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The UK has always prided itself on its ingenuity, its ability to innovate, design and invent. Often all of these develop as a result of necessity. The world is always changing so standing still is not an option. This last week Ben and I went to a farm which is in environmental terms at the cutting edge of agri-environment innovation.

Just as every year we know that the weather will be different, so is the global economic climate. Change is dynamic and ignoring it is counter productive. The UK/European issue is deeper than just the referendum and as a business we need to be reviewing our options and continually assessing options that might be good for the next ten/ fifteen years.

The Knepp farm estate is based on a 3500 acre farm in Sussex. Like Devereux farm it was an arable farm. Also like Devereux it had a diary enterprise – although 600 cows rather than our 120, but that reflects the scale of the business. 15 years ago the owners assessed the profitability and work input as unsustainable. They took the unique and unprecidented step of withdrawing from conventional high input, high investment agriculture and adopting a very low input system. The system is called “re-wilding”. Over a period of years the whole estate has been fenced into large area blocks and allowed to return to nature. Traditional breeds of cattle and pigs then roam through this environment on a ranching basis, but in numbers that allow the environment to develop in a controlled manner. Traditional breeds are hardy and suited to the system. But all animals feed in different ways and on different plants. Adding deer and ponies to the cows and pigs creates a mix of grazing which has a synergy within this environment. The most amazing thing is that as the environment has developed it has attracted back species that have colonised the area. Nightingales, turtle doves and a list of rare species of national importance. The farm has then developed a glamping facility again unique to its setting. Visitors take the opportunity of trips into this re-wilding environment and it is magical.

This is an example of true innovation, but it also works hard to deliver the other holy grail of modern business – sustainability. So often this is just a marketing phrase. It is not an easy one to truely deliver and it requires real commitment. So this has become the latest inspiration to look to how we model Devereux and our other farm at Walton Hall. Sea buckthorn remains a driver but we cannot forget the rest of the farm and the spectacular environment in which it is set.

Returning to sea buckthorn finally. Last year, despite the use of kites, rockets, flashing tapes, scare crows – birds striped every last berry on our Siberian plants. The year before the problem had been weeds and disease. Each year that progresses presents and issue which we work through and find solutions for. 2016 it is the birds. So this week starts the delivery of a netting system to cover the whole site. It is second hand, having come from a cherry farm, and as the lorries arrive with poles, hoops, bins of wires and netting the task ahead of constructing it across the site looks daunting. But the birds only become a problem as the berries finally ripen, so we have time and we could not have started before now. Ground conditions are still wet, but like all projects the first and main task will be in working out how to put it up where it will not be in the way of tractor access when mowing, compost spreading and so on..

So that’s been this week – and as spring really has arrived, it has been a productive one.

. Commodity crops find a price based on sale and demand. Politics and speculation add to the mix. The fact that the EU Common Agricultural Policy distributes subsidies to farmers across member states is a reflection that the farming industry needs this support to make ends meet. The fact that dairy farmers produce milk at below cost is lunacy and is resulting in a continual shrinking of the UK dairy industry. Knepp had 600 cows. Produced milk, ice cream and dairy products. The rest of the farm was conventional arable. The sad fact was that for all the effort the farm was not profitable. 15 years ago Knepp started a process of withdrawing from this conventional farming system.

The result has been, in my view the most amazing transformation. A brave move 15 years ago that required vision. In the last 5 years sustainability has been a catch phrase. True sustainability is a holy grail, but all to often it is more a marketing phrase than a reality. Knepp have reverted their arable land – all of it, back to nature, a process they have called re-wilding. The old business involved heavy investment in machinery, in agro-chemicals, in energy. With all this goes a huge amount of management input, risk and stress. The re-wilding process removes all cultivation, and allows the land to revert to its natural state. The soil at Knepp is horrible – heavy clay with very poor drainage. They do have however a core of woodland with some wonderful woodland. So how do they now make an income? All great ideas are simple – although the process that supports it might be complex. The process involves fencing in the whole farm and introducing a mix of grazing animals – long horn cattle; tamworth pigs; deer and ponies. All of these act differently in controlling and interacting with this environment. The result is not uncontrolled reversion of land to what farms used to call rack and ruin. Each breed of livestock chosen has an inherited ability to survive in a wild environment. Low cost management is the ultimate in sustainability and what is more the environment to

