Our countryside should match what we eat

Efficient grain farming

What a shame that my surrounding fields are all currently yellow with oilseed rape, or green with wheat. No wonder our kids don’t know where their food comes from.

Surely it would be better to see cows, vegetables, chickens and the other foods we all regularly consume?

Intensive dairy farm

Modern farming and the ‘need’ for efficiency, generally means, that crops are grown on a large scale with huge expensive machinery, and very few workers, and animals are reared indoors. As a result most of this ‘green and pleasant land’ is similar to my local fields, with the occasional huge shed containing millions of chickens, pigs or cattle.

I am not saying we should make farmers return to small mixed organic farms, although when the oil, and phosphate fertiliser, runs out, farming will change.

BigBarn School Crop for the Shop on the BBC

Until then we need to change our surroundings and reconnect consumers with where food comes from. Here are a few ideas;
1. Get every school growing fruit and veg and trading with our Crop for the Shop scheme
2. Encourage councils to develop more community supported Agriculture projects
3. Follow the example of Incredible Edible and Transition Towns and build Food communities
4. Get the government to make Raw milk legal and support small dairies (click here for recent blog)
5. Join and support Landshare

BigBarn local food map with Crop for the Shop & Cheaper than Supermarket flags

I am convinced that the modern, ‘efficient’, food industry will fail to give us fresh, seasonal, healthy, food at a reasonable price. Especially if we continue down the route to GM crops, where the corporates will gain even more control of the food industry and manipulate prices.

Local food can be cheaper as proved by the hundreds of producers and retailers on our local food map flagged as ‘cheaper than the supermarket’. Not cheaper to attract customers but cheaper due to no supply chain cost and middlemen margins.

Let’s change, your thoughts are welcome below.

Strawberry season, at last!

At last the sun is out and the luscious red fruit is ready. To buy and eat, pick your own, or, grow your own. Like nearly all fruit the freshest, ripest, strawberries are the best, and rarely found in the supermarket where shelf life is more important than taste. So here are a few strawberry facts.

Strawberries are the first fruit to ripen in the spring

Most supermarket strawberries are the El Santa variety specially bred to be picked before ripe and last a long time on the shelf.

Roughly 27,000 kilos of strawberries are eaten during the Wimbledon Championships

Wimbledon may have 64 player, seeds, in the competition, there are about 200 seeds on every strawberry?

Strawberries are the only fruit with seeds on the outside

A 100g serving of strawberries contains just 50 calories – 0g of fat!

Strawberries can help whiten your teeth? The acids in the fruit help to remove stains.

Find local strawberries using the BigBarn Local food map

They are full of a special substance called ellagic acid which can help fight cancers.

Also full of flavonoids, which form part of the strawberry’s red colour. They are known to help reduce cholesterol from clogging up the heart’s arteries.

Eight strawberries have more vitamin C than an orange, 140% of our daily recommended amount.

Strawberries can also be white or yellow and some can even taste like pineapples.

The strawberry and raspberry plants, are members of the rose family.

Eating strawberries, which are rich in nitrate, can increase the flow of blood & oxygen to the muscles by 7%. This prevents muscle fatigue, making exercise easier.

Over 53 percent of seven to nine-year-olds picked strawberries as their favorite fruit.

Some fantastic reasons to enjoy strawberries this summer. Find your local producers and Pick Your Owns using our local food map, or some plants to grow and produce fruit every year.

Open Farm Sunday this weekend

If you are looking for somewhere to take, and educate, the kids in a fun way, this weekend, consider Open Farm Sunday. Simply type your post code in here and find out what some of your local farmers have organised.

Hopefully you will find a place to buy better, fresher, food that is often cheaper than the supermarket!

Fiona at the Loch Arthur Farm Shop

Open Farm Sunday was first introduced in the UK in 2006 by LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming). The first year was intended to be a pilot run of the project, but interest was high and over 300 farms opened their gates to the public. Ever sinse farmers have taken it up and made it their own and following the seventh Open Farm Sunday in June 2012, nearly one million people have visited a farm.

