Blog Posts

So here we are...

3/23/2020

Somebody asked me to write something in my blog at the market last week that was funny. This has been a challenge as most of my humour seems quite black at the moment. So other than be told at the market today "I hope you survive this" by a friendly customer wishing me well with regard to the economy and the business ;) , I thought of a quiz option which means that you will have to know me, live in France or read a lot of blogs to understand where I am coming from.... In the age of the pandemic which of the pictures below allows for self isolation and is touched by fewest people?

.....and yes which bins did they change us all over to only a couple of months ago? The question is does anyone like the new bins? I think not.
In other news, yes we are trading, any which way we can. As you can imagine with all the cancelling and uncancelling by various Mairie's around the country people are understandably confused. The markets that I attend are all functioning. Only with food, and don't be alarmed if you go there as the stands may be jumbled up with our efforts to maintain at least 2m between each stand. Nothing like a challenge at 7 in the morning :)
As well as that I am trying to locate people who need to be delivered to for the interim. Whether I can find some other things to deliver to you from my fellow standholders I will let you know. It would make it very much simpler for me if you could follow our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/franklinfarm/ then I can keep you all up to date.

So as well as all those exciting things lambing has started. Thank goodness for some fine weather to assist an already busy schedule. The grass is beautifully green and some of our sheep have gone into group isolation at the neighbours.

Home school seems to be going well and my youngest has discovered how much time there is in a day if you can work at your own speed. So we have had a plethora of baked goodies, chocolate chip cookies, brownies, american pancakes and I am waiting now for some vienesse biscuits. This confinement lark is not going to be good for my waistline.
We have also been having more aperos and we made some more lomo which we ate over the weekend I should have taken a photo...but I ate it too quickly ;)
Keep well all of you, wash your hands often, lots of warm drinks and enjoy the sushine and the lack of teleslescalls if you are in my part of the world.
Helenxx :)

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March 08th, 2020

3/8/2020

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The photo above is a lovely illustration of runoff and soil loss. The flow coming in from above is running out of permanent pasture with a forest strip on the boundary. The flow from the right is run off from a bare field left uncovered through the winter.

You know those really annoying blouse, t-shirts and dresses in shops that have arms that are sooooo tight once the item of clohing that you are trying on in the shop is on, the only way to remove it is with a chisel Well I have worked out what the problem is...... Fast-acting cleaning products and wipe clean surfaces.
There I was in the charity shop looking for inspiration surrounded by solid wood furniture at 40 euros for a wardrobe and realised that no one wanted it anymore because it would need the occaional polish or dust rather than a quick wipe with a damp cloth. And then again in the bathroom cleaning this morning having to rub slightly more enthusiastically to clean the sink with my home-made cleaner, rather than having some instant chemical filled "wash away in an instant cleaner" which requires a light movement to remove bathroom scum. We have arm atrophy in the fashion industry. Encouraged by humans forgetting how to use their arm muscles.

After a couple of weeks with Gavin on half power or less, Alice and I most certainly do not have arm atrophy. We are also delighted that he is finding his way back to perfect health. Gavin however is incensed by the fact that after a week lying on the sofa, all his muscles have suffered from atrophy and now his body is objecting to returning to his normal schedule. I haven't dared to suggest that the year of his birth may have assisted in the slower bounce back time, for fear of him reminding me of mine :)

Flies on poop

Worms on rotting wood

I weeded my lavender this morning to cure myself of grey sky depression, as putting your hands in the soil is said to improve mental health. I feel better and now the sun is trying to do something outside so my washing will dry on the line for a change rather than become musty smelling in front of the fire.
There are a lot of mushrooms sprouting in our fields. A good sign of soil health. All the bugs, microbes and microscopic thingummybobs you cant see below the surface are busy collecting, processing and releasing all the good things to make new soil and grow lovely lush grass.

Mushrooms in the field

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toilet paper or amazon which is more useful?

2/15/2020

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2005

2015

Gosh look how much the trees grew!

