6th September – Back to School, Back to Work, Back to Routine – but not at Meadow Barns, where a whole new era is about to start.
How has the summer been in your area? I don’t ever remember such a persistently damp squib e.g. v little sun and much less impressive than expected! It has also been cooler than any in the past decade:- The UK has had its coolest summer since 2015, according to provisional Met Office statistics.
Mean temperatures have been 0.22°C below the long-term meteorological average for the UK, with Scotland and Northern Ireland experiencing generally cooler temperatures.
Rainfall rates for the UK were around average, but with some substantial regional variation. Too right, substantial variation! At our end of the UK we have had so much rain.
4 Aug 2024 — Devon and Cornwall received 114mm of rain during July (163% of the July LTA ), which is classed as above normal for the time of year.
The only good side has been the glut of figs. For over a month I have picking a tray like the one in the picture, sharing to neighbours on all sides. Why has it been so good? Because figs thrive in moisture-retentive soil, so long as it also has good drainage and a south-facing, openly sunny position. That’s our site 😊, where the combo of rain with warm and bright location has worked brilliantly to help the fruits ripen.
Guidance says
Water figs deeply and regularly throughout the summer whilst they swell and ripen. In late August remove any figs larger than pea-sized that haven’t ripened properly, the tiny embryo fruits that remain will develop into your main crop next year.
Last Autumn I took every last hint of baby figs off. I guess it worked.
Correspondence – “We owe our existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact it rains”
(Farming life 21st Feb 2022)
Lin, who very regularly challenges things that I write and sometimes has enough time to help out with content, wrote in to say she loves the news about soil and the unexpected benefits it can offer us, if we simply go barefoot, or dig in mud up to the arm pits! Literally touching soil, including walking barefoot on it or getting your hands dirty, can improve your gut health. WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED?
Lin tells us …
We have all contributed to the ecological problems that beset us today because we didn’t know better. We didn’t know about the potentially damaging effects of certain household products, building materials, cosmetics, garden sundries, fabrics, plastics and intensive farming.
Looking from a new perspective, in 2024, it is clear we all need to make changes. Some may be irksome and others very inconvenient but for those whose lifestyle, income and culture will be impacted the most our government needs to give advice, financial support and a clear framework for change. Everyone should be supported to feel secure throughout the transition.
The piece I have prepared for you and your blog readers is drawn from a Dutch University article, which I have referenced below. It is primarily about soil health and how soil quality cascades down to provide variable benefits through the food chain.
An estimated 40% of soil is classified as being in a degraded state, with a projected total of 90% percent at risk by 2050, if we don’t adopt more sustainable methods of food production. Repeated ploughing and agricultural chemicals ruin soil structure and disturb vital fungal and microbial systems. Such practices, encouraged and subsidised by governments over decades, have resulted in considerable loss of organic matter – defined as parts of soil rich with plant or animal waste being decomposed by microbes and broken down into nutrients that can be recycled by other organisms. This is soil degradation.
The SOIL ASSOCIATION WEBSITE tells us that ‘Soil is the heart and soul of our planet. We can’t live without it.
It sustains us, captures carbon, provides a home for billions of organisms and can help defend us against flooding and drought.
See below for 5 great ways to help protect your soil at home’ …
‘Save Soil’ posits that at least 3-6% organic matter is needed in agricultural soil to provide nutritious produce. One example of degraded soil analysis shows a resulting estimated 23% loss of protein in wheat between 1955 and 2016, leading potentially to poorer animal and human health, and thus a knock-on effect to our gut health.
The Soil Association publishes a short list of ways we can help …
1. Grow your own this helps recycle nutrients back into the soil and reconnects you with where your food comes from
2. Compost Organic matter is an essential ingredient for healthy soils helping it hold onto nutrients and water. In agroecological ways of farming like organic, farmers use around 65% more manure and compost!
3. Grow soil saving plants that help pull nitrogen from the air and draw up nutrients for other plants
4. Subscribe to a local organic box scheme and support nature friendly farming in your area
5. Speak out for soil Let’s keep growing this movement from the ground up!
Learn more about how to save your soils at home http://soilassociation.co/SoilSaving
Lin continues
Plants and animals living on healthy, living soils rich in organic matter result in the production of more nutritious food. Key micronutrient deficiency in degraded soil can result in the food grown providing impoverished quantities of vitamins B1, B6 and B9 and this can contribute towards developing depression. Low iron and zinc uptake from soil may lead to poor brain function. (Caroline adds – Another source here, says this may also include Alzheimers https://www.news-medical.net/news/20221117/Gut-microbiome-plays-a-role-in-Alzheimers.aspx )
So you see, our gut biome impacts the whole of our health, mental as well as physical.
Conversely, healthier gut microbiomes have been linked to greater production of “happy hormones, such as serotonin and dopamine. Many of the bacteria in the soil exist in our intestines and on our skin and the amount of physical contact made with the soil can affect the diversity, and therefore health, of our gut microbiome.
Caroline IN CONCLUSION
Let us therefore return to the opening phrase and grasp the high priority this topic deserves: – literally touching soil, including walking barefoot on it or getting your hands dirty, can improve your gut health. And the richer the soil is in organic matter, the better the ‘medicine’.
