Who can we trust? Supermarkets with their alleged price fixing, your possibly bankrupt bank, or our confused government? Do we roll over and wait for another beating or get up and do something!

Supermarkets say they are cheap, but are about to be fined for price fixing. I am sure this is true but unfortunately the end result will be yet another stealth tax. Surely the fine goes to the government and the supermarket covers the cost by charging the customer more?

And our economy. Why are people with so much power and so much money allowed to get away with this credit crunch disaster? And continue to take huge salaries by profiteering on market volatility as our pension funds continue to drop in value?

And oil. When the price of oil rose threefold Gordon Brown went to see OPEC to ask them to pump more and stop the price rising. He now seems happy for prices to stay this high as we see OPEC cut production to stop prices dropping. Did the world powers want the oil price at this level to decrease consumption?

So do something! Shop locally and spend your money with someone who’s reputation is at stake, who is there for the long term and ‘good’ of the community and who will increase local agricultural diversity. And if space permitting, why not grow your own, keep chickens and trade with locals, forgetting of course to add the trade to your tax return.

So check out new entries on your local map at http://www.bigbarn.co.uk and get your friends to register for this newsletter at http://www.bigbarn.co.uk/register.

Or start growing and get an icon on BigBarn yourself – or team up with other local growers and have an online shop and a red icon on the map.

There was a joke going around the other day about how the New Zealand rugby team could do their bit for global warming by dropping the Australian rugby team off on their way home from the Rugby World Cup. Well, we had a better idea. Forget about the Australians – they’d be more than welcome to hang around in England for a while – what about filling the spare seats on the plane with New Zealand apples?

Let’s have a look at some facts. In New Zealand, at the moment, it’s spring time. In Britain, in case you hadn’t noticed, it’s autumn. In fact, it has been autumn since about May 1st this year. Apples, in case there was any doubt, are in season in the autumn. And Britain, though this is a bit more subjective, is about the best place in the world for growing apples. In fact, the conditions this year have made our apples even better. Now, go in to your supermarket. What do you see? New Zealand apples?

After continual nagging from my son Alfie, I have finally taken the plunge and bought some chickens. They are indeed pretty silly but very friendly and very easy, so far.

I have not, however, done the right thing and bought rescue birds but decided on some locally bred regular layers. Firstly because they are from a local breeder so I could get advice and secondly so I had young birds who, I thought, could be trained, and allowed to roam the garden.

So we now have 6 friends, all with names, who follow us everywhere and seem to eat like horses. I am no poultry expert but am reasonably confident we will soon get a good supply of fresh tasty, true free range, eggs. I say soon as our chucks are 19 weeks old and do not usually start laying until they are 24 weeks continuing to 72 weeks when they may find themselves in a slow roast pot.

If you are interested in keeping chickens here is my advise, based on the very limited experiences so far.

• Get a good coop with a run, or make a run to attach to your coop
• Clip the end couple of inches off each of the first 6 front feathers of each wing. This will allow your chucks to ‘lift off’ but not fly.
• When you get your chickens keep them locked up in the coop for a day and feed and water regularly.
• Let them out in to the run but make sure you lock the coop door every night. You will find your chucks should always be in the coop near dusk and ready for bed.
• If your run is not very big let the chucks roam the garden but keep feeding in the run.
• Feed your chucks any waste from the kitchen and monitor what they don’t eat as left over feed will attract rats.
• Keep any stored feed in rat proof containers, like plastic bins.

And that’s it so far, I will add more in the future, especially on the slow roast.

If anyone has some good advice please feedback on this article. For websites on buying live chickens: http://www.localfoodshop.co.uk/vendors/sandtpoultry
http://www.goldenvalleypoultry.co.uk
And for info on coops and runs:
www.forshamcottagearks.com/poultry-housing