When we first moved to France 16 years ago and lived in our mobile home we had a highly illegal septic tank, a 200 litre plastic drum buried in the ground. Being previous residents of the developed world we proceeded as we had before and selected the nicest toilet paper we could find having been subjected to the functional, but not luxury loo paper of Zimbabwe for the previous 12 years. Well who new that the selection was as vast as it was, and who knew that it was possible to have 4 ply, quilted, embossed fragranced loo paper. Then surprise, surprise our septic tank had an eruption! All over the grass, floating sheets of quilted loo paper all over the garden. It was blocked.
Lucky for me I married a dairy farmer. Dairy farmers spend a lot of time in poo, and are not squeamish :) After many failed attempts to find a brand of loo paper that dissolved in a septic tank we discovered that the stuff that looked about the same as the not very luxury brand in Zimbabwe would be the only thing to use. Hey ho, win some, lose some.
Let this be a guide and warning to all toilet users that if you want to help the planet maybe it is time to forgo the luxury brand toilet paper.

Look at those ears!!

In my quest to rid myself of clutter, of my brain and conscience, not necessarily my stuff, I have successfully managed to avoid amazon purchases for nearly a year. It annoys me to the extreme that the owners of these mega corporations have sooooo much money and make sooooo little to contribution to the community part of society. I noted the other day that the Forbes list has created a score system on philanthropic contributions to go with each of their mega rich people. Mr. Amazon did not do so well in the philanthropy department, neither did Mr. Google. On further investigation even some who looked great had dubious tax avoidance loops linked to their philanthropy or managed to channel their own money back into their own charity systems. Disappointing. If you think about it, if everyone paid the tax they owed then there would be less requirement for charity and philanthropic work as it could all be funded by that thing we elect to speak for us and call government. Oh no I forget I can't even do that anymore. Vote that is.
Alice aked me the other day how I was going to manage without anything apple, microsoft, google or amazon. I have succesfully avoided the apple thing, but as I type on my not apple computer using facebook to network on, google as my search engine and microsoft for my software I realise I will have to either branch out into a new industry, or I will have to get someone to teach me how to do everything without any of this jolly handy computer stuff. It is a work in progress.

A couple of blogs ago I showed you a photo of sheep eating hay overwinter. The photos I show you today are of the regrowth in the same place. Spring seems to be steaming along rather too quickly. Some of the vineyards are doing a second pruning to slow down the growth and avoid the losses that may come with a May frost. The sheep are however enjoying the early flush of green which should set them up for their lambing in April.
See you all very soon
Helenx

Today at the farm

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Being Noisy is sometimes a good thing

2/2/2020

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Sheep eating noisily

Well it has been a wet back to work month not particularly cold. However the markets have been relatively busy with people coming out anyway. Kids, brollies and all. Lovely to see so many new faces at the market interested in buying local produce, some from the younger generation. Lots of talk about how warm it is and as I sit here typing in my short sleeves I would have to agree. The dogs have all been moulting at strange times of year, over Christmas. The shrubs are budding and the Mimosa are out in flower in some places. Everything is going wonky with the climate.

Reeds

Investigating the new field.....it is wet ;)

I have become slightly obssesed with You Tube, now I have internet in the butchery, and I have been wandering around listening to books and also to lectures and speeches from various experts in their field, mainly orientated towards my favourite nerdy subject "soil". I have learnt a lot.
Access to information is mind blowing but I have learnt that no matter what you read or listen to you should always know a little about where the information is coming from, who is funding the statistical analysis and what it is they are wanting to prove with their analysis. So much can be skewed by the personal ideology of whoever is delivering the information. It is super interesting that people with more money than I can even imagine are involved in manipulating free thinking and are often the ones who shout the loudest on debate platforms to enable their own ideology to be followed. And we sometimes don't even recognise when it is happening.
The food and agricultural industry has become full of religious fervour. We all know what road that leads us down....radicalism. Watch out for those pesky ones ;) They are generally presenting a non balanced argument. Nature loves balance and circles.

So maybe the person who speaks the most quietly is the one you should listen to.

