As an advocate for farmers’ markets, i am also an advocate for health. Healthy soil, healthy food, healthy people – and, with a focus on small as-well as not so small agriculture: healthy communities. We need more food grown locally, more diversity of crops, and healthy soil – fertile and full of life, with deep roots that keep it, and us as a community, all from being blown and washed away.

Here is a complete article, that can be shared freely, using the publishers guidelines, under a Creative Commons license. The article highlights the real benefits of regenerative practices – to soil fertility -in farming, organic and otherwise, both on a large scale and, as much of the developing world – on a small scale. Quite a few of the photographs from this article come from the USDA United States Department of Agriculture NRCS, Natural Resources Conservation Service. I urge you to look at the source of these ( freely shareable with attribution ) images, to see some of the ranches and farms in the US, that many people may have an ‘unhealthy’ image of . The images are from NRCS in the (vast and beautiful) South Dakota area of the US: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nrcs_south_dakota/with/49731837053/ and the main gallery to the actual US NRCS : https://www.flickr.com/photos/nrcs_south_dakota/with/49731837053/

Healthy soil is the real key to feeding the world

David R. Montgomery, University of Washington

One of the biggest modern myths about agriculture is that organic farming is inherently sustainable. It can be, but it isn’t necessarily. After all, soil erosion from chemical-free tilled fields undermined the Roman Empire and other ancient societies around the world. Other agricultural myths hinder recognizing the potential to restore degraded soils to feed the world using fewer agrochemicals.

When I embarked on a six-month trip to visit farms around the world to research my forthcoming book, “Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life,” the innovative farmers I met showed me that regenerative farming practices can restore the world’s agricultural soils. In both the developed and developing worlds, these farmers rapidly rebuilt the fertility of their degraded soil, which then allowed them to maintain high yields using far less fertilizer and fewer pesticides.

Their experiences, and the results that I saw on their farms in North and South Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Ghana and Costa Rica, offer compelling evidence that the key to sustaining highly productive agriculture lies in rebuilding healthy, fertile soil. This journey also led me to question three pillars of conventional wisdom about today’s industrialized agrochemical agriculture: that it feeds the world, is a more efficient way to produce food and will be necessary to feed the future.

Myth 1: Large-scale agriculture feeds the world today

According to a recent U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report, family farms produce over three-quarters of the world’s food. The FAO also estimates that almost three-quarters of all farms worldwide are smaller than one hectare – about 2.5 acres, or the size of a typical city block.

Only about 1 percent of Americans are farmers today. Yet most of the world’s farmers work the land to feed themselves and their families. So while conventional industrialized agriculture feeds the developed world, most of the world’s farmers work small family farms. A 2016 Environmental Working Group report found that almost 90 percent of U.S. agricultural exports went to developed countries with few hungry people.

Of course the world needs commercial agriculture, unless we all want to live on and work our own farms. But are large industrial farms really the best, let alone the only, way forward? This question leads us to a second myth.

Myth 2: Large farms are more efficient

Many high-volume industrial processes exhibit efficiencies at large scale that decrease inputs per unit of production. The more widgets you make, the more efficiently you can make each one. But agriculture is different. A 1989 National Research Council study concluded that “well-managed alternative farming systems nearly always use less synthetic chemical pesticides, fertilizers, and antibiotics per unit of production than conventional farms.”

And while mechanization can provide cost and labor efficiencies on large farms, bigger farms do not necessarily produce more food. According to a 1992 agricultural census report, small, diversified farms produce more than twice as much food per acre than large farms do.

Even the World Bank endorses small farms as the way to increase agricultural output in developing nations where food security remains a pressing issue. While large farms excel at producing a lot of a particular crop – like corn or wheat – small diversified farms produce more food and more kinds of food per hectare overall.

Myth 3: Conventional farming is necessary to feed the world

We’ve all heard proponents of conventional agriculture claim that organic farming is a recipe for global starvation because it produces lower yields. The most extensive yield comparison to date, a 2015 meta-analysis of 115 studies, found that organic production averaged almost 20 percent less than conventionally grown crops, a finding similar to those of prior studies.

But the study went a step further, comparing crop yields on conventional farms to those on organic farms where cover crops were planted and crops were rotated to build soil health. These techniques shrank the yield gap to below 10 percent.

The authors concluded that the actual gap may be much smaller, as they found “evidence of bias in the meta-dataset toward studies reporting higher conventional yields.” In other words, the basis for claims that organic agriculture can’t feed the world depend as much on specific farming methods as on the type of farm.

Consider too that about a quarter of all food produced worldwide is never eaten. Each year the United States alone throws out 133 billion pounds of food, more than enough to feed the nearly 50 million Americans who regularly face hunger. So even taken at face value, the oft-cited yield gap between conventional and organic farming is smaller than the amount of food we routinely throw away.

