chicken out!

i've been watching the chicken out campaign on channel 4 and it has really opened my eyes to the way chicken is farmed. the programme was fronted by hugh fearnley-whittingstall of river cottage fame and showed the differences between free range and intensively farmed chickens. it made some good points about how buying free range chicken need not be greatly more expensive than the bog standard variety.

he also tried to get interviews with the major supermarkets in the uk but they were unsurprisingly reluctant.

give the campaign website a look and and show your support by signing up!

2008 - the year of the allotment

as we don't have any major events planned for this year, mrs p and i are hoping to make 2008 the year of the allotment. we popped down to our plot last weekend and had a good sort out. it wasn't looking too bad (pictured) so we gave it a good weed and cleared a few brambles etc. we've got some good winter/spring vegetable seeds, things like beans, radish etc so they'll be going in soon along with the much needed pigeon protect, which might include a homemade scarecrow.

watch this space to watch things grow (fingers crossed)!

you say tomato, i say tomato

some tomatoes from our allotment.
juicy!!

the good...the bad...and the ugly!

the good.......................the bad.........................and the ugly!

yes, you've guessed it. we've neglected our allotment a bit lately. it's been a bit of a busy summer and unfortunately the allotment has not been top of our list. but now its time for "operation trowel"!

this saturday we plan to give the plot a real good going over to get it fully cleared again and ready for next year. we'll be digging over the natural fertiliser that has been growing on the left side of the plot (they aren't weeds, honest) and finishing digging the final bed at the back of the plot.

we're also going to trim the paths and lay some old bricks around the beds that don't already have edging, just to tidy things up really.

so hopefully by the end of the weekend i'll have some better pictures to show you.