The plant life already available in the new field

Read a fascinating book at Book Club this month which was set during the 1850's in the USA. It covered the environment, genocide, sexual orientation, justice, poverty and plenty of other things. Something that particularly struck me though was the sound it described of nature back then, which I have read about in other books from that era on other continents. As you may or may not know sheep make a fair amount of noise when they are grazing. So imagine when the prairies of the USA and Europe were filled with Bison how noisy it was when these massive herds were moving about.
A friend of mine was telling me the other day about picking vegetables in her families garden in Canada and how quiet it was by comparison to the humming of the bees when she picks in her own garden in France. It is too easy to not pay attention to the world around you and get lost in the hussle and bussle of daily life. Don't be complacent and expect someone else to make the effort though it has to come from everyone otherwise the european countryside will be silent too.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Angles are a bit different but you get the picture about how quickly the grass regrows

The french government have put into law the protection of the sound of the countryside. So when the townies actually arrive have some sound left to annoy them with when they get here.
See you all soon
Helen

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Over regulated?

1/19/2020

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Baby piggies in their nest

So I was reading an article today in the German news about the reaons why German farmers were upset and on the streets demonstrating about changes in government policy. On further examination it seems that farmers are not necessarily angry about the policy changes; but more about the fact that they never seem to be consulted about policy change.

It is a strange industry to be in, Agriculture. Often farmers are considered by many to be poorly educated in the realms of business and the environment, or as being extremely wealthy privileged people who have mostly arrived at their workplace through inheritance. (I say this coming from a non farming townie childhood.) Farmers products are eaten or used by every person on the planet. Their methods of production effect every person on the planet. But in a bizarre twist of fate everything they do is controlled by people who have never been farmers, are not related to any farmers, may have little or no knowledge of the environment, and live often in cities or in very fancy houses in the country or both. There may be a little generalistion to my statements here for colour, but I suspect I am not too far from the truth.

Returning the grass from whence it came during the winter via a four legged compster.

To illustrate just one of many farmer problems.... "African Swine Fever", now present in Europe, has created a new level of health and safety regulations for pig farmers here in France, I can only refer to French regulations as I know they can differ slightly from country to country. We have been obliged to complete a days training with a trained governement vet, for which we get a certificate, or from another perspective a lost day at work. It included information regarding...
how much new fencing,
how high your new fence should be and how deep it should be buried,
what you need to fence,
how large your new electric fence equipment needs to be
which kind of pigs and other animals can go where on your property
how long your rotations need to be between animals
how many new clean sets of overalls and boots you need,
how to build your new facility for dead body collections,
how to clean your equipment
how many times you need to clean your equipment
how and what other people can enter your property and where they can park
how you should move and dress between each section of your pig facility
how to store and how long you can keep hay bales that will be only used for your pigs
how to drive your equipment between all the sections of your property
This list is lengthy and not complete but you get the idea. Now for all these changes that are imposed upon us by the government, who pays ? There is a grant system that you can apply for funding for up to 40% of the cost on some items.
To apply for a grant in France you have to get a quote, send the quote in to the local office, wait for acceptance, could be one or two months. Then you have to pay for all of the aterations yourself then you wait for a repayment which is about 4-6 months after the work is paid for. Our course was in December 2019. We have to make some of the changes by the end of January 2020. To give you an idea.... just to buy the electric box that powers the outdoor fencing is 650 euros.

Worm workings on ground used by grazing animals.

If your facility only has housed pigs I suspect many of the regulations may already be in place.If you have outdoor pigs then some of the requirements mean building things from scratch and changing your pig rearing system entirely, as reproducing pigs have different fencing requirements from young pigs. Consequently of the course that Gavin sat through of 13 people, 4 would give up pigs as the protocols and changes in system made it too expensive to carry on.
The first recorded case was in Portugal in 1985, it was controlled. It is not in this area of Europe yet.,but we still have to invest the money, just in case.

One of the more amusing changes was having to ring fence our hay barn to stop any other animals coming in. I wondered where we could hang the signs for the birds and flying animals to inform them they were entering a "No Fly Zone".

See you all soon
Helen

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2020 The year of the rat

1/3/2020

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Sunrise at Franklin Farm

Hello lovely people
I have high hopes for the year of the rat as according to my brief research it stands for intelligence, something that seems to be lacking worldwide, and an ability to adapt to outside forces. So come on people lets get our act together this year shall we?

