Permaculture Magazine Reviews

PRODUCT REVIEW from PM66 part 2

2010-11-18T15:12:00.003Z

More Power Struggles

I am still convinced that one of the best ways to save electrical energy in the home is by being able to see how much you are using. If you regularly read this column you will know my favourite monitor is the Owl. It has an easy to read display which my whole family take notice of. Since trying an AlertMe (www.alertme.com), however, which has no display but feeds data directly into the internet so you can view realtime and historical data via Google Powermeter, I realised what was needed was a monitor which had the attributes of both. So I was intrigued to try the Current Cost Envi monitor which not only displays current usage but, via a USB cable, can down-load data to a computer, which if internet connected, can be displayed in Google. The best of both worlds has arrived.

Then, with just days to spare before this went to press, Owl announce the Owl CM160 which also has a USB port for data download. They sent me one and I set it up beside the Envi and plugged them both into my netbook. Surprisingly this worked and I could display both sets of data side by side. Envi was displayed via Google while the Owl’s data was displayed via its own windows software which came with it on a CD. Both units work well and have only minor pros and cons. I like the Envi’s porting to Google, the mains adaptor for the display and the seven year battery life of the sender unit. On the other hand the Owl is cheaper, has in my opinion a nicer display, a two year memory and user friendly software. It’s down to personal choice.

Old Favourites & New Ones Too

I now own three of the Helle sheath knife range so I think it’s fair to say I like them. The latest, the Helle Eggen, has the same tri-steel super sharp blade as the others but has a curly birch handle that just fits the hand so well, that I had to have one.

It didn’t really need testing but I used it to make kindling to test the wood burning capability of a Honey Stove. This is a hexagonal back-packing stove made of stainless steel which packs flat into an incredibly thin wallet. It can be fired by most cooking fuels from hexamine tablets to a gas burner but its real claim to fame is its ability to work as a woodburner.

Having tried several small wood-burning devices over the years I was very doubtful this would work. Boy, was I wrong! This little stove lit easily and then really went for it boiling my soup before I even had time to stir it properly. It’s just amazing, it didn’t scorch the log I stood it on and when cool, packed away into my pan set. It will certainly get a lot more use in the future. An instant favourite product.

Another favourite which has been re-released is Burgon and Ball's Potting Scoop. It has all the old functions; a curved pointed nose for digging, a scoop shape for carrying soil, serrated edges for cutting roots etc., and seed dispensing notches, only the size has changed slightly. This hand tool is a must have item for any gardener whether they own just a couple of pots or a couple of acres. Indispensable.

John Adams

Reviewed items are available from Green Shopping www.green-shopping.co.uk

First published in Permaculture Magazine No.66 www.permaculture.co.uk

PRODUCT REVIEW from PM66 - part1

2010-10-26T15:24:00.003+01:00

Power Struggles

The Solar Mate 1 consist of a 5W rigid solar panel, a 9W 12volt long life bulb, bulb holder, wall switch, cables fuses, etc. Everything you need to set up a mini off grid lighting system in a stable, shed or polytunnel, except a 35-70Ah, 12volt leisure battery (I got mine from www.alpha-batteries.co.uk).

The system is easy to rig up, though I would have liked a bit more wire, and the resulting light is very good. The low energy bulb has an output equivalent to a 45W mains one but it seems a lot brighter than that when surrounded by darkness (see above). The makers claim you can enjoy up to 7 hours light every night and while I am a bit sceptical about that, it certainly does charge well even in low light conditions and should be able to provide enough light to do routine tasks every evening. If you need more than this there are bigger SolarMate kits (see www.green-shopping.co.uk). Being based on a leisure battery these kits can of course provide many hours of light or power as a one off in an emergency.

With winter power cuts in mind, I tried using the solar charged battery as an emergency power source. By attaching a 300W mains inverter (www.maplin.co.uk), I was able to get my combi-boiler gas central heating to run. I estimate that with the heat turned right up and the boiler fired up in bursts of an hour or so as required I could keep warm for a couple of days with a bit of solar charging in between (Note: do not try this unless you are confident about all the safety aspects involved). Alternatively it would for instance, power a low energy lamp, laptop computer and modem for many hours.

Another way of providing emergency backup and general portable power is the PowerPlus Eco-powerstation (also called an Elephant) which is a neat unit that resembles one of those jump-start kits garages use. Indeed it can be used to do this if required. There is a lot more to this unit than that though, it has a 14000 LUX led flashlight, and from its 12Ah battery can output 12V, 5V USB, and 230V AC via a built-in 100w mains inverter. It can be charged via a mains adapter, a 12V power supply, its hand cranked dynamo or by a suitable solar panel like the PowerPlus Albatross.

The Albatross flexible solar panel had no trouble charging it despite the awful weather and the rather loose adaptor supplied for the purpose. In tests it was quite amazing to see an 11W mains uplighter running from this portable powerpack and had it been a real powercut would have been very comforting (it should be able to keep this up for 6-7 hours). As well as lights it can power a wide range of mains appliances providing they pull less than 100 watts (unfortunately this rules out the gas central heating trick) and charge your mobile phone etc., via the USB. Talking of phones, if your house phone relies on electricity to work, it won’t in a power cut but the Eco-powerstation could resolve that.

These two products were never intended to compete but the Power Plus is a portable unit (you could even carry it around to keep your portable tool batteries charged up or take it camping), has more charging methods and is also an ideal stand-by unit for powercuts, etc. The SolarMate is a fixed unit which should provide useful light on a day to day basis. It does however use a much larger battery which could usefully be borrowed in the event of a power outage.

