A change of pace

 Its a funny old world. I often ponder about other peoples way of life, the why's how's and could be's that make up a life path. So today while I was doing my rounds for Red Kite and taking a sneaky right turn never taken before because it was a single track lane uphill virgin tarmac freshly laid ideal training hill for Red Kite Riders, at the very top was a man who shouted at me that there were no brothels round here before he shouted good morning. He turned out to the guardian of this set up, a collection of poly tunnels which at first sight seemed to be full of weeds.

 In fact they were, this one was the best organised, but the majority were thickly carpeted with greenery with two ladies bent over hand picking rocket and spinach and all manner of salad leaves from amongst the rogue flora. This was an organic salad producer, no sprays or pesticides, just earth, rain (artificially applied) and organic matter provided by the pigs, who also reclaimed the 5 acres from the woodland three years ago. In fact there were now 20 or so earth moving piggies working industrially to clear more ground, and all that kept them from devouring tons of fresh salad or making pretty pig shaped holes in the poly tunnels were two strand of electric fencing. These were very well behaved pigs. Unlike Thor and his crew.

 I got talking to the salad man in some detail, the sheer scale of the project, the seed supply, the topsoil required, the problems with imported top soil, the set up costs, the need to change to artificial lighting to gain some control over growing conditions, the unruly weather, the massive input the pigs have made, the labour intensity of picking, washing, sorting, bagging and delivering salad leaves to local restaurants and shops, it was mind boggling.

The salad was interesting but the pigs were far more, they had divided into herds in the woods with a matriarch as the herd leader. They had started with four five years ago and now had three herds self regulating over 14 acres. The dark green in the above pic are tree tops, these pigs live on a slope that starts just past the brambles they have rooted up. Clearly the salad man was on mission. Fresh, organic and good for you. I left him pulling weeds and thinking to myself that's a lot of hard work for what for most is a bit of garnish left at the side of a plate.