NOV. 5, 2002
OAKLANDS is a Camphill Village, one of many communities following the philosophy of Rudolph Steiner. Adults with learning difficulties (the villagers) live and work with people whose difficulties are not so obvious to create a utopian society. It works. The community is based round a bio-dynamic farm. And now I've stubbed my toe on the basic problem. Do my readers know - do I know - what bio-dynamic means? I could explain, but it takes a volume.

The problem is communication.

To simplify outrageously, Steiner believed that we are all linked: humans, animals, plants, the earth, and beyond. His farming, education, dance, religion, all worked out aspects of this belief with German thoroughness. Steiner's followers are so dedicated, so thorough and so right that it is quite hard for them to communicate with the rest of the world. That doesn't bother them.

There are lots of them and they communicate well with one another. But it should bother the rest of the world because they have something we really need. To take farming, their soil is nurtured naturally, their crops are superbly healthy, their animals (and people) thrive, because bio-dynamic farming gives back at least as much as it takes out.

At Oaklands in the Forest of Dean, they have a flock of sheep, a herd of cows, fruit trees, a kitchen garden. They produce enough to feed themselves (more than 100 of them) and sell the surplus. There is also a weavery, so the sheeps' wool is valued. The whole system works because the profit motive plays no part in it.

So when the sheep all round them had Foot and Mouth and the authorities wanted to slaughter their healthy animals, it wasn't just their cows and sheep that were threatened, though that was awful enough. It was their whole way of life.

They withstood a siege. We supported them. And out of that victory the frail resistance to the government's farming policy was born.

The problem for us, the resistance, is how to talk meaningfully about farming to the great urban public who sit in their tower blocks and get fed, or to policy makers who see farming in terms of industry.

As a society, we see farming only in terms of profit. This is not the only way to see it. Oaklands works as a whole. The fact that they produce more food than they need is incidental. Is there any message here for the rest of us?

WICK COURT, FRAMILODE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE
Wick Court is a mixed farm with Gloucester cattle, Gloucester Old Spot pigs, Cotswold sheep, poultry, an apple orchard and the farm's original cider making equipment in working order. There is also a wonderful house: a Tudor hunting lodge, part of the Berkeley estate. It is ideally placed to have groups of city children to stay in the house and work on the farm. This is what happens as part of a scheme called Farms For City Children. Wick Court is very much a working farm, producing Single Gloucester and Double Gloucester cheeses as well as meat, and selling them at local shops and Farmers' Markets. It is also a major contributor in the communication battle. Children who would otherwise have no idea what farming is about see a mixed, traditional farm at work and join in. www.farmsforcitychildren.co.uk

NOV. 6
OVER FARM MARKET, GLOUCESTER
www.over-farm-market.com

Known for their colourful mounds of squashes at this time of year, Over has been going 20 years, bringing a range of local food to the side of the A40, just outside Gloucester. They sell their own vegetables in admirable profusion. They have also returned 200 acres to meadowland, grazed by their own cattle.

Their own beef appears in the new butchery section, together with free range Cotswold lamb and free range Gloucester Old Spot pork and bacon. They have a good range of English (though not particularly of local) cheeses. Milk from HYDE FARM DAIRY, CHELTENHAM, another brave and local dairy. Over also do their bit for communication, with animals you can visit, notably goats, donkeys and free-range hens.

NOV. 7
FULMAYS FARM, MINCHINHAMPTON. GLOUCESTERSHIRE
Fulmays, who are in the middle of a farm-move from Nastend, started as a dairy farm. When dairy farming became financially impossible, they added Gloucester Old Spot pigs, who live a fairly wild life, rootling in the woods. Now they have Gloucester cattle as well. They sell the meat at Farmers' Markets. When settled in Minchinhampton, they will welcome visitors.

NOV. 8
THE MOHAIR CENTRE, LONGHOPE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE
A sad story. There used to be a large herd of Angora goats, a shop selling mohair wool and clothes, a visitor centre and café. Now the goats and shop are being phased out and the rest is becoming a "children's entertainment centre".

I heard another sad story in Stroud. Local people have been extremely active in opposing a planning application by MacDonalds. As far as I can gather, not a single person in Stroud wants MacDonalds, but they're going to get it just the same. I can only hope that not a single person will patronise it.

