Homegrown feast does not raise GDP

Felt contented last night. Went down the allotment straight after work and picked onions, broad beans and blackcurrants to bring home, and ate the first couple of raspberries (just to test!) and some alpine strawberries. Nearly a cornucopia…

Evening meal included onion tart. I’m not sure that Nigel Slater’s recipe even needs cheese when the onions are fresh and one uses the amount of butter he recommends.

The side dish: take young broad beans, podded but left in their inner skins, and blanch for a couple of minutes in boiling water. Put olive oil and a little chopped garlic in a bowl and throw in the drained beans. Grind black pepper on top and serve.

Plus carrot and tomato from the ECO box and green salad and the hardest avocado I’ve had ever tried to eat from ASDA.

I’d rather eat more self-grown food. I’m still learning about vegetable growing, but mostly it’s taking the time to grow and cook them that stops me. In a misguided attempt to help my employer, I’ve agreed to work an extra day per week. I get paid more, but I’m spending more: on childcare; on disposable nappies, because I don’t have the energy to wash and do real ones; on food, because I’m not preparing my lunch on the days I do work. It’s good for GDP but not good for me and my family.

Himalayan balsam (Impatiens glandulifera) and friends

Monday 23 June, went out with the Friends of the Hermitage of Braid (fohb.org) for my first attempt at balsam bashing. I’d heard of the invasive nature of the plant but wasn’t prepared for its ecology, so spent an uncomfortable evening on the side of a hill. Himalayan balsam lives with robust friends: nettles, brambles, roses. Harry Henniker pointed out that he’s never had to weed a nettle patch before…

From a botanical point of view, it’s superb: a fleshy plant, succulent and attractive to animals, that gets in among tough plants that the animals steer clear of. It’s also shallow rooting, suitable for other inaccessible places with minimal soil cover. The seed pods explode when touched and spread a thousand seeds over a wide area; and it likes hillsides so the seeds can travel even further. The SNH report (see earlier posts) says it’s the tallest annual in Britain.

Cleared a large patch, but noticed lots more. Am wondering how viable the seeds are and how long can they remain dormant in the soil. Apparently the Ranger has many groups working in the area although it’s got to be a big job… The SNH report shows that it’s all along the 5 rivers surveyed for the report.

There are good points, though! The Hermitage of Braid is lovely and the sun was out until 9pm when we finished. Even though we were on the North side of a hill there were great views over to the Braid Hills.

One of the group had previously found Hound’s Tongue (Cynoglossum officinale) in the vicinty. Looks like comfrey and it turns out that the plant is a member of Boraginaceae. However, looking through Phillips’ Wild flowers of Britain, I also see that forget-me-nots (Myosotis sp.) are in this family, so I’ll have to look a little closer than the obvious. (I also think some scrophulariaceae leaves and habit look more like comfrey than forget-me-nots.)

Phillips reckons it’s fairly common in central and South West England, becoming rare elsewhere. Smith et al.’s Plant life of Edinburgh and the Lothians records more genuses in the family than Phillips and notes that C. officinale is rare in the Midlothian vice-county having only been recorded in Polton (near Lasswade). Its habitat is also listed as coastal scrub, dunes and meadows which surprises me seeing as it was growing on the side of a hill.

• pic from floralimages
• Boraginaceae from bioimages.org.uk
• Flora of Northern Ireland
• USDA site

Accomplished…

Feeling very accomplished today. Been out with the Lothian Conservation Volunteers on Wester Craiglockhart Hill, and made 3 lbs of rhubarb and ginger jam.

Wester Craiglockhart Hill is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), sitting 5 km from Edinburgh City Centre. It’s also about 1 mile from my flat, so I was very happy to help LCV do some gorse bashing.

The site was designated a SSSI due to its two grassland habitats, one acid one calcareous, which together have to a 133 plant species counted on the hill.

The latest SNH report is that the condition is unfavourable so it’s a good job that LCV did the day’s work; and we made quite a difference: pulling up invasive rosebay willowherb, cutting down oat grass, and cutting back gorse on the grassland and on the access path to the summit.

Gorse grows new spines at the end of the branches, and the old spines dry out and fall off. Hacking away the spine mulch, which can be up to 5cm deep under the oldest bushes, reveals a relatively barren habitat from a botanical point of view. Although I saw several species of invertebrates living there with a cursory inspection, I doubt whether these are specific to gorse mulch. Gorse is also a legume, so it’ll fix nitrogen and improve the soil and, may facilitate the arrival of other species to out-compete the wild flowers.

