Monthly Archives: March 2007

Peach blossom

March in England and the peach seems an impossibly distant and exotic fruit, its heady summer aroma almost unimaginable. Out of season peaches always disappoint and the sickly syrupy sweetness of the tinned fruit is altogether different. But late March in Suffolk and peach trees, most of them tight against a south-facing wall for warmth, [...]

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Books, eggs and the illusion of provenance

Philip Pullman once wrote that books are not eggs, his point being that every book is different whereas we expect every egg we buy to be the same. Agreed, books should not be treated as a commodity, but nor should eggs. Every egg is an individual creation, laid by a hen of some particular variety, fed and kept in a particular way, in a particular location.

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Bramley apples, an English culinary icon resurgent

The British are unusual in distinguishing apples for eating raw and for cooking. After years of decline, the Bramley, our best known cooker is enjoying new popularity.

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Fairness for farm workers too

Fair Trade for British Farmers is a new campaign to raise awareness of the problems faced by British farmers and how choosing fairly traded and priced British food can help. Country Living magazine and the Farmers Guardian are leading the campaign, with the support of Waitrose. Our daily shopping choices shape farming and the food [...]

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A fungus on the retail landscape

Andrew Simms, policy director of the New Economics Foundation, yesterday compared the big retailers to invasive species like the Nile Perch and Japanese knotweed. Honey fungus (Armillaria mellea and related species) also springs to mind, its superficially attractive fruiting bodies sprouting up prolifically while insidiously killing off surrounding plants. Over the last few decades, the [...]

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Promise of summer fruit, threat of a blackthorn winter

The arrival of the cherry plum blossom in late February marks the turn of winter, the first promise of summer fruits

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Why does it matter where our food is from?

Each of us has to eat every day to provide the energy for our daily lives and to maintain our health and the substance of our bodies. But eating is more than a mere biological necessity, but something worth living for.

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