Building healthy soil

Conventional farming practices that degrade soil health undermine humanity’s ability to continue feeding everyone over the long run. Regenerative practices like those used on the farms and ranches I visited show that we can readily improve soil fertility on both large farms in the U.S. and on small subsistence farms in the tropics.

I no longer see debates about the future of agriculture as simply conventional versus organic. In my view, we’ve oversimplified the complexity of the land and underutilized the ingenuity of farmers. I now see adopting farming practices that build soil health as the key to a stable and resilient agriculture. And the farmers I visited had cracked this code, adapting no-till methods, cover cropping and complex rotations to their particular soil, environmental and socioeconomic conditions.

Whether they were organic or still used some fertilizers and pesticides, the farms I visited that adopted this transformational suite of practices all reported harvests that consistently matched or exceeded those from neighboring conventional farms after a short transition period. Another message was as simple as it was clear: Farmers who restored their soil used fewer inputs to produce higher yields, which translated into higher profits.

No matter how one looks at it, we can be certain that agriculture will soon face another revolution. For agriculture today runs on abundant, cheap oil for fuel and to make fertilizer – and our supply of cheap oil will not last forever. There are already enough people on the planet that we have less than a year’s supply of food for the global population on hand at any one time. This simple fact has critical implications for society.

So how do we speed the adoption of a more resilient agriculture? Creating demonstration farms would help, as would carrying out system-scale research to evaluate what works best to adapt specific practices to general principles in different settings.

We also need to reframe our agricultural policies and subsidies. It makes no sense to continue incentivizing conventional practices that degrade soil fertility. We must begin supporting and rewarding farmers who adopt regenerative practices.

Once we see through myths of modern agriculture, practices that build soil health become the lens through which to assess strategies for feeding us all over the long haul. Why am I so confident that regenerative farming practices can prove both productive and economical? The farmers I met showed me they already are.

David R. Montgomery, Professor of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

I work on a small, family run, fruit and veg farm in Kent. Our main product is apples . Most of the farm is apple and pear orchards, but we also grow and sell lots of soft fruit, along with the full spectrum of vegetables and salads, this is us here: https://chegworthvalley.com/

So when i am in the local supermarket, ( The Co-op in this case ) i always look out for what varieties of fruit and veg they sell, and where they come from: especially apples. At the moment, ( end of June 2020 ) my local supermarket stocks five varieties of apple, which include:

Braeburn and Granny Smith: from South Africa

Pink Lady: from Chile

Gala: from Brazil

All these varieties of apple, we grow here in the UK. The start of our growing season is six months behind countries South of the Equator but, we, in the UK, typically still have apples from our last harvest ( The Autumn/October)in cold storage, until the middle to end of June (or well beyond some years). On our farm we are still selling Braeburn picked last October. The late varieties of apple, like these, store very well. Our stored apples are nearly finished, but that still leaves only maybe four or five weeks without home-grown apples, where shops will need to import all they need (this year – 2020 – we had perfect stored apples right round till the first new apples). So contrast buying Braeburn apples that have been shipped nearly 6,000 (six Thousand) miles to the Co-op supermarket near our farm: to the ones we grow 2 miles away. (other supermarkets at the moment sell common apples we grow here, from New Zealand, that’s nearly 11, 500 miles away.)

Most of us are becoming more aware of our shopping habits, and the decisions of choice made on our behalves by large supermarkets. Our farm grows around 30 ( Thirty ) varieties of apple during the season, most once common – that you will never see in any supermarket . Mid season we will have around a dozen varieties of apples for sale at any one time – rather than the 5 or 6 you may find in any supermarket, and the difference in taste – and variety of tastes (sweet, aromatic, nutty, rich, crisp, tart, sharp… ) is striking. And we are just one farm, one of many small producers.

There are many people who have been trying to farm more sustainably, as-well as educate the general public about environmental issues, and sustainable living. One of the best pieces of advocacy i have read, for how ‘we can’ change to a more sustainable food system, was a piece about Irish Apple growers – written for the Irish Times by Manchán Magan. The words of one of the Irish farmers – who owns a farm much like the farm i work for, stuck in my head since then:

” There should be farms like ours near every town that has a population large enough to support it,” says Traas. “We’re doing this near Clonmel; there should be someone else with a similar set-up near Kilkenny, someone else near Limerick and Waterford, all growing apples, plums and other fruit for regular customers that come to buy locally, rather than from the supermarket… “

(and “near every town that has a population large enough to support” one, should be a Farmer’s Market. The two go hand in hand (win-win), and we as shoppers can help make this a reality )

Here is a link to that article in the Irish Times, written September 2016:

(the full text of the article is included at the end of this post, also) https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/how-do-you-like-them-apples-the-growth-of-an-irish-industry-1.2780423

