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Berwick Area Heart Support Group
May 2007 newsletter
Next meeting May 2nd at the day Hospital, Berwick Infirmary from 7.00pm – 9.00pm Guest speaker: Dawn Scott -Public Health Nurse Consultant, Northumberland care Trust, will give a talk on- Childhood Obesity in Northumberland .
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March Meeting Report
At our meeting on Wed. 4th. April, our speaker was David Catt a member of Borders Organic Gardeners. (BOG). His talk was entitled ‘Growing fruit and other good things in a small garden’; having said that he then added that his own garden was a two acre riverside area with a rock cliff at the rear and the river at the front. Not all of which is cultivated, and in his own words it is best described like a jungle with clearings, but from these ‘clearings’ he is virtually self sufficient in vegetables, apples and a variety of soft fruit. He is responsible for the fruit and veg, someone else looks after the lawns and flower beds.
He has a degree in Agriculture, and has had a lifetime of interest in gardening. As a child he always helped his father in the garden, gradually earning a little plot of his own. His first crop as a small lad was Tom Thumb lettuce. As he grew older he looked after all the fruit and veg in the family garden.
And so we return to his talk, which was backed up with numerous slides, which always makes it more difficult to put into words.
ORGANIC GARDENING PRINCIPLES
Soil Fertility
Pest Control
Encouraging biodiversity and wildlife.
Taking each in turn :-
SOIL FERTILITY
The condition and productivity of soil can be improved using Compost. This opens up the soil and helps with water retention and can either be purchased, and it will state on the bag that it is organic, or you can produce your own. Just about all garden and kitchen waste (excluding meat), can be composted. Large amounts of grass cuttings and kitchen waste need to be mixed with fibrous waste such as prunings or even screwed up newspaper; otherwise you could get a soggy smelly lump, rather than usable compost. David did say that he composted all his waste, including cooch and docks. He could do this because of the amount of heat generated by other things he composted killed off the cooch and dock. Compost should be made throughout the year and allowed to sit for a year before using.
Mulch
This is a layer spread over the surface of the garden, its advantages are that it:-
Adds organic matter to the soil
·Suppresses weeds
·Looks tidy
·Uses up waste products.
And what can we use?
·Matured compost
·Shredded prunings
·Purchased products ie, Bark or cocoa shells. (used cocoa shells in my garden one year and every time it rained the garden smelt of chocolate)#·Sheet material, polythene etc. After digging, a sheet of polythene laid across will help heat the ground and will suppress any weeds.
·Saw dust and shavings. (These create an acid soil as the wood breaks down, and initially these can take out goodness from the soil, but it will eventually put that goodness back.
Minimised digging
This is achieved using deep dug or raised beds, these should be narrow enough to work on without treading on the soil. This way the soil does to get compacted and needs minimal work to keep it in good condition.
·Additives could include a liquid feed made with comfrey, or a ‘tea’ made with nettles (both these are home made)
·Seaweed meal
·Lime (not for potatoes)
·Other organic fertilisers.
To make the comfrey feed put the leaves into a container, cover, allow to rot. A black liquid will be produced witch can be put onto the garden.
For the nettle tea, ½ fill a dustbin with water, fill with nettle leaves, resulting mixture is high in nitrogen.
PEST and DESEASE CONTROL
·Buy and plant resistant varieties.
·Create sturdy plants, do not overfeed.
·Careful siting.
·Encourage natural predators.( Ladybirds, Lacewings love aphids)
·Barriers (put nets around soft fruit, and nets can stop carrot root fly, and butterflies on cabbage, plastic discs around cabbage stems will help stop club root)
BIODIVERSITY AND WILDLIFE
·Try and counteract loss of habitat elsewhere. (resist hard pruning in autumn, insects live in the hollow stems over winter)
·Encourage pest predators. (Hedgehogs love slugs and snails)
·Plant insect attracting plants.
·Have a pond (ONLY IF ITS SAFE), but frogs love insects etc.)
·Erect nest boxes (lots of small birds are insect eaters)
·Feed the birds all year. (Keep them in your garden, not your neighbours)
·Create winter homes / hotels for insects.
“But we haven’t got the room”, I hear you say, but David has the answer. The second part of his talk was entitled,:-
Fruit for the small garden.
This can be the most productive with the least amount of effort, it can produce high value fruit, easy to store,(most goes into the freezer and does not need blanching as do most vegetables). It can be grown in a mixed border or up walls; some can even be grown in tubs.
BUSH
·Black currants
·Red currants
·Gooseberry (needs taming, keeping under control)
·Blue berries (Need acid soil, can be grown in containers)
CANE
·Raspberries
·Blackberries (Too big for most small gardens)
·Strawberries and Alpine strawberries.
TREE FRUIT
Apples and Pears. (Some varieties grafted onto dwarf root stock, which can be grown in pots on a patio)
STONE FRUIT
Plums and cherries,(can be trained to grow against north facing walls)
If you do have room for a small vegetable plot, once you have constructed/prepared your plot, use rotation to get the best from it. Ideally it would be nice to have four such plots, or split a larger plot into four. Try not to grow the same vegetable in the same spot two years running.
Year one, Potatoes, compost, no lime.
Tear two, Cabbage and beans/peas, add lime and compost.
