I believe that over the next five years we are going to see much more news on green issues as more evidence, outlined below, is produced by scientists on global warming and the lack of action to prevent it. Global warming has been in the news for 20 years and continuing complacency over the issue worries me.

What I am going to tell my son in 20 years when he asks ‘How did your generation let all this happen’.

A big problem is the conflicting reports about climate change. Nearly all scientists now agree that ozone depletion and high carbon dioxide emissions are causing global warming. A more recent report, however, shows that the gulf stream is slowing down and that it may stop some time in the next 20 to 100 years giving the UK 3 months of snow and ice every year.

An even more recent report shows that global dimming of the suns rays by particle emissions and airline vapour trails is counteracting global warming. The report is unclear whether the ‘dimming’ directly counteracts the ‘warming’ but predicts that if particle emissions are reduced, therefore dimming reduced, global warming could accelerate out of control. The polar ice caps will melt, raising sea levels and thawing methane deposits under the sea which escape in to the atmosphere and increase global warming still further.

This theory was partially proved when all flights in America were grounded after 9/11 resulting in the temperature rising by 1 degree.

How frustrating! I was taught at school in 1977 that CFCs in aerosols were destroying the ozone layer, 20 years later the propellants were finally banned. I am sorry to be doom monger but want to raise awareness to these issues. Scientists are now measuring global warming, and dimming as well as the speed of the gulf stream and will soon predict accurately if and when it will stop. Tony Blair has already stated that wars in the future will be fought over water rather than oil.

What can we do? Try and do our bit, recycle, use less water, heat, etc. Eat locally produced food. Tell your local farmer you would buy more of his produce if it was organic. Educate our kids. Click here to have a look at the Grown up Green website. Build our local community and make our voices heard.

Our post code specific newsletter aims to help this process by promoting local food and inviting subscribers to add news and events to appear in the next newsletter for those recipients within 20 miles of that event. If you would like to receive the newsletter register here. Or to enter a local event click here.

Curing meat is apparently a lot easier than one would expect. Of course, until the invention of the fridge it was the main way to preserve meat. Over the coming weeks I will be curing some different cuts and reporting on the results

Although, why bother when bacon and ham is so easily available on the high street, many people would say. The answer is simple. Modern curing techniques quickly inject preserves into the meat, making the end product salty and heavier. Old methods take time to extract water from the meat using salt, marinades and/or air, making it lighter. As meat is sold by the kilo and time is money, it is obvious which method has become the most popular.

But what about flavour? Meat with water extracted is bound to taste better than meat with added water and preservative. Some of the best bacon and ham I have tasted went through a process of curing in a vat of stout and molasses for 4 weeks before being cold smoked for 2 days.

There are hundreds of recipes for curing meat the traditional way, all using different processes but all have in common the ingredients of salt, sugar or air. The secret is to remove the water from the meat.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is a great curing enthusiast and has a number of recipes and ideas in his Meat book, from dry curing with salt, to different brine mixes and smoking. The basics are as follows;

� When curing in a brine mix always follow a concentration of 1kg of salt to 3 litres of water. Adding herbs and spices to taste.
� When dry curing use handfuls of salt and/or sugar to extract the water from the meat. A pork bellie for bacon takes about a week of rubbing salt in every day, whereas a whole leg of pork may take 4 6 weeks left in a box with weight on top.
� Air drying is not strictly a way of curing meat but of maturing and intensifying the flavour of previously cured meat.
� Like air drying cold smoking is not a very effective curing process unless the meat is salted first. It does however add flavour and contribute to the preserving process.
� Curing does not make the meat last indefinitely but as a rule the more water extracted the longer the meat will last.

For more information and recipes on curing we suggest a visit to Hugh Fearnley Whittingstalls www.rivercottage.net and visit his forum to talk to people on-line who already cure their own meat.

Curing meat is apparently a lot easier than one would expect. Of course, until the invention of the fridge it was the main way to preserve meat. Over the coming weeks I will be curing some different cuts and reporting on the results

Although, why bother when bacon and ham is so easily available on the high street, many people would say. The answer is simple. Modern curing techniques quickly inject preserves into the meat, making the end product salty and heavier. Old methods take time to extract water from the meat using salt, marinades and/or air, making it lighter. As meat is sold by the kilo and time is money, it is obvious which method has become the most popular.

But what about flavour? Meat with water extracted is bound to taste better than meat with added water and preservative. Some of the best bacon and ham I have tasted went through a process of curing in a vat of stout and molasses for 4 weeks before being cold smoked for 2 days.

There are hundreds of recipes for curing meat the traditional way, all using different processes but all have in common the ingredients of salt, sugar or air. The secret is to remove the water from the meat.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is a great curing enthusiast and has a number of recipes and ideas in his Meat book, from dry curing with salt, to different brine mixes and smoking. The basics are as follows;

� When curing in a brine mix always follow a concentration of 1kg of salt to 3 litres of water. Adding herbs and spices to taste.
� When dry curing use handfuls of salt and/or sugar to extract the water from the meat. A pork bellie for bacon takes about a week of rubbing salt in every day, whereas a whole leg of pork may take 4 6 weeks left in a box with weight on top.
� Air drying is not strictly a way of curing meat but of maturing and intensifying the flavour of previously cured meat.
� Like air drying cold smoking is not a very effective curing process unless the meat is salted first. It does however add flavour and contribute to the preserving process.
� Curing does not make the meat last indefinitely but as a rule the more water extracted the longer the meat will last.

For more information and recipes on curing we suggest a visit to Hugh Fearnley Whittingstalls www.rivercottage.net and visit his forum to talk to people on-line who already cure their own meat.

Winter is the toughest of seasons in the garden. It is a time of cold wet evenings trying to achieve something before it becomes pitch black. The wind coming off the fields can be biting and the soil has often compacted if it hasnt been tended to.

Our house, Humphreys Green, is a 4-500 year old farmhouse and was originally one of the principal houses of the Whites farm. It gets its name from an owner in the 1700s whose name was Edward Humphrey Green. Made primarily of clunch, which is lumps of chalk from the local soil and lathe and plaster which is just a mix of a lime wash and straw, its clear that in the 1500s using local materials was the only option. The thatch is made from reed now but would almost certainly have been made of straw left over from the harvest. The house is situated right in the middle of the half acre of land with the veg patch presently at the back facing north and the rest at the front facing south. This has led to a drastic decision the Veg patch has to be moved to the front so it can catch more sunlight.

The plan is to dig out the existing stony soil at the front and replace it with good quality top soil. The rear of the garden can then be laid to lawn for the budding Martin Johnsons. The front of the garden also has an added advantage it has a well. This needs to be opened up and a new pump system installed that is safe for the kids. This will provide water for the whole of the veg patch.

As the front gains considerably more sunlight than the back and has no large walnut trees to shade areas it will be interesting to see how the plants progress and if there is any discernable difference in growing patterns.

With British Lion number 3 now on the way were going to need more fresh veg than ever.