Here in England, we still grow considerably more apples than in Ireland, but still a fraction of the quantity of apples many other European countries grow. In my home county of Kent there have been vast areas of orchards planted in the last ten years, so our capacity will improve every year, and coupled with new technologies, which allow us to store apples longer, with more storage capacity, we will soon be able to sell our home-grown apples right the way round, to the start of the next harvest – which we have never really been able to do before. Along with all-year round availability of UK grown apples, we should have the choice of variety during the season. Do we really want only five or six varieties to choose from throughout the year? For seasonal variety, we should all look to the small farms, growing – and keeping alive – our best traditional varieties of apples – for every taste, at a regional level for inspiration. And we should really expect this kind of variety and quality, not only in apples, but in all our produce. Why should we settle for a limited choice of the flown in, tasteless – same handful of varieties, all year round, when we can have a vast variety of local, seasonal, quality. Surely food is a central part of our culture and heritage – the very essence of ‘the good life’?

Below, by kind permission of the author, is the full text of the article from The Irish Times:

IRISH APPLE GROWERS

Manchán Magan

Our supermarkets are laden with apples from South Africa, New Zealand and France because we cannot produce good apples in Ireland. This is the general assumption, that our country is only suitable for growing crab and cooking apples, or at best a few mealy, brown-stained eaters that turn to mush within days.

To disprove this fallacy drop into the farm shop at Con Traas’ Apple Farm between Cahir and Clonmel where you are surrounded by 40 acres of the finest, blemish-free apples and plums hanging heavily off every tree. Since the early 1970s, Con and his father before him have been growing and selling over 15 different varieties of apples to the people of Tipperary. The orchard now produces 3 million apples a year and 60 different varieties, most of which are sold directly from the farm door.

“There should be farms like ours near every town that has a population large enough to support it,” says Traas. “We’re doing this near Clonmel, there should be someone else with a similar set up near Kilkenny, someone else near Limerick and Waterford, all growing apples, plums and other fruit for regular customers that come to buy locally, rather than from the supermarket. I’m delighted that Gilberts’ Orchard in Carlow have now opened a farm shop with this in mind.”

The Irish spend €100m annually on apples, 95% of which are imported, yet from the early Discovery and Katy varieties of late August, Ireland can produce apples right up until late November when the Jonagolds and Elstars ripen. These late season, slow-growers are ideal for cold-storage and keep well until the following June. So really, there is at most a 6-week period from early July to mid-August that Ireland needs to import apples. Why then are we growing so few?

“It’s simply a lack of expertise,” says Traas. “If I wanted to plant 50 acres of orchards today, it would be hard to find someone in Ireland with the expertise to manage it. I’d have to hire a manger from Holland or Italy or the United States. Previously there would have been experts in Teagasc who would have gone out to new orchards every month or two and given advice, but Teagasc simply no longer have the resources. It’s not a priority for them.”

An Agricultural Science degree is the most viable path to learning in Ireland says Traas: “but if a farmer wants to grow a few trees, he doesn’t want to go off to college for 4 years first. Yet, it’s vital as a basis, before getting any practical training.”

One of the few people to have successfully set up a profitable orchard in recent years without inherited land is David Llewellyn, who studied at Warrenstown Horticulture College and UCD, before serving an apprenticeship in Germany. In 1999, he established an orchard on rented land in North County Dublin, before buying a south-facing field near Lusk in 2002 where he set up an orchard and a small vineyard, with a perry pear orchard added later. Like Traas, he manages to make the business viable by selling directly at markets in Temple Bar, Dun Laoghaire and Glasnevin, rather than competing with low cost imports in the supermarkets.

Both Traas and Llewellyn have diversified into making apple juice, cider and apple vinegar to use up their excess and blemished fruit. Highbank Organic Orchard in Kilkenny have done likewise, where Rod and his wife Julie developed a new product, Orchard Syrup, similar to maple syrup but made from their own organic apples. Recently, they expanded into distilling cider to produce vodka, brandy and a single-estate gin. The Calder-Potts planted their orchard in 1969 on land acquired by Rod’s great-grandfather in the 19^th century. They earned a viable income until Ireland joined the Common Market in 1974 and cheap imports flooded the market. “1979 was the last year we made a profit out of selling apples. In 1982, along with most apple farmers in Ireland, we grubbed our desert apple orchards.”

In 1994, Calder-Potts converted to organic farming and replanted. Highbank have now got 8,000 apple trees, grown bio-dynamically without the use of any chemicals and set amongst small lakes, woodland and various wildlife habitats to encourage as diverse an ecosystem as possible. Their apples are sold by Dennis Healy at various farmers’ markets.

Apple growing is on the rise throughout Ireland, with cider and apple juice producers in particular expanding their operations. The National Apple Orchard Census of 2012 recorded a 6% increase since 2007 to 46 growers, with 1,500 acres of orchard in the Republic of Ireland, which sounds impressive until one learns that Northern Ireland has 3,500 acres of mostly Bramley apple orchards – the majority of which get exported to Britain or are brewed into cider. Since the 2012 census Ireland’s orchards have increased significantly, with the Donegal juice manufacturer Mulrines currently planting 288 acres of dessert apples along the N7 motorway near Kill in Co. Kildare.

