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[CLKD]

AAAHHHH.  . apparently Lewis Hamilton has sold his private plane because he's really depressed and worried about climate change  yeah right, someone who has made his £Bs in a politically governed and non-green sport ought to keep his head below the parapet.

Had he scrapped it then he may have made more impact.  Had he not bought it using money landed in the Isle of Man .......... but someone will fly his plane telling everyone that he bought it from Lewis  .

Am I missing the point here .............

[CLKD]

Aneorobic digestors .......... in the UK farmers grow maize/corn on the cob.  For animal feed  .  The stalks go to these digesters.  OK so far except that we followed 5 large tractors - full of maize storks - stalks even  15 miles from field to farm  in order to generate fuel.  How does that work? 

Tractors take energy to be built.  Tyres are HUGE.  They use diesal ............ they need insurance, maintenance and a driver. 

Surely it would be better to use coal to generate energy across the UK?  Or oil?  If the stalks were being transported responsibly i.e. moved to the farm next door .........

[Jari]

Buy locally wherever possible. Seasonal veg and fruit etc. I refuse to buy any fruit/veg in any packaging anymore. Loose at green grocers or supermarket. Sainsbury's is improving..slowly.. local seasonal veg/fruit is much healthier too. Win win! 👍

[CLKD]

Seasonal fruit and veg would be what exactly  ?   Sprouts, cabbage, cauliflowers, kale and other greens.  Apples that have been in storage since last Autumn  ?  Pears don't keep, plums go over quickly if they last long enough  .  Strawberries and raspberries have very short seasons though if grown in Scotland and transported South it extends the season.  Also spuds.

Peas and all types of beans take up space in a small garden so it's cheaper and easier to buy frozen or tinned.  They also keep for ever in a tin!

That would cut out bananas, peaches, apricots, dates; coconuts etc.; one may be able to source home produced cob nuts and walnuts but there is a very short season for those especially when the squirrels find them  [ which they did here  ].  So no Brazils or chestnuts at C.mas?  ?  No sweetcorn, peppers, oranges, lemons, advacodes, olives ........... we are such a multicultural society that we have become used to World wide fruits and veg..

Onions - from Spain or the UK. Radishes and lettuce from the UK.  We buy as close to home as possible and grow as much as we can but it doesn't last long once picked  .  We chew hot   chillies for a couple of years, now in the freezer .

[Yorkshire Girl]

We grow onions & garlic and they last us for months and keep really well, rhubarb I freeze what I don't use. Lots of lovely British apples around at the moment seeing it's harvest time for them and yet in the supermarket they were selling French apples & i'm thinking what's wrong with British ones. Obviously we struggle to grow oranges and lemons - having said that we had a lemon tree and we had at least 2 lemons off it!! We have potatoes & carrots available from local farms all year round, lovely local cabbages & broccoli the list is endless, mind you I do try to get mine from the farm shop but our nearest is a trek.

[CLKD]

CH is cooking: stir fried locally grown white cabbage with leeks and ginger.  On top he will put a baked in the oven trout, caught last week  .  With chips 

[Sparrow]

We grow onions & garlic and they last us for months and keep really well, rhubarb I freeze what I don't use. Lots of lovely British apples around at the moment seeing it's harvest time for them and yet in the supermarket they were selling French apples & i'm thinking what's wrong with British ones. Obviously we struggle to grow oranges and lemons - having said that we had a lemon tree and we had at least 2 lemons off it!! We have potatoes & carrots available from local farms all year round, lovely local cabbages & broccoli the list is endless, mind you I do try to get mine from the farm shop but our nearest is a trek.

Unfortunately, in Kent, between 15 and 20% of the apple crop has not been picked this year.  Shortage of EU seasonal workers apparently.

[CLKD]

Ask 'them' to prove it?  - it may be simply that the farmer isn't going to get the money for the apples if there is a glut so cheaper to let them fall.  Often happens.  Years ago excess were sent to cider factories but there aren't as many of those as previously.  In the Fens this weekend I noted that apples await being picked, boxes stand ready in the orchards and plenty of local fruit in the markets.  Depends on the variety too.

[Sparrow]

CLKD, it's been all over the local news and they have had film crews there. It's costing the farmers a lot of money and that's a fact. Our favourite apple farmer didn't have an Apple Day this year, for the first time in years. It is what it is. 

[CLKD]

I wonder why he didn't, we had apple 'days' all over the Fens and Herefordshire  locals join in to keep a tradition going 

[sheila99]

So we have 1.3 million people unemployed yet none are capable of picking apples... We shouldn't need migrant labour.

[Sparrow]

So we have 1.3 million people unemployed yet none are capable of picking apples... We shouldn't need migrant labour.

Seasonal workers are needed for a few weeks at a time in rural areas.  Not only would most of the unemployed be in the wrong place they want permanent jobs.  Especially now the benefit system is so complicated it wouldn't be worth giving it up for just a few weeks. Getting back onto unemployment benefit means several weeks with no money. Sorry but it's a non starter.

[CLKD]

In the Fens we have relied on visiting labour for centuries to pick apples and soft fruits; then back to Scotland for the tatties.  We would get the same families in caravans, watching the babies grow up into louts  - Granny would have the money every night and hand out pocket money to the lads on a Friday.  Hence the loutish behaviour after a bevvy or several.  If Granny wouldn't hand out 'enough' the Police called when the lads got nasty.  Granny ruled the van.  Same families would go to the same farms year on year.

Occasionally the kids would come into school but disappear as quickly as they arrived  .  They didn't mix with us ...... but I was fascinated.  I wanted to join them but 1 day my Dad shouted out whilst we were driving in heavy rain: "Do you really want that kind of Life on a day like this?" well no; actually.  I hate rain 

I tried picking strawberries, I lasted half a day - it was the day Prince Charles was invested in Wales.  I had my small transistor in the row with me  . DH picked fruits, picked crysanths, weeded orchards to top up his Grant and there were very few locals with him as they had regular jobs.  Otherwise the 'vanners' would be along side.


......... and people fled from London to Kent to pick hops as that was a holiday - fresh air, sunshine, work ; they would be provided with very small huts in which to live, they took their bedding, pots, pans etc. with them.  Historically fruit farms etc. have relied on iternerant workers.

[sheila99]

So we have 1.3 million people unemployed yet none are capable of picking apples... We shouldn't need migrant labour.

Seasonal workers are needed for a few weeks at a time in rural areas.  Not only would most of the unemployed be in the wrong place they want permanent jobs.  Especially now the benefit system is so complicated it wouldn't be worth giving it up for just a few weeks. Getting back onto unemployment benefit means several weeks with no money. Sorry but it's a non starter.

Not a non starter at all. I agree the benefits system doesn't lend itself to this but there's no reason why it couldn't. Though with the government's track record of botched IT systems I won't hold my breath. And if people can move from countries around the world to find work there's no reason why they shouldn't come from elsewhere in the UK. Probably a bigger problem is how few of them are capable of a day's manual labour.

[Sparrow]

It'll never happen.  It's logistically and financially impractical.