To celebrate Organic September, you’ve been sending in your words of organic love.  Thank you so much to everyone who’s contributed so far – if you want to join in, just send your words to megablog@abelandcole.co.uk.

 

It’s quite simple really. I’ve always loved wildlife and can’t really see how we can preserve the wildlife we have by killing off so much of the food chain. All those healthy insects and wild plants or weeds are needed by something.  Keep on selling it and we’ll keep on buying it…
Lynne

We choose to eat organically as we feel it is a much healthier way of living, eating seasonally and as naturally as possible.
We also dislike the way the large supermarkets have such an enormous influence over what we as a population have in our diet. Our current obesity epidemic is testament to that fact.
I believe that their incredible financial clout means that profits are prioritised over human health.  Anyone who has wandered around a supermarket cannot help being influenced by the sales gimmicks and  misleading labelling.  High fat, high sugar products are promoted over fresh fruit and vegetables and a pie labelled as British can mean that the pie itself was made in the UK but the meat can have been imported from anywhere.  I prefer to know exactly what I’m eating, where it came from and how it was produced.
I appreciate that eating organically may appear to be more expensive,  but we find that we waste far less food buying from Abel and Cole.
We order just enough for the week rather than be lulled into buying too much, as is the wont of the supermarket, and therefore save money in the long run.
We also like to support British farmers who after all are the backbone of the nation, and if we are to continue to fight climate change then we need to have far less food miles.Â
Organic is better for us and better for the environment, win, win situation.
Jacqueline

I went organic whilst pregnant with my son. I wanted to do everything I could for him even prior to birth.
Since having him we have enjoyed weaning him on this seasonal and delicious food. At nearly two he has as much interest in food as his parents. He knows almost all the names for fruit and vegetables and insists on inspecting our delivery box before I store it away to see if there is any goodies for him to eat then and there, his favourites being blueberries, broad beans and satsumas!
I’m looking forward to cooking with him as he grows older and teaching him all about the benefits of going organic and understanding where food comes from.
Natalie

We went organic so we could enjoy seasonal produce at its best and support farmers in the UK and we are very glad we did!
Emma

I grew up on a farm and it upsets me to see so many farmers put under such pressure from large supermarkets to lower their prices…which inevitably encourages over-farming and over-use of pesticides. I live in a city now, but I come from the countryside… and one day, when I’ve had enough of the big smoke I want there to still be a countryside for me to move back to. Choosing organic isn’t just about the lack of chemicals that organic farming uses, it’s also about being in touch with the seasons. I used to get so excited when I was a kid and something came into season, and I started to miss that as everything became available all year round. Eating seasonally makes food more exciting, and since I chose to go organic I’m enjoying my food so much more. Organic food has more character, I know where it comes from and I don’t never take a single mouthful for granted. Yes, it is a little bit more expensive, but can you really put a price on health? And we are only talking a few pounds here…I just gave up take-out coffee when I decided to go organic and now… I actually spend less money than I use to each week, so in a funny way eating organic has actually saved me money!
Thomas

I choose to eat organic because myself and my family take in less harmful chemicals during the course of our life.
I choose organic to support our farmers who are trying hard to keep land good, keep animals happy.
Above all it tastes good.
Thank you all you who care.
Ann

I choose organic because it tastes better, provides me with more nutrients than non-organic and at the same time nothing nasty, and keeps me healthy.
Judith

First reason why I choose organic (preferably Soil Association) is animal welfare.   Half a century ago I spent 10 years rearing calves on a Faringdon dairy farm and I learnt to love that herd, especially the calves.   As the now senior farmer of that farming family said to me a year or two back, “every cow has a personality”.

Second reason is the superior nutritional value of organic food.   I know this, not because of what scientists say, but because of what my young heifers told me.   They were grazing a lush young ley that had had artificial fertilizers on it,  (it was before the farm went organic).   The boss told me to give them a daily mineral supplement, so each day I gave them what looked like powdered brick dust.   As soon as they saw me, they would come running up  to me and gobble up the minerals, like children round an ice cream van.    Then they were moved across the road to old permanent
pasture that had never had artificials on it and had deep rooting “weeds”.
I duly turned up with the daily ration of minerals, but they showed no interest.   In their own way they were politely telling me they had no need of them.

So I support the Soil Association and Compassion (which could also be called Commonsense) in World Farming and do my weekly shop with Abel & Cole.
Joyce

Choose organic food for 2 reasons – it tastes better, and it’s better for you. I love trying new recipes and making salads from a whole range of colours and flavours, and the flavours in organic food are much more flavoursome and delicious in organic fruits and vegetables. I like to know there are no chemicals in organic food, and I’m not putting those chemicals in my body. I also like to juice different fruits and vegetables, and organic juice is just delicious!
I love my boxes, they are the highlight of my fortnight
Thank you
Claire

This September the Soil Association (those clever lot who certify our stuff as organic) are celebrating the best of organic with the imaginatively called Organic September.

We quite like organic, too (you may have already noticed that, though).  Since we also love celebrating things, we thought we’d join in the fun.  And you are cordially invited, too.

A bit like a communal garden, we thought you’d like to contribute to a mega-mass-contributor-blog.  If you’d like to join in, just email us a paragraph or two on why you choose organic.  Send your words to megablog@abelandcole.co.uk.

To start us off is Dave Govier (the Devonshire wonder-farmer who grows the spinach and chard in boxes at the moment).  He rang up yesterday for a chat. 

“We went organic over twenty years ago now.  We just wanted to work in harmony with the soil, really, and I think it goes back generations. My granddad always said when you see everyone running in one direction, run the other way.  I always knew I wanted to work in a good way with the land and harmonise with it rather than force things to grow and force things not to with chemicals.”

He’s a lovely man, is Dave.  His dad Bernard is the chap who sat on a bag of potatoes all those years ago and persuaded Keith to go organic, so it’s quite fitting that Dave is the one to start us off on our declarations of organic love.

Last year we went a bit bee mad (we’ve been selling buns and honey to raise money for the West Wales Bee Breeding Programme ever since).  We’ve caught up with bee man Steve Benbow, who gave a talk at our Big Buzz, to see what he’s been up to since.

 

It’s just over a year since Abel & Cole’s brilliantly organized “Big Buzz” at Battersea Power Station in London and since then my urban bee business, The London Honey Company, has boomed and expanded considerably.

Many thanks to all of you that attended the event, I hope it was a fun evening and to those that proposed some green and rooftop spaces across the capital, we now have a variety of new sites and stockists.

2010 had been a fantastic year for production and the bees brought in a record harvest from the urban sites. A harsh winter, however, left bee numbers struggling in the spring and the bees’ relentless battle against the perilous Varroa mite left large numbers of bees weak in the spring. We still continue to look for and monitor our bees for this crippling parasite – and now use more organic methods to treat the bees for mites – such as icing sugar dusting and organic acids in the closed season. Read more >>

We like fish.  We don’t want them to be overfished to the brink of extinction.

So we like Hugh.  You know Hugh, lives by the river, curly locks (good gardener?), a dab hand in the kitchen. 

Did you see his Fish Fight on Monday? (If not, you can watch it here.)

He’s not fighting with fishticuffs - he just wants fishing to be more sustainable.

Our wild fish and seafood is sustainably sourced off the coast of cornwall.  Even our tinned fish (from the clever people at Fish 4 Ever) is the only range of tinned fish in the UK to promote explicit sustainability criteria.  Suppose the clue’s in the name on that one.

Read more >>