{"id":3112,"date":"2013-10-23T15:07:29","date_gmt":"2013-10-23T14:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=3112"},"modified":"2014-08-01T21:11:04","modified_gmt":"2014-08-01T20:11:04","slug":"difference-year-makes-far-food-growing-concerned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=3112","title":{"rendered":"What a difference a year makes as far as food growing is concerned!"},"content":{"rendered":"

What a difference a year makes as far as food growing is concerned!<\/p>\n

\"Vegetable<\/a>

Vegetable patch 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Vegetable<\/a>This first photo was taken in 2012 in September.<\/p>\n

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This second photo was taken in August this year.\u00a0 A bit earlier in the year from a different angle but its chalk and cheese.<\/p>\n

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It fair to say I’ve had one of my best food growing years ever.\u00a0 I have been consuming local food for months!\u00a0 Its easier to list the failures rather than the successes.\u00a0 The failures (all again) are Cucumbers (grown inside), Butternut squash and Courgettes , also spinach and Mizuna.\u00a0 Fantastic crops of French and Runner beans, Lettuce, Potatoes, Parsnips, Mangetout, Carrots, Coriander and Tomatoes.\u00a0 Leeks, peppers and Broad Beans are reasonable.<\/p>\n

On the fruit front; Plums, cooking Apples (now being made into cider) and Blackberries have been fantastic.\u00a0 Had a few Strawberries (the plants are young), Raspberries (they have virus) and reasonable haul of Blackcurrants.\u00a0 I even managed to grow one Melon indoors.\u00a0 My new apple trees produced no fruit and the damson I planted in the spring died (the company that I bought it from are going to replace it for free since it was defective).<\/p>\n

Last year food growing was far harder and the consequent harvest was far lower.\u00a0 The reason was simple the weather.\u00a0 I have never seen so much rain.\u00a0 This year was the opposite, we had a drought with almost record temperatures.\u00a0 As we wrote about in “No oil in the lamp”,\u00a0 food is going to be a real issue as far as peak oil in concerned.\u00a0 We are already in the foot hills of this with soaring food prices over the last decade or so.\u00a0 We concluded<\/p>\n

“The alternative to this is to work towards a more sustainable, resilient global food system. This would mean more food being produced and consumed locally rather than being transported long distances.<\/em>”<\/p>\n

Part of this is down to us.\u00a0 I only have a small amount of land but am able to grow an amazing diversity of produce.\u00a0 The elephant in the room is climate change.\u00a0 Plants need a benign climate with few extremes of weather.\u00a0 If all summers are like 2012 we are in trouble.\u00a0 It shows that mitigating against climate change is preferable to adaptation.<\/p>\n

So as we approach harvest festival (in the northern hemisphere), thank God for it, appreciate good food; but don’t get complacent and see if you can grow something, even on a windowsill.<\/p>\n

The Earth is the Lord\u2019s and all that is in it… \u2018He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate \u2013 bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens the heat of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread that sustains his heart.\u2019 Psalm 104, 14-15<\/b><\/p>\n

Neil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What a difference a year makes as far as food growing is concerned! This first photo was taken in 2012 in September.         This second photo was taken in August this year.\u00a0 A bit earlier in the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate-change","category-food"],"yoast_head":"\nHarvest- food growing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What a difference a year makes as far as food growing is concerned!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=3112\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=3112\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=3112\",\"name\":\"Harvest- food growing\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=3112#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=3112#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/veggie-patch-2012-300x201.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-23T14:07:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-08-01T20:11:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/b6f2831189b0d01294e9672bb540ba6f\"},\"description\":\"What a difference a year makes as far as food growing is concerned!\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=3112#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=3112\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=3112#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/veggie-patch-2012-300x201.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/veggie-patch-2012-300x201.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=3112#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What a difference a year makes as far as food growing is concerned!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"The oil lamp - 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