Free Firelighters

Well, firelighters that are free if you prepare them while cooking a stew.

Somebody told us the other day that lemon and lime skins when dried out slowly make good firelighters. Sounds odd, but when you think of how hard a lime forgotten in the fruit bowl goes, it makes a bit more sense. We tried it, and it works a treat. One fewer thing  to compost, but free firelighters seems like a good enough trade off.

I have to remember two things here - one not to throw the juiced halves in the compost bin; two to put them in the oven when a stew is being cooked. Not too hard, and they smell better than those white petroleum-wax things too.

Wet, Wet, Wet

I visited Henry Rowntree on his farm near Gisburn today to do an interview - I have a piece to write for Lancashire Life on his Aberdeen Angus herd and his environmental work. The most sobering point we discussed was the effect of all this year's rain - he thinks it will be the worst since 1912 as regards rainfall. The marginal land where only grass is an option for farmers becoming less viable in such a climate, silage impossible to make when this wet, cows full with the water of what they chew rather than the good bits, tractors struggling to cope with conditions, and the need for grain on many farms to supplement animal diets - reducing in his view the quality of the meat.

We can be happy that improved earnings in the poorer countries mean improved diets, but competition gets stronger for the same food, extreme weather causes reduced yields, and the population rises inexorably. We need marginal land to remain productive in this country for food security, and for the look of our countryside.