The Summer 2010 No.12 ORGANICThe journal of the Organic GROWER Growers Alliance IN THIS ISSUE The weather, whatever News................................................2 “ It’s a nice start to the day after yesterday’s disappointing cloud and rain, with good long spells of bright sunshine . “. Actually OGA.event.-.plant.propagation....12 you didn’t have enough rain yesterday to damp the dust down and so far as you can see the only moisture your crops are going to get Bavarian.organic.vegetables.........13 are your own salt tears. All that investment – planning, materials, cultivation, planting, weed control, all that hope and all that labour and the only outcome that looks likely is a bigger hole in your bank Using.wheel.hoes...........................14 balance. It’s not sun bathing you’re after, it’s rain. Still - it is only the weather forecast, sometimes irritating, often misleading, but not to Nature.notes..................................16 be taken too seriously. Growing.jobs.-a.workforce.guide..17 The weather, on the other hand, that’s different and we can hardly help but take it seriously. We can’t do anything about it, other than Growing.food,.absorbing.carbon...20 perhaps mitigating its effects, yet it rules our lives, those of us who make our living by what we can produce from the soil. To our fellow citizens it may just represent a decision as to whether or not to Drilling.sweetcorn........................22 carry an umbrella, or whether to have a barbecue outdoors or sit in front of the widescreen indoors. The subtleties of what the heavens Biodynamic.plant.breeding...........26 send down on us and even (perhaps especially) the gut-wrenching, nerve-coursing emotions that it engenders in the psyche of the food Christmas.trees..............................28 producer, are entirely lost on the rest of the world. Rocket.science................................30 But hang on a minute. All these people are consumers, right? A good part of what they consume is food? That’s true, they need food more than they need anything else. Don’t they understand that there is Protected.cropping.standards.......32 more to the weather than their own convenience or inconvenience? Well, no – it appears that by and large they do not. Profile:.Maggie.Sutherland...........35 There is something wrong here. It’s 150 years at most since we, Part-time.growing.........................36 citizens of this country, have been free from the fear of famine. For much of the rest of humanity this fear remains an ever present reality. Diary:.Will.Johnson......................38 It’s undeniable that many of the causes of hunger are political in nature, but equally undeniably it is the weather that’s the boss. Letters............................................39 Book.reviews..................................41 Comment:.Collette.Haynes...........43 Events............................................44 Page 1 - The Organic Grower - No 12 Summer 2010 Whether the consumer thinks or cares about its effects makes no difference to whether it rains or not, so why worry as to whether they think or care at all? One answer to this is that the OGA news loss of the consciousness of the live connection between the OGA website weather and our real wellbeing is the severing of the physical Much work went on behind the scenes to enable our new website link that holds humans to their native earth. Ever since towns www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk to be launched at the AGM. and cities were first conceived a prime human aspiration Many thanks to Pete Dollimore, Adam York, Patrick Lynn and has been to free ourselves of those chains that bind us to the Scott Sneddon who worked with Adam Clamp of the Green IT soil and to leave the country for the town. Now that human Company to get it up and running. All members should have industry allows most of us to do just that (while replacing received personal login details in March. We really encourage those chains with new ones of its own) we can all aspire to a members to login to take full advantage of the site. We are getting life of carefree freedom and forget about what the countryside some good discussions on the forum, though inevitably perhaps, is actually there for. Another answer is that it has lately come activity was quiet during May and June. Current discussion topics to be recognised that this industry, and this careless freedom, include: the uniformity of carrot varieties - are you getting too has its consequences and that the foremost of these is in its much variability in open pollinated varieties? Where to source effect on the weather itself. cheap polytunnels? The sidelining of organic in public policy. One ploy in the modern organic market place is to gain the What is the most environmentally friendly and efficient way of consumers’ purchase by appealing to their self-indulgence. supporting climbing peas in a tunnel? So if you anything to say on Far be it from the OG to be proposing a campaign of moral these topics, want to vent your spleen on issues or simply want an rearmament, but growers are not self-indulgent people (if they answer to a technical question, please use the forum. were they wouldn’t long survive as growers) and see the value For the most current news that might impact on organic growing, of what they produce not as self-indulgence but as honesty go to the news pages, which are regularly updated and include and sense in a world which, viewed from the ground up, is the facility to add comments, if you are logged-in. Events are also looking frighteningly fragile. To that extent, and whether we added, as and when they are known about, so be sure to look at are naturally cheerful or miserablist in our outlook, organic the calendar. Click on the date and again on the title of the event growing is a serious business. Consumption is a serious for more information. There is also the possibility of purchasing business too, none more so, but now that we are freed from back-issues of The Organic Grower online. By clicking on the the chains of the soil it is driven not so much by need as by image of the magazine cover in the magazine – products section self-indulgence. Commerce has elevated consumption into you can see a contents page for each issue. a ‘good’ in its own right, one which requires no justification of necessity – that might be ‘disappointing’. 150 years ago We recognise that there have been some teething problems, but consumption was still a wasting disease. How did the it is hoped that with renewals being done automatically through organic movement get tangled up in frivolous commerce? An the website, and new members joining online, it will enable the increased understanding of what we are about seems as far organisation to grow without increasing the administrative away as ever. burden on our treasurer and chairman. Please use the website and let us know if you have any problems with it. We’re told to be careful as to what we wish for. Even so - let’s hope it rains soon. Whatever the weather! A reader has suggested that we run a vox pop/free-for- all on weather gear – waterproofs and the like. We think this is a good idea which could be both informative and fun. Whatever comes down we have to put up with it, we can’t just run indoors, and in the vegetable field umbrellas and parasols are useless. Rain or shine – how do you keep comfortable, or if not comfortable – how do you keep functioning? What’s out there in the outdoor clothing store that works for you? And what have you learnt to avoid? From top to toe, let us know. We’ll publish the results in the next issue. Page 2 - The Organic Grower - No 12- Summer 2010 OGA AGM It was with great pleasure that the OGA returned to Penpont, near Brecon, for its third AGM. While the weather wasn’t quite as clement as it had been in 2009, the welcome from Vina and Gavin Hogg was very warm indeed. It is harder to imagine a finer setting and the superbly converted stables block provided the location for both the business and the evenings hospitality and merriment. Alan led the business session of the AGM in his own relaxed style, starting with a review of the past year. Although 2009 was the third rough summer in a row tempered by a good autumn and a ‘real’ Alan.Schofield.chairing.the.AGM winter, there were some positive signs of recovery in the market place. Highlights of the year included a series of good open days and the redevelopment of the website which at the time of the AGM was about to go live to members. The main decisions taken were: • To change the date of the financial year to allow reporting of the accounts at AGM to be more current. • Money is to be set aside to support the development of the OGA through the part-time employment of Phil Sumption. • More help to be given to Tim Deane and Phil Sumption to edit and produce the magazine. Kate Collyns and Richard Plowright offered to help. • Two new committee members elected – Ben Raskin - part- Gavin.Hogg.leads.the.tour.of.the.woodchip.boiler.system time grower and learning manager and horticultural adviser at the Soil Association and Jonathan Smith from the Isles of Scilly. • Membership fees to stay at £25 to be reviewed next year. More effort will be put into raising income from subscriptions and membership. Nick Rebbeck award – tributes were paid to Nick by Alan Schofield, Roger Hitchings and Hugh Chapman .