“We can’t grow oranges or mangoes here,” says Peter Mulrine, the managing director, “so, it makes sense to grow apples and save importing juice from the UK.” His company supplies much of the private label fruit juice consumed in Ireland and so they’ve a constant demand for good quality fruit. “Our investment will have started to pay off in three years, which is vital as one of the problems for most growers is that it is a 20 to 25 year investment. If the orchard doesn’t work you have a long time looking at it, and if the market changes you’re stuck.”

Mulrines planted 80,000 trees and by the end of next year hope to have 140,000 planted. “We used guys with experience for Herefordshire, and Dutch subcontractors to design and lay out the orchard. The idea is to manage it mechanically using the latest technology.”

Alongside large-scale producers, small back-yard orchards are also on the rise, with regular training courses provided by the likes of the Irish Seed Savers Association, which has managed to build up a collection of over 160 traditional native varieties of apples at their centre in Scariff, Co. Clare. There are also longer FETAC-accredited horticulture courses at the Organic Centre in Leitrim, Kinsale College and Teagasc’s Colleges in Kildalton and the National Botanic Gardens. “These courses are ideal,” say Con Traas, “if you are not seeking to grow commercially and don‘t need to maximise your yield or ensure absolutely no pest damage. You’ll get a good crop in a year that suits apples, though in other years you mightn’t get so much. It takes careful management to ensure a good crop every year, with annual pruning and removing buds and excess fruit in good years, so as not to over-exhaust the trees.”

While all this sounds positive and encouraging, the reality as anyone with an apple tree in their garden knows is infestations of canker, aphids, worms and blight. How do the commercial producers manage to stave off disaster?

Rod Calder-Potts of Highbank Orchard produces blemish-free apples without resorting to any fungicides, herbicides or chemical fertilisers, but conventional apple farmers are also tending to use less chemicals, largely due to pressure from increasingly concerned consumers.

“We use minimal intervention,” says Traas, “which is now the norm in horticulture – at least in Ireland – despite what people think. It is practically unheard of for tomatoes, strawberries or apples to be sprayed with an insecticide anymore. At the moment we have large numbers of earwigs in the orchard which are controlling aphids. There are also significant quantities of predatory mites which control other more damaging mites. We put out pheromone-baited traps to catch moths, rather than spraying for them.”

Traas never actively introduced the beneficial earwigs or mites, but instead managed the orchards in such a way as not to harm them. “It can be hard in the first year or two to get them to build up if you have been using a lot of chemicals, but once they are established, they look after themselves unless you do something stupid to kill them.”

To be sure, apple growing is no easy option – it would take enormous effort to train Ireland’s beef and dairy farmers to convert to fruit production. Long-term financial investment in land, trees and equipment is required, and most especially training and education.

“There is good reason why Ireland currently imports apples,” says Llewellyn, “they are cheaper to produce in warmer countries, and the huge scale allows multiples here to get whatever variety and size they want, whenever they want it. That said, two centuries ago Ireland’s orchard acreage was many times greater than what it is today and it stands to reason that the country would benefit from more well-trained, knowledgeable growers, located in the right soil and climate combinations, near to markets producing local fruit. People buy apples from me mostly because they are fed up with the bland tasteless imports in the shops. And there is no reason why my model couldn’t be repeated nationwide.”

COURSES/EVENTS

Establishing an Orchard 1-day course (Sun, 11^th Sept) tomorrow at Irish Seed Savers, Scarrif, Co Clare Covers site selection, orchard layout, soil preparation, drainage, maintenance, health and disease, and choosing varieties.

‘Taste of the Orchards’ Tour, Sept 14, 15, 16 & 17^th. Tasting and Juicing days with tours of the orchards and advice on best trees for disease resistance, suitable pollination partners, etc. http://www.irishseedsavers.ie

David Llewellyn Cider-making Course, Lusk Co. Dublin. Courses on Sept 16^th or Sept 17^th, full training and tastings with a free a canister of fermenting cider to take home and a copy of the “bible of craft cidermaking” www.llewellynsorchard.ie

Con Traas’ Farm Shop, Cahir, Co Tipperary is open March to November. Their camping and caravan site in the orchard operates May to September. www.theapplefarm.com

Highbank Orchard Organic Farm Shop and Distillery, Cuffesgrange, Kilkenny is open year-round. Visitors are welcome to picnic in the grounds. www.highbankorchards.com

Gilberts’ Orchard and Farm Shop, Quinagh, Carlow. Open Weds-Sat year-round for apples and their range of Apple Barrel juices. www.gilbertsorchard.com

Apple varieties grown and sold by Llewellyns Orchards, (in order of ripening)

Discovery Crisp, sweet and juicy, with a pronounced tanginess. An ‘old-fashioned’ flavour reminiscent of ‘Beauty of Bath.’

