Monday, June 30, 2008

URGENT PLEASE READ............this link.
There is a problem all over Britain with this particular chemical which has got into manure, compost etc!............I have lost 2 tomato plants in my poly tunnel and I have, as far as I know not used any contaminated compost! I bought some tomato plants from our local country market and it must have been in the compost of the person who grew them..........this is quite awful!

And what is more, and whats worse, as a person who rarely if ever uses chemicals on plants we had one of the fields we use in the village sprayed by our local environmentally conscious contractor to finally defeat the huge quantity of docks (almost more docks than grass!) that were in it that had defied our efforts at puling and topping...................and he assured us he had used a reliable, selective (thistles, stingers AND docks) dafe herbicide, judiciously so as to leave some banks of nettles for the butterflies, but dispose of the docks.........and what did he use....Forefront!!!!!!

Therefore we cannot take hay, we cannot safely graze the sheep and then use any manure they may produce on our garden!..........and though we are assured that the meat from them is safe, we will not be grazing that field due to the contamination.............Oh I am sooooo cross!
The label on the bottle aparently says 'not for use on food crops', our poor contractor didn't have a chance....and we also wouldn't have guessed...........because it was used on permenant grassland.
This is my last brush with a chemical company...............back to topping and pulling and I swear never again will I spray anything even if we think its 'safe'
I'm off to Brittany tomorrow................after this I need a break! I will not be totally relaxing however as I am looking at 2 flocks of sheep and giving management advice, updating my accounts and attending the British Pigs in France gala where I'm demonstrating peglooming! See you all on my return!

5 comments:

Compostwoman said...

Val I hope you have a REALLY GOOD holiday and come back revitalised and refreshed...

cw xx

Rev. Peter Doodes said...

Forefront!!!???

Have you seen this?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/29/food.agriculture

Val Grainger said...

Well, No.....had a terrible time! Took small son who was sick on the way there and then had terrible asthma and hay fever.....then it poured with rain, then thundered, then I was ill so decided to come home early.....on the ferry that sailed in a force 8 gale with a 30ft swell.......say no more :-(

Ian said...

Hi there.

When will these horror stories stop?! Not before it's too late for us all I hope.

Sorry to be a bit off topic here but you were recommended by Nick at Colour it Green and you can find a post about them their and recommendations at

http://farmblogs.blogspot.com/2008/07/colour-it-green-recommends.html


I'm a big fan of farm blogs and I have been frustrated by the lack of a single place to go to for farm blogs, not just from one country, but from around the world.

Hence, I've recently started a blog called www.farmblogs.blogspot.com

The idea is very simple: I ask farm/rural bloggers who have been recommended by other farm or rural bloggers to recommend their favourite farm blogs. I then link them to my blog roll, and write to them and ask them to do the same thing - that is to say to write to me with their favourite farm blogs. (I also post important stories on world agriculture. Or at least ones I spot and find interesting.)

I've linked therefore your blog to www.farmblogs.blogspot.com and if you'd like to send me an email to info AT ianwalthew DOT com with a few words about your blog, and about your favourite farm blogs, then it would be very much appreciated. (If you can link to www.farmblogs.blogspot.com, so much the better!).

I should make a couple of things clear:

Firstly, it is not my intention to sell advertising on this blog, or take your content - simply steer people in the direction of farm blogs I find interesting, which means that...

Secondly, I am really trying to identify farm blogs that are primarily about farming/rural life (as oppossed to blogs written by people who may live on farms, but the subject of which isn't primarily about farming).

Very much hoping to hear from you,

With kind regards,
Ian

www.ianwalthew.com
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
www.farmblogs.blogspot.com

Sue Garrett said...

Hi,
Green Lane Allotments here.
If you would email me your permission to add your experiences to my website and your location- it would make an interesting addition which goes to show just adding information on a label isn't any safeguard. Email link is on the website which you have linked to in your article.