Offices B140 - B143
New Covent Garden Market
Nine Elms Lane
London
SW8 5PA
Tel : 020 7627 8066
Fax : 020 7627 4698
inof@farmaround.co.uk

APRIL NEWSLETTER 2001

Dear Customer,

I hope you managed to enjoy the Easter holidays despite the misery that has enveloped the countryside. There are few words that have not been written and few views that have not been expressed on the FMD as they call it and I have little to add. As a 'childish' animal lover who is more concerned by animal welfare than any economic plight, the last few months have been excruciating. In addition, things have not been easy on the farms this winter with all the flooding and the cold weather. However, we are expecting our first new crop of rhubarb from Devon and new spring greens from Wales, both signalling the end of the UK 'hungry gap' and the beginning of the build up into the English season.

Needless to say, I have been unable to get out to any farms in England recently and decided last week to visit some of the ones that supply us from Rousillon in the South of France. On arrival in Perpignan I was greeted by the 'Tramontane' wind. This means 'from behind the mountain' in Catalan. It was blowing at 140kms per hour, which usually happens between 6 and 10 days each year. I'd timed it well. It blows to a lesser degree for 100 days a year penetrating all clothing, including that of your mind, and if you don't go insane before then it can take three or four years to get used to and it really is quite common to end up in hospital. A relentless, dry wind blowing from the north-west to the south-east, it is loved by organic farmers as it prevents diseases such as mildew from taking hold and its turbulence mixes the air to such a degree that it cannot freeze. Between the 15th March and the 15th May the weather changes dramatically from day to day with winter plunging into summer and back again, followed sometimes by 150mm of rainfall.

Georges Falip grows organic cucumbers, tomatoes-on-the-vine, courgettes and Charentais melons in his 4 hectares of tunnels at Toulouge, 4 kms from Perpignan. He also has a production of winter lettuces and figs. Georges' father fled from Spain during the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and along with hundreds of thousands of other refugees, camped on the Canet Plage beaches. This was called 'La Retirade'. Assisted by the French government, the refugees gradually left the camps to work in the region, with many acquiring land as Georges' father did. Of the 120 organic producers in Roussillon many are of Catalan origin. Georges inherited the land from his father in 1980. He employs 7 permanent staff who were all lying fast asleep outside the tunnels with leafy branches on their heads protecting them from the sun.

From Belgium he buys boxes of 'bourdons', large black bees. He uses them to pollinate the flowers instead of normal bees as their sting is more friendly. Not yet due for release, he opened the box to show me them and several escaped and chased me down the tunnel. There are twenty 'ruches' of 50 - 60 bourdons per hectare. In transit they are fed on glucose and water. He buys packets of microscopic spiders from Clacton, of all places. There are 500 per seed like packet. He pierces the packets and attaches them to the plants; in due course they escape and feed on the thrips, the unwanted spiders. Similarly he buys aphelinus to feed on the aphid and encarsia macrolophus to feed on the 'mouches blanches'. Georges told me that he particularly liked these natural predators because unlike his other workers they had no 'syndicat' and he didn't have to pay any tax and Social Security contributions for them.

In Taxo by 'les Alberes', the foothills of the Pyrenees which flow into the sea, I visited the farm where our kiwis are grown. M. Vila is the astute son of a poor shepherd. Struggling to transcend his modest roots, during the 1970s he became the first person in the region to construct plastic tunnels in order to grow early tomatoes to sell on the markets of Toulouse and Lyon. With the death of a local wine producer in 1985, 150 hectares of vines attached to a large chateau, came up for sale. The widow had agreed to sell it to the 'municipale' for a golf course. M. Vila was outraged. In France, there is legislation to ensure that land attached to such houses is kept in agricultural use, so he took them to court, won the case and prevented the sale. This was not done for selfless reasons, because M. Vila wanted to buy the land himself. After this there was so much animosity towards him from the 'municipale' and the widow that they did all they could to prevent him buying any of the land. However, after placing adverts and only managing to sell 50 hectares the widow finally relented and sold the remainder to M. Vila. Encouraged by generous EU grants, he proceeded to grub up the vines. These grants virtually covered what he had paid for the land. Recently the widow died and her son put the chateau on the market. A German bought it to develop the property into flats for eco-tourism. Again, Vila was not happy as he wanted to buy the property and, utilising the legislation that endeavours to prevent these houses from being separated from their land, he took the son to court. Vila won again and the deal was nullified. He is now trying to buy the property but the son is currently resisting.

In 1987, he planted organic kiwis. He has a production of nearly 2000 tons and they are the only organic kiwis in Roussillon. His land has been subdivided into parcels 30m x 480m and are surrounded by plane and cypressa trees to shelter them from the Tramontane. During the winter pruning they remove all but six branches on each side of the tree. These branches are attached to a wire and pole structure keeping them up off the ground away from the slugs and the humidity and giving the blossoms and fruit maximum light penetration. They are awaiting the arrival of 400 beehives which they rent for 1 month for pollination between mid-April and mid-May. My arriving several days later didn't bear thinking about. It takes 4 - 5 years before a kiwi tree starts producing and they then have 20 years of good production. It takes 1 month and 50 people to harvest and an additional 17 people to grade the kiwis. For the last three years they have been growing larger fruit which are sweeter. This they do by growing less fruit per tree. The kiwi tree is a rustic plant and fairly easy to grow organically. The yield from organic production is 50% less than conventional yet the premium is only 15%. In february the soil is analysed and where necessary given a feed of guano, ground bird feathers, powder of horn and patenkraly which is potassium.