NOV. 9
THE BOROUGH FARMERS MARKET
Already, farmers are finding it's easier to get someone else to do the selling and who can blame them? I do regret it though. Best of the new-style salesmen are Neal's Yard Dairy, who take great pains to display names and addresses of individual farmers. Some of them, making excellent cheese, are from Ram Hall in the W. Midlands, Riseley in Bucks, Churcham in Gloucestershire, Nantwich in Cheshire.

Also yoghurt from Dorstone in Herefordshire and S. Molton in Devon and butter from Wroughton in Wilts and Moorhayes, Wincanton. Milk (Jersey, unhomogenised) from the Bowles family, Beckington, Bath. Free range eggs from Saffron Walden.
Also at the Borough were:
Farmer Sharp's Herdwick lamb
Furness Fish, Poultry and Game Supplies with
Morecambe Bay potted shrimps,
Northfield Farm, Rutland (Naturally reared meats)
West Country Venison
Trethowan's from Gorwydd with their own Caerphilly
Sillfield Farm, Kendal (Wild Boar)
And others.
I feel some cashing in is already going on. Also one or two market traders are left over from the old Borough Market with wonderful displays of vegetables. OK they didn't grow them themselves, but it's good to see them still around.

The communication battle is being fought hard at the Borough.

Farmers have only just started to communicate with consumers and it's not surprising that they differ about what they are trying to put across and to whom. The Borough represents all shades of opinion from Pate de foi gras and a stuffed pheasant inside a duck inside a goose to vegans and farmers who put animal welfare first.

NOV. 10
BLACKHEATH FARMERS' MARKET
Warren Farm, New Romney, Kent, "giving our animals the care and consideration they deserve. All are genuinely free-range, in as natural a habitat as possible". I mean to go and see them.

Bob and Chris Fridd, Selling, Faversham, Kent, with their own home grown veg. Lots of it.
Flower Power City, Hoxton, organic baker.
Chegworth Valley fruit and fruit juice.
www.applejuicedirect.com (very interesting site)
Nut Knowle Farm, Horam, E. Sussex. Goat cheese.

Telling the public about farming is the most important thing we can do. We've hardly started yet. I am on this journey for the same reason I started a city farm, which is the same reason I became a gardener. I am moved by the dreadful cut-offness of humans from the natural world.

This cut-offness has some strange symptoms. One recurring one is people's inability to admit that they are moved by animal suffering. They would find it easier to tell you they had AIDS than to say that they cared about animal welfare. Genuine care for animals is disguised as "good stockmanship". Taste and human health are considered more relevant to the consumer than whether the animal had a good life and a painless death. Farmers who obviously care for their animals are ashamed to admit this. Why?

NOV. 11
THE APPLE SHOP, BLACKMOOR VALE, BORDON, HANTS.
Their own fruit and cakes, Also local cream and ice-cream from, MEADOW COTTAGE FARM, HEADLEY, HANTS. I'll ask them where their milk goes.
CAPRICORN GOATS CHEESE
www.lubborn.co.uk
PRIORS DEAN WINE, SELBOURNE, HANTS.
HILL FARM ORCHARDS SWANMORE, HANTS. Fruit juices, which are a thriving industry wherever I go.

NOV. 13
DURLEIGH MARSH FARM SHOP, PETERSFIELD, HANTS.
Very good PYO. I have been before for asparagus and strawberries. They also do PYO flowers and herbs in season.

Shop is particularly rich in dairy products and has a good selection of cheese, several from Dorset but at least 3 are more local:

Interesting cheeses from ASHDOWN FOREST ORGANIC, SUSSEX HIGH WEALD DAIRY, DUDDLESWELL, E. SUSSEX
Italian style cheese from TWINEHAM GRANGE, W. SUSSEX
www.tgfonline.com
Sheep's cheese and yogurt from WIELDWOOD, ALRESFORD, HANTS.
www.sheepdairying.com
Unfortunately Olivia Mills has just died. She made this cheese and also founded the Sheep Dairying Association
Butter and cream also from Dorset.
Stoneground flour from the local museum, which has a water mill at SINGLETON.
Free range eggs from SOUTHDEAN FARM, FROXFIELD, HANTS.
Country wines from LURGASHALL WINERY, W. SUSSEX
Cyder from GOSPEL GREEN, W. SUSSEX
BURTS potato crisps from Devon.

NOV. 14
MEADOW COTTAGE DAIRY FARM, HEADLEY, HANTS.
www.members.netscapeonline.co.uk/weydown

Herd of healthy looking Jerseys (not lame, not too thin, straight backs). Friendly and free collies. I bought milk, cream, and ice-cream. They have just won a gold award for their ice-cream. Unfortunately, most of the milk gets sold on. I wonder if I could persuade him to make yogurt. This is how Loseley got going. He was putting the bull on a cow with one hand, and selling to me with the other, while expecting the milk recorder. Anything else might be too much.

