<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948</id><updated>2011-09-28T13:11:49.733-07:00</updated><category term='BBC'/><category term='Carbon Step Change'/><category term='roast pigeon'/><category term='Food policy'/><category term='The Ecologist'/><category term='Joanne'/><category term='biodegradable wreaths'/><category term='weight loss'/><category term='JB weld'/><category term='Ben Gummer'/><category term='Grants'/><category term='community'/><category term='Environmental Policy'/><category term='ipswich vegetable box scheme'/><category term='Pigeon pest'/><category term='Transition Ipswich'/><category term='conservative'/><category term='first vegetables'/><category term='horticultural fleece'/><category term='Pee'/><category term='Joanne Interview'/><category term='IAASTD'/><category term='CSA'/><category term='Reinventing Collapse'/><category term='Radio Suffolk'/><category term='pumpkins'/><category term='Tim Lang'/><category term='soil fertility'/><category term='Dmitry Orlov'/><category term='forest garden'/><category term='Steve Marsden'/><category term='harvesting'/><category term='Potash'/><category term='green manure'/><category term='Surviving and Thriving on the Land'/><category term='MP'/><category term='Simple Living in Suffolk'/><category term='Christmas Wreaths'/><category term='two wheeled tractor'/><category term='goji berry plants'/><category term='Radio'/><category term='smallholding'/><category term='harvesting tools'/><category term='home made cold frames'/><category term='good value vegetables'/><category term='allotments'/><category term='book'/><category term='soil temperature'/><category term='Rose Prince'/><category term='Ripple food coop'/><category term='The Guardian'/><category term='Liberal democat'/><category term='comfrey'/><category term='energy'/><category term='blacksmithing'/><category term='Labour'/><category term='Ipswich Country market'/><category term='Gardening blog'/><category term='Permaculture'/><category term='ICR'/><category term='low carbon farm'/><category term='Planning permission'/><title type='text'>The Oak Tree</title><subtitle type='html'></subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default?max-results=100'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>35</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>100</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-104188358028277752</id><published>2011-01-30T09:50:00.001-08:00</published><updated>2011-01-30T09:50:55.251-08:00</updated><title type='text'>The Oak Tree Blog has moved!</title><content type='html'>The Oak Tree Low Carbon Farm Blog has now moved to...&lt;br /&gt;http://www.the-oak-tree.co.uk/blog/&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-104188358028277752?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/104188358028277752/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2011/01/oak-tree-blog-has-moved.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/104188358028277752'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/104188358028277752'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2011/01/oak-tree-blog-has-moved.html' title='The Oak Tree Blog has moved!'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-1413847281666646371</id><published>2010-12-13T03:01:00.001-08:00</published><updated>2010-12-13T03:55:12.473-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='forest garden'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Permaculture'/><title type='text'>Planting a Forest Garden at The Oak Tree</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TQYDQ0bL7UI/AAAAAAAAADY/Bsi226HxGkA/s1600/a_new_arrival_sm.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TQYDQ0bL7UI/AAAAAAAAADY/Bsi226HxGkA/s320/a_new_arrival_sm.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5550127178266176834" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;On Saturday a group of enthusiastic volunteers, including members of &lt;a href="http://www.transitionipswich.org.uk/2010/12/forest-garden-tree-planting/"&gt;Transition Ipswich&lt;/a&gt;  and the local &lt;a href="http://www.sgi-uk.org/"&gt;SGI Buddhist Group&lt;/a&gt;,  planted the first trees  of The Oak Tree Forest Garden. It was a lovely day, and great fun thanks  to the good humour and hard work of everyone involved. Thank you all!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TQYC6A-pAZI/AAAAAAAAADQ/aXfxak32tb4/s1600/Italian_Alder_sm.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TQYC6A-pAZI/AAAAAAAAADQ/aXfxak32tb4/s320/Italian_Alder_sm.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5550126786499117458" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TQYB3tGVlyI/AAAAAAAAADI/JTOHjWfHJwA/s1600/planting_trees.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float: left; 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&lt;style&gt;  /* Style Definitions */  table.MsoNormalTable  {mso-style-name:"Table Normal";  mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;  mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;  mso-style-noshow:yes;  mso-style-priority:99;  mso-style-qformat:yes;  mso-style-parent:"";  mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;  mso-para-margin-top:0cm;  mso-para-margin-right:0cm;  mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;  mso-para-margin-left:0cm;  line-height:115%;  mso-pagination:widow-orphan;  font-size:11.0pt;  font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";  mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;  mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;  mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";  mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;  mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;  mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} &lt;/style&gt; &lt;![endif]--&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-1413847281666646371?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/1413847281666646371/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/12/planting-forest-garden-at-oak-tree.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/1413847281666646371'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/1413847281666646371'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/12/planting-forest-garden-at-oak-tree.html' title='Planting a Forest Garden at The Oak Tree'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TQYDQ0bL7UI/AAAAAAAAADY/Bsi226HxGkA/s72-c/a_new_arrival_sm.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-9223035907105309116</id><published>2010-12-03T12:37:00.001-08:00</published><updated>2010-12-03T12:39:27.656-08:00</updated><title type='text'>The Oak Tree in the snow</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TPlVWdQ4uMI/AAAAAAAAACY/oKeoeLCEZW8/s1600/SP_A0021.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TPlVWdQ4uMI/AAAAAAAAACY/oKeoeLCEZW8/s320/SP_A0021.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546558260384413890" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This was just taken on my phone. It was cold today, but I managed to harvest nonetheless! And it was pretty :)&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-9223035907105309116?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/9223035907105309116/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/12/oak-tree-in-snow.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/9223035907105309116'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/9223035907105309116'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/12/oak-tree-in-snow.html' title='The Oak Tree in the snow'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TPlVWdQ4uMI/AAAAAAAAACY/oKeoeLCEZW8/s72-c/SP_A0021.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-2107604498251004275</id><published>2010-12-01T15:01:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-12-01T15:06:51.290-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Christmas Wreaths'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='biodegradable wreaths'/><title type='text'>The Oak Tree Christmas Wreaths - £12 each</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TPbUKm82jwI/AAAAAAAAACQ/HJeeP7aat74/s1600/compostable_christmas_wreath.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 261px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TPbUKm82jwI/AAAAAAAAACQ/HJeeP7aat74/s320/compostable_christmas_wreath.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5545853269872905986" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is the first day of advent, and so I started making fully biodegradable wreaths from The Oak Tree today. The frame is made from biomass willow, the greenery and pinecones are all local (the oranges didn't come from Suffolk though ;) If you would like one please do &lt;a href="http://www.the-oak-tree.co.uk/ContactUs.html"&gt;get in touch&lt;/a&gt;, or come and buy one from the &lt;a href="http://www.ipswichfoodcoop.co.uk/"&gt;Ripple Food Coop&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-2107604498251004275?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/2107604498251004275/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/12/oak-tree-christmas-wreaths-12-each.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/2107604498251004275'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/2107604498251004275'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/12/oak-tree-christmas-wreaths-12-each.html' title='The Oak Tree Christmas Wreaths - £12 each'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TPbUKm82jwI/AAAAAAAAACQ/HJeeP7aat74/s72-c/compostable_christmas_wreath.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-8706926684125656373</id><published>2010-11-24T03:21:00.001-08:00</published><updated>2010-11-24T03:27:14.286-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Steve Marsden'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Environmental Policy'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Carbon Step Change'/><title type='text'>The Oak Tree Carbon Policy</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TOz2ZrQI9WI/AAAAAAAAACI/dSMV8CjhTfs/s1600/wp8f164945_05.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 229px; height: 60px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TOz2ZrQI9WI/AAAAAAAAACI/dSMV8CjhTfs/s320/wp8f164945_05.