My short retreat into a hermits life has been relaxing, rejuvenating and re-energising. Ok, I know, not many hermits have sparkly wine to hand. But what is a girl to do....
Having our 3 plus 1 children around for a whole 2 weeks has been excellent for thinking about new ideas how the next steps with our little business and what possibilities the future could hold for us and also for them. I will have to release most of them back into the wild from our little bubble. And then continue with the innovation and activities with Gavin. Luckily the days are already longer and there is always some warmth when the sun comes out. Though not enough to let the home fires go out.

Patrick providing for our warmth in the winter sun

Helped by Soozie

I tried to remember to take photographs of food when we sat down to eat but it appears i just have a plethora of photos of empty plates. We ate well. We usually eat well except yesterday when I ran out of enthusiasm and sent Koen to forage for 3 packs of sausages. The sweet, deluded boy said that he did not think they would all fit in the roasting pan. After one of my special eyebrow raises he said "you mean I should just squidge 'em all up and chuck 'em in, don't ya?" great knowledge of the english language for a non native speaker, I thought. So we had sausages and whatever you wanted to eat from the fridge/larder/cupboard, for lunch.
My creative contribution for the day was making butternut chutney based on a recipe given to me by some clients. I say based as I was missing some ingredients, so made it up with similar things. It is delicious with sausages. I felt quite decadent as I used a lemon from our own tree to season the chutney. In Zimbabwe we always had lemons on the tree in the garden and it is such a luxury to be able to do it here. One day we will have a glass room for our lemon trees, as it can be a real nuisance hauling them in and out to avoid the frost, which we did have the other day. Emily made mince pies.

butternut chutney

yummy food

mince pie and lemon tree

sausages

boxing day

could this be my lucky day

I also watched the news yesterday. A mistake, it always makes me want to cry. So now I have to try to improve my own knowledge and my own practices to make my piece of world a better place and hope that it may spill over the edges a little and that others will pick up the baton and so on.

Next week it is back to proper work for me. Starting with the first market on Friday 10th.
See you very soon
Helenx

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Panic....16 days to go......Ho ho ho

12/8/2019

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Twiglet catching a few rays on the tractor bonnet

Morning Everyone
It was another successful Longeveau market.Thanks to all those who turned up and supported the event, a good mix of nationalities both with the consumers and standholders this year. We were very lucky with the weather,mostly sunny with a short shower midday. Christmas carols were sung and mulled wine and mince pies were consumed.

We have had visitors since I last blogged, from Zimbabwe and spent a delightful weekend eating, drinking and laughing. Their visits are always too short but we managed to pack in as many words as possible. The last time both entire families were together was 7 years ago. This time the family was a little larger with our one extra child, courtesy of The Netherlands, who gallantly drove down with Em for the weekend. The call of some yummy food and bubbles and a whole pile of gossip was irresistable ;)

So with all the wet weather some of our more fragile livestock has had to be housed. But the main flock are still out and about currently with the boys munching through what little roughage they can find after the blistering summer heat. Fortunately with the warm autumn we have had a little regrowth in the fields. Much of it stopped suddenly the other day when we had several hard frosts and our catalpa tree decided to undress from its remaining leaves, overnight. Quite a sight! There is a great deal of leaf litter from a Catalpa, so the bugs should be nice and warm during the winter. The birds have just started really storming through the fat I hang out for them. The landscape must be short on sustenance now for our little feathered friends.
Loads of other things have happened that I should share with you about the absurdities of agricultural legislation but considering I have an entire pig carcass that requires my attention today I will have to save it for a quieter day in January.
Last orders need to be in by Tuesday 10th December which is this week. Pleeeeaase as it really helps me to plan my final few days. Hope to see you soon :)
Helenx

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45 days to go....ho ho ho

11/9/2019

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One of my most devoted clients <3

Hello Lovely People
It is very wet. It has been very wet for a few days now. This is not a complaint.....more, an observation. In our area there was 80mm after the big rain last weekend. And that was not a lot. One of my market trading colleagues lost the roof from his tunnel last weekend. He had just replaced it, and now will have to do it again. Not part of his winter plan of action.
There is an interesting climate in the Dordogne where in the space of a few days you can go from a balmy 24 degrees to having ice on the windscreen and lighting both fires in the house. I admit that I was not quite prepared for that when we moved here 15 years ago, however one does become used to it.
The grass is growing, or at least it was until this morning, and other than moving all the young stock into the fields with a choice of warm and dry barn, or some brisk fresh air in the field, things continue as normal. The rams are in with the old girls and appear to be doing what it is they do at this time of year to provide us with next years harvest.