There are some great bonuses with farming. Early this morning I was planting out some Siberian plants and saw a bird who has almost become an old friend. The gliding ghostly image of our resident barn owl cruising above the sea buckthorn on the hunt for small mammals. What was really special this morning was the appearance on the other side of the site of a second one. The owl boxes at Devereux farm have been up for maybe ten or more years and it is great to see the potential of a breeding pair in the immediate area.

Just recently previous blogs have been more general comment than sea buckthorn. As I was digging this morning I thought this seemed a good moment to reflect on the important of soil type. Sea buckthorn  grows in poor and light soils. 5500m up in the Himalayas; on stony river banks; even establishing in sandstone rock. I remember on my visit to Lisavenko in Barnaul, Siberia being impressed by the crumbly, balanced soil – and reflecting on whether their plants will survive in our heavy clay at Devereux farm.

The soil at Devereux is not uniform. There are some rows of sea buckthorn that are in particularly heavy clay and they are stunted. 4m away and the plants have grown well. There is no doubt that growing in the wrong soil  creates a penalty. So as I plant now I use a fork to pull out a metre square of soil, mix it with four shovels of compost so that the clay crumbles in nodules. I then dig the compost rich soil out approx 250mm deep. Throw another shovel of compost into the bottom of the hole, then fork that down into the next 250mm depth of subsoil. This will allow the new plant to grow its tap root deeper, faster and with less energy. As we live in an year of low rainfall ( 450 -600 mm pa), it also means the plant has deeper roots that can access moisture when the top soil has dried out. This double digging is time consuming, but for a plant that may be productive for more than 20 years – extra effort right at the beginning is a sound investment. Every time I walk past the dwarf like rows 13 and 14 in the sea buckthorn I am reminded that the natural environment is my factory floor.It is sometimes challenging but there are normally ways to work with that environment that can alleviate most issues.

It is this acceptance that growing sea buckthorn is possible by working with the environment  without use of chemicals  that has finally created the decision to apply to the Soil Association to go organic. The product that we import from Germany is Bio dynamic and organic. The fact that there are no chemicals licensed by the EU for use with sea buckthorn means that growing the crop is organic anyway. Reluctance in the past to register has been a recognition that growing sea buckthorn at Devereux farm has been a trial and that we have had pest and disease problems. Now it is becoming clear that most management issues are solvable organically the time has come to register.

Having mentioned the products that we import from germany, one of those is oil capsules. I have been taking sea buckthorn oil capsules since 2009. I find that they keep winter ailments away and I also believe that they provide stamina to keep going when work becomes particularly physical.

Having attended and presented papers at European conferences since 2010, the relationship with european growers, researchers and processors has developed. It seemed right therefore that British Sea Buckthorn Co, as our company based at Devereux farm, should source capsules from Europe. Love or hate EU regulation, but it is the EU regulations that safeguard quality so sourcing capsules that are accredited in the EU provides guarantees.

As most of the plants at Devereux farm come from Siberia there is a natural connection to source the oil for capsules from Siberia. Our links to the Lisavenko Institute in Siberia started because they are the worlds oldest research institute into sea buckthorn having started in 1933. In a world were the environment is becoming increasingly polluted, Siberia’s vast expanses offers a clean refuge from the industrial world. So combining product that comes from this environment, contain oil from the plants that we also grow at Devereux farm and then sourcing it through a company that complies with EU reglations produces several layers of quality guarantee. When one adds the EU organic certification then I feel we have sourced a great product. But just to make sure, I am the guinea pig to test these capsules out and compare them with the brand that i have been loyal to since 2009. After four months they have certainly stood the test, so it won’t be long before these will have ticked my box and be ready for market. Quality is king only if you can honestly say that those qualities are up to the mark.