John Adams

Reviewed items are available from Green Shopping www.green-shopping.co.uk

First published in Permaculture Magazine No.66 www.permaculture.co.uk

PRODUCT REVIEW FROM PM65 part2

2010-08-10T09:54:00.005+01:00

Harvesting Sunshine
While the summer sun is still with us I thought I would update you with our experiences of using a range of solar generation products.

One of the most popular has to be the tiny Freeloader Pico. This is a very neat 800mA charger/power supply for mobile phones, Mp3 players, etc. It can recharge itself in 10 hours in sunshine or can be topped up using a USB port. It’s small size and neat appearance was a hit with our two female testers who used it to keep their mobiles going at multi day festivals.

This portable solar charger is pocket-sized, and beautifully streamlined – designed to take up as little space as possible in your pocket or bag. The Pico will be fully charged within three hours via its USB cable – or from the sun alone in ten hours. Once charged, and connected to a mobile phone for half an hour, it provides 35 hours of power. It will also charge iPods, GPS devices and MP3 players. The amount of charge remaining in the Pico is clearly apparent in the number of red LED lights illuminated on the front. It recharged my mobile during the three days I was at Sunrise this year with no problems at all. At only £19.95 this really is a device worth investing in. Imogen Oxley

If you want a bit more solar recharged power then the Powerplus Cobra Solar Charger/Powerbank may be just the thing. This is a large paperback book sized solar panel in a fabric case which has a removable 1000mA powerbank, and a range of adaptor tips and cables all neatly stored in two pockets on the back. It has attachment points for simple mounting, to rucksacks, bikes, etc., or can be used freestanding. The Recharges in about 3 hours in full sunshine. I took it to the Snowdonia National Park to keep my iPhone’s GPS running. It clipped very neatly to the back of my day sack and didn't effect access to the pack or noticeably add to the weight. Despite the typically varied Welsh weather it kept on charging and easily kept up with my recharging needs.

For even more power there is always the Power Gorilla a portable power bank which can not only power/charge almost any mobile phone, PDA, Mp3or GPS but can also manage small laptop computers and netbooks. This is possible because it can out either 24V, 19V or 16V through its main outlet and 5V by a USB socket.

I have had one for a couple of years now and regularly top up my iPhone from it plus I have used it successfully to run both an old IBM laptop and more recently my netbook. It’s capacity depends on the output voltage selected for example it is rated at 5,500mAh at 19V, so is probably as big as your existing laptop battery.

It comes with a wide range of power tips to connect to almost any portable device. It is recharged either using the included international mains charger or by a Solar Gorilla folding solar panel.

The Solar Gorilla is the main reason I haven’t reviewed this product before. Originally the makers specified that the panels were designed for use only in really sunny parts of the world. However, Pete Cooper and I have both successfully used our Solar Gorillas in gloomy old Britain both to recharge the Power Gorilla and to recharge netbooks and laptops directly.

I ran the Solar Gorilla in various places, primarily to recharge a small netbook laptop while out and about. It happily charged an old iPod via the Apple iPod cable which went straight into the USB port on the Solar Gorilla. It’s hard to say how long the charge took on the iPod and netbook but they were both fully charged at the end of an 8 hour period of sunshine. Pete Cooper

These are serious bits of kit but if you want the best solar powered portable power for mobile devices look no further.

John Adams

Products reviewed here are available from the Green Shopping Catalogue

This review first appeared in Permaculture Magazine No65

PRODUCT REVIEW FROM PM65 part1

2010-08-03T16:45:00.032+01:00

Harvesting Fruit, Veg and Herbs
Burgon and Ball have introduced a range of very useful hand tools to help with the harvesting of fruit, vegetables and herbs.

If you have just read the article in PM65, ‘Useful Trees in Public Spaces’ and feel inspired to try public fruit picking, or you have fruit trees of your own, you might be interested in a Burgon and Ball Apple Picker. It consists of a metal cage with picking prongs mounted on a long wooden handle. The cage has a foam insert to prevent bruising and the head could easily be refitted to a handle of your choice. It should prove ideal for picking those hard to reach apples, pears and plums, without having to use a ladder.

Next up – the Burgon and Ball Potato Harvesting Scoop. This tool has a slotted stainless steel head on a nice hardwood handle. Apparently it is an adaption of a 19thC traditional potato harvesting shovel but scaled down to make a hand tool for use in small areas. It seems to work well and should be of particular interest to anyone who grows potatoes in raised beds or containers.

I have also tried the Burgon and Ball Vegetable Harvesting Knife which has a cranked, serrated curved blade. The cranked blade allows you to really get underneath the thing you are cutting without forcing your hand down into the ground. It is designed for harvesting cabbages, cauliflowers, marrows and other tough stemmed vegetables. I lent it to a friend who used it for harvesting woody herbs like sage and rosemary. It cut cleanly and the hooked blade naturally gathers the cut material towards you. A really useful little tool.

I was given some of the cut herbs to try with the next product: a Burgon and Ball Herb Drying Rack. This is a dinner plate sized metal hoop, which can be hung from a ceiling hook or a hanging basket bracket. It comes with eight hanging hooks for attaching your herbs and holds much more than would at first appear. I thought this was a bit of a novelty when I got it, but actually it’s rather good.

When you have harvested everything it will be time to prepare your beds for next season and if you grow in raised beds or other confined spaces you may find Chillington’s mini hoes useful. We have been using their full-size products for years with excellent results. They are all made of proper forged steel and should last a lifetime. The new range consists of a set of Three Small Digging Hoes and a Double Headed Hoe. The former consists of three hoe heads of varying depth and width, with one interchangeable handle. The latter is a lightweight double sided tool with a hoe blade on one side and a double tine blade on the other, mounted on a strong wooden handle. Maddy Harland uses these hoes to work over her raised beds and to plant potatoes.