NOV. 15
BOWTELL'S FARM SHOP. EAST TISTED, HANTS.
www.bigbarn.co.uk/bowtell
Seems very genuine, although I didn't see the animals. It is primarily a butcher's shop, selling their own pork and bacon, beef and lamb. The Bowtells care about their animals and tell you in detail how they are kept, still not saying in so many words that they care about animals. When it comes to slaughter "we minimize the stress on our animals with short journey times and familiar handling." All their animals range freely and are fed only on natural, GM free feed.

They also sell milk from another independent dairy:
WATSON'S DAIRY, MISLINGFORD, WICKHAM, HANTS and apple juice from HILL FARM ORCHARDS, SWANMORE. HANTS.
LYBURN FARMHOUSE CHEESES, LANDFORD, SALISBURY, WILTS
www.lyburncheese.co.uk

NOV. 16
LURGASHALL WINERY, PETWORTH. W. SUSSEX
www.lurgashall.co.uk
Very easy on the eye, sunk in Sussex woodland. They make country wines (Elderflower, Rose Petal, Silver Birch, Gooseberry, Blackberry etc) and you can taste them. Also meads and liqueurs. Definitely not like your grandmother used to make, unless she was extremely skilled. They are good at selling too. I have found their wines on the other side of the country.

NOV. 17
MILFORD FARM MARKET
A very good market. Farmers' markets in the South country are less frequent and far less numerous than in East Anglia. But when you get one, it is full of interest, variety and real farmers. I was going to say industrial farming hasn't swept the South in the way it has E. Anglia, so the need to react against it is less pressing, but that would be an insult to the organic, free-range and dedicated farmers I met this morning.

It was also very well attended by customers, in spite of the rain. It is possible that there are not so many people round here as there are round Stroud who have given up supermarkets completely and live from one farmers' market to the next. You'd need a freezer to do that, but then, everyone round here has a freezer.

Vegetables were in shortest supply.

SECRETT'S FARM SHOP, who hosted the market, had a spectacular stall. Also

TEST VALLEY WATERCRESS and the man I bought spinach from, who had excellent leaves but no name.

Then there was meat:
LOWER ROUNDHURST FARM, HASLEMERE, SURREY
www.roundhurstfarm.co.uk Organic Sussex cattle.
UPTON REDHEADS ORGANIC POULTRY
LEE HOUSE FARM, BILLINGSHURST, SUSSEX. ORGANIC BREAKFAST
HAMPSHIRE GAME LTD
LYDLING FARM ABERDEEN ANGUS
www.aberdeenangus.co.uk
SHIPRODS FARM, HORSHAM, beef and mutton.
And more. And dairy products:
MEADOW COTTAGE FARM with their wonderful milk, cream, and ice cream
MONASTERY CHEESE
DUDDLESWELL CHEESE
TWINEHAM CHEESE
And excellent beer from ITCHEN VALLEY BREWERY, ALRESFORD, HANTS
Cakes and pies from: DORSET BLUEBERRY CO, who grow their own blueberries
www.dorset.blueberry.co.uk
LIME TREE PANTRY all the way from Notts.
www.limetreepantry.com
Bread from SLINDON BAKERY. A fascinating selection, including Roman bread.
Seafood from SELSEY WILLOWS
Baskets from THE ENCHANTED WOOD, DUNSFOLD, SURREY. She was making them on the spot and you can order what you want. 07971 377921

And best of all to me, two stalls with woollen goods:
THE PENHROS FLOCK of Jacob sheep, selling skins, knitting wool and woven rugs and garments, courtesy of THE NATURAL FIBRE CO. LAMPETER, POWYS. who have given new hope to many small wool producers.

ANNE BROCKHURST makes a living from her smallholding in Fernhurst. She added peg-loom rugs and naturally died wool to an inspiring collection.

With wool, I have to admit, it is a niche market. Man-made fibres have taken over the mass market and they really are cheap, easy to wear and cruelty-free (cruelty to animals anyway). Wool is for people who love and appreciate it and sheep are valued only by that small minority. There is not the direct parallel here with food that industrial farmers assume.

There is no reason, except ignorance, why this island should not feed itself, value its farm animals and be a whole lot healthier - mentally and physically.

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