Year three, miscellaneous, salads, leeks, spinach, add more compost.
Year four, Onions, carrots, and parsnips.
Even, as said earlier, you may find room for some on your favourite salad stuff or veggies amongst the daffies and bedding plants just don’t eat the wrong bulbs.
And in the immortal words of all the late night newsreaders, “And finally”. David left the two confused ones to last.
RHUBARB, a vegetable used as a fruit, grows well in any out of the way corner. Benefits from compost. David suggested Seaweed Meal
TOMATOES. A fruit used as a vegetable. Can be grown in a 10litre pot or bigger,. a growbag, or even in the border, but this far north if outside they would need protection., but one in a pot in the porch or conservatory could be quiet interesting, especially if you have grandchildren.
Thank you David for your time.
Wally
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Raised blood pressure?
LOWER SALT lowers risk even if it makes only a modest difference to blood pressure. “About what one might expect from a moderate dose of a statin,"
Mike Lavender in his recent talk told us that after ‘Stopping Smoking” his next big target is to raise awareness of high blood pressure. Our GPs have probably been able to spot only about half of us who unknowingly are walking around with the condition.
We know that raised blood pressure increases risks for stroke and heart attack. The reason is that this increase we often see as we go into middle-age is a ‘marker’ for arteries not functioning as they should. The elasticity, typical of youth is no longer the norm. Extra pressure is felt throughout the system if the big arteries that take the blood from the heart are no longer elastic enough to respond to each push.
A recent study (reported in the BMJ) has followed up patients from previous studies. These patients had reduced their salt intake to counteract ‘high-normal’ blood pressure (‘pre-hypertension’). This follow-up is useful because it covers a reasonable number of people, nearly two and half thousand, and has looked at them over a long period – and many years after their original blood pressure readings and their change of habit. Reducing their salt by roughly a third or a quarter has meant a similar reduction in heart attack and stroke. "That's about what one might expect from a moderate dose of a statin", said Dr. Cutler, one of the authors.
Its worth remembering that these people, apart from their ‘pre-hypertension’, were not particularly ‘at risk’: they were below 140 SBP ‘systolic’ and between 80-90 DBP ‘diastolic’. Although they got only a modest reduction in BP by reducing salt intake, the real benefit was in not developing heart disease later. The researchers concluded that lowering sodium intake, “even among those without hypertension, reduces the risk of future cardiovascular disease,"
It is expected that reducing salt intake even further, down 50%, will bring even greater benefits over time. In the original studies, when they altered the salt habit, people were aged 30 – 54, but were in their 40s and 50s by the time of the follow-up.
We know that risks roughly double for every 20 point rise in systolic blood pressure from 120 upwards. (For elderly persons the situation is often more complex, and your Doctor is the person to keep track.) The importance of treating high blood pressure (actual hypertension), however for all middle age groups becomes clear. Hypertension is usually defined these days as greater than 140/90. The importance for our young relatives in reducing salt intake in order to help prevent later disease is worth thinking hard about. ‘Salt’ is a habit. Getting used to lower salt might be difficult at first but it looks as though once the habit is broken, people are happy enough with the lower intake. Quote: “For the intervention group compared with controls, these results were:
- Significantly more reported liking low-sodium or unsalted foods (71% versus 64%, P=0.003).
- Significantly more reported usually or always using low sodium products (47% versus 29%,P<0.001).
- Significantly more reported reading food labels for sodium content (66% versus 44%, P<0.001).
- Significantly more reported keeping track of their daily sodium intake at least sometimes (28% versus 20%, P<0.001).”
Phil, April 2007
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Recipe of the Month
Smoked haddock with creme fraiche and chives
Serves 2 and takes only 15 minutes from start to finish
400g smoked haddock (about 4 fillets) skinned
2 tbsp half-fat crème fraiche
Small bunch of chives, snipped
150ml semi-skimmed milk
Freshly ground black pepper
Place the fish in a frying pan and add a little freshly ground black pepper (and perhaps a squeeze of lemon juice). Pour in the milk and bring to simmering point, then simmer gently for 12 minutes.
Remove the fish to a plate using a fish slice, increase the heat and add the crème fraiche. Continue to simmer for 2-3 minutes until the sauce reduces and thickens slightly.
Return the fish to the sauce, scatter in the chives and let it bubble for about 30 seconds.
Serve with mashed potato and broccoli
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Wally’s Yarn
I was in the Co-op the other day buying a large bag of Pedigree for my dog and was in line to check out.
A woman behind me asked if I had a dog........ Duh!
I was feeling a bit crabby so on impulse, I told her no, I was starting The Pedigree Diet again, although I probably shouldn't because I'd ended up in the hospital last time, but that I'd lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care unit with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IV's in both arms. Her eyes about popped out of her head.
I went on and on with the bogus diet story and she was totally believing it. I told her that it was an easy, inexpensive diet and that the way it works is to load your pockets or handbag with Pedigree nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry. The package said the food is nutritionally complete so I was going to try it again.
I have to mention here that practically everyone in the line was by now enthralled with my story, particularly a tall guy behind her.
Horrified, she asked if something in the dog food had poisoned me and was that why I ended up in the hospital.
I said "No..... I was sitting in the street licking my rear end when a car hit me".
I thought the tall guy was going to have to be carried out the door.
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