John Adams

Products reviewed here are available from the Green Shopping Catalogue

This review first appeared in Permaculture Magazine No65

PRODUCT REVIEW FROM PM64

2010-04-29T14:09:00.016+01:00

Abrasive Issues

The first power tool I ever bought was a B&D electric drill which came with a free rotary sanding disk attachment. I struggled on for years with this and its successors because it seemed easier than sanding by hand. I suppose it was if you could stand the wrist strain and didn’t mind the swirl marks and occasional gouge in the work piece.

Over the years sanders have improved greatly and I now have a porta

ble belt sander and a shuffle sander, both of which work very well for things like sanding down boats but I would never try to use either of them for anything that needed to end up perfectly square.

Having found two other Sheppach workshop tools – the

DMT450 Woodturning Lathe and the Tiger 2000s Grinder (reviewed in PM62 and PM63 respectively) – a joy to use, I thought I would try their bts 900x Sander. This is a bench sander with a velcro attached sanding disc at the front and a sanding belt on top, adjustable through 90º. It is solidly made with a cast iron body and substantial fittings. The only bit which I felt was a bit flimsy was the mitre attachment for the sanding table.

For safety reasons it is supposed to be bolted down, but I had no trouble using it as a portable machine just plonked on the work bench. In fact, one of its great features is that it is big enough for serious work but small enough to be put away when not needed.

The pictures above show it being used to shape the components for my DIY Pallet Chair (see Permaculture Magazine 64, page7), which it did admirably. The adjustable sanding table allowed angles to be produced accurately along the length of the timber and it was a real joy to be able to squarely sand end grain, something I have never ever achieved before.

This is a well made and highly adaptable machine which will be a welcome addition to any small woodworking shop.

Bags Of Talent

Turtle Bags have increased their range of products based on reused cement bags with the exciting addition of the Lightweight Laptop Bag and an increased range of colours for the very successful Cement Bag Turtle Trolleys (reviewed in PM62).

The laptop bag is well designed; it has a padded coloured cotton lining, two main compartments, several small pockets and a shoulder strap. Available in three colours these bags are beautiful, ethical, comfortable to use and just that bit different.

Bucket Bags

Another new offering from Turtle Bags is the cavernous Sage Bucket Bag which fills an important gap in the ethical shopping bag market. For serious food shopping most bags are just too small, but this hand woven jute bag has a capacity of over 40 litres (8.8 gallons). It is fully lined and has a zipped purse pocket. They are made by rural women in Bangladesh using only local, environmentally friendly materials. Soft and comfortable to carry, I think this is an ideal large shopping bag.

Burgon and Ball have come up with a completely different type of bucket bag – a Bucket in a Bag. This is a durable, waterproof, 11 litre (2.4 gallon) folding bucket made from a plasticated canvas type material with a metal and rubber handle which folds away into a nylon pouch. Only 40mm (1.6in) deep by 255mm (10in) wide when folded it can be tucked away in rucksack, boat, car, etc. in a fraction of the space a normal bucket would take. Ideal for taking down to the allotment for watering from tanks, gardening, camping, car washing, using as a portable pet bowl, a wine cooler, and 100s of other uses.

Riddle Of The Soils

One problem I always seem to have is that my home-made potting medium is never fine enough. In the past I have tried using an old colander to filter out the lumps, stones and twigs, but it’s a slow process. Burgon and Ball have the answer, a proper Potting Riddle. It is much quicker to use and produces a fine evenly graded medium much better suited to my needs.

Give That Man A Cigar

Haven’t seen a proper Cigar Sharpening Stone for sale recently?

Nor had I till I spotted this one in Burgon and Ball’s catalogue. At 305mm (12in) long this is a serious sharpening stone ideal for putting an edge on your scythes, slashers, hoes and other large gardening tools.

John Adams

Products reviewed here are available from the Green Shopping Catalogue

This review first appeared in Permaculture Magazine No64

PRODUCT REVIEW FROM PM63

2010-02-01T09:25:00.032Z

Cutting With A Clean Edge

Most of us that own woodworking tools have at some time or another bought a carbide bench grinder, while knowing full well that what we should have bought was a wetstone grinder - but they were too expensive and difficult to source.

Scheppach, who supply professional wetstone systems have released the Tiger 2000s Grinder which is made affordable by having a plastic body instead of a metal one. The body is the only difference between this grinder aimed at DIYers, and the professional models. The stone, honing wheels and accessories fit across the range.

It comes with a top-quality grind stone, a leather honing wheel, honing compound, knife jig, a universal jig for plane blades, chisels, etc. and an angle guide. Easy to set up and use, it put a hitherto unheard of edge on all my kitchen knives, which are now razor sharp and straight edged. Previously they had been sharpened with carbide, which being too course had left a ragged edge. I also put a new edge on some of my older chisels and found I could restore the fine edge on my woodturning chisels by honing alone. I think it’s an excellent piece of kit no woodworker should be without.

While I had the DMT450 Woodturning Lathe out (reviewed in PM62)

I thought I’d give a Robert Sorby Spindlemaster a try. I had previously used one but that was on a pole lathe, so I was interested to see how well it worked on the high speed type of lathe it was designed for. It didn’t disappoint, producing a whole range of designs on the spindle with just a simple twist of the blade. I only did a large test piece as I am not that experienced, but I know it is capable of producing fine small work as well. If you are into spindle work this is an invaluable tool which will pay for itself in its speed of use and sheer versatility.