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5543076162353821026" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I'm very fortunate to have the help of Steve Marsden from &lt;a href="http://www.carbonstepchange.com/contact.html"&gt;Carbon Step Change&lt;/a&gt; in setting up a policy for reducing carbon emissions at The Oak Tree. It might sound a bit over the top for one woman and a field to need an environmental policy, but as we set up more and more projects on the farm, including the &lt;a href="http://www.the-oak-tree.co.uk/CSAIntro.html"&gt;Community Supported Agriculture Scheme&lt;/a&gt; and the Permaculture Forest Garden, it is good to keep an eye on one of the main aims of the farm, namely keeping carbon emissions low. Steve is pragmatic and ambitious which works really well!&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-8706926684125656373?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/8706926684125656373/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/11/oak-tree-carbon-policy.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/8706926684125656373'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/8706926684125656373'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/11/oak-tree-carbon-policy.html' title='The Oak Tree Carbon Policy'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TOz2ZrQI9WI/AAAAAAAAACI/dSMV8CjhTfs/s72-c/wp8f164945_05.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-839438143386537939</id><published>2010-11-11T03:40:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-11-11T08:26:46.042-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Joanne'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Radio'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='ICR'/><title type='text'>Joanne on Ipswich Community Radio tomorrow</title><content type='html'>Joanne will be talking about The Oak Tree on &lt;a href="http://www.icrfm.co.uk/"&gt;Ipswich Community Radio&lt;/a&gt; tomorrow morning (Friday 12th November) from 8am on the breakfast show.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-839438143386537939?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/839438143386537939/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/11/joanne-on-ipswich-community-radio.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/839438143386537939'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/839438143386537939'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/11/joanne-on-ipswich-community-radio.html' title='Joanne on Ipswich Community Radio tomorrow'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-4148229301238863441</id><published>2010-11-10T00:49:00.001-08:00</published><updated>2010-11-10T00:53:40.089-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Question Answered</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TNpdjRGxkpI/AAAAAAAAACA/AOZz_yeqrMQ/s1600/squash_three.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 134px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TNpdjRGxkpI/AAAAAAAAACA/AOZz_yeqrMQ/s200/squash_three.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537841552274068114" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I've added a question and answer to the community supported agriculture (CSA) page for people who might like to "share a share" of vegetables. Please take a look at the &lt;a href="http://www.the-oak-tree.co.uk/CSAIntro.html"&gt;CSA page&lt;/a&gt; for more information (it is near to the bottom, under the title "Can I 'share a share' with someone else?")&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-4148229301238863441?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/4148229301238863441/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/11/community-supported-agriculture-csa.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/4148229301238863441'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/4148229301238863441'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/11/community-supported-agriculture-csa.html' title='Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Question Answered'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TNpdjRGxkpI/AAAAAAAAACA/AOZz_yeqrMQ/s72-c/squash_three.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-7039441667925782646</id><published>2010-11-05T05:49:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-11-05T05:53:23.518-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Transition Ipswich'/><title type='text'>Transition Ipswich Feast</title><content type='html'>&lt;!--[if gte mso 9]&gt;&lt;xml&gt; 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&lt;![endif]--&gt;  &lt;p class="yiv1960955152msonormal" style="text-align: center; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" align="center"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:130%;"&gt;&lt;b style=""&gt;&lt;span style=";font-family:&amp;quot;;" &gt;You are invited to….&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="yiv1960955152msonormal" style="text-align: center; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" align="center"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:130%;"&gt;&lt;b style=""&gt;&lt;span style=";font-family:&amp;quot;;" &gt;The Transition Ipswich Feast&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="yiv1960955152msonormal" style="text-align: center; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" align="center"&gt;&lt;span style=";font-family:&amp;quot;;font-size:18pt;"  &gt;7pm to 9pm on Friday 12&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; November&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=";font-family:&amp;quot;;font-size:18pt;"  &gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="yiv1960955152msonormal" style="text-align: center; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" align="center"&gt;&lt;span style=";font-family:&amp;quot;;font-size:18pt;"  &gt;Reg Driver Centre, Christchurch Park&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=";font-family:&amp;quot;;font-size:18pt;"  &gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="yiv1960955152msonormal" style="text-align: center; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" align="center"&gt;&lt;span style=";font-family:&amp;quot;;font-size:18pt;"  &gt;(Bolton Lane entrance)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=";font-family:&amp;quot;;font-size:18pt;"  &gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="yiv1960955152msonormal" style="text-align: center; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" align="center"&gt;&lt;b style=""&gt;&lt;span style=";font-family:&amp;quot;;font-size:20pt;"  &gt;All welcome, whether involved in Transition or not!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="yiv1960955152msonormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"&gt;&lt;a style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" href="http://www.transitionipswich.org.uk/2010/11/you-are-invited-to-the-transition-ipswich-feast/"&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 51, 0);"&gt;For more details please visit the Transition Ipswich Website&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b style=""&gt;&lt;span style=";font-family:&amp;quot;;font-size:20pt;"  &gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;b style=""&gt;&lt;span style=";font-family:&amp;quot;;font-size:20pt;"  &gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-7039441667925782646?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/7039441667925782646/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/11/transition-ipswich-feast.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/7039441667925782646'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/7039441667925782646'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/11/transition-ipswich-feast.html' title='Transition Ipswich Feast'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-8796603722327754294</id><published>2010-10-30T01:54:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-10-30T01:56:30.517-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='pumpkins'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='BBC'/><title type='text'>BBC Suffolk article</title><content type='html'>Oak Tree volunteer Rona Sharpe and Joanne &lt;a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/suffolk/hi/people_and_places/newsid_9037000/9037967.stm"&gt;showing off their pumpkins&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-8796603722327754294?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/8796603722327754294/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/10/bbc-suffolk-article.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/8796603722327754294'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/8796603722327754294'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/10/bbc-suffolk-article.html' title='BBC Suffolk article'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-6506793487871782472</id><published>2010-10-29T21:26:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-10-29T21:31:15.161-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='ipswich vegetable box scheme'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='CSA'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='good value vegetables'/><title type='text'>Community Supported Agriculture Scheme details on our website</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TMufjNbF8UI/AAAAAAAAAB4/kehwECxpPXw/s1600/squash_too.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 149px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TMufjNbF8UI/AAAAAAAAAB4/kehwECxpPXw/s200/squash_too.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5533691994402320706" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you are tempted by a regular, good value supply of vegetables along with the opportunity for some friendly healthy outdoor exercise with other friendly folk in the East of Ipswich I've updated The Oak Tree website with &lt;a href="http://www.the-oak-tree.co.uk/CSAIntro.html"&gt;details of our new Community Supported Agriculture Scheme&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;h6 class="uiStreamMessage" ft="{&amp;quot;type&amp;quot;:&amp;quot;msg&amp;quot;}"&gt;&lt;span class="messageBody"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h6&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-6506793487871782472?