Adrian Hollister

I gave the willow a good trim over the weekend and with the help of a friends shredder reduced the massive volume of cuttings into big bags of willow chippings. I know willow burns well when dried, so it can start the drying process in the chicken pen. Their scratching and digging through it should also help the drying process.

I've filled their run up to about six inches deep with the stuff and clearly they are enjoying every minute of it. With a summer like we are having the majority of the green stuff should be dried off within weeks.



This is a small scale experiment, but on a larger scale I would hope to be able to fill the run every month in summer and rotate the chicken 'dried' stuff into a green house or similar hot place for further drying. Not sure how or if this is going to work, but it's worth a try especially as willow is so cheap and grows so fast.

Had a great time at the Waterways featival in Newbury at the weekend. I was facepainting for the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust and made just under fifty quid. Nice amount and a great day out. It's amazing how much work the trust puts into the canal without any real recognition from those that make use of it. I hope that changes proposed by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to central government bodies does not cut off their funding. If it does, it will leave the trust (and most other small charities) fighting for the few pennies that everyone has left.

Oh and who is this handsom if slightly balding fellow Newbury Weekly News caputred?

I put a blog entry on a few days ago discussing the use of plastic in tea bags and an alternative source, Tea Pigs. There are a few suppliers out there with alternatives, but I buy my stuff from Tea Pigs, so I thought it was worthy of a review.

Loose real leaf tea is still slightly specialist and you can't just go to the local supermarkets any more as most don't even stock standard brands of leaf tea any more. High quality leaf tea is another matter. It's highly specialised and generally very expensive. If you love your herbal drinks and even tea you will I'm sure appreciate the variations from the standard sweepings off the tea room floor used in many of the commodity tea bags out there. Tea Pigs have one rather unique selling point - they use these 100% biodegradable tea bags. Not uncommon in the rest of the world, but not something you often find here in the UK. They call them tea temple, but there are various descriptions of them out there on the web if you search. Having a tea bag that I can put into the compost without worrying about the plastic used in standard bags is a good thing.

Anyway back to the tea and the shop. Firstly the shop part. There is an on-line store (www.teapigs.co.uk) which is very simple to use and takes all the usual payment methods. The web site is slick, but I am disappointed that they don't go into enough details about what's in their product, where it comes from etc. So what about the tea then? Ok, lets get onto the three tea's that I've tried to date:

Tea Pigs English Breakfast: Standard dark black real leaves in the bags hide what is actually quite a nice traditional blend of tea's. Nothing is overwhelmed and each leaf used add it's own distinct character to the brew. This is a very nice tea with strength and body.

Tea Pigs Chai Tea: A surprisingly interesting and very fragrant blend of tea and spices. The tea in the bag is a marvel to look at with real spices in the bag (seemingly no fake flavours here). A good three minute brew later and you have a stunning warming tea that tastes every much as good as it smells. It makes an absolutely wonderful drink with a great depth of spices to tease your nose and mouth.

Tea Pigs Rooibos Creme Caramel Tea: I do like my Rooibos tea. Naturally decaffeinated, very hydrating and a brilliant afternoon tea on a hot day. So why the heck add Crème Caramel to it? I've no idea why they thought of it, but what a great idea! I still enjoy mine with milk and keep my caramel red bush tea for the evening as it's lovely and relaxing and a very comforting drink. The caramel adds a wonderful smell to the drink which at first is not apparent in the taste. Only after swallowing does the crème caramel leave it's mark in your mouth leaving you licking teeth and the top of your mouth for a bit more yummy crème caramel.


For a real tea supplier, using real ingredients I cannot fault them. Next order I'm going to add the blue tea, expect a review soon. Adrian Hollister's favourite tea from there.... it has to be the Crème Caramel Rooibos.

Recently brought up in the press again is the use of plastic in tea bags. Modern tea bags from the big brands use between 10-30% plastic in their bags. This, of course, is not compostable and won't bio-degrade quickly in your compost bin. Twinings, PG, Lipton and Tetley appear to be some of those brands who have been identified as using plastic in their tea bags. Given the very high price most people pay for tea and coffee in canteens and cafe's, shouldn't we be getting the best product available? Should we be worried by any chemical leaked from the plastic when immersing this plastic in boiling water?

Companies like Tea Pigs sell tea in bags that will fully degrade in the standard compost cycle. They are expensive compared to supermarket tea, but outside of the home our drinks are not exactly cheap. Perhaps a switch a switch to 'better for us all' tea bags would be a good idea and could be done in conjunction with a home composting campaign by the offending tea companies.

So desperate were the local Conservatives and Liberal Democrats that they spent over 12K each fighting for power in this election. I've no doubt that this put both local parties into debt - something they both vowed to bring the country out of. The Green's here in West Berkshire spent the least on electioneering and as the parliamentary candidate for the Green Party in Newbury, Adrian Hollister said, "I am proud of what was achieved with such frugal funding"

Overall the Tories will have spent a good deal of money per vote, plus of course the interest on the loans issued to them and other debts to be paid. I'm guessing when everything is tallied up, they will have spent about a £1 per vote - about the same as everyone else. This shows how much reform needs to happen on our current election system. Pounds sterling should not equal votes. People should be able to feel free to vote for what is right; for what in their heart they believe in; and not what some marketeer or media source has told them.

RT @NewStatesman - Lib Dem anger over plan for Cameron to address conference http://bit.ly/cd8ZJ1

The Fire Safety Van will be outside Great Shefford shop this Wednesday 7th 10:00-16:00 and again on the 14th of July where it will also head to Brightwalton School at about 14:00. Hope to see you there.