The waterlogged field next to our sheep grazed grassy field which is not waterlogged. Organic matter in action.

I am also doing what I usually do at this time of year....Christmas shopping! I spent a very productive day in Perigueux making in-roads into my lists which this year included stocking up with butchery supplies and the more conventional present hunt. My friend and I decided to try Perigueux this year, after the girls at my french conversation group said it was one of their favourite places to shop. They were not wrong. As a departmental capital it has all the main shop brands available in France and boutique style shops as well, with all the convenience that comes with a smaller town including not having to drive for hours to A:get there, and B:cross from one side of town to the other, and also not too many people. I am such a country bumpkin these days crowds make me anxious, or am I misinterpreting that for irritated ;)
It was such a good day I am toying with the idea of returning to complete my list of things to get.

Perigueux Cathedral

The new market in Chalais seems to be going quite well. I have rediscovered a few faces I have not seen for some time and met some people who did not even know we existed. Interestingly the Berkshire pork seems to be going down very well with the locals in Chalais. Patrick is going to be investigating saucisson production very soon. If we are very lucky there may be some for Christmas.
See you all very soon
Helen

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64 Days till christmas ho ho ho

10/21/2019

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The Christmas Tree is very small so you can zoom past quickly if it makes you anxious

Hello Everyone
It has been a busy month introducing a new market location into the schedule. I have discovered how easy it is to fall into predictable, safe working patterns and become lazy about how to organise my days. With the children growing up and doing other things and the youngest growing up and becoming more indpendent there is actually more usable time in a day than there used to be. Not that you would know it from the irregularity of my blog ;). So, the new market in Chalais is ticking along and I have seen a few people from Riberac market who live closer to Chalais anyway and prefer it for their weekly shop. It is quieter, everyone knows everyone, and I have a very chatty neighbour so I am learning Charentaise french. All good fun.

Patrick has returned from a successful and enjoyable internship in UK and is trying to find somewhere in France for his next one. Emily seems to be storming through her exams in The Netherlands this term and Alice is willingly, no prompting, reading a book this holiday. So something must have gone right this end of the year.

I have started some thought about Christmas gifts and I am busy making hams in the butchery. So if you are looking to order ham for Christmas now would be a good time to start acting upon your thought processes. Last orders for ham will be on Wednesday 20th November.

Ham and salad for a day during Christmas

Pork Roast with crackling if you would like that too

The Christmas Market at Manoir de Longeveau is Sunday 1st December. We will be there to support the event with our usual Christmas treats. If you like you can place orders to be collected from this market as well.

The weather has changed dramatically and quickly in the last couple of weeks and so we have lit the fire. I am not sure if the fire has only been lit for my pleasure as the boys seem to wander around in shorts and t-shirts even now. I think I should blame the chilly mornings at the market and the wrong socks on the days in question. Happily the grass has greened up, though I am not sure how much bulk there will be for the winter as the cold will slow grass growth dramatically. The lambs are putting on some condition now with the fresh green growth and Gavin is looking slightly less frazzled than usual.
He celebrated another birthday on Sunday and we ate homemade lomo some fizzy (spanish, it went with the lomo theme ;)) for aperos, then slow-roasted lamb shoulder with roast potatoes, spicey cauliflower, onions and purple carrots and cabbage, some rather good Blaye wine. Apple crumble and Glace à la Ferme ice cream for dessert. Food carbon footprint......pretty darned small:) and I shall polish my halo later ;) It was a satisfied group who left the table after lunch.

Looking forward to hearing from you soonish
Helenxx

Lomo

Gavins Birthday

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Finance and Farming

9/23/2019

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Resting after a long day looking at chickens.

