Good morning,
It’s been another busy week on the farm this week - moving cattle, making hay and a little more progress on our farm kitchen. We unfortunately had some inconclusive TB results on 3 cows last week, which means they need to be kept separate from the rest of the herd and tested again in a few weeks. We’re confident they will come back clear as there is no sign of TB in our cattle, but it’s a little tense nonetheless.
If Glastonbury isn’t your idea of a good time, there has been another festival this week with arguably better food stalls and a less fraught ticket purchase. What it lacks in a Paul McCartney headline act it makes up for in compost demonstrations and the concentration of feet in Blundstone boots. This week saw the return of Groundswell, an annual festival in Hertfordshire that invites experts in soil health, conservation agriculture, the environment and food production to share ideas on how we can grow food in a more holistic and healthy manner. I managed to get up there on Wednesday and saw some really interesting talks. Naturally wearing a pair of muddy Blundstone boots.
Henry Dimbleby was one of the speakers and he talked about his National Food Strategy that was published last year, and his ideas on what needs to happen now. The government’s white paper response came out last week and frustratingly yet somewhat unsurprisingly seems to have missed a lot of the plan’s recommendations.
He talked about reducing diet inequality by improving food education in schools and improving access to healthier free school meals. We also need to escape the junk food cycle, which is difficult because 75-80% of food marketing is spent on low nutrition foods in the UK. Taxing salt and sugar is a start, but understanding the power of food on our health, and knowing how to prepare healthy foods at home is vital.
He suggested we need to produce food with less waste - not only food waste in manufacturing, retail and at home, but the inefficient land use of growing grain to feed livestock. He recommends a national meat consumption reduction of 30% and argues unprocessed vegetarian options need to become cheaper and more accessible to enable a shift. He agreed that there is a place for meat on our tables but this needs to come from thoughtful agricultural systems.
Dimbleby’s strategy has calculated that we can grow enough food to feed a growing population, make it more nutritionally dense, use land to carbon sequester and increase biodiversity but it is going to take a lot of effort from food growers, food consumers and the government. The powerful message that I took back to Trenchmore was that farmers have a massive role to play in the incoming global crisis. We have lots of work to do to improve the way the country eats and the way the environment is looked after, but I’m forever hopeful that we can do things better, fairer and with more regard for our land, animals and communities.
Pizza in the yard tomorrow
We’re serving up wood-fired Neopolitan pizza and cider in the yard tomorrow from 1-4pm. Lucas doesn’t take bookings but there will be plenty for walk-ins.
And the farm shop is open 11-4pm, with fresh steak, eggs & cider to pick up. Have a look at what’s available here.
Nuthurst Lamb on 9th July
Shepherd Rosie & Chef Sam are joining forces next weekend and are cooking one of Rosie’s lambs asado style.
Rosie will chat to us about her flock and business whilst Sam serves up barbecued lamb, crispy tatties, salad & pickles in a wrap. We can’t wait.
