http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog A blog about rural life in the UK, our countryside and my country life. It's all here, farming, gardening, wildlife, animals and rural dating. Thu, 20 Jan 2011 14:41:54 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/picking-wild-fruit-from-hedgerows-the-rules/ http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/picking-wild-fruit-from-hedgerows-the-rules/#comments Wed, 05 Aug 2009 06:45:29 +0000 Sally http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/?p=690 Picking wild fruit from hedgerows, or foraging as it’s known, is a past-time I’m sure we can all remember from our childhood. The time honoured favourite fruit for picking has always been blackberries and as they are due to ripen later this month I thought I would set out some un-written rules for picking wild [...]]]> http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/picking-wild-fruit-from-hedgerows-the-rules/feed/ 43 http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/organic-food-and-nutrition-new-review-released/ http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/organic-food-and-nutrition-new-review-released/#comments Fri, 31 Jul 2009 02:56:56 +0000 Sally http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/?p=685 Oh dear, here we go again with another verbal tennis match between the organic lobby and the conventional food lobby … will it be wet lettuce leaves at dawn? The Food Standards Agency have just released a review, which they themselves commissioned, into previously published studies of the nutritional values of organic and conventional foods. [...]]]> http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/organic-food-and-nutrition-new-review-released/feed/ 12 http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/uk-food-labelling-animal-welfare-groups/ http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/uk-food-labelling-animal-welfare-groups/#comments Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:03:45 +0000 Sally http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/?p=650 Why would I include animal welfare groups in this series of articles about UK food labelling? In other articles we’ve looked at this issue from the side of food producers and food processors, both are obvious players in the UK food labelling saga. However animal welfare groups, like Compassion In World Farming (CIWF) and the [...]]]> http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/uk-food-labelling-animal-welfare-groups/feed/ 6 http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/receivers-called-in-by-dairy-farmers-of-britain/ http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/receivers-called-in-by-dairy-farmers-of-britain/#comments Fri, 05 Jun 2009 20:17:45 +0000 Sally http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/?p=645 Another sad day for British farming as the Dairy Farmers of Britain call in the receivers. The news of receivers being called in happened on the same day the Farmers Weekly reported that farming industry leaders called for retailers to pay a fair price for milk. I know hindsight is a wonderful thing but the [...]]]> http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/receivers-called-in-by-dairy-farmers-of-britain/feed/ 4 http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/uk-food-labelling-food-processors/ http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/uk-food-labelling-food-processors/#comments Sun, 12 Apr 2009 17:08:40 +0000 Sally http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/?p=378 As most of the British public shop in one of the large supermarket chains, the producers and retailers of our food are by and large the same entity. This is the stage in the production of our food where food labelling has a problem. Supermarkets are using the current EU legislation to deliberately mislead us [...]]]> http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/uk-food-labelling-food-processors/feed/ 8 http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/uk-food-labelling-food-producers/ http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/uk-food-labelling-food-producers/#comments Sun, 12 Apr 2009 13:25:31 +0000 Sally http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/?p=376 Following on from my post UK food labelling requires change in legislation. The first group of people in the UK food labelling debate are the food producers. The farmers that produce our food are the first line in the field to fork chain and they are battling a number of hurdles. UK food labelling currently [...]]]> http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/uk-food-labelling-food-producers/feed/ 3 http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/can-organic-food-survive-the-uk-recession/ http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/can-organic-food-survive-the-uk-recession/#comments Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:30:05 +0000 Sally http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/?p=368 The media reaction to the 2009 Organic Market Report by the Soil Association, which was released yesterday, has been quite dramatic. I read the report and felt quietly confident that the UK’s organic food market would survive the recession and yet the first headline to hit the internet, 15 hours ago as I type, was [...]]]> http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/can-organic-food-survive-the-uk-recession/feed/ 16 http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/is-british-farming-necessary/ http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/is-british-farming-necessary/#comments Thu, 02 Apr 2009 05:04:38 +0000 Sally http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/?p=359 I would really like to thank a reader of this blog for her recent comments on the post about the Welsh badger cull to stem the spread of bTB in Wales which was recently announced. It is difficult to sum up this blog or why I do it but these comments have given me the [...]]]> http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/is-british-farming-necessary/feed/ 6 http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/uk-food-labeling-requires-change-in-legislation/ http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/uk-food-labeling-requires-change-in-legislation/#comments Wed, 25 Mar 2009 01:14:53 +0000 Sally http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/?p=330 An issue which is being increasingly discussed in the UK is that of food labeling. UK food labelling is about empowering consumers to make personal choices but the legislation for food labelling fails us. With this in mind I thought I would start a new section of the blog to provide information about British food [...]]]> http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/uk-food-labeling-requires-change-in-legislation/feed/ 7 http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/british-egg-production-where-do-your-eggs-come-from/ http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/british-egg-production-where-do-your-eggs-come-from/#comments Wed, 11 Mar 2009 09:57:45 +0000 Sally http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/?p=282 I’m really lucky, when I fancy an egg sandwich I just nip out to the barn, push a chicken or duck out of the way and grab a couple of fresh eggs. Not many people are that lucky and most have to buy their eggs in a supermarket but do you understand all that marking [...]]]> http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/british-egg-production-where-do-your-eggs-come-from/feed/ 20