Food & Farming
We are very lucky to have some amazing facilities, businesses and things happening in our area which give us all the chance to live more sustainably by eating locally produced produce.
The Mart farm shop - During our ‘What Matters post Covid-19’ zoom chats, one thing which so many of us appreciated time and again was the Mart.
The Mart website - A great opportunity for local events and businesses to be hosted
Phantassie - local organic vegetable boxes from East Linton
Crunchy Carrot in Dunbar - ‘ a whole lot more than a fruit and veg store’
Sustainable East Lothian - a forum on facebook which promotes sustainable, planet friendly businesses across East Lothian
Here are some examples of what changes people are making, here in East Linton:
“Tomatoes! Remove the seeds from a tomato and place them separately in tissue paper, fold it then place in an envelope or something similar, you can plant them next season. I believe it only works with pure (old type ) varieties, not F1 hybrid types. You have nothing to loose trying this, well maybe one tomato! I have mine in an envelope already.”
- David Scott
“Making our front garden a veg plot: we decided to use our front garden which was just redundant lawn into a veg plot, mixed in with some bee friendly plants. The kids have loved being able to watch things grow and snack on sugar snap peas.“
- A Happier East Lintoner
“Gardening for wildlife: this is my first growing season on my new allotment. I threw a packet of cornflower seeds along one end, and here is the wonderful bee-friendly hedge which arrived! £1 or so and a wee bit of digging and weeding.”
- A Happier East Lintoner
Regenerative practices & conservation agriculture
At CAEL we are big fans of regenerative agriculture, conservation farming good soil health generally. At Christmas 2020 we were fortunate to be able to host a screening of Kiss The Ground, Roco Film’s leading documentary on the soil health movement. After the screening we were privileged to host a Q&A session with local conservation farmer Colin Hunter from Stonelaws Farm in East Linton. Feedback on both sessions was resoundingly positive, with over 40 bookings for the film and over 30 for the Q&A, with many of those being from couples and groups. This has encouraged us to host more screenings in the future, so watch this space!
From the Kiss The Ground initiative we have assembled a extensive list of resources on regenerative practices and you can download it here. Feedback and suggestions for additions are welcome. In the future we may expand this into an area of the website of its own.
Links
Films
The Need To Grow (modest paywall -share with friends, it’s uplifting!)
Specific links
Farms to Feed Us sowing a better food future together by connecting with farmers for food
No dig organic gardening - Charles Dowding
Begin to eat well when we farm well
Conservation agriculture
Conservation agriculture in the UK