Big, big thanks Lin, for this piece. It is fascinating. It also takes me back to the feature I wrote on 18th August 2023, which explained quite a lot about good practice, turning against breaking of soil and finding ways to enrich through intelligent planting, at Riviera Produce. Scroll down, it is in the 2nd half.
The Water (Special Measures) Bill – Labour is getting into gear
This past week saw the first announcement, in a sequence (hopefully) tackling the outrageous situation in relation to the performance of our privately run water companies.
Labour says the bosses of water companies could face two years in prison and be banned from taking bonuses as they launch a crackdown on England’s chemical and manure-infested waters.
The Water (Special Measures) Bill, is designed to hand new powers to the regulators (Ofwat and the Environment Agency), as they look to punish water companies for failing both the environment and customers.
The government has slammed the current enforcement system, which has seen only 3 individuals criminally prosecuted by the Environment Agency, without appeal, since privatisation.
Under this new bill, harsher punishments will be introduced, including jail sentences of up to two years for water company bosses who fail to cooperate or obstruct Environment Agency and Drinking Water Inspectorate investigations. This is just the beginning and want to see a step-by-step programme, that will achieve real change.
Since the last blog, I have tried to engage with the EA locally, reporting the disgraceful pollution and other issues around Luxulyan, as they have been exposed in Film 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKgqtTN4M8A
I spoke to an EA community liaison officer, hoping she might act as the link we need, but no. Nothing came of it ☹
The new era
It is 7 years since I arrived at my first autumn back in Cornwall, having retired from teaching music in Hampshire. First of all I dug deep into the mud myself, landscaping and then renovating the barns.
Once the house was habitable, by Sept 2019, I began to think about offering education experiences, about sustainable energy and our local heritage. It has taken all this time – 5 years – to reach a point where there is something of sufficient quality to sell. Or perhaps it was always good enough, but we just needed the planets to align and circumstances to fall into place. Either way, this next 3 months – with 2 amazing lady helpers (Pema and Heimke) to make the team – we’ll be delivering the music-based ‘Climate Hope through Cornish Mining’ activities, for families with Early Years and primary age children, in mid Cornwall.
We start with the basics of climate – breathing in Oxygen, out CO2, then partnering with trees as they reciprocate. We aim to develop a deep understanding and love of trees, so we go on to pot up some saplings, discuss carpentry and – apologetically – burn wood and coal, to grasp that CO2 is released when you burn a fossil fuel.
The middle part explores all options of sustainable energy, wind, water, sun etc and concludes with batteries, for saving our natural power.
The end is a hunt for metals – we go through Tin, Iron, Copper and the new ones, Lithium for batteries, and Indium for screen technology.
I was discussing with Imerys/British Lithium yesterday and we aren’t entirely sure whether to include the Blue Peter badges. If you have children or grand children young enough to ask (age 5 to 15), please let me know if they would find it attractive or if it means nothing. By including, I suppose there is a small chance we might end up on national TV, so that may be enough of a reason!
To conclude the project we are also working on a final ‘Award Ceremony’ with Christmas entertainment. Further details of all session dates and venues will be released soon.
Credit to Funding & Support Source = Levelling Up money. Obviously we are delighted our work won’t all be voluntary this time. We are receiving support and funding from the Geo-Resources Strategic Sector Strengthening project – quite a mouthful, yes! Thanks Geo R team, your help is making all the difference.
Local Heritage – our Route to 2039
Earlier this past week, 3 of us (myself with Bob Hatton and a new contact from Charlestown, Mark Frazer) have been filmed by Spotlight TV. Their interest was attracted as our 8 month long project of interviewing locals to find their opinions and priorities for this area of mining World Heritage Site has reached a climax point. The BBC were attracted by everything we have been doing, setting up a petition and running local events to help residents, landowners and businesses of all kinds influence what comes within the next 5 year management plan. They were most interested in Charlestown, and we have been happy to encompass that, hoping to work with the more famous coastal village as well as our wooded valley. We are WHS area 008i (Luxulyan Valley) and 008ii (Charlestown)
If you live in one of the 2 parishes – St Blazey Town or Tywardreath and Par – please do come down to the hall and find out more about this ‘Pivotal Moment’. Seats are limited so please confirm that you want one, by email or message on Luxulyan Valley Stories, Facebook page. Or simply sign your support:- https://www.change.org/p/protect-properties-businesses-of-luxulyan-valley-and-charlestown-whs/dashboard?source_location=user_profile_started
Impact on Green Fridays Blog
I may not have been writing for you these past 3 weeks, but I have been thinking a lot about the blog. It is clear, from a purely technical point of view and due to the limitations on our time, some change will be needed. These 2 projects need online space and they also need that space to be private, so – advance notice for you – starting on Friday 4th October, for the rest of the autumn term, the blog will only be accessible if you have applied, been approved and given a key to the front door, so to speak!
We already know most of the right people, those readers who really care and engage regularly and who we feel can be trusted to be involved in the details of future plans. The login arrangements will be explained in a few weeks, but the simplest would be if you could send an email now to cjs@themeadowbarns.co.uk and let me know that you want to continue receiving.
Best wishes for a hopefully dry weekend, Caroline
