Broccoli head from Spain priced 20p in supermarket.

[Reynard]

When I first moved out this way, I remember the farmers burning the stubble after the wheat harvest. Gawd, that was ghastly, with all the fine ash covering everything in sight.

Now it has to be ploughed back into the soil. And there is one crop that gets grown in rotation purely to be worked back into the land, but I can't remember what it is.

And one farm not far away has a beef herd, and the output from their mooers is very much in demand.

 

[mudsticks]

When I first moved out this way, I remember the farmers burning the stubble after the wheat harvest. Gawd, that was ghastly, with all the fine ash covering everything in sight.

Now it has to be ploughed back into the soil. And there is one crop that gets grown in rotation purely to be worked back into the land, but I can't remember what it is.

And one farm not far away has a beef herd, and the output from their mooers is very much in demand.

Yes great that stubble burning was stopped.

Now we have to contend with the *ubiquity of glyphosate*, being locked in into so many conventional production systems..

Which was hailed for decades as being a 'non toxic' answer to weed control, and ground preparation..

- How something that killed all vegetation so thoroughly could really be seen as 'non toxic' is a bit of mystery, but we will tend to believe that which is most convenient to believe.

And it's easier to go along with the 'experts' aggressively marketing stuff, and do what everyone else is doing, rather than being seen as some backwards looking, all muck and magic type oddball..

But there's lots of techniques and methodologies coming through, that give other options...

Right, a whole load of (unsprayed) veg to harvest >>>>


*Cue @winjim and his 'And now The Fall' funny 😊

 

[winjim]

Is that prog rock or psy trance? Could be either.

 

[mudsticks]

Is that prog rock or psy trance? Could be either.

Definitely trance .

Certainly not 'progressive'

 

[T4tomo]

And there is one crop that gets grown in rotation purely to be worked back into the land, but I can't remember what it is.

Peas and beans work as a cover crop as the actively add nitrogen to the soil, then can be ploughed back in a "green fertiliser". Also keeping the soil covered over winter protects it "arable / growing" properties.

 

[mudsticks]

Peas and beans work as a cover crop as the actively add nitrogen to the soil, then can be ploughed back in a "green fertiliser". Also keeping the soil covered over winter protects it "arable / growing" properties.

Clover is a classic nitrogen fixer and overwintering soil stabiliser

There's been a real problem with late harvested maize ground, then being exposed to erosion over winter, over the last twenty years or so, around here..

More farmers are undersowing it with something like clover nowadays..

I tend to use ryecorn as an overwintering green manure.

Vetches, ryegrass, and sunflowers 🌻🙂🌻🙂🌻🙂 on any unused ground in summer..

You get lots of beauty too that way too

 

[KnittyNorah]

Clover is a classic nitrogen fixer and overwintering soil stabiliser

There's been a real problem with late harvested maize ground, then being exposed to erosion over winter, over the last twenty years or so, around here..

More farmers are undersowing it with something like clover nowadays..

I tend to use ryecorn as an overwintering green manure.

Vetches, ryegrass, and sunflowers 🌻🙂🌻🙂🌻🙂 on any unused ground in summer..

You get lots of beauty too that way too

Apparently in the US, people who grow sunflowers as a cover crop can often make a nice little side income by selling 'photography passes' ...

 

[T4tomo]

Apparently in the US, people who grow sunflowers as a cover crop can often make a nice little side income by selling 'photography passes' ...

there is a farm I often cycle past down here that usually grows sunflowers on a field in summer and sells them at a £1 a flower to passing motorists. I've never been charged for taking a photo though...

 

[mudsticks]

Apparently in the US, people who grow sunflowers as a cover crop can often make a nice little side income by selling 'photography passes' ...

Here one for you Nora..

Foc🙂🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻

there is a farm I often cycle past down here that usually grows sunflowers on a field in summer and sells them at a £1 a flower to passing motorists. I've never been charged for taking a photo though...

I've been known to sell a few from time to time, but mostly just give them away .

Got a really good yield of viable seed from last year's crop.

All ready for sowing again this year..

It's like 'the circle of life'

 

[T4tomo]

given whats going on in Ukraine, we might need all your seeds and more for sunflower oil...

 

[mudsticks]

given whats going on in Ukraine, we might need all your seeds and more for sunflower oil...

Yes I did joke about currently being a sunflower seed millionairess..

I think on the whole, from a practical pov, were best off concentrating on rape seed for oil in this country.

 

[CharlesF]

Talking ploughing, isn’t it now considered bad for the soil?

 

[mudsticks]

Talking ploughing, isn’t it now considered bad for the soil?

Yup inverting soil , particularly deep ploughing is not good for it..

For all kinds of reasons - killing soil life - carbon liberation - destroying structure etc etc.

I mostly do minimal tillage myself.

It's a bit of a shame as I quite like ploughing.

 

[Reynard]

Mmmm, I love sunflowers... And sunflower honey...

Although rape seed oil is my cooking oil of choice. I'm just looking out of my window and can see loads of yellow in the fields. I might cycle that way later, I just love the aroma of the flowers. Although I'd better take some antihistamines first...

 

[KnittyNorah]

there is a farm I often cycle past down here that usually grows sunflowers on a field in summer and sells them at a £1 a flower to passing motorists. I've never been charged for taking a photo though...

I suppose that here (and in most of western Europe for that matter) you're highly unlikely to get shot if you stand beside a field of sunflowers to take a photo - or even right within said field, if you walk along a PROW.

But in a country where there are no (or almost no) such things as public rights of way over private land, and where, it seems, everyone and his dog have a gun to hand, it's probably worth paying someone for access to a particularly beautiful field ... or else ...