, do feel free to delete this entry, but I really enjoyed this:http://www.storewars.org/flash/index.htmlIt helps if you know a little about Star Wars. :)
My partner and I are in the fortunate position of both being employed full time in reasonably well paying jobs, and we choose to buy organic/environmentally sound/fair trade food and household products whenever we can. All in all, something like 80% of our day-to-day purchases fit into those categories. We went through our finances last night because we've been running out of money before the end of each month when we didn't really feel we should be. We were shocked to discover that we're spending somewhere between £300 and £400 each month just on groceries - for two people! We're loath to compromise our principles, but we really do need to reduce our expenditure. We currently use a local box scheme for fruit and veg that we intend to continue with, we generally shop at the local independent health food store for specialist items and the local co-op for general stuff and we grow some produce ourselves, but not nearly enough to live on. We're going to start planning our weekly meals in advance and shopping just for the items we need for those. We're a bit ad-hoc at the moment which we're sure doesn't help. Has anyone else got any suggestions?
Nicked from Waitrose.com - opinions?British OrganicsThere is much debate in the organic world about the amount of organic food that is imported to meet demand. While UK production is rapidly increasing there are sectors where demand does not meet supply. Yet, in other sectors, notably organic milk, supply exceeds demand. Some people feel that is goes against the organic philosophy to use fossil fuels to import organic food long distances; others say it is actually more ecologically sensible to produce organic bananas in the tropics than it would be to try to produce them in the UK. Some farmers say that if it were not for imports out of season they would not have a reliable market for their organic produce when it was seasonal.( Read more...Collapse )
Just wanted to say 'hi!' as I've just joined. I live in Gloucestershire, where thankfully it's pretty easy to get hold of organic produce. We're very lucky to have a farmer's market twice a month, which sells mostly free-range and organic stuff, and there is an organic farm shop just 5 mins drive (although about 30 mins walk!) up the road. The supermarkets do stock a certain amount too. I try to grow what I can in our tiny garden - so far I have an apple tree in a half-barrel, and last year I grew several tomato plants in pots, peas up the garden wall, strawberries and lettuce in beds and a box full of herbs. This year I'm trying carrots around the apple tree, and I'll see if I can get courgettes to work this year! Any suggestions of what else might work in pots would be great!
I do not live in the UK but any advice would be greatly appreciated.I have recently been asked if I could draw up a nutrition plan and budget to help feed those in Detroit (oy) who have various ailments (AIDS, cancer, mental illness) or/and severe poverty. I would like to build a food plan that strongly supports the immune system yet is not expensive- feeding 15,000 a month here guys ;) In the diet I would like to promote organic juicing, macrobiotics, vegan cooking and raw food snacking- all costly, time consuming and totally disgusting to those who are receiving the diet –but only a food plan without compromise can do some good here.Budget guidelines are – make it was cheap as you can. Ideas, additions, subtractions? I apologize for the crossposts.
[ mood | working ] This Thursday, 9 September, at 21:00 the British Broadcasting Corporation (in whom I believe) will start a new series called 'Fat Nation, the Big Challenge'[NOTE: This Web site does not work with Opera]. **( BBC BlurbCollapse )**I'm glad to see that the small print emphasises the need for an overall, long-term healthy lifestyle, and I accept that there are more people in the UK who are overweight than underweight. But I still disagree with the headline focus on 'fatness', when being overweight is only one possible sign of a lack of balance in a persons lifestyle - and there are other common underlying causes to overweight, such as thyroid disease - and in any case, being slightly underweight is more damaging to health than being slightly overweight!Anyhow, I've signed up to the Big Challenge, and I will be closely following the two year course of this series, not least because it's very relevant to my new profession.
frustrated ] Just spoken to our local council as to why they have stopped taking our plastics.They said "we only took your plastic trays for your convenience previously as they cannot be recycled - we can now only take plastic bottles"My partner thought he saw one of the recycling guys tip some plastics into a black bin the other month but wasn't sure - he was right, they have been taking our plastic trays (the ones with the recycling triangle) and putting them into land fill.I knew the triangles have different numbers but the woman I spoke to said there is no where in England at present that can recycle ANY of the plastic trays no matter what the number in the triangle is.Is this true? We buy our fruit and veg from Riverford Organic (minimal packaging) and are desparately looking for suitable suppliers of other products. We try so hard to ensure we buy products that have minimal packaging and/or the packaging APPEARS to be recyclable (sp?) but feel I need to go live in a mud hut and eat leaves to stop adding to the screw up.cross posted
greenliving_uk)
amused ] This is pure entertainment, but it is topical entertainment. If it's innapropriate to have it here then 
misspotsitt, do feel free to delete this entry, but I really enjoyed this:http://www.storewars.org/flash/index.htmlIt helps if you know a little about Star Wars. :)