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/6506793487871782472/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/10/community-supported-agriculture-scheme.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/6506793487871782472'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/6506793487871782472'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/10/community-supported-agriculture-scheme.html' title='Community Supported Agriculture Scheme details on our website'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TMufjNbF8UI/AAAAAAAAAB4/kehwECxpPXw/s72-c/squash_too.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-2514879066040957870</id><published>2010-10-23T21:19:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-11-15T04:18:17.273-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='IAASTD'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Food policy'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Tim Lang'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Ben Gummer'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='The Ecologist'/><title type='text'>IAASTD interesting article</title><content type='html'>Interesting article from The Ecologist on how &lt;a href="http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/522538/agroecological_farming_methods_being_ignored_says_un_expert.html"&gt;smallholders using methods similar to those I use at The Oak Tree are being ignored by policy makers.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It mentions the IAASTD report (International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development ) also mentioned enthusiastically by Tim Lang at the recent Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival Conference. According to the report &lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;The IAASTD was initiated in 2002 by the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)&lt;/span&gt; so this is the voice of the establishment if ever there was one.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This is a pretty long document, and I must admit I haven't read it all. But when I get confused or lazy about reading about food policy I leave it to the expert, I search for Tim Lang's opinion. He always seems to talk sense, and I like his approach.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In &lt;a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1471-0366.2009.00250.x/pdf"&gt;this article of Jan 2010&lt;/a&gt; he says &lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;In 2008, the World Bank initiated IAASTD countered those who believe in GM as the new magic bullet, arguing that sustainable food systems could be built around supporting the social not just ecological infrastructure of small farmers&lt;/span&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I am in contact with my local MP, Ben Gummer, about these issues, so I'll pen him a note to draw this to his attention.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-2514879066040957870?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/2514879066040957870/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/10/interesting-article-from-ecologist-on.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/2514879066040957870'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/2514879066040957870'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/10/interesting-article-from-ecologist-on.html' title='IAASTD interesting article'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-3179891638343138065</id><published>2010-10-20T12:40:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-10-20T12:48:52.992-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Radio Suffolk'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Joanne Interview'/><title type='text'>Joanne on Radio Suffolk Today</title><content type='html'>Joanne talking to Jon Wright of Radio Suffolk, broadcast today.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;object data="http://boos.audioboo.fm/swf/fullsize_player.swf" height="129" id="boo_player_1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://boos.audioboo.fm/swf/fullsize_player.swf" /&gt;&lt;param name="scale" value="noscale" /&gt;&lt;param name="salign" value="lt" /&gt;&lt;param name="bgColor" value="#FFFFFF" /&gt;&lt;param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /&gt;&lt;param name="wmode" value="window" /&gt;&lt;param name="FlashVars" value="mp3=http%3A%2F%2Faudioboo.fm%2Fboos%2F202864-the-oak-tree-low-carbon-farm-s-joanne-brannan-talking-about-growing-food-sustainably.mp3%3Fsource%3Dembed&amp;amp;rootID=boo_player_1&amp;amp;mp3Author=ermine&amp;amp;mp3LinkURL=http%3A%2F%2Faudioboo.fm%2Fboos%2F202864-the-oak-tree-low-carbon-farm-s-joanne-brannan-talking-about-growing-food-sustainably&amp;amp;mp3Title=the+Oak+Tree+Low+Carbon+Farm%27s+Joanne+Brannan+talking+about+growing+food+sustainably&amp;amp;mp3Time=07.32pm+20+Oct+2010" /&gt;&lt;a href="http://audioboo.fm/boos/202864-the-oak-tree-low-carbon-farm-s-joanne-brannan-talking-about-growing-food-sustainably.mp3?source=embed"&gt;Listen!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-3179891638343138065?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/3179891638343138065/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/10/joanne-on-radio-suffolk-today.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/3179891638343138065'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/3179891638343138065'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/10/joanne-on-radio-suffolk-today.html' title='Joanne on Radio Suffolk Today'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-5521361822134879594</id><published>2010-10-20T08:54:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-10-20T08:58:05.569-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='CSA'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='forest garden'/><title type='text'>Vegetable CSA Meeting on Monday 25th Oct at Mcgintys</title><content type='html'>Anyone who is interested in the vegetable community supported agriculture scheme to start next year at The Oak Tree, or who would like to come and help planting the Forest Garden this winter is invited to McGinty's pub in Ipswich town centre on Monday 25th October:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;from 7.30pm to 8pm to arrange planting the forest garden&lt;br /&gt;from 8pm to 9.30pm to discuss how the veg CSA will be organised.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Feel free to contact Joanne (see The Oak Tree home page for my contact details) if you'd like any more details.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-5521361822134879594?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/5521361822134879594/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/10/vegetable-csa-meeting-on-monday-25th.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/5521361822134879594'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/5521361822134879594'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/10/vegetable-csa-meeting-on-monday-25th.html' title='Vegetable CSA Meeting on Monday 25th Oct at Mcgintys'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-1402104069061592997</id><published>2010-10-19T14:07:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-10-20T00:22:00.049-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='community'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='CSA'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='forest garden'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='allotments'/><title type='text'>New projects at The Oak Tree</title><content type='html'>In addition to the Community Supported Agriculture scheme planned for next year &lt;a href="http://transitionipswich.org.uk/forum/topic.php?id=49"&gt;discussed here on the Transition Ipswich forums&lt;/a&gt; I'm talking to the local council about putting two acres of allotments on The Oak Tree. There is a real shortage of allotments in the local area, big housing estates were built in the neighbouring town of Kesgrave recently with _no_ space for allotments, and landowners in the town who hope to receive £1m per acre for house are reluctant to make land available (which is perfectly understandable, but sad that we get trapped in this loop). Once again there is something seriously wrong with our planning system if we are to have any hope of local food in the future&lt;sigh&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.kesgrave-allotments.org.uk/"&gt;Kesgrave residents are really doing all they can to secure alloments&lt;/a&gt; though! The Oak Tree isn't huge at 12 acres, but as an ex allotment holder myself it would be good to make this possible for thirty or so plotholders.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And local people, both customers and members of transition ipswich have kindly offered to come along and help with planting the forest garden this winter - an amazingly wonderful thing. There really is change in the air, people want good food from their local area, and they are prepared to help make it happen.&lt;/sigh&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-1402104069061592997?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/1402104069061592997/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-projects-at-oak-tree.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/1402104069061592997'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/1402104069061592997'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-projects-at-oak-tree.html' title='New projects at The Oak Tree'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-1433229297485649029</id><published>2010-10-04T07:29:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-10-04T08:01:21.070-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='community'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='CSA'/><title type='text'>Community Supported Agriculture at The Oak Tree</title><content type='html'>We're thinking about setting up a CSA at The Oak Tree. Nothing to do with the child protection agency, everything to do with growing stuff with like minded people, and securing me a very basic income. I've written more on the &lt;a href="http://transitionipswich.org.uk/forum/"&gt;Transition Ipswich forums&lt;/a&gt; please do get in touch here, or there, or by email, if you could be interested.