In other news, Rhubarb and Ginger jam takes ages to boil and reach the setting point. I’m actually quite worried about how much energy it takes to preserve food; this took the best part of an hour on the hob, and I’ve only got 3lb of jam. Putting energy considerations aside, I’ll let you know how the jam tastes…

Easter Craiglockhart and some other links

Lovely walk up Easter Craiglockhart Hill yesterday. It’s a local nature reserve (why a local nature reserve?) and very diverse and interesting, too. Marsh, open water, mature woodland with 250 year old beeches, and grassland are all nestled in 15 Ha of Craiglockhart Woods. Knowledgable and friendly guide led the group round.

Woodland biodiversity - expanding our horizons (PDF)

Other publications:

Growing Nature – The Role of Horticulture in Supporting Biodiversity authored by Ken Thomson of the BUGS project inter alia. Expect a post on this soon…

Survey of Giant Hogweed, Japanese Knotweed and Himalayan Balsam on five major Lothian rivers. River Almond, River Esk, River North Esk, River South Esk, River Tyne. Not heartening…

Development of a forest habitat network strategy in west lothian confirms that remnant patches of ancient woodland in West Lothian still contain dispersal-limited core woodland species, and promotes planting of woodland close to ancient sites. One (of three) Core Ancient Woodland Areas is around Hopetoun. How does that mesh with the NCN (map on p29)?

Guided walk in Craiglockhart Woods, Saturday 24 May

Craiglockhart Woods were designated a Local Nature Reserve in 2005, and incorporate a wide range of habitats including grassland, marsh and a pond. As well as seeing the woods in their spring-time best, there will also be a chance to learn about local history.

Flier for Craiglockhart Woods walk

Images of Easter Craiglockhart Hill on the Craiglockhart Community Council pages

Local Nature Reserve page

Craiglockhart Woods Group pages

Lothian Conservation Volunteers go meadow raking on 1 June 2008

Zap!

From Marketing Alternatif blog

Wrong side of the tracks

With the collapse of the car industry, areas of Detroit have lost their population, the houses have become derelict and nature has started to reclaim Detroit. Reminds me of Joel Sternfeld’s pictures of the High Line in NYC before The Friends of the High Line (FHL) started to develop it into a linear park. FHL was partly inspired by The Promenade Plantée in Paris 12ème.

Incidentally, some of the Joel Sternfeld’s pictures are from Sweet Earth - Experimental utopias in America. A fine book!

Turf houses

Must be something in the air … A low impact woodland home in Wales plus an article on building it, and this week’s Big Issue Scotland headlines a £4000 straw and turf house in Dumfries. Wayne Hemingway’s opinion piece is a little po-faced. He’s right that duplicating the £4000 house will not solve a housing crisis, however he fails to laud the recycling and community aspects of the build.

In allotment news: planted the remaining 21 beans. The first lot didn’t look like they’d germinated, and I wonder whether I planted them too deep. Rhubarb stalks starting to unfurl on all three crowns.

Dug up the comfrey that was growing near my blackcurrants; almost a bucketful of roots. I’ve come to recognise the brittle tearing sound of comfrey roots, and the ensuing search for slivers of root that have broken off in case they regenerate. Am waiting for the horsetails to spring up soon, and then I’ll know Spring is really here.

The chives have growing again in my garden — didn’t spot these down the allotment.

Slashing waste in Fountainbridge/Craiglockhart

Last week I attended the Fountainbridge/Craiglockhart Green group meeting with guest speaker Melissa Viguier, waste aware education officer in the council.

1. Overview
2. Grants for community groups
3. Green cones

Local suppliers of food for East Ayrshire schools.

Evaluation of a Pilot Scheme to Encourage Local Suppliers to Supply Food to Schools (August 2006).

An important pilot scheme that shows the procurement approach adopted by East Ayrshire Council does encourage local suppliers and has been achieved within EU procurement rules (i.e. cannot discriminate on distance food will travel). By splitting the contracts into smaller parcels, economies of scale and distance are removed.

The overall cost of ingredients rose from 59p to 71.9p, due in part to organic sourcing. However parents in East Ayrshire feel that the local foods in primary schools scheme is a good use of their Council’s money; a clear majority think that this is the case. The cost per meal in the pilot is comparable with that in other local authorities.

Question is: has this pilot been rolled out?