As BigBarn’s mission is to reconnect consumers with producers and encourage trade we fully support Open Farm Sunday. We hope that those farmers selling direct and use the day to persuade local people to switch from the supermarket to buying local.

BBC; Cheese is from plants, chips grow on trees!

Squidoo.com

A survey reported by the BBC shows an alarming lack of food knowledge. But hardly surprising when the modern food industry and retailers have separated consumer from producer. Why should a child know whether potatoes are grown underground or up a tree when they rarely see food production or are not taught about food at school?

Most of the fields around me at the moment are either yellow with oil seed rape or green with wheat, and look nothing like the food on my plate. I expect most goes to feeding animals in intensive ‘factory’ farms, also hidden from the consumer.

It seems unlikely that we will return to the days when small mixed farms surrounded housing, so bringing food growing and cooking in to the curriculum, like the school in the report, is a fantastic idea.

School Crop for the Shop on BBC

The school project we ran showed how enthused children are when given the opportunity to learn and interact with growing and cooking food. After all, we eat 3 times a day and have the primal urge of hunger.

So Victorian food for History, designing food labels for Art, seed rates for Maths, growing plants for Biology, must make each subject more relevant and easier to learn. Add to this the incentive of making some money by selling any excess food through BigBarn’s Crop for the Shop scheme, and we may see the next generation enjoying healthier food and saving the NHS a fortune. Perhaps even see a new generation of farmers?

Prince Charles attack on Food Industry

It was great to see a number of newspapers report on Prince Charles’ attack on the food industry. Backing up what we at BigBarn (Social Enterprise), have been saying for years. So here is our take on what is wrong with the anti-social, food industry, why local is better, and how we are going to build a better, more social, local, food industry.

The Prince sent us a letter of encouragement 7 years ago and I hope he has watched our progress and, perhaps, read a few BigBarn blogs for inspiration! It is fantastic that in a position of power he gives his unbiased opinion on food and farming, and raises awareness as the media report.

There is little doubt that something is wrong with the food industry, with; obesity, continuing food scares, and farmers, on average, only getting 9p in every £1 spent on food in a supermarket.

So here are some BigBarn blogs on this subject. Including; what is wrong, why local is better and how to encourage people to change, and divert as much of the £120billion spent with supermarkets, to local communities, with massive social benefit:

Blogs on what is wrong:

Shocked to see horse meat in ready meals?

Will middlemen destroy the food Industry?

Misleading Food Advertising

Blogs on why local food is better

Really Fresh, healthy, Asparagus

Growing & eating local food to enthuse kids and get them healthy

BigBarn About us video

Family Farm Shop

Blogs on how we can change

Getting people enthused about cooking

BigBarn on Radio 4 & our strategy for change

In Summary: Big business and retailers have disconnected consumers from producers and many people have become semi addicted to the simple, one stop shop. Unfortunately this has led to farmers getting a very low price and consumers buying the wrong foods at high prices.

Luckily local food suppliers are offering a better alternative with cheaper, fresher, food, and knowledge. BigBarn is here to raise awareness to local food and encourage more people to break their one stop shop addiction and buy from, and communicate with, their local suppliers.

We live in a green and pleasant land perfect for growing food. Let’s switch to local and help build a more sustainable, social, food industry.

Fruit juice cheaper than unhealthy fizzy drinks

Next time you think about buying a branded fizzy drink, full of sugar and dodgy additives check the price of a carton of fruit juice first.

The last time I checked a 500ml bottle of Fanta was £1.58 whereas a litre of apple juice, £1.50. I grant the apple juice was made from concentrate but had no added sugar, preservative, aspartame, caffeine, high fructose corn syrup, benzene, or colourings.