Rosette, rich red colouring streaked through its flesh. Very juicy. Birds are especially fond of it, so sell at a premium.

Worcester Pearmain, an old variety, flushed bright red. Crunchy texture and very sweet. From mid-September to mid-October.

Kerry Pippin, a very old Irish variety, small and greenish yellow, with some orange streaking on the sunny side. A delicate flavour and a tangy edge.

Tipperary Pippin, a red with an excellent balance of sweetness and acidity.

Norfolk Royal Russet, “the Most Delicious Apple In The World’ according to David Llewellyn. Sweet and aromatic, with a nutty texture and a creamy juiciness. Russet (rough-skinned) varieties have a richer flavour.

Egremont Russet, old English variety, sweet with a certain tanginess, and the typical nutty texture of russets.

Holstein Cox, similar to Cox’s Orange Pippin, but easier to grow in Ireland. Spherical, yellow apples, with an orange streaky flush. Exquisite flavour. From late-September until Christmas.

Elstar, a cross between Golden Delicious and Ingrid Marie. Crisp, very juicy, very sweet. Available November until May.

Herefordshire Russet, golden yellow with a faint pink blush. Very juicy, aromatic, sweet and nicely tangy. Keeps well.

Wellant, a large dark red, russeted apple with a characteristic flavour; can be stored for 6 months.

Jonagold, the most commonly grown dessert apple variety in Ireland. Richly juicy. Firm and crisp when fresh; it loses some firmness in storage.

RIP Kirk Douglas: here is something i wrote last year and meant to post on this blog:

How, many little feet – will change our world.

Aswell as working in the fields, on our farm, and working on a farmer’s market stall at weekends, selling our produce; i sometimes help do deliveries. I mainly deliver to restaurants and delis, in London and sometimes Kent. I spend many hours in the driving seat, and get to see alot of London, and many people going about their business, going to work, shopping, taking children to school, and home again and…

Well, one day recently i passed an orderly line of children, walking to school, all wearting hi-viz jackets and doing a pretty good job of marching in time. They were escorted by adults leading, in the middle, and at the rear, keeping the children in formation as the eager kids smiled,chattered, and swung their arms, and hit their feet in great high steps – much like soldiers do.

The scene reminded me of the classic 1960s film, Spartacus – starring Kirk Douglas, among many great actors. There is one scene in the film, where Laurence Olivier, the great English movie and Shakesperian actor, is addressing his companion, as they watch from their House in Rome, lines of Roman soldiers marching out of the city. Olivier played a famous Roman Senator/general and he made a speech, along the lines of: “See those soldiers” (and the legions of Rome who were marching off to war), “that is Rome – that is the might/the power of Rome… ” Well the film ends badly for the hero Spartacus, as the ‘might of Rome’ crushed him and his slave army, who had rebelled against their old masters, and the City and Republic of Rome.

Back to our little line of primary school children, who were marching through the streets of London. At the time, i thought: ” ‘Here’ is the next generation, the real power of Rome.” Fit to conquer any army sent against them. These little feet will be the ones filling the next generation of bankers shoes, and politicians, and inventors, and farmers.
As i sat down to write this, i imagined the power of the Roman Republic, which became an Empire, and was maybe seen by many as an unjust tyranny, just as it was for others a bringer of peace and civilization. Today many see the same tyranny and corruption in our great corporations, and institutions of our Capitalist community. One day, as ever, the shoes of today’s corporate heads, and bankers and policy makers will be filled by a new Legion of feet. This, maybe rather long-winded, analogy (although i hope it conveys my meaning ) was what i thought at the time, and made me smile with hope for the future. Our current empire of supermarket chains, and chemical laden agricultural practice, and even our culture of food, which has evolved over thousands of years, is in the hands of those little legions, and they will not be forced like their forebears to make do with limited choice and limited know how. We, the human race; now has the choice of what we would like our future agriculture, food culture, and health habits, (what it means to be a normal healthy Human Being) should and can be: right now.

I used to trade at the farmer’s market in Parson’s Green, in the Fulham area of London, until last summer. We had a lovely little market, but alas -with three weeks notice – lfm.org.uk who managed the market, and the vast majority of farmer’s markets in London, shut us down.

After a few attempts at starting farmer’s markets in the area, we – the small group of ex traders, customers and local residents, are now aiming to create a ‘community run’ farmer’s market. And will be having a public meeting in the area at some point, and will set up a steering group to push on with our aims.

