Reviving Rare Oats, Spreading Bere Barley and (Re)Developing the Machinery to Process Them At the start of February, as the snow fell and the sky brooded, the grain growers of our Welsh and Scottish networks grabbed a coffee, signed on to Zoom, and settled in for a long day of talking oats, bere barley […]
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In late April of this year Mike Hyatt, who farms Baleveolan Croft on The Isle of Lismore, contacted me asking if I knew of anyone malting grain on a small-scale in Scotland. Mike, like many crofters, is patiently waiting for our small-scale de-huller to be developed; once it has been built, the crofters can bring […]
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The team of the Seed Sovereignty Programme UK and Ireland are supporting this No Patents on Seeds campaign and are encouraging all our seed saving networks, friends and supporters to sign this petition. Even though the UK is no longer in the European Union it is still under the jurisdiction of the European Patent office. […]
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One October afternoon, we set the places for a feast. Enamel plates punctuated a long table, under borrowed festoon lights strung from the rafters. Wind whistled off of the Irish sea. At first glance, it may have appeared a standard farm to fork meal, a wholesome sharing of local produce and company. But this feast […]
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Dylai bwyta’r ceirch yr ydych wedi tyfu bod yn beth hawdd I’w wneud / Eating the oats you have grown should be a simple thing to do. Katie Hastings, Gaia Seed Sovereignty Programme Coordinator for Wales, shares the story – and mystery – of the great Oats of Wales. When our Llafur Ni (Our Grains) […]
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Watch Gaia’s latest film – Llafur Ni (Our Grains)– about a farmer’s 20-year quest to find and revive the Welsh black oats his grandfather once grew. Welsh organic farmer Gerald Miles has been on an epic quest to rediscover the rare black oats his grandfather once grew in Pembrokeshire fields overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. For […]
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