Harmonising with Nature & the Sticky Question of Land

A dear friend of mine who spent much time in the beautiful Western Isles of Scotland once told me a story about the Queen. HMS Britannia was on its annual summer voyage with its royal passengers and stopped at a small bay one quiet afternoon. The Queen disembarked and waved away her bodyguards and other familiars and set off for a rare walk on her own. Her path took her to a small cottage where she saw its owner gardening. The Queen greeted the woman and they stopped to chat over the garden fence. Then she asked if she could come in and have a cup of tea. The two women went inside, brewed tea and sat down in simple surroundings by a small fire, drinking tea. They passed the time of day and then eventually the Queen asked her host what she did and how long she had lived on the island. The woman was a writer and she told the Queen that she visited the island in the summer months in search of seclusion, to appreciate the nature there and for literary inspiration. The Queen’s response was one of wistful understanding and the writer became acutely aware that her celebrated guest was rarely able to truly alone and meet strangers informally over a simple cup of tea.

I found this story a deeply poignant insight into our Royal Family. I believe that despite the glamour of vast wealth and global fame, the Queen’s role as sovereign is in part a sacrifice. It is obvious that she has a deep connection with the natural world. Prince Phillip was an early experimenter with solar water technology at Windsor and enjoys farming –­ he even has an experimental orchard of truffle inoculated oaks. The Princess Royal speaks with intelligence and obvious knowledge of biomass, coppicing and peak oil. They have all championed homoeopathy. I met then briefly a couple of years ago. It was obvious that they were not two dimensional people.

Prince Charles has come in for a lot of stick for talking to plants, being ‘mystical’, and inferring with architecture, imposing a pseudo neo-Georgian pastiche, only viable in affluent places like Dorset. Yet his passion for preserving heritage, his work with young people and his championing of organics and habitat conservation over decades have hit the mark. He has proved that he is well ahead of most of the rest of society. Far from being a heir in waiting, he is consolidating a powerful role as a social and environmental commentator. 

So it is with interest that I read the Introduction to his latest book, Harmony, written with Tony Juniper and Ian Skelly. In it Prince Charles openly admits that he has been challenging the accepted wisdom, the current orthodoxy and conventional way of thinking that has its origins in the 19^th Century when industrialisation took full sway and the Newtonian worldview began to fragment our vision. He has been accused of dilettantism – of leaping from one subject to another – from architecture to agriculture “as if I spent a morning saving the rainforests, then in the afternoon jumping to help young people start new businesses.” But the subtext to his interests and work has been an appreciation of holism, of inter-relationship. Organic agriculture, natural medicine, conservation, gainful fulfilling employment, especially for the young, human-scale design and architecture are inter-related. They are threads in the woven tapestry of a creative and more sustainable world.

Harmony examines our global crisis born from the relentless pursuit of economic growth technological progress. It travels back in time to explore how the ancients saw the world as a whole and in necessary balanced with Nature. It looks at how sustainability springs from seeing the world as an interconnected whole and speaks of “this timeless view… rooted in the human condition and in human experience” and suggest how we might do this.

Prince Charles visits volunteers at The Sustainability Centre © John Adams

The Prince of Wales no doubt puts his cards on the table with this book. He will be vilified and celebrated all at the same time. Carbon counters will inevitably scorn his private jets and billionaire lifestyle, asking him to walk his talk; republicans will call for democratic reform; and I might point out that the root of our economic problem lies with land ownership. It was when we enclosed the commons and cleared the Highlands that we forced people out of relative self-sufficiency into paying rents and the subsequent necessity of earning a wage. This was the turning point. Now 90% of us live on less than 10% of the land and even the plots we inhabit are shrinking. Just under one-third of Britain’s land is still owned by aristocrats and traditional landed gentry. If we are to harmonize our lives in accord with Nature, we will have to revisit this thorny question and create a more sustainable land-based life for all sectors of society. Inevitably, that necessitates deep social change.

As we steer away from being ‘Masters of Nature’ to the ‘sacred duty of stewardship’ it is inescapable that we will have to share natural resources more equitably. How we do this will require a clear vision of what an ecologically based society actually is. We cannot see-saw between political ideologies – this is not about communism, socialism or capitalism – but about how we are to create a society based on holistic, earth-based values and ethics. Prince Charles, a complex cocktail of spiritual intent and material privilege, brings this debate even more firmly into the public arena. It will be fascinating to see how it plays out.