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-1433229297485649029?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/1433229297485649029/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/10/community-supported-agriculture-at-oak.html#comment-form' title='3 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/1433229297485649029'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/1433229297485649029'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/10/community-supported-agriculture-at-oak.html' title='Community Supported Agriculture at The Oak Tree'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>3</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-8654795407207259318</id><published>2010-08-28T19:24:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-08-28T19:58:52.753-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Rose Prince'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Pee'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='comfrey'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Potash'/><title type='text'>Potash, Pee and Comfrey</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/THnFrC4ARyI/AAAAAAAAABw/gmbADQqXwGQ/s1600/comfrey_sm.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/THnFrC4ARyI/AAAAAAAAABw/gmbADQqXwGQ/s200/comfrey_sm.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5510652962361329442" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;An &lt;a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/7969073/Demand-for-food-is-costing-the-Earth.html"&gt;interesting article from Rose Prince&lt;/a&gt; that sums up the issues surrounding the current interest in potash in agriculture.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I like her writing, she knows how to connect the big issues with the food we actually eat, and hopefully enjoy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I've spent a lot of time thinking about where to obtain the macro nutrients N (nitrogen), P  (phosphorus) and K (potassium  or potash) for The Oak Tree Low Carbon Farm.  I'm "growing without the use of artificial pesticides or fertilizers"  (I don't pay the relevant certifying bodies, so I can't use the "O" word). so buying chemical fertilizers is out. They are bad for the biodiversity of the soil and bad for plants anyway, so it isn't a big dilemma for me.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But the question remains - I am exporting veg from the site, so where do I get N, P and K from to grow the next round of veg? And when I start exporting fruit and eggs from the site? What about the pigeons that get shot and eaten.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is great to see that Rose Prince highlighted the human waste recycling question. This was the solution used in traditional Chinese agriculture, as described in the classic tome &lt;a href="http://www.earthlypursuits.com/FarmFC/FFC/F_%20H_%20King%20Farmers%20of%20Forty%20Centuries.htm"&gt;Farmers of Forty Centuries&lt;/a&gt;, and no doubt in countless other systems of agriculture, including the traditional back garden privy here in the UK. A neighbour at The Oak Tree recalls digging the night soil into the animal manure heap as a boy, leaving a marker to indicate where so the next lad with that particular responsibility could choose a different spot.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But back to The Oak Tree. The question of recycling human waste isn't one I can tackle wholesale on my own. It wouldn't be a great marketing move to request that customers drop off their night soil when they buy their veg :) Now (and don't be shocked, please, it is quite hygienic) I do pee into a glorified bucket on the farm and then use it on the &lt;span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"&gt;comfrey&lt;/span&gt; bed. I use hand sanitiser and clean everything &lt;span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"&gt;scrupulously&lt;/span&gt; from time to time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"&gt;Comfrey&lt;/span&gt; is deep rooted and needs a great deal of potassium, and pee provides it. I don't eat my &lt;span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"&gt;comfrey&lt;/span&gt;, but I will use it as a mulch around plants, but only with a very long delay between applying pee and harvesting the leaves. And even then I won't let the leaves touch anything I am planning to harvest, they will be spread around the plants, on the ground.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But this is just me, unless kind visitors are willing to donate some potash (and some have been :) According to Iain &lt;span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4"&gt;Tolhurst&lt;/span&gt;, co-author of Growing Green, a book I refer to a lot for The Oak Tree, much of the potassium needed for veg is simply locked up in soils with any clay content, and these can be released from the top and sub soil with microbial activity. I was astonished to read this, but &lt;span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5"&gt;Tolhurst&lt;/span&gt; Organics market garden is living proof that it can work. So for the moment, I am trying these techniques and I'll keep testing the soil...&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-8654795407207259318?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/8654795407207259318/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/08/potash-pee-and-comfrey.html#comment-form' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/8654795407207259318'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/8654795407207259318'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/08/potash-pee-and-comfrey.html' title='Potash, Pee and Comfrey'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/THnFrC4ARyI/AAAAAAAAABw/gmbADQqXwGQ/s72-c/comfrey_sm.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-1283743511538924313</id><published>2010-08-12T11:55:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-10-22T12:30:51.735-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='harvesting'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='weight loss'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='harvesting tools'/><title type='text'>Harvesting, hard work, happiness and a shrinking waistline</title><content type='html'>A few people have commented recently that I've lost weight since working on The Oak Tree. Jumping on the scales for the first time in ages, it turns out they are quite right, I've lost a stone this year. No bad thing, and I could do with losing a bit more, but it certainly isn't due to eating less. I eat an enormous amount, including a huge quantity of vegetables :)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The reason is simple, and pretty obvious - I'm doing a lot of physical work! Today I harvested vegetables not only for my &lt;a href="http://www.the-oak-tree.co.uk/Farmgatesales.html"&gt;self-service stall&lt;/a&gt; but also for the Ipswich Country Market, &lt;a href="http://www.luxfarm.co.uk/Lux_Farm.html"&gt;Lux Farm&lt;/a&gt; shop and for my latest customer, the &lt;a href="http://www.suffolkfoodhall.co.uk/"&gt;Suffolk Food Hall&lt;/a&gt;. Harvesting and preparing vegetables is a lovely job, but it does take quite a bit of time, and energy. This is the most I've picked in a day so far, and I'm really delighted with how popular my produce is proving. But I didn't do much else today, so I'd better get more efficient!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Richard and I are working on some home made projects to make my harvesting easier and more efficient. Firstly a sunshade/rain cover for my cart to collect produce as I harvest it. Secondly a bigger, outdoor table for preparing produce with a temporary roof over it, and finally an individual harvester which will work in a similar way to &lt;a href="http://www.nabersequipment.com/2easypick.htm"&gt;this one&lt;/a&gt; only without an engine and for just me - initially I'll pull myself along on a rope. Picking dwarf beans is hard on the back and slow - I think this device will make it far easier, and quicker. A similar device&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-1283743511538924313?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/1283743511538924313/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/08/harvesting-hard-work-happiness-and.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/1283743511538924313'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/1283743511538924313'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/08/harvesting-hard-work-happiness-and.html' title='Harvesting, hard work, happiness and a shrinking waistline'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-7217630293636294961</id><published>2010-08-11T07:25:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-08-11T07:52:28.028-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Grants'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Planning permission'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='MP'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Ben Gummer'/><title type='text'>Meeting with Ben Gummer, my local MP</title><content type='html'>I had a very constructive meeting with my local MP last week about The Oak Tree, raising issues I've mentioned before here about planning permission and grants. I'm looking forward to hearing back from him, certainly he didn't sound too impressed with some of the grants being doled out for unsustainable agriculture, such as the ones described here:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;http://www.ukia.org/eabooklets/EA%20Reservoir%20booklet_final.pdf&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;his basic message seemed to be:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Firstly the planning system will be simplifed (hooray!)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;and&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Secondly, grants are going to be cut back all round, which should at least make it a more even playing field for businesses like The Oak Tree.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-7217630293636294961?