Mary Lewis, centre manager here at the Sustainability Centre and sometime spoon carver, has been trying out a Flexcut Carvin Jack.

“I have to confess that I was initially sceptical of a ‘complete carving kit in your pocket’ and my first impression of the ‘Carving Jack’ was that it looked uncomfortable to hold for any period of time. I was pleasantly surprised, however, and I was impressed at its usability. I mostly carve spoons and both the hook knife and gouge scorp were nice little tools with a very sharp edge. I was less comfortable with the detail knife, which can be used as a whittling knife, but I think that is because I am very attached to my old trusty knife. The other tools were easy and satisfying to use. If, like me, you are a campfire whittler, this is a very handy knife to have in your pocket and will help to while away many a peaceful hour. Take heed of the safety instructions however, these knives really are very sharp”.

Meanwhile I was having a look at the

Flexcut 21-Piece Carving Set. A complete carving set all in one box. It has everything you need for palm and knife carving. The SlipStrop and Gold compound will keep them all sharp and it comes with an instructional DVD. The chisel blades can also be used in a reciprocating power carver. An amazingly comprehensive starter set for any woodcarver.

Cheaper By The Meter

Back in PM51 I reviewed the Owl Monitor. I still have it, and it has proved to be the best energy saving device I have tried. In the meantime energy monitors have evolved and Owl have responded by updating their product with the addition of a memory function. So now it displays (current and historical): electricity (kW), greenhouse gas (CO2), cost (£/$), plus the current time, date and temperature. I still love it and it remains my first glance guide to my household energy consumption.

However, when I read that Google had brought out a PowerMeter so that electricity usage could be monitored online I was intrigued to give it go. To make it work you need to buy AlertMe

which wirelessly monitors the electricity being drawn through your meter in the same way as the Owl does, but instead of displaying the data it sends it to the internet via an ethernet connected hub. This is then displayed as a real time and historical display of electricity usage in graphical form on your iGoogle home page. It shows peaks in usage and baseline (always on constant loads), kW used and approx cost per annum. It also displays trends, the relationship between current usage and the expected usage based on past data. The data can also be downloaded as a spreadsheet if you need it for further analysis. Logging into your AlertMe account (£2.95 per month) shows you the same information but in a pure data log form.

What has it done for me? Well, its certainly added a lot to my knowledge of how and when power is used. It is amazing the things you notice like the increase in usage during the cold weather despite the fact the house is heated by gas. This was caused by a change in habits as a reaction to the weather; more hot drinks, toast, roast dinners, etc, plus lots of extra washing, drying and ironing as the backlog got cleared by the stir-crazy wife.

The great thing about this system over other monitors is that you don’t have to get up at 3 in the morning to see what your base load is, and it is easier to pin down appliances to power events. I think it is a really useful tool, but whether I renew my subscription next year or not, we will have to wait and see.

Another bit of metering I have tried is the Efergy Shower Timer, which once calibrated sounds an alarm when the set amount of water has been used. A great idea which in theory should save both water and the energy used to heat it - my only problem was persuading the family to use it. It has, however, raised awareness and caused some discussion so it is probably well worth the modest investment.

Brilliant Ideas

One thing monitoring my electrical usage showed me, was that the kitchen lights were rarely off and being a large kitchen that was a significant amount of power over a year. So I have changed them to two banks of lights. The main lights now use less than half the old ones did, but don't provide work light. The working lights are low voltage spots over the work surfaces and under the cupboards, wired to a Bye Bye Standby Plug Module and triggered wirelessly by a Bye Bye Standby Motion Sensor on the wall. Now we have more light than before for food prep and cooking, but only while its being done; walk away and the work lights go out. Brilliant.

Another brilliant idea is the Power Plus Firefly Dynamo Light. This compact light has 19 LEDs (16 white and 3 red) and recharges by hand cranked dynamo or any powered USB socket. It has four modes, White low, White high, Red constant, and Red flash. It will stand on its side, can be hung by the hook on the folding D handle, carried as a torch or attached to a flat metal surface by the magnets on the back. Fully charged it will provide several hours of light. Easily bright enough for personal camping and festival use, flashing red LEDS should run for about 24 hours and would make a useful marker light. Its compact, versatile and has a very good light output. Since I wrote the above I have used the Firefly as emergency lighting during a power cut and was very impressed that it provided enough light to see what you were doing in a large room even in low mode. In high power mode it was quite possible to read or carry out precision tasks like threading a needle in the main pool of light below the Firefly (see picture). I have also used it to do some wiring work under by dashboard which went surprisingly well as the lighting couldn't have been better. Highly recommended as a portable light source with a wide range of uses.

John Adams

Products reviewed here are available from the Green Shopping Catalogue

This review first appeared in Permaculture Magazine No63

BOOK AND MUSIC REVIEWS FROM PM62

2010-01-26T10:34:00.015Z

LOCAL FOOD
How To Make It Happen
In Your Community
Tamzin Pinkerton & Rob Hopkins