Online

Aswell as our website, and Facebook page, we now have an account on Instagram and Twitter, aswell as a private Facebook group:

Website: http://parsonsgreenmarket.org/

Public Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/parsonsgreenmarket/

Private Facebook group: Friends of Parson’s Green Market https://www.facebook.com/groups/2306798286055298/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/friends_of_pg_farmers_market/

Twitter: Screen-name:- friends_of_pg_farmers_market : https://twitter.com/PGMark6

Country & City

Aswell as being online, our little market has it’s roots in both the city (London ) and the country. Each weekend farmers would load their vans full of produce, picked or caught, the day before in most cases, and head for our old market hosted in a school playground in Fulham/Parson’s Green, London. I would travel the near 40 miles from the centre of Kent, the county directly south of the city. Other traders would travel from near me in Kent, Essex, Lincolnshire, Warwickshire – and probably the furthest was a stall who would journey up from the Isle of Wight.

Contrast this with many supermarket staples, of our fresh fruit and vegetable shopping, some coming as far afield as New Zealand, and South America. For fresh produce this does not make sense. Better by far for the environment, for local farming communities and in many cases our health, local means fresher and in many (most if not all) cases better quality. Saying this, some things it does make sense to source from arounfd the world. Where would we be without bannanas, and coffee, dates from Iran, and olives and olive oils from Spain Italy Greece …

One thing both buying locally, and buying from abroad have in common: there is a direct connection, with the country/the farm, with the city/the customer and shop/market. A farmer’s market has a more direct connection with farms which, like the one i work for – you can visit during the summer ‘open days’. You can actually call in any time and we will sell you whatever we can direct. As in most cities, London has many communities of people from all over the world. Our market had a very large French community in the area, many Italian people live nearby; and in London their are large communities from Turkey, the Middle East, Russia and Eastern Europe – especially Poland … All these communities also have a connection from country to city, even abroad – having shops and businesses selling produce that would not normally be found in an English supermarket, catering for traditional English tastes. And so the grapevine of commerce stretches from the fishermen of the Baltic, traditional Polish and Russian butchers, Turkish olive growers, Indian rice producers, aswell as fresh local produce, from in – and just outside London.

And now our little market community can be reached online. So please get in touch, if you would like a say in this community led market. Even leaving a comment of support is of great help. And one day soon, the grapevine of Kent, Essex, Lincoln’ and Warwickshire farmers, will be reconnected to communities in London, they would travel to each weekend.

There should be more Farmer’s Markets in this country. We the public, should have the choice of buying our food direct from farmers and producers. Before i list the virtues of Farmer’s Markets, i would like to list the virtues of supermarkets:

Supermarkets bring us food from all over the world, at competitive prices.
Supermarkets create a standard, of food quality – which is good enough to trust to keep us healthy.
Supermarkets make it easy for us to shop, via pre-packaged, processed foods, and easy to get to shops, with ample parking.

Now i would like to list the virtues of Farmer’s Markets:

At a Farmer’s Market you buy direct from a farmer/producer, so you support the actual people that produce, they get a fair price and the customer gets a fair price ( i sell at markets and our produce is also for sale in some nearby quality grocers, for very much more money ).

At Farmer’s Markets, you not only support small local business, but it is good for the environment having our food travel, in most cases – less than 50 miles, to get to your shopping basket.

At Farmer’s Markets you have a range of produce that far surpasses ‘any’ supermarket. Even on ‘one’ fruit and vegetable stall, there is much more variety than any of the best quality supermarkets. Let us use a couple of examples, say Fruit = apples, and vegetables = tomatoes. In the supermarkets, there is usually no more than six or seven varieties of apple at any one time, and they are mainly of a uniform taste- not too sweet/not too sharp; on one stall alone there maybe a dozen or more apple varieties at any one time, and 30 or more varieties through the season: all with totally different tastes.
Tomato varieties in the supermarkets are usually no more than six or seven. On a good Farmer’s market stall, there may be a dozen types of tomato variety for sale, and each tasting very different.
And i am talking one good fruit and vegetable seller, now times that by two or three, and remember the varieties you ‘never’ see in the supermarkets:
Does your supermarket sell, radishes ‘with’ the leaves , redcurrents/whitecurrents, wild garlic, nettles, early/forced rhubarb, San Marzano tomatoes (my favourite variety)/beef tomatoes, salad leaves like sorrel, and mustard leaves, claytonia, land cress, swiss chard, more than one type of beetroot, beetroot leaves. How many varieties of courgette ? Patty pans? How many types of aubergine? Cobnuts,quince, meddlars? Any type of edible flowers – like courgette flowers , borage flowers?
All this i have experience selling on just one stall, and much more.