In 1922 the grandparents of Nicole Pascal came down from the mountains with their goats to rent the idyllic 13th century 'Mas Saragosse' at the foot of the imposing Mount Canigou. Many people left the mountains at this time as life was so difficult up there. Nicole's father eventually took over the farm and Nicole bought it in 1986 when her father retired. There are 25 hectares of peach trees, almond trees and olive trees. Sheltered by bamboo and irrigated by an abundance of natural sources are small fields where she grows her vegetables. She runs a farm shop from one of the old barns and if any of you are planning to roam these parts this summer do call me for the address as it is well worth a visit to stock up.

People were busily braving the still relentless wind, up ladders removing tiny peaches from up and down the branches. This meant that the fruit that remained would be larger and more succulent. Of 100 peaches per branch, they will remove 90. This takes 200 man hours per hectare. We are looking forward to the harvest starting in June, with the Red Robin and Alexandra white flesh varieties being the first to reach maturity. The main pests on the farm are the wild boar who come down from the mountains in the winter looking for food. They climb up against the young and fragile almond trees snapping them to get at the 3 or 4 little almonds that the tree is bearing. They run up and down on the plastic sheets that are laid to protect the salad plants making thousands of little holes in them. They then root about underneath the plant with their snouts looking for grubs. After this feed they leap into the watercress beds for a bathe and a roll. In the spring they head off back into the mountains. Roussillon is stunning in the Spring. Lush orchards flooded with poppies and other wild flowers set against the awe inspiring backdrop of the Pyrenees and the deep turquoise sky.

A new report has just been published about organic food and farming in 2000. It shows that the UK market grew by 55%. Over 65% of UK households made an organic food purchase during the year compared to 37.2% two years previously. This represents a 6.6 million increase in the number of homes buying organic. It also saw the frequency of purchase increase by 13% and the average spend per shopping trip increase by 15%. However 57% of purchases were made by a committed core of 7% of consumers. Supermarkets have now increased their share of the market to 74%.

By April 2000 there were over 400,000ha of land under organic management in the UK, a quarter of this being fully organic and the rest in conversion. Organic production accounted for 2.3% of the agricultural land area, compared to 3% in the EU as a whole. The numbers of producers registered as organic or in conversion almost doubled from 1500 to over 2800. The report stated that, although the horizon is predominantly bright, the threat of supermarket price wars and a dilution of standards is ever present.

Sadly, Sebastien Vandevyver is leaving the company. Sebastien and I started farmaround together in 1994 and some of you will remember him from those days when we both used to make the deliveries. He has worked tremendously hard supporting farmaround and myself through the ups and downs of the last seven years. He is leaving to start a family and an organic restaurant in California with his American wife. I'm sure he'll miss sunny Vauxhall a great deal.

As he begins a new life so do we. I am delighted to let you know that in the middle of January we decided to cease our wholesale operation. It was never our intention to wholesale and it arose purely from our location. It has been a terrible, burdensome monster for the last two years and it is a huge relief to now be able to put 100% of our energy into the home delivery service. I'm sure that over the coming months you will see positive changes as a result of this decision.

As I write the first phase of our new web site is under developement. Soon, you will be able to make amendments to your order online and glean more information about our products on a regular basis. We would welcome any suggestions about how to improve the website and, indeed, any suggestions of how we might improve our overall service to you. We are also about to purchase a fleet of refrigerated vans so that finally the cold chain will not be broken between the farm and your home.

We have added four wonderful new juices to our range. They all come from James White and are:

Organic Carrot & Apple Juice 75cl bottle @ £2.60
Organic Sour Cherry & Apple Juice 75cl bottle @ £2.80
Organic Cranberry & Apple Juice 75cl bottle @ £2.80
Organic Raspberry & Pear Juice 75cl bottle @ £2.80

The Old Post Office Bakery, based in South London, is now baking delicious bread for us. They are certified by the Soil Association and their breads contain no genetically modified ingredients, artificial additives or sweeteners. They are:

Organic Wholewheat Loaf 800g @ £1.20 A popular, light wholewheat loaf made with a special blend of wheats grown in the Gloucestershire countryside.
Organic White Bloomer 800g @ £1.20 This is an excellent, classic bread, delicious for sandwiches and toasting. Made with organic unbleached flour.
Three Seed Loaf 800g @ £1.60 A delicious bread made with sunflower, sesame and poppy seeds.

Enclosed with this newsletter is a questionnaire and an updated bonus point list. We would be very grateful if you could spare a few minutes to complete the questionnaire. If you enter your name and postcode on the form we will put you in a prizedraw to win a luxury organic hamper. The forms can be either given to your driver, faxed or posted to us.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your support. Both those of you who are fairly new to us and the many of you have been with us for years and were some of the first people to start creating the demand for organic food and its production. It is thanks to that early commitment that we are now witnessing a sea change in attitudes to the way we farm in this country. Let us hope that this leads to the regeneration of our beautiful countryside.

Kind Regards


Isobel Davies