Green Books, 2009
220 x 220mm, 216pp
£12.95

Available from The Green Shopping Catalogue

As the twin issues of Peak Oil and Climate Change become more widely discussed, more people become interested in promoting local food as one of the steps towards self-reliance. But how do you go about it, and what do you do if there is no local food to promote? The decades of industrialised agriculture have seen local food links wither and orchards grubbed up. Local Food, the latest book in the Transition series, aims to help local communities rediscover their food culture and in doing so rediscover community itself.
The introduction and the first chapter cover the environmental issues, politics and history of local food, and it’s easy to become bogged down and despondent, but once you’re past that and into the chapters about different types of local food schemes, the book becomes both inspiring and a wealth of useful information. There are chapters on reskilling, home vegetable gardening, allotments, garden shares, community gardens and orchards – highlighting the need to grow the local skills base as much as mile-free wholesome food. Each chapter has several case studies of projects that are underway, and could be replicated elsewhere, but it doesn’t view them through rose-coloured specs and the problems are examined as much as the successes. There are also articles on each topic by familiar names such as Graham Burnett, Patrick Whitefield and Richard Reynolds.
After the chapters on schemes that involve getting your hands dirty there are ones on other local food projects, such as community supported agriculture, farmer’s markets, food co-ops and school schemes. And then there are ideas about projects which are related to, but look beyond, local food. The final chapter offers a step-by-step guide to starting a local food group, whatever style of project you have decided upon, and is followed up by an extremely comprehensive references section. Inspiring, informative and a sturdy reference guide, Local Food is destined to be the bible for local food groups for years to come.
Emma Cooper, author of The Alternative Kitchen Garden

CAN TOTNES & DISTRICT FEED ITSELF?
Exploring The Practicalities Of Food Relocalisation
Rob Hopkins, Mark Turstain-Goodwin & Simon Fairlie
Transition Town Totnes/Transition Network, 19pp
Free download from: http://transitionnet worknews.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/can-totnes-and-district-feed-itself/

This study is a milestone for the Transition Movement. It takes it beyond the realm of general visions of the future into the realm of hard facts and figures. Visions and visualisations are very important. Anyone can take part in them and feel both empowered and inspired in the process. But on their own such visions are incomplete. We also need some number-crunching to answer specific questions and work out how we can turn our visions into concrete reality. To my knowledge Can Totnes and District Feed Itself? is the first document to attempt this. It asks whether our vision of living entirely on local food can, at least in this specific case, become a reality.
Simon Fairlie, one of the authors of the study, has already asked a similar question about the country as a whole in his paper, ‘Can Britain Feed Itself?’ in The Land. He looked at a total of six scenarios: conventional, organic and permaculture regimes, considering each from both a meat-eating and vegan view-point. His definition of permaculture in this context is: ‘involving increased integration of lifestyle with natural and renewable cycles, rather than mulching, intercropping and herb spirals’. For the Totnes study the authors modelled the future on his permaculture scenario in the meat-eating version. It’s characterised by a great deal of re-cycling, with pigs and poultry living mainly off waste products rather than competing with us for grain, and meat consumption overall much lower than it is now. The authors felt a purely vegan diet would be too much of a departure for the general public.
One of the most interesting results of the study is that it calls into question whether its very title is the right one. Totnes lies between the much larger settle-ments of Plymouth and Torbay, both of which would see the Totnes district as part of their own hinterland. Not far to the north-east lies the even hungrier mouth of Bristol and its satellites, while the food footprint of London reaches out almost as far as Bristol itself. Should a town like Totnes think of itself as an urban consumer or as part of somewhere else’s countryside? Is ‘Totnes and District’ the kind of unit we should be considering?
Assuming that it is, the district seems quite able to feed itself, in principle at least. The study looks both at the available land of different quality grades within the district, what is presently produced, and how this might be modified without any drastic changes to meet the needs of the population for all kinds of foods. It would require some cultural change, on behalf of both consumers and producers, and a considerable amount of reskilling, but it’s do-able. However, when the authors addressed the supplementary question of wood fuel they found that the answer was a resounding ‘no’. In my opinion they used rather pessimistic figures for both fuel requirements and yields per hectare of wood but even so the idea that we can heat ourselves to the temperatures we’re accustomed to off the land we have available is almost certainly a non-starter. This suggests that a more pertinent study would have been ‘Can Totnes and District Feed and Heat Itself?’. The authors acknowledge this and indeed they note that we need to include other products such as building materials and medicines. It’s impossible to look at food without also considering the system as a whole.
This document is an excellent first stab at the nitty-gritty of relocalising the food supply. Focusing the study on an actual locality seems to have brought out some of the realities which might not have raised their heads in a more general, theoretical treatment. As the authors point out, it’s very much work-in-progress and raises as many questions as it answers. One of these is the place of agroforestry in future food production. The substitution of nuts for present sources of protein and oil is touched upon but hardly figures in the conclusions. But this is only one aspect of agroforestry. The other is the integration of field and tree crops, which can create a system that outyields either one on its own and provides for much of its own soil fertility and pest and disease control needs. This is touched on even more briefly and hopefully will figure more prominently in future versions.
Patrick Whitefield, author, permaculture practitioner and teacher

THE WINTER HARVEST HANDBOOK
Eliot Coleman
Chelsea Green, 2009
178 x 175mm, 264pp
£24.95

