Tracy Worcester Pig Business Podcast

Wiggly Podcast 188

Rachel Harries talks to film maker Tracy Worcester about her film Pig Business, a film that shows how cheap meat is not always what it seems and how industrial food production methods have uncoupled the price of pork on the supermarket shelves from the costs that we'll all have to pay eventually. It's the longest Wiggly Podcast so far, but an important one that bears a second listening. 

Time to buy British Pork and check its provenance...

Farmer Phil's Farm Mix for just £1!

Its true Farmer Phil's Farm Mix is available at £1!!

What's the catch?

Well you can only have one bag per household...
Its best to order something else with it as our normal postage and packing charge applies.
The offer runs out in a Jiffy (well 11.59pm 30th June)

Sometimes we have other corking offers, a long with a bit of gossip in our e-news. Please subscribe.

In the meantime, find out how to claim your £1 bag of Farmer Phil's Farm Mix HERE

Nuffield Web 2.0 for Farmers and Rural Biz

In 2007 I was lucky enough to be awarded a Nuffield Scholarship

In the aftermath of the Second World War Lord Nuffield, Industrialist and Philanthropist, initiated a travelling scholarship scheme for British and Empire farmers, in recognition of their contribution to feeding the nation through the war, and as a method of advancing the best agriculturalist practice around the world.

The first 2 scholars were selected in 1947. Jane Kenyon and Edward Stokes from the UK paved the way for some 1000 scholars from eight participating countries that have since travelled the world studying the best agricultural practice wherever it may be. From Brussels to Washington, the paddy fields of Asia and the fantastically productive farmlands in the America’s, to the most sophisticated and technologically advanced farming in the other parts of the world, Nuffield scholars have created an unrivalled network of Agriculturalists that, worldwide, are at the leading edge of their profession. Read more

I studied how Web 2.0 and Social Media could benefit Farmers and Rural Business. You can read the agreed draft of my Nuffield Report here.

Let me know what you think...

The taste of summer

Now for those of you didn't follow my rambling instructions on how to make Elderflower Cordial on Podcast 186, here they are again:

What you need:

15 - 20 heads

3 pints water
1.5 kgs sugar
1 lemon, cut in half and juiced

Put your elderflower heads in a large clean bowl or bucket. Dissolve the sugar in boiling water and pour over the flower heads, squeeze in the lemon and throw the halves in as well.

Leave for 24 hours - strain, preferably through muslim (a sieve is not quite fine enough) and bottle. If you bottle it in plastic bottles you can freeze it for later, or you can keep it in the fridge for about a month - if it lasts that long!

I love it added to white wine and soda or lemonade, a sort of Elderflower White Wine Spritzer. But what I'd really like now is to try making some Elderflower Champagne.

Ummm, lovely!

Barmy Piccy but Nice Flowers

Not sure who looks dafter here me or the cow! But even so Mr "Natt" Naylor has supplied us with a corking pallet of peonies picked from his patch!  If you would like a gorgeous hand tied Pile of Peonies at a wonderful price, all you need to do is to subscribe to our e-news which usually has a very good bargain and a bit of good gossip and we will send it on to you straight away.

We want LOCAL food!

Well its a couple of weeks since we talked about this on the podcast, but I promised I'd let you know where to find out more about the local food project I work on when I'm not at Wiggly Wigglers.

Have a look at the Campaign to Protect Rural England website for background to the project and the wonderful work of rural campaigner, Caroline Cranbrook who first mapped her local food web in East Suffolk in 1998, and was on Radio 4 Desert Island Disks last week. Or listen to Podcast 183.

And if you'd like to get involved in tracking your local food web (or network) and live in one of these locations, why not join the Mapping Local Food Webs volunteer research team?

Ledbury - rachelh@cpre.org.uk (West Midlands)
St Austell - jennyg@cpre.org.uk (South West)
Burnley - helenm@cpre.org.uk (North West)
Haslemere - kareng@cpre.org.uk (South East)
Otley - elizabethf@cpre.org.uk (Yorkshire and Humber)
Norwich - rachels@cpre.org.uk (East)
Newark - davidr@cpre.org.uk (East Midlands)

If your town isn't listed here, there will be about another 7 or 8 mapped in the next few months, so contact your Regional Coordinator to find out more.

Its perry, NOT pear cider!

Those of you who came to visit the Wiggly Garden at the Hay Festival, might have had the chance to sample some delicious local cider.

