Empty Skies, empty shelves

Lot of people in the blogosphere/net from the UK posting about empty shelves in the supermarkets because airfreighted food is not arriving.

Hedgewizard - Empty Skies, empty shelves

Telegraph - food rotting in Kenya

Green Review

Maenwhile, I have spent a good day at Belvedere at the Self Sufficiency Show - where there's no evidence of any food shortages, as we're eating locally. Organic beef, milk, cheese, bread, all produced within a 10 mile radius is on offer. Local and delicious. Lots of interesting plants and seeds so that you can grow your own vegetables also.

Show on again tomorrow - get yourselves out there and hedge your bets in case this volcano stuff goes on for longer...



Title courtesy of Hedgewizard - I'm to tired to think of anthing else - thank you!

Global crisis - Nature says No?

Great article in the NYTimes - here - expresses what I have been thinking of late very well.

Autumn Harvesting

Weird, but it seems like I am able to harvest more now than I was at the peak of the season. Today I started a pot roast - and I added to the stew are around it - from the garden - borlotti beans, Leeks, parsley, and a kind of winter radish from real seeds. We also have daikon (mooli), carrots in planters, kale, some upside down tomatoes, raspberries, fennel, mispoona, mizuna, corn salad, a little rocket. Some brussels sprouts and cabbages coming on - the broc is a washout with caterpillars, but all in all pretty good.

With the beef coming from my brothers farm down the road, and Ballinagore potatoes still available, we are having some good locavore dinners.

Autumn Review

So, it was a terrible summer. 'Nuff said about the weather. Here are the 2008 successes and failures.

Successes:
Leeks - growing well, ready for harvest now. Some were a bit shaded by other plants, but are doing ok now - next year devote a whole section of a bed to them, rather then bits and pieces here and there
Mizuna
Rocket
Upside down tomatoes - no blight! no slugs!
Autumn fruiting raspberries - some golden.
Blueberries
Calabrese
Oregano
Carrots - in planters and stove pipes
Sarpo Axona potatoes - no blight
Runner beans
Borlotti beans
Giant sunflowers - seedlings given to us by a neighbour > 8ft tall! loads of seeds!
Beets
Weiner Runder Kohlschwarzer
Black currants
Broad beans
Peas (didn't plant enough)
Borage - grew fast from seed planted in July.
Globe Artichokes


Failures (or less successful)
Courgettes and squash - poor yield, leaves got mouldy
Tomatoes - blight
Potatoes under plastic - slugs, plastic blew off - poor yield, green potatoes, blight
Daikon - early planting went to seed, and had worms
Purple sprouting broc - took up loads of space, and is now being decimated but caterpillars.
Dwarf sunflowers - slugs got them all
Red onions - went to seed.
Lettuce - slugs, etc.
Strawberries
Apples - blossom dropped off.
Corn - didn't get pollinated properlyGarlic - was in a poor location

Anyhow, of course we will try again next year, and already have our overwintering onions in, lots more daikon, kale, chard, mizuna, mispoona, brussles sprouts, and more carrots in planters.

Overall, we had a good amount of food from the garden, though not enough to feed ourselves. We did have some wonderful local dinners with either beef from my brothers farm - 3 miles away, or local venison.

The same brother is raising a turkey for us for Christmas, so that promises to be a good feast - we should try to get a local ham too. And some Ballinagore records.