On 15/09/2019 12:26, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Sun, 15 Sep 2019 11:59:27 +0100, Brian Reay wrote:

On 15/09/2019 11:34, Jethro_uk wrote:
There was a thread about this recently. Clamps were suggested and
discussed ... which was an education. Good knowledge in case we need to
go back to less complicated times ...


I tried it once, about 30 years back. It was about 50% successful, ie
about half of the potatoes were usable. I think I probably didn't cover
them enough.

As with most things we are currently forgetting at a rate of knots,
there's a lot more to it than just reading the wiki It's real man-and-
boy stuff


Around that time I attended some courses locally and learned a number of
things- killing a chicken and preparing for the table, basics of pig
keeping (even castrated a few), ....



Around the same time, I tried growing some in a container to harvest
during the winter. The ones for Xmas were fine, in fact excellent. The
later ones were more variable. We were discussing trying it again just
recently- we've been more active in the greenhouse in recent years than
the open veg plot but have some crops on the go at the moment.

In general, farming is ****ing hard work. My Dad grew up in a more rural
part of Sicily, and decided very early on it was easier to repair and
then hire out agricultural vehicles than till land that you didn't even
own.

Nothing I have seen in my life so far has suggested he was wrong. Farming
is ****ing hard work (even with the modern age) and the Brexit ********
brigade who blithely assume we can all go back to agrarian self
sufficiency are really talking out of their arses. When they say "we
could produce our own food" it's clear they do so with the express
intention that it's *other people* that produce the food, etc.

Still, as I said upthread, it's a good skill to at least be aware of, if
not practised to perfection.


Farming today is nothing like it was even 50 years ago. It is an
industry now. You couldn't make a living on a small bit of land unless
you had a niche market- even then you'd be vulnerable. We (as a country)
could grow much more, that is certain, the land is there. I'm no tree
hugger but importing food we could grow here makes little sense. We've
got used to having things out of season. That is less common in in, say,
France, even their supermarkets tend to follow the seasons when it comes
to veg etc. For example- you can get asparagus all year round in the UK
but only when it is in season in France (unless you can stand the tinned
stuff). Ditto fresh peas- in pods that is- in season a delight in France.