European Pig Production Congress

The European Pig Production Congress, held in Lithuania, running for three days has gained almost 300 delegates from 19 countries and is tackling the challenges created by the new pig housing regulations that is now 7 months away.

An article by Jackie Linden continues to list the topics tackled by the EPP Congress that include the difficulty in obtaining loans during this period of global recession; the behaviour of the consumer in paying higher prices for the production of pig meat; will cheaper imported meat from less economically developed countries be the choice of the consumer; as well as a focus on pig production in the Baltic Region. 

More information can be found here, this page also has a link to related stories on the right hand side of the linked page.

More information on pigs and pig meat production can, of course, can be found at the BPEX homepage.

The Shipbourne Pound

Following on from a past posting about Farmers' Markets. Let me ask you a question, how does a farmers' market cope if the community has no cash point and poor signal for the reception of wireless credit and debit card readers? It could be said that some communities would not have held that farmers' market.

Shipbourne, a village in Kent, had different thoughts and they introduced "The Shipbourne Pound" in denominations of £2 and £5 from the idea of the market manager, Bob Taylor.

The idea is that if customers run out of money they can buy the Shipbourne pounds with a debit card from the nearby pub "The Chaser Inn". This reduces the thought of potential customers leaving Shipbourne in order to find money due to the problems listed above. 

The Shipbourne pound depicts the village's church, St. Giles, both in summer and winter as well as Sir Henry Vane - a knighted parliamentarian under Cromwell. The manager of The Chaser Inn, Darren Somerton, talks of the Shipbourne Pound, on the website thisiskent.co.uk, that "We are delighted to work with the market on this new project, offering a new service to the local community, and a further boost to local food producers."

Do you know of any other schemes like this that your local market or farmers' market use to entice customers? I have heard of a scheme in Hawick, Lewes and Totnes, it was even discussed on Ambridge but never implemented. 

Farmers' Markets

As the South of England Agricultural Show gets closer, I aim to add a post a day, please find below a post on how to gain a foothold in the Farmers' Markets. Once again, please feel free to comment.

One of our Eurolink members wrote an article for the Kent Farmers' Markets for potential stallholders. The article warns that the farmers' markets are a competitive environment and that it is worth a visit to a couple of markets to see what is being sold and how you can make your product different from the other products for sale. 

The author, Benjamin Dent, continues to state that customers want value for money,  but they are also interested in the producer and what added value they can provide - be it recipes or contributions to the local community. 

There are, of course, a variety of farmer's markets in Kent (43 at the last count) and are listed here; there are other farmer's markets in Sussex - East and West as well as the whole of England.

The author continues to give advice on how to draw up a business plan with costs, income and cash flow with suggested start-up costs, running costs, income, product price, the commitments as well as what regulations you need to study and pass. As he concludes, Benjamin asks, "Can you remain enthusiastic about telling a shopper about your product for the thirtieth time that morning? Can you encourage people to buy without making them feel uncomfortably pressured? Can you be cheerful at 9am on a cold and wet January morning?"

Yan, Tan, Tether - Sheep Counting

It is said that counting sheep is one way to fall asleep but there is more than to counting sheep than seeing them jump over a gate in your head. There is an article on Wikipedia that describes the sheep counting rhyme that has been used all over the British Isles and was in constant use before the early twentieth century:

Yan, Tan Tether, Mether, Pip, Azer, Sezar, Akker, Conter, Dick, Yannadick, Tannadick, Tetheradick, Metheradick, Bumfit, Yanabum, Tanabum, Tetherabum, Metherabum, Jigget is the Swaledale version of the sheep counting rhyme.

It is said that this form of pre-Industrial Revolution counting and is based on the Brythonic Celtic language (the language shared by the Bretons, the Cornish and the Welsh).

Despite this form of counting falling out of fashion in the early twentieth century; it has been embraced into the cultural sphere with composers, singers and writers alike all using it in their work - including Joan Aiken, Harrison Birtwhistle, Bernard Cornwell, Adrian Edmondson, James Joyce, Terry Pratchett and Jake Thackerary.The latter example gives a brief and comprehensive method of the sheep counting system and then weaves a story in it.

Why was it necessary to count the sheep? It is said that between the 5th and the 15th centuries, and still continuing in some areas today, certain farms were given fell rights - the permission to graze livestock on the common ground. But to reduce the potential for overgrazing, an accurate method of counting was needed as was the prevention of straying livestock. It is suggested that sheep are counted first thing in the morning and at the end of the day as well as when the flock is moved from one pasture to the other and after any sheep handling exercise that may include foot-trimming, dipping, mulesing or shearing.

This form of counting is based on base 20 (also known as vigesimal) and led to the recording of sets of twenty by either making a mark on the shepherd's crook or moving a pebble or piece of wood  from one pocket to another.  Does anyone know why 20 was the key number?

Wikipedia records a minimum of 14 counting systems for Cumberland, Cumbria, the Dales, Derbyshire, County Durham, the Lake District, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Scotland, Southern England, Wales, West Country, West Morland and Wiltshire. Although there will often be regional variants of the same counting system. Wikipedia also shows a table of comparable Brythonic Celtic languages.

This form of counting has been used to count stitches in knitting, I guess there is more than one connection to sheep and knitting.

The Newick Leveller

The Leveller is a variety of dessert gooseberry- you eat them raw. Large, yellow when ripe and delicious. The skins, however, are a bit tough so it is best to suck out the middle and chuck the skins over the fence. Into the 1960's, up to 3,000 12 Ib (5.4 kg) boxes were produced daily from the area around the mid-Sussex village of Newick to be distributed nationwide in season.

Newick's well-drained sandy soils were ideal for grwoing Levellers but other soft fruit and green gooseberries, cooking and jam varieties, spread the harvesting season, employed nearly the whole village; men, women and children.

The collapse in the Leveller production was quite sudden. The holdings were small, the growers were old, then a huge block of market garden was sold for housing; pension money for ageing growers. Soft fruit growing transferred to larger holdings and the Leveller was nearly lost in the move. Perhaps, to, the shy Saxon people of Newick failed to adapt. Everyone preferred picking without the thorns of a gooseberry bush.

Five years ago, we found that only a few newick Leveller bushes survived. It is not really a Newick  variety, but was grown almost exclusively in the area; generations of Newick people had been torn and scratched by Leveller picking, so it became their own.

It is not easy to grow either. Bushes suddenly die for no reason, and it suffers from mildew. One old market gardener said to me, "Sometime the Levellers were sent to market quite white because we sprayed the bushes with white lead and arsenic". However, as it was apparent that this fruit would disappear, we started a campaign, planted cuttings, distributed bushes around the village, found a competition cup for the finest Levellers - won outright by a local grower 30 years ago. If the frost holds off, we will hold our first competition for Newick Levellers for a generation in July 2012. One day, the Leveller will be back nationwide, adored and the picking mechansied. Too good to be lost.

Has anyone got a picture of this gooseberry or the bush?