Now the water catchments are full....

This is the only forum I belong to that I am not known as blythburgh. Whenever I join a programme I use the name blythburgh. And around the village of Blythburgh which is a few miles south of where I live they have free range pigs. There are other farmers with outdoor pigs around but the farmer behind "Blythburgh pork" is the biggest one. Meat is sold as "Blythburgh Pork" but the farmer is upset that he sells some butchers far less than they are actually selling so now they have a new logo and it will be stamped on the rind so not all pork will be able to be disguised in future. And they are now selling it in various parts of the country far removed from North Suffolk.

As I say, these are free range pigs. They are in fields, with a pond in one corner, so that they can have mud wallows that also act as sunscreens. They are only in the fields for a few years before being moved on to new fields. And the fields they have left behind are well manured so the crops that will be planted in the fields will need less articifial fertiliser as my Dad always called it.

And on the subject of local farmers we have had a huge shock locally. A week before the farmers were due to start drilling the peas provided by frozen food giant, Birds Eye, and on the very day the farmers who have formed a co-operative to deal with the peas were meeting to rubber stamp the decision to buy 2 new pea viners a bombshell dropped. Instead of investing well over £600,000 they got a phone call to say we have lost a big contract in Italy and we are cancelling your contracts.

A huge blow for the local economy. The farmers can put in other crops but they will be worth a lot less to them. Large numbers of workers have a job at a time when there is not a lot of work to do on the farm, the lorries who transport the peas, again at a time when there is not a lot of use for the lorries, the suppliers of the machinery and the local frozen food storage units will have empty space. The only good news is that the Birds Eye workers will be working on other things within the factory so no job losses there, or so they say at the moment.

But there was a glimmer of hope in the local paper, a local seed merchant claims that he has blue peas which are sort after in parts of Europe. But when you only have a few days to decide what to do it is difficult to know if you would find a market if you plant those peas. And would he have enough for the huge acreage in Norfolk and Suffolk. Only these farms are affected because the farms have to be near the factory because the peas are harvested in the field, the machine removes the peas from the pods at the same time and they muct be frozen within 2 hours to keep the famous "Birds Eye sweetness". Actually it is not just Birds Eye peas that were grown and frozen locally. The peas were graded at the factory and some ended up in packets bearing the supermarkets own label. In future all our British peas will be frozen at the Grimsby factory.