The food quality on a Farmer’s Market is very high. Customers demand to know how the things we sell are grown or made, and can get an answer from those who sell at Farmer’s Markets. On a market stall, you can in many cases speak directly with the farmer, or with someone who works on the farm, and knows the process of production intimately. Even when you speak with someone who may only have a Saturday/Sunday job on a stall, they can easily get your questions answered by their boss, who probably will be there to pack up the stall that evening for them. People who work on stalls, know their business.
Another aspect, the most important maybe, is taste. Things are grown locally on small farms not for the appearance but for the taste.
One more aspect is the health benefits of smaller scale producers. Many producers are organic certified, and many still grow naturally without having to resort to the use of the most toxic chemicals that large scale producers use. We use traditional and modern methods in many cases, to combat pests and diseases, like: companion planting, the use of natural based chemicals, the use of planting certain types of flowers that ward of pests, and the use of other insects as natural predators (ladybirds eat aphids like their is no tomorrow – cute but deadly).
I once worked on a market, and one young man told me he had been allergic to apples since he was a small child – and only just started eating apples (he was in his early twenties i think) from sellers at Farmer’s Markets, but still was unable to eat apples from supermarkets.
Whether or not, it was the pesticides that are used in the mass production of apples, that caused an allergy in the man i mentioned, it is still something to bear in mind. Mass production requires the use of pesticides whether there are any problems with the crop or not. Smaller scale farms selling at markets, use chemicals only if their is a problem with their crop, and possibly not at-all, although hard fruits like apples are hard to grow without issue. Growing salads and vegetables is easier in many ways.

Eating seasonally, even in a small way – makes you feel better, in my experience. The health benefits of keeping closer to the natural rhythms of the seasons, in my opinion may well combat a lot of the springtime/autumn colds and flues – that many of us are affected by each year. Together with the quality and variety of produce on offer, and the benefits of real home cooked, unprocessed meals on our tables, the health benefits are real and many.

The last point i would like to make about Farmer’s markets is their social function within a community.
They are an asset to any community lucky enough to have a good market. I spent a few years doing one particular Farmer’s Market in the Fulham area of London, and people did not come to buy their shopping and go, they came to ask the, ‘how, where and why ‘of what i sold. They would go from one stall back to another chatting with the traders before they made a purchase. People did not just queue in line, to await their turns, they chatted with one another, formed friendships and would talk about how they cooked, and exchanged recipes and tips – many of which i am thankful for. My customers came from every corner of the globe, and would discuss different cooking methods, varieties of fruit and vegetables and ‘the good life’ in general. Food is important! It is one of the greatest cultural assets we have, and brings people together in many ways, all of them good.
People would bring their children, and a large part of my customer base were young families just starting out in life, wanting to give their children the best start on the road to good health. Children were everywhere, including many mothers to be. Families would come to show their children where their food came from, as most produce was not packaged or trimmed up before sale (think veg like leeks, carrots, beetroot, and radish with the leaves on still ) and those selling were very knowledgeable, children could form a better picture of how things were grown and by whom – as-well as seeing the pre-packaged article. Customers would strike up relationships, and long lasting friendships with the traders, and some children would even maybe go on to work for a trader.
As-well as urban communities forming relationships with farmers from the country, a market would be a place where all people from the local community would come together.
People would come with their children, or on their own, and would stay chatting for hours after they had bought their shopping, kids always had the room to play and would not get bored. Markets are a destination for an afternoon or morning out in their own right; a place to meet and socialize; and a place to focus children’s attention on food and well-being, as-well as somewhere to focus adults attention on the important thing in life, real culture, a culture shared with communities all over the world – for countless generations, and now into our modern times.

Many people seem to agree, our modern ‘unsustainable’ life – needs to change. We as communities, both local and national, need to change our habits, our outlook and aspirations, in life. Health, community, diversity, sustainability, ‘the good life’; i think are things worth the effort of change on our part. My view is we should have more Farmer’s Markets. The actual choice lies with us-all, the public.

Do we want to be able to buy from farmers at ‘real’ farmer’s markets?

If so look up your nearest Farmer’s Market, and have a look what they sell throughout the season go back a few times, as the season progresses, and talk to people at the market, about the produce on offer, different traders, other markets. If you have no market in your area, look at some of the people who run markets in other areas,and ask them if they have thought of running one in yours, contact your local council, talk with community groups in your area, or even start a community group to gather support for a market in your area.

Thanks for reading,
Mike

I seem to have gained a small collection of treasure,  most of it from Parson’s Green. One of my customers even gave me her whole collection, from her travels (they (most of them) used to live inside the Altoids box, before i mounted them in a binder), i include just one coin from that collection here, the large many sided coin from Hong Kong.

 

I have missed a few, but here in no particular order are the countries where each coin is currency:

USA
Canada
Australia
Hong Kong * One of many
Poland
Barbados
East Carribean States/East Carribean Dollar
European Union/Euro
Denmark
United Kingdom
Gibraltar
India
Russia
Switzerland
Romania
Croatia

I was working at a farmer’s market in London today, braving the wind and rain,  that storm Freya has heaped upon us this weekend.  There were not many people out shopping today, but of the few who did brave the elements, as usual at farmer’s markets, i got to chat to a few very nice people about many interesting things.