Maddy Harland is the editor of Permaculture Magazine – inspiration for sustainable living. Issue 65 is just out and features lots of articles including Ben Law on Transition Trees, Perennial Vegetables, Small Scale Farming & Permaculture, profile of an ethical business, news, reviews, & solutions plus how to make a terracotta fridge and 10 money offer readers' offer. To support this independent publications please subscribe digitally for just £10 (approx $13.40) or subscribe to the printed edition  (which will save you at least 20% of the cover price and allow you to enjoy it in the wilds!). To read a sample copy click here.



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Heavenly Food – Autumn in the Permaculture Garden

Ah, autumn is well and truly here. The gooseberries, currants, greengages, plums and figs have all been eaten. We’ve feasted on berries and succulent fruits like Brown Turkey figs and Oullin’s golden gages, as exotic as mangoes. Though the evenings are getting shorter, the pleasure isn’t over yet. This is one of the real joys of the permaculture garden;  you can continue to keep reaping the benefits late into the year.

We grow 23 varieties of apple, early, mid and late cropping varieties. They ripen from July onwards and at least some store well and there is always the cider press! We have one tree, Hambledon Deux Ans, which originated in the neighbouring village. As indicated, it can store for up to two years in optimum conditions, but the arrival of refrigeration almost eradicated it. It isn’t very sweet, and when supermarkets started flying in apples from South Africa and New Zealand the old varieties were grubbed out. Luckily a local nurseryman decided to save a few trees. It’s a magnificent, healthy, vigorous tree full of large tart green apples, ideal for sauces, pies and crumbles.

This is a salutary tale. Pre-refrigeration and pre-supermarkets, each village had its own special fruit tree that was locally adapted, cropped better and was more disease resistant than our generic modern varieties, bred to look pretty and uniform for the supermarket. How many of these heritage varieties have been lost? Thank goodness for places like Brogdale, home of the national fruit collections. We’ll need them in the near future once the madness of squandering our finite stock of oil and makes flying food around the globe an unacceptable insanity.

Besides the Hambledon Deux Ans and another ‘local’ apple, Isle of Wight Russet, my other apple gem is a fabled tree from Bardsey Island off Wales. The story goes that a bird watcher found an old tree covered in sweet, golden apples outside the ruined monastery refectory on the island and brought some apples home to Ian Sturrock, a nurseryman. He tasted the apple and sought permission to propagate the tree. I am the lucky recipient of one of the trees. It has a fragrant blossom and is again a vigorous tree. Planted some years ago, I have eating my second season's crop and it was crisp, juicy and sweet for an English apple.

Merton Pride

Besides apples, early autumn brings me my favourite pear. Merton Pride is the most sensual fruit I have ever encountered, being so large and juicy. The Hindus speak of Amrita, the nectar of the gods. I think one of its progeny is in my garden. Resplendent with blossom every spring, I have even made a remedy from its flowers with the traditional method of Dr Edward Bach. This is a tree of happiness, I am sure.

All this glut of fruit isn't only for the rural gardener. Modern dwarf rootstocks and growing techniques like espaliers and fan training allow everyone with a garden to grow at least one or two trees. I have a friend who successfully grows nectarines fan trained on her southerly house wall. All she has to do is pollinate the flowers with a small paintbrush in the spring. I’m growing peaches too but mine are from a friend in Germany. He gave me 30 stones and assured me that if I germinate them they’ll produce small but sweet fruits. They are also hardly and resistant to peach leaf curl, the scourge of Prunus trees in our damp climate. So far I have planted three saplings, having nursed them for two years in pots. I gave a few away too.

Fruit trees don’t have to be expensive. Figs, for example, are like weeds and easily root from cuttings. Sharing cuttings and experimenting with own fruit root stock trees is fun if you have the room. A few well chosen trees from a reputable nursery are also worth every penny and will reward you with an annual crop that is incomparable to shop-bought varieties. And don’t forget the vine fruit! It is also easy to root cuttings of plants like tayberries and Japanese wineberries that will outstrip raspberries in terms of size and taste, in my opinion. They too can be grown up a fence, a building or even in a hedgerow and autumn is the time for planting both trees and vines.


But the latest tree to harvest in my garden is the Medlar, an old Turkish variety. It crops faithfully every year, is disease free but its fruits have to blet – ie they have to be left until after the first frost. This breaks down the fibre in the fruit and allows it to ripen. I once made a wine from medlar and Asian pear that was a powerful as sherry!