Half price and twice as healthy? Do people buy fizzy drinks because they don’t look at price or is this the power of clever marketing?

Why don’t we insist our kids drink the healthiest drink of all, water out the tap?

Win a copy of the amazing Nibble Gobble Munch book

Here is a book that will help youngsters learn new and good habits and get enthused about food. Especially good local food, growing, cooking and eating!

This book describes itself as a ‘pop-up feast’ and it’s a claim it lives up to. Do you know the role of fibre in your diet? How cells divide? What are the food groups? What do each of the vitamins do? All the answers and more are to be found in this book in a fun and interactive way.

The French are already using the book in schools so it must be good!

To win a copy email the answer to the question below and 5 correct entries will be randomly selected to each receive a copy of the book.

Question: In how many countries has the book been published?

For more information, buy for your school, and to find the answer click here

To enter email info@bigbarn.co.uk

Farmer’s fury at Tesco lamb mince label

This headline so soon after the Horse meat scandal shows how the supermarkets have become complacent. Are consumers really that addicted to supermarket shopping?

They promised fair labeling but are already mixing UK lamb mince with New Zealand to add value in the eyes of the consumer. Will it add value and surely their excuse of needing to ‘maintain availability’ is rubbish, they could easily have UK & New Zealand Lamb Mince on the shelf?

Complacency is a very dangerous word and often spells the end of an era for a successful business. I really hope this is the case as I am sure we would all be much better off without supermarkets.

Much better using your local alternative, of butchers, bakers, farm shops, dairies and delis. To find them use our BigBarn local food map. Watch out for ‘£’ signs meaning cheaper than the supermarket, or a rosette meaning you can ‘Crop for the Shop’and help build your local, more sustainable, food industry.

Help Launch the brilliant MooMan Movie

There is a brilliant new movie about to hit our screens if we all help give it a gentle push. If you care about the plight of dairy farmers and the commoditisation of food read on.

The MooMan was the surprise hit of Sundance Film Festival 2013. The story of a farmer, Steve Hook, and his favourite cow Ida.

Steve is a farmer with a sparkle in his eye, passionate about his cows, producing organic raw milk, and keeping the family farm small and sustainable.

Sadly he is a rare breed in the farming world. Every day one small, family run farm, closes. Luckily Andy Heathcote and Heike Bachelier of Trufflepig Films wanted to show how important these small family farms are. And what better way than to make a film showing how surprising, and beautiful, the world of this farm is.

Unfortunately releasing a film is an expensive business and Andy and Heike want to do it properly. They are planning the best trailer possible, posters, and to tour the film to cities, towns and villages up and down the country – but to do this they need help to raise £20,000.

For more and to help bring the film, that Sundance Film Festival director John Cooper called, his “crazy favourite”, to a UK cinema near you, ClICK HERE.

BigBarn is a great supporter of small dairy farms and have blogged about the how much more sustainable small farms, selling direct, are, than mega dairies. For a taste of Steve’s Raw Milk buy online in the BigBarn MarketPlace by clicking here.

Misleading food advertising

Fresh local veg

Getting ready for work this morning I spotted two very dodgy TV adverts. Tesco ‘price promise’ and Walkers crisps.

Misleading because those watching will think Tesco must be ‘cheapest’ when on many products local suppliers are cheaper due to a shorter supply chain.

And Walkers, claiming they are a caring company, by sourcing flavouring ingredients from British producers. Quality crisp makers like Pipers, Fairfields, Just Crisps, Burts and Corkers have been doing this for years.

A few years ago pressure from these high quality crisp makers made Walkers switch from frying their crisps in Palm Oil, high saturated fat, to the much healthier, sunflower oil.

When Walkers ran an advertising campaign about the switch it was cut short when people like me asked why it had taken them so long!

So please ignore these dodgy adverts and shop locally to find better, fresher, food that is normally cheaper than the supermarket. And ask questions to get the facts and the story behind the food you buy and feed to your family.