I am not obsessed with money it is not something that drives me. It never has been. Keeping up with the neighbours is not something I aspire to. However, money can smooth ones way through life.

Farming is a weird one because as many of you know farming is subsidised by the government and ultimately the tax payer in Europe. Everybody will have their own view on this issue but let us say that the money received in subsidy allows the general public access to cheap food. Subsidies also allow farmers to develop their farms in the style to which the political mood of the time dictates. Not all decisions made by farmers are completely in their own control, sometimes permission has to be obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture.

Pasture with trees. Not very valuable....?...

So here is a funny thing. We are paid an amount of money per hectare. Pasture farming currently is not deemed as being as valuable as maize farming, so pasture farming gets one of the lowest payments per hectare. The government removes from every pasture that we have the area covered by a tree or a copse or a patch of brambles. So if we have 10 hectares of ground with alot of tees to provide shelter or extra forage when grass has died off, then they may count as a hectare of trees or undergrowth, so we will only be paid for 9 hectares of pasture. Fonciers will be charged on the full 10 hectares of ground, trees, or no trees.
As you can see from this example it is more profitable , with regard to subsidies, for a farmer to have clear ground. Which if you think about it again is encouraging farmers to not be environmentally friendly.
I hope that with the new drives for regenerative farming techniques that this rather achaic way of looking at farm subsidies will be revised. Administration moves slowly so I am not holding my breath for a windfall or a global revelation. Balancing money, land and activity on said land is a constant dbate on farms.
In drought situations you have to ask for permission from the agricultural department to use land that a neighbour might want to loan you in a crisis, which of course means administrative delays. Meaning that as a farmer you have to look to yourself always to risk proof your business. Which naturally means investment to some degree or another. Sometimes subsidised, not always if it is something the administration thinks is not important. As I have already mentioned Administative thinking moves slowly so what is thought to be important by a farmer today, will be thought of as being important by administration in 10 years.

A borrowed picture from Zim to demonstrate valuable land

Which is great until it looks like this... still valuable...?....

When we have a large purchase to do, I get a headache, procrastinate, talk myself out of it, around in circles and then back into it again. It is quite honestly the worst part of running a small business for me. Unfortunately Gavin always gives me the last say, either that or he just waits knowing that I will get their eventually I just need some time to flap for a bit. Debt makes me anxious, even when I know we can repay the debt. I know that if you have a small business your money needs to work all the time. So money goes in and out of the bank rapidly. With a farm that only has crops the money may only go in once a year after harvest, and then out all the time through the rest of the year. Or a wood farmer with income that arrives every 5/10 years.

There are many suicides amongst farmers in France, one every other day, currently. It does not surprise me. Farmers are often isolated, working on their own, balancing money, running a business, caring for animals and crops to enable them to have a good harvest. And quite frankly what support do they get. Criticisms about noise, smell, complaints about not having sprayed there, but "no" you shouldn't have sprayed over there. There is an awful lot of finger pointing and very little help, support or advise offered.
I am not an advocate of spraying with chemicals, never have been, but putting boot on the other foot, if you are a conventional farmer who has a debt to pay, and is relying on a successful harvest and has never known any other way of farming, and is halfway through the year, and is about to lose the entire crop to mildew unless it is sprayed then what would you do?
People cannot be expected to change on a whim when lives and livelihoods are at stake. Planning needs to come first. Investments may need too be made, help may need to be offered. The general public needs to recognise this and be a little less critical and a little more empathetic.

Putting the boot back on the other foot. There are an awful lot of very large, industrial, multi national farms these days that could really do a little more in the way of leading the way seeing as they do have rather a lot of money, rather than using the same old techniques. Oh no that would mean the likes of Monsanto/Bayer in effect putting themselves out of business. Hmmm interesting.
See you all soon
Helen

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So here we are...

March 08th, 2020

toilet paper or amazon which is more useful?

Being Noisy is sometimes a good thing

Over regulated?

2020 The year of the rat

Panic....16 days to go......Ho ho ho

45 days to go....ho ho ho

64 Days till christmas ho ho ho

Finance and Farming

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Helen Franklin