Available from The Green Shopping Catalogue

Over recent years my shelves have begun to strain under the weight of an eclectic assortment of books concerned with sustainable food production. They range from academic treatises and philosophical musings through to popular science and all the way to veg growing ‘manuals’ that fulfill my nerdish desire for facts, figures and the knowledge of others. The Winter Harvest Handbook is a rarity; it is all of the above.
For those of us not blessed with a tropical growing season, the problem of producing fresh food in the winter months without huge energy inputs is a real concern and Eliot Coleman goes a very long way in this book to providing the solutions. These aren’t merely theoretical but genuinely practicable, tried and tested. The author has a string of accolades and qualifications to his name but the only thing you really need to know is that he is making a decent living by doing exactly what he describes in the book. As well as being a pretty good read, the level of detail described makes this a potentially invaluable reference book for anyone with an un-heated greenhouse in their back garden, all the way to someone considering a commercial scale operation.
The principle concepts described in the book are alarmingly simple – cold hardy veg varieties, a double layer of protection (like a cold frame inside a polytunnel) and cleverly planned successional planting – but the results and glorious colour photos are genuinely inspiring. As with so many stories of success in the brave new world of ecological or ‘deep-organic’ food production, the breakthrough at Four Season Farm was a realization that working within the limits of nature yielded the best results. For Eliot Coleman, green-houses ceased to be an expensive bubble of perpetual summer and became a cost effective, elegant creation of a nice mild winter. Or, as he describes it himself, ‘It was like the difference between sitting inside by the fire on a cold day and being outside with enough layers of clothes on to keep you comfortable’.
Tim Green, farmer and filmmaker, is part of the team that made BBC2’s ‘A Farm For the Future’.

LOW IMPACT DEVELOPMENT
Planning & People in a Sustainable Countryside
Simon Fairlie
Jon Carpenter Publishing, 2009
233 x 156mm, 174pp
£15.00

Available from The Green Shopping Catalogue

In this updated second edition, Simon Fairlie offers an indepth and expansive look at the planning system which is an absolute must read for anyone who is seeking to be able to live and work on their land. He gives much enligthenment as to how we can work through the clauses and criteria of Low Impact Development (LID).
Part one explores why the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act was formed and how this has been modified over the past 50 years. Its unfortunate result is the widespread exclusion of people from the countryside in favour of industrialised farming methods, leading to the land becoming degraded and characterised by urban sprawl, monocultures and shopping ‘theme parks’. There are also explanations of the planning system; why stop notices are enforced, what happens when an application goes before the committee and why in a large number of cases it is only at appeal that permission is granted.
There are case histories of four Low Impact Developements (LIDs) granted permission: Hockerton, Kingshill, West Harwood and Tir Penrhos Isaf. These four very different settlements are looked at in detail to explain why they were finally given permission.
Part two explores what has happened during the 12 years since the first edition was published. Although there are a high number of people now wishing to create LIDs, many already living on their land and hundreds of examples of low impact designs, the planning system still refuses to embrace the demand for a standard policy that will allow more LIDs permisson. I understand how important it is that planning policy is there to protect the environment from widespread develop-ment, yet it is shockingly incomprehensible how so many LID applications are refused whilst plans to build vast retail parks or industrial units in the countryside are passed.
There is a useful chapter on the Planning Inspectorate, described as ‘the rock of sanity in a system which otherwise is a sea of muddled ideas, conflicting advice, competing interests and impenetrable jargon’. When an application reaches appeal before the Inspectorate it is allowed a full and impartial hearing, often the first opportunity for the people involved to put their case forward without bias.
The chapter on Wales and Pembroke-shire Policy 52 details how Wales has taken the opposite course of action by implementing a groundbreaking LID policy. Despite this, many planning decisions at appeal are still unhelpful. There is, however, more hope that things are changing with the long overdue granting of permissions for Tony Wrench and Emma Orbach’s roundhouses and Tir Penrhos Isaf. (Also, after this edition of LID went to press, the Lammas Ecovillage also received permission. See PM 62 page 33)
There is much to look forward to. With each Low Impact Settlement that enters the system, and whether an application is refused point blank or not, progress to appeal is essential. The more demand we create, the more planners and politicians will have to listen and move forward themselves.
Dawn Houghton is a permaculture diploma student actively seeking land and community to implement a LID.

THE CARBON-FREE HOME
36 Remodelling Projects To Help Kick The Fossil-fuel Habit
Stephen & Rebekah Hren
Chelsea Green, 2008
254 x 203mm, 319pp
£19.95

Available from The Green Shopping Catalogue

Stephen and Rebekah Hren, filled with a passion to live a sustainable life, got themselves some land out in the country, built a cob house, went off-grid and started growing vegetables. But soon they realised that the constant car trips back to town for work and social life made a nonsense of what they were doing. ‘Driving an hour to town and back used the equivalent amount of energy as running our home’s electrical needs for over a month.’ So they moved back to town and set about making a typical suburban house as near to carbon-neutral as they could. The result was not just a net gain to the planet but the material for this inspiring and practical book.
They cut down their eco-renovation work into a series of separate projects and explain exactly how they completed each one: insulating an existing fridge, solar water heater, earth plastering an existing wall, sealing drafts and so on. They also rate each one according to: how long it takes, the financial cost, the energy saved, whether it’s ‘renter-friendly’ and the level of skill needed to do it yourself. Besides this they give a great deal of more general background information on each aspect, so what you get is not just confined to the solutions they chose to suit their own situation. They also venture into transport and home food-growing, which together account for a large part of our total energy budget. These proved to be tougher nuts to crack for them than direct energy use in the home.
On the whole the text is clear and easy to follow, though they did lose me on at least one occasion. Being an American book, some of the detail will not be directly relevant to Britain and other European countries. However, this is a fairly minor problem compared to the mass of common sense, based on careful research and personal experience, which is the book’s main fare.
Patrick Whitefield

REKINDLING COMMUNITY
Connecting People, Environment & Spirituality
Alastair McIntosh
Green Books / Schumacher Briefings
No 15, 2006
208 x 146mm, 112pp
£8.00