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/7217630293636294961/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/08/meeting-with-ben-gummer-my-local-mp.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/7217630293636294961'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/7217630293636294961'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/08/meeting-with-ben-gummer-my-local-mp.html' title='Meeting with Ben Gummer, my local MP'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-4160318801163311262</id><published>2010-07-20T22:40:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-07-20T22:50:01.620-07:00</updated><title type='text'>UN expert gives support to ecological farming</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TEaKXnVbvOI/AAAAAAAAABg/4t8AnxKfPgs/s1600/comfrey+shoots_sm.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TEaKXnVbvOI/AAAAAAAAABg/4t8AnxKfPgs/s200/comfrey+shoots_sm.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5496232533552774370" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sometimes running the Oak Tree feels like riding into the wind, as most official support is either for large agroindustry or for social gardening projects. I am all for social gardening projects, as gardening is certainly a wonderful environment to get to know people and learn all sorts of useful skills.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But the Oak Tree is neither a social project (though I hope we become an integral part of the local community) nor agroindustry. To date I have received no grants, no official advice or other support and my only interactions with officialdom have entailed form filling and expense. I wrote to my MP about this months ago, but have recieved no reply...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So this article about UN support for ecological farming is very encouraging:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;http://www.permaculture.org.uk/news/agroecology-outperforms-large-scale-industrial-farming-20100624&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-4160318801163311262?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/4160318801163311262/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/07/un-expert-gives-support-to-ecological.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/4160318801163311262'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/4160318801163311262'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/07/un-expert-gives-support-to-ecological.html' title='UN expert gives support to ecological farming'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TEaKXnVbvOI/AAAAAAAAABg/4t8AnxKfPgs/s72-c/comfrey+shoots_sm.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-7456750523512623316</id><published>2010-06-27T00:09:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-10-20T12:53:31.477-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='goji berry plants'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Ripple food coop'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='first vegetables'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Ipswich Country market'/><title type='text'>First sale of vegetables from the Oak Tree Low Carbon Farm</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TCb6rI2N0jI/AAAAAAAAAAs/HgbcVU1STRE/s1600/first+customer+sm.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 241px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TCb6rI2N0jI/AAAAAAAAAAs/HgbcVU1STRE/s320/first+customer+sm.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487348815013728818" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Saturday 26&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; June was a big day for The Oak Tree Low Carbon Farm – we sold our first vegetables! We'd just got to the point where there was too much for us to eat, so it seemed like a good moment to start selling!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Here is our very first customer with her bag of spinach at the &lt;a href="http://www.ipswichfoodcoop.co.uk/"&gt;Ripple Food Coop&lt;/a&gt;, held alternate Saturdays in the centre of Ipswich.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-7456750523512623316?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/7456750523512623316/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/06/first-sale-of-vegetables-from-oak-tree.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/7456750523512623316'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/7456750523512623316'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/06/first-sale-of-vegetables-from-oak-tree.html' title='First sale of vegetables from the Oak Tree Low Carbon Farm'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TCb6rI2N0jI/AAAAAAAAAAs/HgbcVU1STRE/s72-c/first+customer+sm.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-4531162986880564032</id><published>2010-06-21T14:35:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-06-21T14:42:46.662-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='roast pigeon'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Pigeon pest'/><title type='text'>Dead Pigeons</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TB_crrsnNtI/AAAAAAAAAAk/dpNQUlWcZ2s/s1600/pigeons_sm.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TB_crrsnNtI/AAAAAAAAAAk/dpNQUlWcZ2s/s320/pigeons_sm.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5485345514182883026" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Pigeons are a massive pest. Given half a chance they would east all my brassicas (I cover them in fleece, though I may try enviromesh in the future) and they are massing daily on the clover green manure that covers half the field. So I am delighted when a friend, Bob, comes and shoots them once a week. Even better, he gives me some to eat and I have just enjoyed roast pigeon for tea with the very first of the carrots and spinach from The Oak Tree. Soon I hope to have enough vegetables to sell!&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-4531162986880564032?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/4531162986880564032/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/06/dead-pigeons.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/4531162986880564032'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/4531162986880564032'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/06/dead-pigeons.html' title='Dead Pigeons'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/TB_crrsnNtI/AAAAAAAAAAk/dpNQUlWcZ2s/s72-c/pigeons_sm.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-1222558564140421277</id><published>2010-04-27T03:14:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-04-30T12:22:43.075-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='JB weld'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='two wheeled tractor'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='horticultural fleece'/><title type='text'>Breakdowns and a learning curve</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/S9st5qgDS2I/AAAAAAAAAAc/FZgOmZYHuSE/s1600/100430_fleecy_Image002.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 251px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/S9st5qgDS2I/AAAAAAAAAAc/FZgOmZYHuSE/s320/100430_fleecy_Image002.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466013041428745058" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I'm sat at home (ten minutes from the Oak Tree) here waiting for a bottle of specialist tractor oil to be delivered which I then have to get into an impossibly small looking hole on the rotovator fitting, and then put the whole thing back onto the tractor, which I am not sure if I am physically capable of doing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The tractor has been out of action for nearly two weeks due to a part that is designed to break under strain breaking under strain, I'm glad it did, but then again I wish there hadn't been a bit of string wrapped round it to do this in the first place. I know nothing about all things mechanical, but I am having to learn as I have had almost two weeks where I haven't been able to plant much which is not good!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I'm slowly building up a selection of spare parts and useful things to prevent breakdowns from holding up work. A few weeks ago the wheel broke on my cart, and it took a tube of JB weld to do a temporary fix so I could finish spreading muck. It is really frustrating having to wait, but in the meantime I've been making sure everything else is carefully hoed and generally looked after.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One piece of completely obvious wisdom that I have gained is this: don't try to lay out large sheets of horticultural fleece in windy conditions. Even if you really want to get it done. Wait for a calm day, it is better for the nerves and the plants!&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-1222558564140421277?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/1222558564140421277/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/04/breakdowns-and-learning-curve.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/1222558564140421277'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/1222558564140421277'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/04/breakdowns-and-learning-curve.html' title='Breakdowns and a learning curve'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/S9st5qgDS2I/AAAAAAAAAAc/FZgOmZYHuSE/s72-c/100430_fleecy_Image002.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-8588414841185778936</id><published>2010-04-19T02:38:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-04-19T23:32:33.256-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Liberal democat'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Labour'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='conservative'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='low carbon farm'/><title type='text'></title><content type='html'>&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;I've just had a politician on my doorstep. It reminded me of my emails I wrote a few weeks back to the (shadow) Secretaries of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs concerning obstacles I've encountered at The Oak Tree Low Carbon Farm. I've copied the text below. Since I wrote, the problem with the online land registry system seems to have been resolved, however the wider land ownership issues still apply IMHO.