The Sunday Foodie bit part 6

Shots taken at Duxford Airshow of Aircraft regularly seen
flying in the skies of West Suffolk  during World War Two

 Started Sunday 6th March 2011
1

Good Suffolk Produce ... catch it before everybody knows 


I attended the local food festival at Chilford Hall.  This was organised by a group called  Taste of Anglia.  I have to say I was very impressed with the Suffolk produce on show.   I always have a slow walk around these shows, usually in the opposite way to the numbering of the stalls.  It is a marketing event when all said and done  so I usually always try to find out what the last stand is next to the exit to see who is the last producer I am expected to remember.  In this case it was that  pub landlord friendly brewer Adnams.

So on my widdershins (fans of Robert Burns' language will understand what this word means) walk I tasted what was on offer.  I signed up for all of the free offers and competitions.  Asked a few searching questions of   potential business affiliates and generally started to understand the position of Suffolk producers and some of the competitors from outside the county.  I came across one vegetable box scheme supplier who would deliver from all the way past Peterborough.  I will allow the reader to judge the sustainability of this practice.

On my second circuit I then started to purchase the products that interested me  most.  I have to resist buying too much as fresh produce will go off and I do hate throwing food away.  Musk's   had a sausage made with Aspalls Cyder which was very good.  Also bought a mixed box of Aspalls Cyder (the Suffolk Cyder) which can also be drunk almost like a sparkling wine with food.  This is more suitable now that most wines have become "super" strength at 12 or 13 per cent ABV.

I lefty the show at 1145 am just as it was starting to get busy.  I tend to stride out a bit so find crowds can be extremely inconvenient in relatively small venues especially when people walk without due care and attention.  Right have to go and get some Jubilee clips as I am going to rehang my front gate and need to make sure it can't be lifted off it's hinges.

PS  My local, the Royal Exchange  has just qualified for an award based on the quality of the service and the quality of the cellar management to serve.  It will probably mean my local gets busier but when something is good   we can put up with that.   The phrase "Strangers are friends we haven't met yet" really does apply here. 

The Saturday Garden Shed

Another type of shed a green polyhouse

Started Saturday 6th March 2011

Sweet Pea and Petunia Salad ......... booked for later in Summer


Time for a little progress check on the potatoes that I have had sitting in my airing cupboard for the last few weeks.  The chitting process is going well they have shoots that are 2 to 3 cm long.  The last of the frosts should hopefully be gone by the third week of March.  The potato bags will then be used for the potato crops rather than planting and ridging up.  The surplus seed potatoes I have already offered to a few people including one new neighbour who has just moved to the area who I met through a chat in our local pub.  Long may the pub remain a feature of British society.

First lot of Sweet Peas have germinated and are now finding their way to the production of the first leaves.  The next sowing of Sweet peas a dwarf mixture and a tall mixture for this weekend.  A set of Petunias using recycled plug plant trays will also be a task.  The excess again passed to other people or  I am possibly thinking of an honesty box system to raise a little money.  Now that would really be micro-entrepreneurship.

I have this little disagreement with my mother each year over plug plants.  She is definite about buying plug plants each year, but is never quite up to potting them all and taking them to the next level.  The consequence is that a lot of the 250 or more plants are lost.  Being a sustainably minded gardener I find this to be an awful waste.  I may have finally persuaded her this year with following argument. The growers of the plug plants are happy as they are able to free up the space to produce more than one product in that growing area a year. They also do not have the risk or expense of taking the plants to a larger size.  Plug plants are fine if you have the space and time and want 250 of the same plant..

The coming weeks will see a lot of different plants that will be needing to be sown as the vegetable growing calendar opens up.  I will update my planting schedule at another time since I find myself a little time poor for blogging. Tomorrow is the foodie bit. I attended the Taste of Anglia event at Chilford Hall so will include comments on some of my purchases from this worthwhile excursion.

Web 2.0 for Educators and Business Part 4

Started Tuesday 1st March 2011 0547 GMT
Words 422
S.I.= 84.4 %

Fibre optic Broadband in Suffolk?


Fast Broadband is something that in Suffolk we aspire to, and I often feel as a rural county should be our right.  This would to a large degree redress the long standing imbalance of provision of services between city and country.  That imbalance sees central funds going to the same inner city deprived areas time and again either because it was the wrong project because the authors did not talk to the recipients about their needs or the population of that inner city failed due to whatever reasons to engage and take ownership of their received projects.

I have blogged abut my frustration with BT Broadband before.  However not one that is often guilty of the British disease of moaning and blaming the government,while forgetting they may not have voted, I am doing something about it.  This  is a Federation of Small Businesses meeting in Stowmarket.  A brilliant venue in the middle of Suffolk, which is  a surprisingly large county.  Being on the periphery in Haverhill many of the meetings in my teaching career necessitated I had to attend the "Big Houses" in Ipswich nearly 45 miles away.   By the time I  negotiated the poor roads out of Haverhill towards Bury St Edmunds this could take anytime from 45 minutes to an hour and a half depending on the state of the A14.

The meeting this evening has a speaker whose name I vaguely remember to do with some past activities associated with education.  I have an interest on top of the purely personal business aspects as member foremost and lately Director of the  Teleworking Association (I have blogged previously about its origins, I won't include the link as it can be found in the list to the right of the blog).  The talk is about the coming Broadband offering in Suffolk and how it will be made affordable.  I won't prejudice my own thoughts for this evening by speculating on the content.  I hope to be presently surprised.  

PS St David's day today.  A friend of mine launches his website today. A pioneer of the fibre-optic industry (not intentional given the subject of this blog just happen to know Chris)  and former director a company making fibre-optics in the town, who saw the light choosing work-life balance and  is now a photographic artist (sounds better than a photographer who might only do passport photographs).  His exhibition at Haverhill Arts centre takes place on the 1 st April 2011.  I wish him well in this new career!

Web 2.0 for Educators - Part 4

Started Tuesday 25th January 2011   0913 GMT   Location Liverpool Street Station
Words 274
S.I. = 54.8 %

In the footsteps of Isaak Walton, trying not to become the Complete Tangler.


In the very circuitous route today I have been to London and back to meet with some very forward thinking people called the Teleworking Association.  This is a Nationally operating not for profit group that promotes and propagates smart solutions to today working environment.   Previous blogs have outlined some of my opinions on the way that Teleworking can transform peoples overall Wellbeing and be of benefit both to worker and the person who buys their services.  Over the coming weeks the Teleworking Association will be working towards explaining new ways that people can access Web 2.0  Technologies.

It has been a long day so this will only be a short post.  I boarded a bus at 5.50 am this morning to Cambridge Railway Station.  I then took the train along the route of the River Lee.  This was made famous by Isaak Walton in the Compleat Angler.  In the subsequent centuries the unimportance of this valley saw a canal and later a railway  built along the same course.  In some places the canal actually runs almost under the railway.  Even then there were problems securing land for infrastructure from landowners.

Well I am going to end here (it is now 1848 GMT) since Ipswich are playing Arsenal in the Football League Cup .  As I returned to Cambridge on the train from King's Cross Station I passed the Emirates stadium.  Unfortunately not having a ticket and the need to return to see my cat (arrangements had been made for someone to go and check on her during the day) means that I will watch it on a TV screen on BBC 2.