I love how Alastair McIntosh writes, and Rekindling Community is no exception. If you have access to Small is Beautiful, however, I would recommend you read this first as Rekindling Community is rooted in Schumacher’s ideas. Given there are only a hundred pages, this book packs a fair punch. Not only does Alastair McIntosh present a theoretical model of ‘the psychospiritual underpinnings of community’ but the theory is supported by summaries of research undertaken by colleagues into different aspects of the spirituality of community regeneration. I found the diagrams particularly useful, and the metaphor of fire-building works well in explaining how the same elements can work together in creating community – or not – depending on how they are combined.
In his discussion of the ‘metaphysical disease’ he argues that essentialism (‘philo-sopher-talk for spirituality’) needs to be reclaimed and concludes: ‘Here, then is the Great Work of our times: to know and to strengthen existence as spiritual interconnectedness’. Community depends on our connection between nature (soil), with the divine (soul) and with each other (society). As matters stand, these connections are damaged, so community regeneration needs to create the conditions whereby we can reconnect with these three inter-weaving strands.
In my own experience of working in community development, it has always been what he calls ‘shadowstrike’ – the projection onto others of unresolved inner conflicts – that has been our downfall. So whilst he mentions it and recognises that – ‘to work deeply with the dynamics of community, we must build the skills necessary to recognise and process conflict and violence’ – there is no discussion of what these skills are and this important aspect of community regeneration was inadequately covered.
The arguments presented are clear and cogent but it is the discussion of the research papers that intersperse the book that I found inspiring. This isn’t just another academic argument presented clearly, these are ideas that have a practical application and here are some of the ways in which they have been applied. The research is diverse and the theory comes alive in application. A ‘meaty’ book, thought-provoking and challenging. Well worth reading.
Dearbhaile Bradley, eco-poet and facilitator of the Work that Reconnects. www.dearbhaile.co.uk

CLASSICS
Rhythms Del Mundo
Artists Project Earth,
Universal Music, 2009
Audio CD
19 tracks
68 minutes
£13.99

Rhythms del Mundo, one of Cuba’s finest young musical exports are back with this fabulous album of classic rock, pop and soul songs. They interpret nineteen classics such as Queen and Bowie’s Under Pressure, Stevie Wonder’s Mi Cherie Amour, Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit and Michael Jackson’s Beat It alongside some of the biggest names in contemporary music, and produce an album that it is impossible not to sing and dance along to.
The Killers get things underway with a splendid version of The Eagles’ Hotel California. They are followed by Amy Winehouse showing us just what she does best with an elegant, moving version of Sam Cooke’s evergreen Cupid.
John Lennon’s Imagine is a song I thought I had heard once too often, but Jack Johnson’s voice and guitar are just sublime. Other artists include The Rolling Stones, Cat Power, Keane and well known green activist KT Tunstall.
But, as good as all of the songs are, the most dazzling interpretations come from Rhythms Del Mundo themselves. Their versions of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody and the album’s closing tune, a stunning work over of Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven are quite simply brilliant and hint at just how great these inheritors of the Buena Vista Social Club’s live crown are.
A minimum of £2.00 will be donated from the sale of this CD to Artists Project Earth (www.apeuk.org). APE supports effective projects, recruits musicians and artists to raise awareness of climate change and funds for campaigns and disaster relief.
Be it for you, as a present, for a party, or for your instore shop music this is a must have CD. President Barack Obama provides some of the sleeve notes - now I wonder if he and Michelle will be salsaing around the White House lawn and veggie patch to this.
Tony Rollinson

Review first published in Permaculture Magazine No 62

Many of the titles in this review can be purchased from the Green Shopping Catalogue

PRODUCT REVIEWS FROM PM62

2009-10-29T10:16:00.021Z

Turning In Tight Spaces
I’ve always hankered after a woodturning lathe but until now lack of space has prohibited it.However the Scheppach DMT450 stands on a tabletop rather than the floor and is therefore much easier to find room for. As with all Scheppach products it is solidly made and well thought out. The lathe has four speeds and comes with centres and a drilled face plate so it can take on most tasks straight out of the box. The spindle length of 445mm (17.5in) is adequate for turning chair legs, etc. and the max. rotational diameter of 254mm (10in) is enough to turn medium sized bowls. I have enjoyed testing it and really pushed it to its limits by turning a freshly cut chunk of beech at maximum rotational diameter. It’s weight worried me but the lathe took it in its stride. I used a set of 67HS Robert Sorby turning chisels, a pair of RSS-976 callipers and Turning Green Wood by Michael O’Donnell for reference. They are all excellent and together make a great introductory set.

Kelly Goes Stainless
By popular demand there is now a stainless steel, 1.7l (3pint), version of the Kelly Kettle. I tried it with an optional chimney pot holder and it simultaneously boiled the water and heated a can of beans in around twelve minutes. Not a record, but not a bad performance given that I was using damp wood and it was raining.

Local Transport

My family have really embraced shopping locally and we do most of it on foot, but that means carrying everything home. Happily the makers of Turtle Bags have just launched Turtle Trolleys and we have been trying them out. Stylish and well made with robust frames and telescopic handles, they fold flat for easy storage and carry a good weight of shopping. The striped trolley bag is made by a women’s co-operative in Sri Lanka and the red one is made from a recycled cement bag by a Bangladeshi women’s uplift programme. They have been much admired and you don’t feel like a granny pulling one. They have a pocket at the back which is an ideal place to keep a Turtle bag for those inevitable extra items.

Clean Boots
Fed up with having dirty walking boots and wellies in the back of your car or hallway? Try a Boot Bag, strong, waterproof and smart, these bags solve the problem. And talking of problems...