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Who wrote back?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;The &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Liberal Democrats&lt;/span&gt; had been in touch with me before I even wrote. They had seen my &lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/joanne-brannan"&gt;Guardian Gardening blog posts&lt;/a&gt; and wrote asking about what I was doing, recommending contacts, and asking how they could encourage projects like mine. Out of fairness I sent them the same email, and they continued our previous, constructive, conversation.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Labour's&lt;/span&gt; reply rather missed the point by referring to allotments and similar initiatives. Now I am all for allotments etc, indeed I was an allotment gardener for many years, but I don't believe they are the whole answer. What about people who cannot, physically, garden? And those who simply don't have the time, or interest. And there is the problem of appropriate tools and expertise.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;The &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Conservatives&lt;/span&gt; simply didn't reply. I have just mentioned this to a doorstep canvasser.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;My email to the &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;(shadow) Secretaries of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs of the three main parties:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Dear ***,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I’m currently setting up the Oak Tree Low Carbon Farm www.the-oak-tree.co.uk and I would be very interested to hear your opinion on:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;•    Whether projects like mine would be encouraged by a ***** government&lt;br /&gt;•    If so, how?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To give you a little background, I have encountered a number of obstacles in setting up my project, including during my purchase of the land.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Planning System&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Currently the planning rules are not at all helpful to small land based projects on the edge of towns, like mine. For example:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1.       Uncertainties over future housing developments make landowners reluctant to sell small areas of agricultural land on the edge of towns. This land could be developed into smallholdings which would offer sustainable, low carbon, low food mile produce to local residents.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2.       Planning requirements are far more stringent on agricultural holdings of under 5 hectares than on larger farms (regardless of proximity to a town). For example, planning permission is required even for a temporary agricultural building, which I believe would not be the case on a larger farm. My local planning authority has been very helpful within these regulations, they are not at fault here, it is more the overall philosophy behind the system that I am thinking of.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Agricultural Subsidies and grants&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Beyond oversubscribed lottery grants for non-profit making activities, small scale local food projects like mine are not receiving much, if any, financial support. Compare this with the vast sums of money being made available to large land owners to install unsustainable irrigation systems etc.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Given the shortages of water, fertilizer and fuel that we face in the future, we need a radical rethink of agricultural incentive schemes. I have received no state aid whatsoever for my project. For example, the East of England Development  Agency cannot help as they are currently investing in larger scale projects.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Land Registry&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Land Registry in the UK does not give a complete picture of who owns what, and with the recent disabling of the on-line map-based search tool for title information, it is increasingly difficult for people searching for land suitable for a smallholding to find out who owns what.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on all this.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Kind regards,&lt;br /&gt;Joanne Brannan&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-8588414841185778936?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/8588414841185778936/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/04/ive-just-had-politician-on-my-doorstep.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/8588414841185778936'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/8588414841185778936'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/04/ive-just-had-politician-on-my-doorstep.html' title=''/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-53419420907032440</id><published>2010-04-19T02:22:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-04-19T02:26:40.243-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='home made cold frames'/><title type='text'>Home made cold frames</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/S8whuUAXBvI/AAAAAAAAAAM/s02Di_HmFBI/s1600/IMG_6978sm.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/S8whuUAXBvI/AAAAAAAAAAM/s02Di_HmFBI/s320/IMG_6978sm.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461777527621486322" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Many people have admired our lovely coldframes. I'll come clean and admit that I didn't make them, Richard did! He's written &lt;a href="http://simple-living-in-suffolk.co.uk/2010/04/making-cold-frames-from-old-windows/"&gt;how he built them&lt;/a&gt;, in case anyone is interested.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-53419420907032440?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/53419420907032440/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/04/home-made-cold-frames.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/53419420907032440'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/53419420907032440'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/04/home-made-cold-frames.html' title='Home made cold frames'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HxVBU7pZ5E0/S8whuUAXBvI/AAAAAAAAAAM/s02Di_HmFBI/s72-c/IMG_6978sm.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-6344004788756395959</id><published>2010-04-19T01:58:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-04-19T02:18:33.166-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Gardening blog'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='The Guardian'/><title type='text'>The Oak Tree on The Guardian Website</title><content type='html'>For readers who haven't come to this blog via the Guardian website, you may be interested to take a look at &lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/joanne-brannan"&gt;my posts on their Gardening blog&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-6344004788756395959?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/6344004788756395959/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/04/oak-tree-on-guardian-website.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/6344004788756395959'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/6344004788756395959'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/04/oak-tree-on-guardian-website.html' title='The Oak Tree on The Guardian Website'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-7455032546179299814</id><published>2010-04-14T00:37:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-04-14T00:38:58.323-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Simple Living in Suffolk'/><title type='text'>Simple Living in Suffolk</title><content type='html'>My partner, Richard, has started a blog &lt;a href="http://www.simple-living-in-suffolk.co.uk"&gt;Simple Living in Suffolk&lt;/a&gt; about the changes he is bringing about in his life. He is the quiet force behind The Oak Tree, helping me to build all sorts of infrastructure on the farm while working full time, as well as developing his own projects.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-7455032546179299814?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/7455032546179299814/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/04/simple-living-in-suffolk.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/7455032546179299814'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/7455032546179299814'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/04/simple-living-in-suffolk.html' title='Simple Living in Suffolk'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-3594968886858972945</id><published>2010-04-13T19:57:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-04-14T00:32:38.241-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Reinventing Collapse'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='blacksmithing'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Dmitry Orlov'/><title type='text'>Peak Oil and so on</title><content type='html'>I've been reading Dmitry Orlov's book "Reinventing Collapse" and &lt;a href="http://fora.tv/2009/02/13/Dmitry_Orlov_Social_Collapse_Best_Practices"&gt;watching him online&lt;/a&gt;. He is an interesting guy, and manages to get scary ideas across with a fantastic sense of humour. His theory, which sounds pretty credible to me, is that much of the economic crisis in the States today is part of a social collapse similar to what happened to the former Soviet Union. So we'd have a (as Orlov puts it) an fUSA (former USA ;)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So, what does that have to do with The Oak Tree Low Carbon Farm? Well, quite a lot, from my perspective. Here in the UK we may escape some of the worst excesses that make the USA so fine tuned as to be almost entirely lacking in resilience. For example, I live in a town that you can walk across in a few hours that is surrounded by fertile farmland. But Ipswich's population is far higher than it was in the days before the mechanisation of farming. And we have all but lost the skills to feed and shelter ourselves without oil based technologies. Not only that, most of that soil is in pretty poor shape if we want to grow things without oil based fertilisers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;At The Oak Tree I still use a lot of technology that has been produced with some oil based technologies, even if I don't use much oil on an ongoing basis. For example, many of my fabulously clever smallholding tools, such as my Earthway Seeders, are made of plastic, and imported from the USA. See what I mean? If we do find ourselves with oil based infrastructure severely compromised, how easy is it going to be for other people to procure tools like mine, to set up similar farms? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Years ago I attended a course at the Centre for Alternative Techology in Wales on home blacksmithing. At the time I wanted to make pole lathe tools that weren't available commercially (they are now). Now I'm thinking this could be a very useful tool given charcoal (I have wood) and metal (there should be scrap metal to scavenge). It would take me some time to learn how to reproduce my tools, or make new ones, but I would have a chance. So I've just ordered &lt;span style="font-style:italic;"&gt;The Complete Modern Blacksmith&lt;/span&gt; by Alexander Weygers. It may sit on my shelf for now, but it might just turn out to be useful in the future.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-3594968886858972945?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/3594968886858972945/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/04/peak-oil-and-so-on.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/3594968886858972945'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/3594968886858972945'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/04/peak-oil-and-so-on.html' title='Peak Oil and so on'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-2884702242008566215</id><published>2010-03-24T00:13:00.001-07:00</published><updated>2010-03-24T00:15:27.466-07:00</updated><title type='text'>This blog has moved</title><content type='html'>&lt;br /&gt;       This blog is now located at http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/.&lt;br /&gt;       You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds or you may click &lt;a href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/'&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;       For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to&lt;br /&gt;       http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default.&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-2884702242008566215?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='related' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/' title='This blog has moved'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/2884702242008566215/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/03/this-blog-has-moved.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/2884702242008566215'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/2884702242008566215'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/03/this-blog-has-moved.html' title='This blog has moved'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-6797490964762416605</id><published>2010-03-11T00:38:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-03-11T01:05:12.333-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='green manure'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='two wheeled tractor'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='soil temperature'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='soil fertility'/><title type='text'>Change in the Weather?</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.the-oak-tree.co.uk/blog/uploaded_images/IMG_4543_sm-729196.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://www.the-oak-tree.co.uk/blog/uploaded_images/IMG_4543_sm-729192.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I wonder whether the weather is finally about to turn for the better? I need a soil temperature of 5°C to plant my clover/grass fertility building green manure mix that will cover most of the field. We're not there yet, but the forecast does look promising next week. Meanwhile, about four fifths of the field has been ploughed by what looked to me like an enormous tractor, but the friendly contractor Paul assured me it was one of their smaller ones. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Not very low carbon, getting a tractor in, I know. But I hope it will be a one off, and it is a pragmatic way to getting the bulk of the field not only under control, but also improving in soil quality, that is once the clover and grass is established.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As for the remaining fifth, I am cultivating it with my two wheeled tractor, and transporting muck onto it with my hand cart from the next door stable yard. I think I am going to be brave and finally plant some seeds today. There is a mix of rain and warmer weather forecast for the next few days, so I'll take a chance on it. The old hands on the next door allotment field reckon we are three weeks behind in weather here, and I think they are about right.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-6797490964762416605?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/6797490964762416605/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/03/change-in-weather.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/6797490964762416605'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/6797490964762416605'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/03/change-in-weather.html' title='Change in the Weather?'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-7272058574759890897</id><published>2010-02-08T03:08:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-02-08T03:15:29.910-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Surviving and Thriving on the Land'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='smallholding'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='energy'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='book'/><title type='text'>A Useful Book</title><content type='html'>I've read countless books on growing and smallholding over the years, and just this weekend I have read a book that couldn't have been more timely for me. &lt;span style="font-style:italic;"&gt;Surviving and Thriving on the Land&lt;/span&gt; by Rebecca Laughton is pretty well summed up by its subtitle &lt;span style="font-style:italic;"&gt;How to use your time and energy to run a sucessful smallholding&lt;/span&gt;. The most valuable part of the book for me was her descriptions of sucessful, and less sucessful, smallholdings (with a focus on market gardens) according to how well the people running them managed their energy and general well being. There is always too much to do in any garden, let alone a commercial one, and the trick seems to be a positive attitude, well planned rest and sufficient perspective. I've lost perpective a few times already, trying to get everything done at The Oak Tree, so Rebecca's book was a welcome way to spend my half day off last week, Sunday afternoon spent in front of my wood burner.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-7272058574759890897?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/7272058574759890897/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/02/useful-book.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/7272058574759890897'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/7272058574759890897'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/02/useful-book.html' title='A Useful Book'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-6604671383944575901</id><published>2010-01-22T20:03:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-01-22T20:07:41.164-08:00</updated><title type='text'>What on earth does “Low Carbon Farm” mean?</title><content type='html'>In the near future our food will be produced locally by a sustainable agriculture that adapts to climate change and rising fuel costs. Either that, or we all go hungry. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It’s a stark fact that’s increasingly evident to consumers, policy makers, environmental campaigners and enlightened farmers. The jargon, “low carbon”, and “locally grown” sounds cosy and wholesome, but what is the reality for farmers that want to meet this need?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My aim is to reduce the Oak Tree’s carbon footprint at every point in the production and delivery of produce. Some fertilizer I will grow on site, last year I met Iain Tolhust who wrote "Growing Green", which convinced me it can be done, with occasional deliveries of woodchip to the farm. The rest I will get in from very locally, for example the pony paddock next door or the council delivering woodchips to me rather than the depot because it saves them money on diesel.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The equipment will be small scale; the only powered equipment planned is a &lt;a href="http://ww.bsgtractorsandmachinery.co.uk/epages/es109747.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/es109747_shop/Categories/%22Two%20Wheel%20Tractors%22/Jolly"&gt;two wheeled tractor&lt;/a&gt; and a chainsaw.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Delivery will be by bicycle trailer, and when I can afford it, a &lt;a href="http://www.cyclesmaximus.com/cargotrike.htm"&gt;cargo trike&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We'll have an online ordering system which will enable people to order their choice of veg for delivery the same day – but only within cycling distance!