Organic fruit is one of the best foods to try if you are thinking about changing from conventionally grown produce. The taste is quite different, both tangy and sweet, juicy and fresh. In this clip Nathan LeRoy discusses how organic food is grown around the world, and today he is visiting orchards closer to home in Essex, England.
According to Nathan, organic farming is flourishing in Essex. Not just on a big industrial scale, but also much smaller organic enterprises such as pickling and preserving of organic produce, cheesemaking, smallholdings with a few chickens that produce organic eggs sold to the local community. “(Organic food) is permeating into the whole culture. More and more people are embracing it, and bringing it into their lives and sharing it with other people.”
The particular smallholding that Nathan is visiting produces organic fruit which is sold to local shops, restaurants, box schemes and farmer’s markets, including the only organic farmer’s market in London at Stoke Newington. You’ll see the owner, Marina O’Connell crushing apples in the traditional way to make fresh organic apple juice.
Marina and her husband Mark also run the Apricot Centre, an online and physical centre for sustainable and organic living. A walk around Marina’s orchard shows how she has planted different varieties of apples, pears and plums, grown specifically for their disease-resistant properties. Marina also explains how the trees are planted ensure that if blight should attack one tree, it won’t be able to spread to the others.
This clip offers an interesting example of how small organic enterprises can provide top quality produce for the community through traditional farming practises. Worth a watch.