(( For those who might have seen the original version of this blog I have just updated it. Sea buckthorn growers, Cornish Seaberry, telephoned almost as soon as the blog went live amazed that when planting I dig down 250cm – then fork compost into the next 250cm!! What a difference one little “m” can make. It is of course not 250cm but 250mm. My sea buckthorn capsules might give me stamina to keep digging, but not all the way to Australia.)

In time honoured fashion spring is now fully with us. The ground is drying up. Night temperatures are rising and all the sea buckthorn plants at Devereux farm are looking healthy. It is a time of year to look forward with good anticipation and confidence.

The referendum on Europe looms. We discussed it over lunch yesterday – Four people, four backgrounds – farming (me), international banking, commercial property, and engineering. The concensus was that for such an important decision there is just not enough tangible, quantified evidence being offered by either side. Factors like the European court of justice were an irrelevance as they were non political anyway. Leaving the EU, but trading with it still meant abiding by its rules and  making funding contributions so leaving was not a panacea. EU regulates, but so does Westminster so as UK residents and businesses we are not going to be deregulated. But apart from all this still comes the issue that the world is both economically and politically unstable. The Chinese economy is faltering, the Middle East slides further into the unknown and will take at least a generation to rebuild. Migration is not just a political issue but a real problem. Oil is no longer a global golden industry. Climate change looms in the background.  only if one can see well defined and clear cut advantages does one want to be taking  The US elections pose more theatre than policy but as a principle ally for the UK, where will this take us. Changes in the Crimea and Ukraine portray Russia as a nationalist, not internationalist state. Libya; Argentina and the Falklands; the economy of Japan – there is little to find that provides evidence to say that being a small trading nation outside the EU is a great idea.

But this is a year to look forward to. Last week BBC Farming Today broadcast an interview from the farm which gave an opportunity to talk about sea buckthorn and its benefits. This came at the same time as securing some additional funding for the project. Try as one can, it is hard to achieve progress without sufficient funding. The lack of machinery has meant that every operation takes more time and effort. This reduces the time available for product and market development. Now comes the opportunity to mechanise all field work so that compost/compost tea applications happen more efficiently which will improve the health of both plants and soil. Weed control has been a huge problem through the summer which will become a problem of the past. Harvesting and processing needs to become HACCP accredited. With less time having to be tied to the field, product development will become a priority. now that really feels like this is going to be a good year.

This is all coming at a time when there are other changes impacting upon the farm. Our sea walls are vital to protect us from flooding. Since 2004 there has been as concept that the government might reduce funding the maintenance of these walls. They might even withdraw from them altogether. It seems somewhat bizarre that the National Coastal path is also being introduced onto these walls in the next three years. This whole issue would not be a concern if it were not for the unpredictable nature of climate change.  This brings about a whole concept of risk managing the potential impacts. We could accept the potential 50% loss of land this might represent in the longer term. Alternatively the option is to  make our walls more resilient to tide and flood incidents . Then, what form of sustainable enterprise we should be doing to make it worth maintaining the land assets.

The first step in this process was to undertake a planned breach of our sea wall close to the sea buckthorn. This allows the sea to flood over what used to be an old gazing marsh. The ability of the sea to spread onto this land takes the pressure off neighbouring walls when we have very high tides. This has worked at Devereux farm, but at our other farm on the Naze this is not possible as breaching would impact on a nearby yacht marina.

What is good about this is finding that there is a real spirit of co-operation to find solutions. Just this week our local council, together with the Environment Agency and Natural England  worked together to give permission for the farm to build a novel structure of on-site built steel mesh baskets filled with granite rock. In an area that also protects local public open space the agency help was matched by the local community who provided free manual help to shift the 20 tons of rock into place. The whole project being pulled together and built within four days. As an example of real partnership it is providing a opening to solve how we are going to adapt to a less predictable future.