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I’m talking to a helpful lady at Sustain about setting up a local food coop/farmers’ market, and I also plan to sell at the local &lt;a href="http://www.ipswichfoodcoop.co.uk/"&gt;Ripple Food Coop&lt;/a&gt; and my &lt;a href="http://www.ipswichcountrymarket.co.uk/"&gt;local Country Market&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I’ll combine the “Growing Green” techniques with Elliot Coleman’s “The New Organic Gardener” book’s technique for a small scale veg growing business, alongside 2 hectares of woodland for fuel (a long term project, but we need to start growing wood now for future fuel wood demand) and agroforestry. Martin Crawford is the expert so I’ll just give you a link to his site &lt;a href="http://www.agroforestry.co.uk"&gt;www.agroforestry.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; he is a truly amazing guy whose work is now starting to be properly recognized.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-6604671383944575901?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/6604671383944575901/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/01/in-near-future-our-food-will-be.html#comment-form' title='3 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/6604671383944575901'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/6604671383944575901'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/01/in-near-future-our-food-will-be.html' title='What on earth does “Low Carbon Farm” mean?'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>3</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-4572483059199501945</id><published>2010-01-21T15:29:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-01-21T15:33:07.334-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Rabbits. Lots of them.</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.the-oak-tree.co.uk/blog/uploaded_images/Rabbit-damage-739726.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://www.the-oak-tree.co.uk/blog/uploaded_images/Rabbit-damage-739721.jpg" border="0" alt="Rabbit Damage" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Oak Tree has rabbits. Lots and lots of rabbits. And rabbits like veg. And in the recent snow, they even liked the bark of some ivy I left lying on the ground after a session of felling dead trees to make ready for new saplings.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So what am I going to do about these rabbits? There are many options for rabbit control, and crop protection from rabbits, none of which seem to be problem free. There is no doubt that rabbits are a promising source of food, with impeccable green credentials. I’m certainly not going to have them gassed, I don’t like the idea of killing them that way, and it is a waste of a useful source of food.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I’ll be putting rabbit electric netting around my vegetable crops, but there is still a big risk of them breaching this and causing a lot of damage. So some sort of control of numbers is needed. I’m going to try humane trapping and possibly drop netting. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If these methods fail I’ll consider either an air rifle, or someone with ferrets. Shotguns are out as I am too close to public roads and footpaths.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Every part of the rabbit will be used, meat, skin (I’ll cure them for gloves, scarves etc) and the bones will be boiled up in rabbit casserole for a rich and very nutritious sauce. I would like to work out a way of converting bones to bone meal to enrich soil, but I am still working on that idea.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-4572483059199501945?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/4572483059199501945/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/01/rabbits-lots-of-them.html#comment-form' title='3 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/4572483059199501945'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/4572483059199501945'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/01/rabbits-lots-of-them.html' title='Rabbits. Lots of them.'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>3</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-6080550698651944308</id><published>2010-01-18T13:42:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-01-21T15:17:51.192-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Very first signs of new growth</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.the-oak-tree.co.uk/blog/uploaded_images/Alexanders-777969.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://www.the-oak-tree.co.uk/blog/uploaded_images/Alexanders-777865.jpg" alt="Alexnders" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;As the snow melts, there is an amazing amount of greenery left looking healthy and &lt;span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"&gt;vigorous&lt;/span&gt;, including young leaves of the edible hedgerow greens, Alexanders. &lt;span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"&gt;Apparently&lt;/span&gt; the Romans brought them to the UK as a pot herb, personally I'm not very keen on them as they have a very scented flavour, but many people do like them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I met another neighbour this past week, one of the ladies who keep horses in a neighbouring field. She explained that the big dip in the middle of the Oak Tree land was caused by a bomb in the second world war, which was a complete surprise. I'm planning to turn it into a pond/water reservoir in years to come (subject to planning permission again...). This would give the combined benefits of a wider range of wildlife to keep pests in check (for example frogs eating slugs) as well as a source of water for irrigation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We were both delighted when I cautiously asked if I could use some of &lt;span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"&gt;their&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"&gt;strawy&lt;/span&gt; manure, which by all accounts has been maturing for many years. She was delighted and asked if I wanted to be paid to take it away, and I was delighted that she didn't want to charge me. It seems kind of crazy that such a valuable resource is treated as waste, but in this case I am most certainly not complaining!&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-6080550698651944308?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/6080550698651944308/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/01/very-first-signs-of-new-growth.html#comment-form' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/6080550698651944308'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/6080550698651944308'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/01/very-first-signs-of-new-growth.html' title='Very first signs of new growth'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-9168278727984423140</id><published>2010-01-04T14:13:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-01-04T14:38:06.574-08:00</updated><title type='text'>A New Year at The Oak Tree Low Carbon Farm</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.the-oak-tree.co.uk/blog/uploaded_images/091218_snow_IMG_6475-778295.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="http://www.the-oak-tree.co.uk/blog/uploaded_images/091218_snow_IMG_6475-777095.jpg" alt="" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While the snow looks wonderfully peaceful on the land at the moment, I am busy making preparations for the first growing season, as well as cutting down dead trees to make space for planting new bare rooted trees in the dormant season, that's to say soon!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I am slowly getting to meet my neighbours, all of whom have been charming and helpful, including &lt;a href="http://www.luxfarm.co.uk/Lux_Farm.html"&gt;Lux Farm&lt;/a&gt;, just up a footpath from me. They supplied my delicious Christmas goose, which I collected on foot as the roads were so icy, and I ended up loading up on lots of other delicious real food for the festive season. I took the opportunity to ask their advice on local contractors who could help with the initial cultivation of the soil.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Meanwhile, I am applying for planning permission for a 10' by 14' timber building for storing tools. As The Oak Tree is under just 5Ha (roughly 12 acres) the planning rules are far more stringent than for larger farms, so I am left with a race against time to have a building to store my new two wheeled tractor and implements in time for March when the planting will really start in earnest. Meanwhile the govenrnment says how much it wants to help small local food producers... I think a little more "joined up thinking" is needed there!&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-9168278727984423140?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/9168278727984423140/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-year-at-oak-tree-low-carbon-farm.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/9168278727984423140'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/9168278727984423140'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-year-at-oak-tree-low-carbon-farm.html' title='A New Year at The Oak Tree Low Carbon Farm'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5356061244886593948.post-230171302069291727</id><published>2009-11-26T10:56:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-01-04T13:59:06.409-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Good to meet others</title><content type='html'>Joanne attended a meeting of Transition Ipswich, an exciting initiative very much in the same spirit as The Oak Tree.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5356061244886593948-230171302069291727?l=the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/feeds/230171302069291727/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2009/11/compostable-christmas-wreaths-12-each.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/230171302069291727'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5356061244886593948/posts/default/230171302069291727'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://the-oak-tree-ipswich.blogspot.com/2009/11/compostable-christmas-wreaths-12-each.html' title='Good to meet others'/><author><name>Joanne</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06482612266548966452</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry></feed>