One thing,a couple of ladies asked me about,  was : do we sell collard greens? Unfortunately we don’t, although we do grow, kale, cavelo nero, spinach, chard, and many many types of salad leaves; i had never come across collard greens.

When i got home, i looked up collard greens on the internet, and found they are very popluar in Brazil, Portugal, Southern USA, parts of Africa, Northern Spain, The Balkans and especially in the Kashmir  in India/Pakistan. Whenever i look something up, i come across the regional dishes which use the ingredients in question, and came across many classic dishes of India and Pakistan that use Collard Greens.

Many years ago, before i knew much about the wide world of vegetables , i used to eat much Indian restaurant/and takeaway food. The highly spiced and rich food we are so enamoured with in the UK, is not to my tastes anymore. I now eat plainer, healthier home-cooked  food, much closer to the real food that people of the Indian subcontinent might eat every day (or Italy, Portugal, Spain… ) .  Simple vegetable dishes, like the ones from the Kasmir, using Collard Greens, or the nettle recipes i heard from a Spanish lady last week, and many more simple, healthy vegetable based dishes from around the world, i have been told about from my, very cosmopolitan customers.

The point i am trying to make is, we in the UK, in the main,  have forgotten, our own culture’s many traditional everyday dishes – using seasonal fresh vegetables. We prefer to buy ready made meals, in plastic packets, with ingredients flown from the other side of the world. We have forgotten the virtues of buying fresh food, at markets, from the people who grow it.

Brexit!  Love it, or hate it, we are heading towards being non-Europeans rapidly, and the spectre of a ‘no deal’ exit from the EU is becoming ever more likely.

People are panic-buying already, so i hear. And  some might  have sleepless nights over how we will cope if there are food shortages.  And while out walking today,  i had this thought:  Maybe more people will question their shopping and eating habits, and consider supporting locally grown produce, over that flown or shipped  half way round the world?  Maybe more people will consider buying directly from farmers and producers, and come and meet the people who grow and produce what they put on the table, at farmer’s markets?

Through the din of political mischief, and the cloud of looming despair: that was quite a nice, sunny thought – to be walking home with.

We picked the first pears of the season, on our farm today.  I have been selling three varieties of apples, the first of the season, from our orchards this past three weeks: discovery apple –always the first, collina, and everyone favourite cooker bramley. The bramley apples are from some of the original orchards first planted thirty years ago here, by the farmer and his wife – still bearing fruit — a bumper harvest in fact.

Normally i would look forward to selling these new additions, on my stall at the market. As the season progresses into late summer and autumn, we would – each week have new varieties of apples and pears. Over the course of the apple season, we have something like thirty varieties, some come in – last a few weeks, as we have small plantings of some, and are replaced by another, which might only last as long, never to be seen again till late summer/autumn next year.

This year at Parson’s Green , i sold lots of soft fruit: strawberries, and raspberries – which last for months and months, and black, red,  and white currants, and blackberries, then cherries (a bumper harvest this year) then plums (still picking ) –  but no apples and pears (or damsens or medlars, or cobnuts, or squashes, and pumpkins, and leaks and kale … ) .

I hope i will be back at parson’s Green,  in the Spring, selling the remaining leeks and kale, which would have withstood the cold of the winter months, and the first plantings of salads;  and also the apple and fruit juices, we will have made from this summer/autumn’s – hopefully continued bumper harvest.

I wish there were more farmer’s markets in the U.K.  There is a special kind of joy,  you get shopping at a farmert’s market. It’s not just the things you can buy, even at a small market like Parson’s Green – the variety of fresh produce is, unmatched by any modern supermarket. It’s not just the quality of the things you can buy (most of the vegetables, meat and cheese at our market, is organic, or naturally grown).  Nor is it the knowing where, aswell as how, the food on your plate was grown; and in many cases, being able to talk to the actual farmer who grew them (or someone who works on the farm, or knows the product and production methods, of the things they are selling).

All of the reasons, i have touched on, are probably unmatched by any supermarket, but the real joy of shopping, is the actual act of shopping. I have witnessed, week after week, new and old customers, enter the market, go from one stall to another, maybe buying their weekly shopping – or just talking with a trader,  but they do so with a smile on their face, relaxed,  as  going to the shops/market, is a day out – something to be enjoyed. There are many children, at a market, they come with their mums and dads, and siblings, and have room to enjoy their surroundings.  But it is the grown ups who have most fun,  mum and dads,  young guys and girls,  they  chat to the traders, to other customers at the same stall.  They talk of the ‘seasonal produce’ they are buying,  favourite recipes, and life in general. Friendships are made in the queue at the vegetable stall, and carried over to the meat stall, the poultry, bread, and cheese stalls, and after all the shopping is done, small groups of people have a final conversation before leaving, some stay for hours. Shopping is a social event here, you never know who you will meet, or what new ‘in season’ produce you will find on the stalls. Every trip to the shops should be an event, in our lives, like it is at a farmer’s market.