When the lockdown is over come see how land can be used to grow more food

Many thanks to Mark Harvey of ID Photography for allowing me to use his photographs with this article. All photographs are copyright Mark Harvey. 

Come enjoy a beautiful walk whilst seeing how even difficult locations can be used to grow food 

Let’s be straight, sitting in the house, no matter how well intentioned, is not going to be good for most of us. It will be smashing to get back out into the great outdoors. Fresh air and a chance to walk up on the hills will never feel so good. 

With this in mind please accept an invite, when things get back to something resembling normal, to come along one Sunday to the Croasdale Valley, near Slaidburn, Lancashire and see the landscape like you have never seen it before. We will follow the road originally made by Romans in order to bring salt to their troops - moving between Ilkley and Ribchester; hence it is now called 'the Salt Road'.

Fact is we can do all sorts of things with land - or rather the soil that makes the Earth what it is. It often needs a lot of toil to make the soil work well. Soil and toil. Land and labour. If we want to change the food we eat, it starts here as we are going on a tour. 

Your guides will be renowned soil scientist Charlie Clutterbuck and his assistant, Mark Metcalf. 

You’ll get an opportunity to see how even the most difficult of locations can be used to harvest different types of trees and food, whilst providing perfect pasture for sheep and cattle and many species of birds and insects. 

Photo copyright of Mark Harvey 

Clutterbuck can speak with authority as he will be back on the site where he farmed over four decades ago. As Britain is clearly going to need to rethink its food and farming policies after the CV19 crisis has exposed some major faults then this day out will not only be a chance to take in some remarkable scenery but an opportunity to discuss how to recapture the countryside so it can be more effectively used for all. 

Here’s a little taster of what you’ll hear of:-

Oats:  from 1870 the area growing cereals in England and Wales dropped about a 1/3 from about 3,500kh to 2,500kh. Most of this loss is due to less oats, which would have been grown mainly for horses, but would now do wonders for reducing cholesterol levels. Wheat land dropped by half from 1870 to the start of WW2, as British Agriculture was pushed into recession due to increased food imports from all over the world.

Swede can be grown as a fodder crop for cattle and sheep..better than buying in maize or soya as many do now. We import £800m worth of soya - why? Most is for animal feed. 

Sheep can graze on the moors and so to can cattle such as Belted Galloways, that require virtually no bought-in food and graze lightly.

Skylarks - in lots of moorland locations little has changed significantly in over a century. What has changed is the sounds. Many were renowned for the birds that breed there, including curlews, skylarks, golden plover, peregrines and merlins. Their calls and the music they have inspired evoke our classic countryside.  You would have seen flocks of lapwings falling out of the sky. Between mid-March and mid-July these birds court, make nests in the heather and grass, lay eggs and raise chicks. 

These birds have all but disappeared. You may hear an occasional curlew but that is about it.

The reason for this can be seen in the number of farms nowadays with great piles of black plastic bags.

When Charlie farmed, he took 'hay'. This was usually cut in August often finding it hard to get a few dry days together, which is what was needed to dry the hay properly - or 'sweet' as we'd say. The hay was often stored damp leading to its giving off fungal spores that caused 'farmers lung' - a very disabling disease especially for farmers getting older. 

Those piles of black bags store 'silage'. This is grass cut much earlier - starting often in June and allowing 2 or 3 cuts each year. While not quite as good as hay, it is nevertheless much more reliable crop. But in the process of taking more, earlier cuts, it means many birds nests - and their chicks, get cut down too. 

Birch - Much fell land was originally forest, till we cut it down several hundred years ago to build warships that could colonise the world for spices and exotic  foods.  But that land that was forest could today grow forests again, some of which could be used for biofuel and some for fruit and nuts. Not impossible. Afforesting (growing forest where once it grew) grouse moors would improve carbon footprint more than any other single action. But landowners are not going to like it. 

There will also on the day be a chance to see just how the large landowners are being subsidised by the rest of us because the walk will also take in a section of the hillside that has been set aside for grouse shooting. Marvel at the millions spent through public subsidies on providing a nice new shiny road for those willing to spend thousands slaughtering those defenceless birds. Then lets see if we can spot a hen harrier, a species that is perfect for the environment we will be walking on but who seem to hardly exist these days and who keep mysteriously disappearing. 

 Finally, you will be able to honour those poor wretches, the Pendle Witches, ten of whom were forced to trudge the 11-mile long walk in 1612 from Slaidburn to Wray, then on to Lancaster prison, where they were hung. The Salt road looks out over Pendle - how must those poor women have felt as they trudged this same path all those years ago. You will see that the Grand Mansions of the landed gentry still exist whilst the hovels of those accused are harder to find. https://sites.google.com/site/pendlewitchtrail/

Find out how today’s large landowners, including the Bannister family that spawned the famous 4 minute mile runner Roger, are descended from those who slaughtered the Pendle Witches 400 years ago. 

Now if that isn’t enough to dig out walking boots out then I don’t know what is, especially as there are quite a few great hostelries to go and have a pint or two in afterwards.   

For more details contact either myself on mcmetcalf@icloud.com 07392 852561

or Charlie on charlie@sustainablefood.com

07809 571612 

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