If this is to be a year to look forward to with good anticipation, it has certainly started off with some tangible results. I just hope that the June referendum continues in the spirit of reducing risk and increasing stability.

Marketing sea buckthorn always has had an issue in that it can be a food; it is sold as cosmetic and it also falls into the realm of health. As the June EU referendum approaches the topic of EU over zealous regulation is high on the discussion agenda. But as soon as I hear that magic phrase on a radio interview – ” the truth is…” or “the fact is…” then I start to switch off. So many times the words truth and fact are used to substantiate an arguement, but the actual statement lacks either.

The EU nutrition and health claims regulations trim back what I would like to say about sea buckthorn. The European Food Safety Agency looks to protect consumers from misleading marketing. The Food Standards Agency in the UK’s latest policy is looking for science and evidence to drive food quality and diet improvement. But science is not necessarily about fact. It is a dynamic. It is a form of enquiry that is continually moving forward, taking one finding and tasking new research to take it forward – testing fact and result. The results are not always what people want to see or hear. Unless results are peer reviewed they often remain in a no man’s land of questionable quality. But it is on science that we base our knowledge – our facts and our truths.

Food trends appear at the beginning of each year.The term natural often appears as a positive market factor. But what is it? I grow sea buckthorn. It produces fruit without the use of chemicals and as a result of the environment is grows in. That I would have thought is as natural as it gets. But that fruit will become an ingredient. The users of ingredients will have perceptions about what it is. Possibly there will also be certificates of analysis stating what it in it. Both of these create ideas of quality, but the truth is that the facts may vary widely. All products of the ground will vary in analytical quality from year to year; from field to field and even within a field. That is nature. But as a natural product it will be tuned to the nutritional requirements of your body. The fact that sometimes the environmental production conditions have been perfect and sometimes not does not mean that the product becomes bad for you. It may however behave slightly differently in the manufacturing process. It also will provide analytical results which may change the context in which the product is allowed to be marketed because regulations define quality by analytical fact.

Sea buckthorn by its nature contains many vitamins and amino and phenolic acids. Hence it is not surprising that its taste is classified sour. In current food trends this is currently good. But in taste terms it can take the uninitiated by surprise. Behind the sour context there is also a unique taste. It is that that we seek – blending in companion ingredients to deliver a taste that relates to create a first impression which creates a wow factor. The issue that the sea buckthorn has lots or little of a specific vitamin or omega fatty acid is not necessarily relevant.

Taste allows us to like a food, but but taste and nutrition are both important. Food provides an equilibrium of health. A balanced diet provides the nutrients that the body needs to allow it to function continually without sickness. So when my cornflakes packet suggests that I am gaining a daily dose of vitamins then that makes me feel good. Whether the vitamins in that form are bioavailable, or whether I need that dose because I have gained it from other foods is not questioned. The fact is – my cornflakes have vitamins in them – I read it on the packet and believe in the figures.

The difference between taste and nutritional analysis is that one in essence is more important than the other. If it tastes foul then the nutritional content is irrelevant. Hence that golden phrase – taste is king.

This week our kitchen table has been laiden with hot pots of jam and the ice cream maker churning away on sorbet recipies.  Taste is subjective – hence we need tasting panels to confirm reality – or average reality. The results of these kitchen labours are often surprising. Developing consistency is not as easy as it seems. Recipe books charm us with beautiful ideas but the facts behind the ingredient list can often end up being adulterated by variation in ingredient quality and preparation technique. Truth is – there were some failures in the kitchen trials – but it is success that one focuses on.

And the relevance of all this –

It is these successes with the wow factor that are our taste ambassadors. These are the ones that provide the fact behind – sea buckthorn product has a unique taste factor. This is not an EU nutrition claim or require FSA science evidence to go on a label. The matter becomes truth when others take it up and say – wow.