But even if you didn't, I thought I'd share with you an interesting conversation I've just had with one of the producers whose cider and perry we featured.

Paul Stephens of Newton Court Cidery makes some of the best cider and perry around. His bottle fermented (that means slightly sparkling) perry went down especially well during the long hot days of Hay.

But he has a bee in his bonnet. Certain national cider producers have brought out a drink which they are calling 'pear cider'. Now I thought there was no such thing as 'pear cider' - and that what they were actually selling was perry, an alcoholic drink made by a process similar to cider (which is apples), but from pears. And that's what I was telling people at Hay.

Now Paul tells me that 'pear cider' is a real drink, made from desert pears, the sort you can eat when they are juicy and ripe.

But it's not what he produces, which is real perry, and can only be made from perry pears, which have names like Huffcap, Nailor and Merrylegs. These pears are also rock hard and totally inedible when raw. The history of making perry goes back hundreds of years and thanks to the artisan producers like Paul and Ross-on-Wye Cider and Perry Company (another popular taster at Hay!) and many more in Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, it still survives and thrives.

The Slow Food movement have even named Three Counties Perry as a unique product, just as certain cheeses can only come from one location, in order to protect and promote it. I love their tagline for it: A curious drink for a slow world!

So we reckon, rather than confuse things, we should just say NO to 'pear cider' and YES, PLEASE I'll have another pint, to real perry.

Sweet Violets are Gorgeous

AND on offer on Wiggly Deal of the Day!

Open Farm Sunday is TOMORROW

If you want to find out what goes on behind the scenes at a farm pop on down to one of the 450 farms opening their gates for Farm Sunday 2009. We were on Ian Piggots farm last week in Hertfordshire finding out about the way he runs his farm. First time I've seen him without a pink shirt, but Ian actually invented Open Farm Sunday as part of his Nuffield Scholarship, and Wiggly Wigglers is a proud sponsor again this year.

Here's a couple of farms we have visited that are well worth a few hours to visit tomorrow.


Overbury Farms will be joining in for the 4th consecutive year.

Tractor rides will depart frequently through out the day taking in various different aspects of farming at Overbury.

Chris Tallis Farm Machinery from Ashton-Under-Hill will have a display of various tractors, including the latest in satellite navigation technology. The John Deere 30 series will be used to demonstrate how the new technology enables the tractor to steer itself!

Those giving talks will include Jake Freestone (Farm Manager) and William Fox (Frontier Agriculture). Also present will be Dominic Swainson of UAP, our “crop doctor” who helps to ensure that Overbury Farms operates at the highest environmental and technological levels.

Robert Edwards will be giving a falconry display and ferret racing is scheduled at intervals through out the day. Our shepherd will be shearing sheep and the wool will be spun on a traditional spinning wheel.

There will be farm animals to meet – sheep, cows, pigs and chickens, and a nature trail to follow.

With something for everyone Open Farm Sunday promises to be a great day out for all the family!

White Haywood Farm and Restaurant
Open Farm Sunday 2009 comes to our working family farm in the foothills of the Black Mountains.
We will take you on a guided tour of our farm to see the animals, machines and the work being carried
out through Countryside Stewardship and environmental schemes. Local Stitchers & Weavers group,
Y.F.C, the Environment Agency and more are helping out and doing demonstrations on the day.
Philip & Pauline Goodwin • White Haywood Farm & Restaurant, Craswall, Nr Hay-on-Wye, Herefordshire HR2 0PH • Tel: 01981 510324

For a list of all the farms and more details go to the Open Farm Sunday Website

Springwatch

Dear All 

You will no doubt be aware that we get your mealworm orders (and your bouquet orders) despatched on the same day. Noelle and Sylv take a pride in completely their orders and whether we have to take them to the post or carrier ourselves at night that is what we do...

However, over the last couple of weeks we have been "Springwatched!" You remember the moment when Delia said you needed a particular Omelette Pan sales went through the roof!

So when Kate Humble and team say mealworms are perfect to feed fledglings... a deluge of mealworm orders come in. We are doing our bestest best to get your order despatched same day and currently over 90% of the time this is happening. But please bear with us, we have scaled up our operation and aim to be back to normal by Friday!

In the meantime PLEASE dont stop ordering from us - we are very very pleased to receive your mealworm orders, and we do realise your birds need them!