Tottenham Marsh

Beautiful March sunshine here in London and it really feels like spring has sprung! We took a lovely walk along the canal at nearby Tottenham Marshes and got these wonderful photos.



Its so peaceful there - despite being adjacent to main roads and a busy built up part of North London. And the trees were budding, and there were ducks, swans and geese to be fed..



.. and just wonderful to feel the sunshine on your face!

More info for anyone in the area who fancies a visit here

Chicken Out Update

Those of you who read Earth and Tree last year (with their speakers on!) will remember the cacophony of chicken noises which greeted them from the 'Chicken Out' campaign banner we had flying.. this is a campaign in the UK to get the food industry, especially the big supermarkets, to clean up their act on chicken production and welfare and to get consumers to buy free-range rather than intensively-reared birds.

Thought you might like to read this update on how the campaign is going and what is being planned for 2009...



New television programme
Watch out for Chicken, Hugh and Tesco Too which is scheduled to air on Channel 4 on Monday 26th January at 9pm. This is a follow-up film to last year’s Hugh’s Chicken Run series and documents what happened when I became a Tesco shareholder as part of my fight to improve chicken welfare.

Poultry welfare forum
The plan to create a Poultry Welfare Forum which represents all the stakeholders - the farming industry, retailers, restaurants, government, campaign groups and consumers - has come to fruition and, late last year, we managed to hold an initial meeting of key players. Six themes were identified for further discussion. They were:

1. Agreeing an acceptable standard for British poultry welfare
2. Providing clear labeling for consumers on chicken standards
3. Ensuring progress on chicken welfare is not thwarted by lower-welfare imports
4. Achieving a better understanding, both within and outside the industry, of different health and welfare standards
5. Exploring dynamics between welfare and other sustainability issues
6. Stopping price wars so that chicken is not sold at less than production cost

I hope to have an updated report on all these issues in Spring 2009.

Compassion in World Farming
Compassion in World Farming is the leading international farm animal welfare charity, with a 40 year track record of successful campaigning on issues such as battery caged hens and veal crates. Their support has already been crucial to the Chicken Out! campaign and I’m delighted to announced that they will help me take it to the next level. CIWF have been appointed by the new Poultry Welfare Forum (see above) to co-ordinate discussion on the issue of transparency and consumer information. They will also be taking over the day-to-day running of the Chicken Out! website, giving links to the latest welfare news and providing some of the educational materials that many of you have asked about. I will still be providing my regular updates and you’ll next be hearing from me again after the airing of Chicken, Hugh and Tesco Too when we have an exciting online challenge we will be launching after the programme!

Please do check out the website over the next couple of months with much more to come, as we take the campaign ever onwards and upwards. Remember, we couldn’t have achieved all that we have so far without your magnificent support, and we still need it!

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

January

Well here we are in January!

The cold snap has brought some wonderful bright sunny frosty mornings to enjoy in my part of London and beautiful peach and lilac sunsets illuminating stark dark tree silhouettes.

Time to hibernate in the warm and try to avoid all the coughs and colds lurking about - the elderflowers that I dried last autumn are standing by (but I hope I shan't be needing them!)



Here's the link to last year's post, in case anyone needs it:
Making Elderflower Tea

Rowan

Also known as 'Mountain Ash', the Rowan tree (sorbus aucuparia) was once widely planted for its supposedly beneficial effect in driving away witches! All parts are astringent and have been used in tanning and producing a black dye. The wood was traditionally used for poles and barrel hoops.

The bark and fruit (either fresh or dried) have been used medicinally - a decoction of bark is taken for diarrhoea and the ripe berries are used to make an astringent gargle for sore throats and inflamed tonsils. To stimulate the appetite, a teaspoonful of rowan jam taken daily is recommended.

Flowers May to July
Fruits in August



PLEASE NOTE: These notes on the history and use of herbs have been compiled for general interest and are not intended as medical advice, for which you should consult a professional herbalist.

BIBLIOGRAPY:
‘Herbs and Healing Plants of Britain and Europe’ Dieter Podlech (1987)
'A Modern Herbal' Mrs M. Grieve FRHS ed. Mrs C. F. Leyel (1973)

Woodland Appeal

I'm wondering whether anyone in the UK who sees this in time might be able to help - The Woodland Trust are appealing for people to ring up and vote for their project to create a new wood near Colchester, Essex to win lottery funding (see details below).

The phone number to ring is 0871 626 8803 and the call must be before midnight tonight (Wed 26th November).

Many thanks for your help!


****** FROM THE WOODLAND TRUST WEBSITE ******

We need your urgent help. Our appeal to create a new wood at Elmstead Market in Colchester Essex has the chance to win nearly £50,000, as part of the Big Lottery Fund's People's Millions contest - but only if it gets enough telephone votes.

As well as protecting ancient woodland and providing habitat for endangered wildlife, like barn owls, buzzards and water voles, the new wood will provide people with more green spaces - if we can raise enough funds.

If you'd like to help, please call the voting number which will be released during the ITV Anglia East evening news and on the Big Lottery Fund website from 9am until midnight - on Wed 26th November.



Thank you in advance,

Mark Brown
Woodland Trust grants officer

Oak Galls

This morning I stumbled across these photos lying forgotten on my phone since a wonderful late summer walk in the Essex/Suffolk countryside back in August. There were lots of these galls on the oaks we passed, along with lots of healthy looking acorns.





I particularly liked this (slightly blurry!) one, where you can see the tinge of red..



I didn't know anything about oak galls, except that they were used for making ink in medieval times and had a lot of tannin, so I did a bit of reading up and thought other folks might also like to see the links I found. I had no idea that there were so many different types and was glad to discover that the wasps that make them don't pose any real threat to the trees.

Here's what the RHS have to say, here's a picture of a 'Knopper Gall' which seems the closest to my photos (double click to enlarge)

Here are Wikipedia entries on the 'Knopper Gall' in particular and Gall Wasps in general

and here is a link to the British Plant Gall Society with instructions for recording oak gall sitings.