Sustaining the Land

...... and ourselves.  Without the Land we cannot feed ourselves and cannot protect and nourish our loved ones.  For me it has been very much a trip down memory lane after reading this particular article.  Very happy memories that I am very privileged to have experienced.  I think once you have had something really good - nothing else quite lives up to things, but each time and season is its own and life is about different experiences.

I always read with interest anything that Guy Singh-Watson has to say about anything to do with food basically as overall I think he is right.  We all need a connection to the land but as with all things that connection is lost through various things and because of circumstances people are not always able to reconnect with what is an inherent part of things.

This is the latest article on his Instagram account link is here: Land and People Husbandry  At least he is trying to do his bit and inspire the younger generations exposing them to something special and giving them their childhood in the most nurturing of fashions.  However I think he is also trying to encourage us all to do a bit and take responsibility for ourselves.

What do you think?

I particularly think this is the right way forward.  For gardening and food management for ourselves you have to introduce youngsters whilst young to gardening.  If exposed gently to it, they are like "sponges" and soak up anything and everything without realising it.  It also gives them something to do that does not cost an arm and a leg.  I did this with my step-daughter and it has given her practical skills to feed herself and her children and also give her a long-term hobby. In reality, the youngsters of today are very much the caretakers for the future, the ones to take over from where we have left off.  The ones to do better than we did.  

Being "nurtured" and exposed to new things in a safe environment is the best way to learn.  Sometimes for a lot of us this is how you learn to do things.  This is how my Dad, his brother, I and my brother learned about gardening by being around it all our lives and then having a go.  We were encouraged to try and do things ourselves and this nurtured a love of the land and looking after it by any natural means.  

My Uncle had a one man Dairy farm and then because of ill health had to give up.  He had a large allotment garden and still kept a house cow.  I have never had proper cream and dairy products like he produced since.  He believed in the natural approach wherever possible.  He preferred the company of wildlife and animals to humans for the majority of his life.

My dear brother has a very healthy allotment which he is very much into and sustains to this day.  I had one once but received no support from G, despite the fact I cannot and am not allowed to drive. He would not take me down so that I could get on with things and at that point there was no storage down at the allotment for me to keep my tools.  Everyone was friendly and really lovely, just did not have the support which was needed at home.  This grieved me an in the end I ended up having to give it up.  However, whatever, but I plan a future with a garden to grow stuff and feed us whether he likes it or not.  I have done it before and certainly intend to do it again.    

Looking back on the Family Tree on all sides of the family there have been Gardeners or Land Workers throughout all sides of the family. There have also been a lot of other skilled trades in between the Professionals of their day.  My Grandparents always worked.  I think you need a mixture of all trades in any one family and particularly someone who will garden and then encourage other members of the family to garden.  

My "Pop" was a skilled Engineer Fitter who worked the same job for 56 years, trained most members of the Senior Management of the large worldwide enterprise he was working for and yet retired in the same position as he started.  He did receive his gold watch.  Pop and Nan had 6 acres originally which was down to just under two acres when I was 17 months old when he sold off four plots at £30 a plot.  Incredulous really.  The houses built on them are worth many thousands of pounds these days.  

My grandparents' sustained their living standards and had a very good standard of living by growing their own.  They were land rich but cash poor. Although my Pop was on a good wage at the time things were very different then and growing your own and preserving were the way you fed your family during the long and extremely cold Winters.  Firewood had to be chopped, coal had to be bought as most homes were heated either by coal or wood fires. A small amount of livestock was also kept a couple of pigs and a couple of Geese and Chickens for meat and eggs.  Bees were also kept until my Pop became allergic after a particularly nasty Bee attack and had to give up his precious Bees. He was particularly upset about this.  

Both my Uncle and my Dad also at various times kept Bees.  I had training 20 years ago at Sacrewell Farm. Sacrewell Farm Link. (There is very much a connection to Riverford here which was where I started off this post check the link out to read).

However I have never had an opportunity to keep the Bees for myself because of where we live and the next door neighbour. He has a heart condition and also cannot stand insects of any kind. Talk about OTT reactions. I had a vision of the Bees coming home to their hive en-masse and him having heart failure at the site of this happening.  I thought it best not to expose the Bees to him.   

As I have said I attended classes at Sacrewell Farm run by David Powell and Bob Newton (think I have the names right).  However checking up it would appear that they are still running classes there, although they have not run a course this year.  It may be something that I will look into further and re-do.  The link to the local Beekeepers Association for Peterborough is here: Peterborough Beekeepers.  Therefore Bee Keeping for me if I get into a countryside setting is very much something that I want to re-visit. Without Bees to pollinate our crops our food chain will diminish.  Yet the Government keeps poisoning them with all their Licences for using various sprays that poison and kill the Bees.  Not the way to go.  

My Grandparents' growing gardens were also fantastic and they grew so much.  My Nan was the one behind the growing of seeds and nurturing them and Pop did the labour intensive work although Nan was not averse to this.  

Nan and Pop also had two big vegetable gardens, one plot was laid fallow for a year after growing and then pressed into use on the following year. This worked and the wildlife also thrived with this non invasive natural technique.  The area for growing was bigger than a tennis court (the equivalent of two tennis courts). The compost heap spanned the two separate gardens with a path down the centre of both.  The compost heap was where the Marrows grew during the summer.  They loved it. 

There was also a reasonable sized cut flower garden.  Nan used to do the Flowers for the Church in the village St Clements at Fiskerton, Lincolnshire.  Nan loved flowers and I always remember the house being filled with them seasonally and also plants when there were no flowers about.

There were also fruit Orchards predominantly put down to apples may old English varieties not seen today unless you got to the Brogdale Trust.  Both eating and cooking apples and Codlings as well which could be used either way.  Also plums (Victorias, Black Diamond and one Greengage that only produced once the year before my Nan passed), pears (I think there was one Williams and the rest were Conference and at one time Damsons.  

There was also a soft fruit area put down to Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Redcurrants, Blackcurrants, Whitecurrants and Gooseberries.  The Wild Larder was also raided at various times of the year.  A lot of the produce used to be bottled up for use in pies and puddings during the Winter months.  Equally lots of the veggies and fruits used to be used in winemaking, as did a lot of wild produce such as Sloes, Nettles, Elderberries, Hawthorn and Rosehips.

This year by choice I chose not to grow anything which I am not a happy bunny about by any means. I knew it was the wrong decision for me as soon as I made it, however I did have far more pressing things on my mind at the time.  A lot of the time adulting means having to take an overview of things that are best for the present situation at that particular time, but long term not particularly right for you.  So I am going to attempt to put in a few things for a little bit of growing for this year and see if it works.  I have greatly missed my gardening as it keeps me on an even keel for the best part.  Gives me a freedom to heal and just simply be.

As some of you will have seen in a previous post I had put seeds to plant on my "To Do List" for the week.

Today I was given some bounty by my unkempt garden in that I was able to harvest a fair amount of Rhubarb to bottle for the Pantry shelf.  One of the beauties of a Perennial garden at anytime is that you plant them once and then harvest without having to re-plant anything.  I only have a small amount of Rhubarb but it rewards regularly and for that I am truly grateful. Although not the "Rosiest" of Rhubarb in colour, it does a job and that is all that matters.  If I ever attain the dream of a proper kitchen garden in the future, there are more Rhubarb plants on my list.

Well am off to potter.  I have seeds to sow and preserves to make and a tea to cook.         

Have a lovely evening everyone.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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