Family Foraging

Kids love foraging for berries in a hedgerow, picking their own tomatoes and scrumping top fruit. Taught young, they will pick and eat any food, but raw French beans and peas are a favourite. It’s easy to encourage good foraging habits. Just teach them what they can eat from babyhood and don’t grow poisonous berries. My kids experimented with an additional tadpole and slug when my back was turned but survived to tell the tale! I also taught them to pick fruit early in the morning, before the wasps get busy. That way, there are no stings. Becoming wasp and hornet savvy is important with lots of fruit around – they don’t need to be a hazard if we work around them and don’t let the fruit go rotten on the tree or the ground. Hornets aren't aggressive either. They just look formidable.

GCSEs and realise they know so much already.

TIPS for Planting Fruit Trees

•    Plant what you love to eat but be practical. Nectarines, for example, just don’t like rain and late spring frosts. They need to be grown in very sheltered conditions.
•    Seek out local varieties that suit your soil and climate. Grow fruit that rarely makes it to the supermarket (perhaps because it doesn’t store well) like green and golden gages. They are delicious.
•    Ask a reputable local nursery that sells fruit trees for advice.
•    As figs are vigorous plant them in a pit. Place rubble for good drainage at the bottom and paving slabs around the walls of the pit – or sink an old washing machine drum into the ground and plant into it! This constricts the roots and restricts the height of the tree leaving fruit within easy reach. Figs love a warm microclimate and the Brown Turkey variety will reward you with a succulent crop.
•    Experiment with medlars, quinces, damsons and mulberries. Less common, but very productive.
•    Don’t forget the nuts! We can also grow cobnuts – like giant hazelnuts – in small spaces – and large walnut trees that fruit after seven years.
•    Turn your hedge into a ‘fedge’ (fruiting hedge). Fedges can include figs, damsons, elder and trained berry vines like tayberries.


Back to Veggies

The permaculture garden isn’t all about fruit! Autumn brings to fruition tomatoes, beans, corn, courgettes, pumpkins, marrows, squashes and so much more... I grow as many butternut squash as I can and store them until March in a cool place. They are wonderful roasted and then topped with crème  fraîche and Parmesan or grated in fritters and bakes.

The family love spaghetti squashes as well, so called because their fruit scooped out resembles strands of spaghetti. They are delicious with butter and black pepper (but they don’t store so well as butternut). Pumpkins too keep well into the next year in a cool place. Don’t just plant the large Halloween affairs for sculpting, chose varieties that are sweet and flavoursome like Moschata Muscade. They make great roasts, savoury stuffed dishes, sweet pies and soups. My favourite soup is pumpkin, coconut milk, and chilli with freshly ground curry spices. 

RECIPE
One medium sized squash, peeled and seeded
2 tablespoons olive oil   
1/4     teaspoon fresh nutmeg, grated
black pepper to taste
200g crème fraîche
Grated cheese (parmesan or cheddar according to family preference)
1 glass of white wine (optional)

1.    Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2.    Cut peeled and seeded squash into 5cm lengths.
4.    Place squash on baking dish and drizzle with olive oil.
5.    Toss to coat and arrange in a single layer.
6.    Bake for 45 minutes, or until tender.
7.    Mix together crème fraîche, cheese, nutmeg and pepper and white wine if required. Add to roasting dish.
8.    Replace in oven and brown for 15 minutes.
9.    Serve hot with a roast meal.


Runner beans too can grow well into the autumn. We have a passive solar kitchen – a large glazed area that heats the house when the sun shines. In mid summer, it can get hot so we grow food on the outside of the glass. The beans provide shade, and the house creates a fertile microclimate. This allows us to crop late into the year and the food couldn’t be closer to the kitchen sink for preparation.

What To Plant in Autumn

September
Sow broad beans, spring cabbages, carrots and lettuces under cover. Plant out spring cabbages towards the end of the month in the colder north.

October
Plant cabbages in the south. Plant winter and spring lettuces. Continue to sow broad beans and lettuces under cover.

November
Continue to sow broad beans under cover and lettuces in the south. Sow early peas under cover and garlic outside.

Maddy Harland is the editor of Permaculture Magazine – inspiration for sustainable living. Issue 65 is just out and features lots of articles including Ben Law on Transition Trees, Perennial Vegetables, Small Scale Farming & Permaculture, profile of an ethical business, news, reviews, & solutions plus how to make a terracotta fridge and 10 money offer readers' offer. To support this independent publications please subscribe digitally for just £10 (approx $13.40) or subscribe to the printed edition  (which will save you at least 20% of the cover price and allow you to enjoy it in the wilds!). To read a sample copy click here.



You will also find lots of useful permaculture and gardening books at Green Shopping.