Solution Looking For A Problem

My Bye Bye Standby modules get used a lot as I have them controlling my living room lights. So when the Online Controller came out I was intrigued to try it. It works via my broadband connection and means I can control all my modules from a web connection anywhere in the world.
I can even control them from my iPhone, a neat trick which impresses guests but not that useful. So what is it for? Well it’s true you can simulate occupancy while you are away, and you could use one to switch on the coffee machine at work but that’s not really enough is it? Then, talking to my brother-in-law, I realised it was the solution to his problem. His house is mainly heated by wood but he works away, so when he gets home it is cold. One online controller, two 3000W modules and two oil filled electric radiators and the problem was solved. Now he can remotely turn on the heat and arrive to a warm house having wasted the minimum of energy. Got a problem? Bye Bye Standby may be the solution.

John Adams

Products reviewed here are available from the Green Shopping Catalogue

This review first appeared in Permaculture Magazine No62

FOREST GARDENING THROUGH THE YEAR DVD

2009-08-17T14:59:00.013+01:00

FOREST GARDENING THROUGH THE YEAR DVD
Iota Pictures
Green Books, 2009
PAL, 49 minutes
£14.95

Martin Crawford has been experimenting with forest gardening since the early nineties and his plot in Devon is a stunning example, full of interesting and unusual edible and useful plants from all over the world. This film takes us on a tour of the garden and shows us how to apply the principles of temperate forest gardening to spaces big and small. Journeying through the four seasons, we learn how to design, plant and minimally maintain aproductive forest garden (with all the information about density, layering and niches you’d expect in a cool temperate garden). We discover beautiful and unusual edibles and a host of tips, techniques, ideas and useful plants. This is an empowering film and will be useful for novice forest gardeners as well as seasoned ones who want to add diversity, and this DVD has certainly inspired me. Martin is a true pioneer and his work deserves respect and celebration. It will be a vital part of our future and this film makes a good start at explaining why.

Maddy Harland

Review first published in Permaculture Magazine No61

Forest Gardening Through The Year can be purchased from The GreenShopping Catalogue

THROUGH THE EYE OF A NEEDLE

2009-08-03T13:52:00.010+01:00

THROUGH THE EYE

OF A NEEDLE

The True Story of a Man Who Went Looking For Meaning & Ended Up Making His Own Y-Fronts

John-Paul Flintoff

Permanent Publications, 2009

198 x 130mm, 236pp

£7.95

Through The Eye Of A Needle is a whimsical, illuminating, enchanting, and funny testament to one man’s attempt to survive economic meltdown, tackle climate change, and enter the kingdom of heaven – by making his own clothes. Journalist John-Paul Flintoff takes us on his spiritual and cultural journey away from designer clothes and corporate life. There is no one single epiphany, but a series of encounters that lead him to explore how clothing influences the way we look at nature, the economy and life itself.

His encounters are humorous and enlightening by turns. He meets BBC tv’s Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson, Hollywood superstars, spiritual teachers, artists, Transition Town head honcho Rob Hopkins and many others. We follow John-Paul as he learns how to repair and make his own shirts, trousers, hats, even Y-fronts. The move towards do-it-yourself clothing uncovers the fashion industry’s real cost to the planet and us as individuals.

He examines how wasteful our clothing habits are and tries his hand at terrible, and appallingly paid jobs. He meets people working in sweat shops and at landfill sites. Being face to face with the realities of how our clothing is actually made (and dumped) spurs John-Paul on to explore the alternatives like permaculture, wonderful small scale community projects and how to ‘grow’ clothes using hemp and nettles.

John-Paul’s journey from witty observer to passionate advocate of reusing, making and even growing our own clothing is an engaging story. Watching as his wife, family and friends respond to his sometimes odd ball thirst for self reliance is by turns funny and touching. I am, however, pleased to report that it is a journey that ultimately makes him happy – and that has to be one of the great gifts of this delightful book. John-Paul shows us that we can almost literally re-make our future and we can do it with a smile on our face... Now, darn it, where did I put those old socks? :-)

Tony Rollinson

Review first published in Permaculture Magazine No61

Through The Eye of A Needle can be purchased from The G r e e n S h o p p i n g C a t a l o g u e

THE LIVING LANDSCAPE

2009-08-03T13:35:00.011+01:00

THE LIVING LANDSCAPE

How To Read & Understand It

Patrick Whitefield

Permanent Publications, 2009

234 x 158mm, 344pp

50 colour photographs,

142 line drawings

£19.95

All permaculture design starts with a period of thorough observation. Observing a site over time and doing our best to understand what is going on helps us to make decisions and take actions that work in harmony with the existing natural processes; to choose species that will do well on a site because we know what grows there well already, to make changes only where they are necessary and to get the best results from any changes we do make.

As a permaculture tutor I regularly lead observation exercises and encourage students to develop their skills of observation and I am also always learning and developing my own. This new book by renowned permaculturist Patrick Whitefield is already the catalyst to a huge leap in my observation skills and my understanding of the landscape around me. It is a truly fascinating book, the result of Patrick’s many years of looking and listening, taking notes, making sketches and asking questions on his walks, train journeys and travels from the Scottish Highlands to the South Downs.

The book takes the reader on a journey around the British landscape, telling all you need to know to understand how that landscape may have been formed; from rocks, through soil to vegetation and the intricate web of interactions between plants, animals, climate and people that makes a landscape what it is today: “The eternal dance between human and natural factors which goes to make up the landscape”.

The book opens with a chapter on how to go about reading the land-scape and Patrick is clear that we can never be absolutely sure that we know exactly what is going on, there are too many factors at work over too long a period of time. However by developing our skills of observation and understanding we can make a well informed guess. The following chapters then go on to look in detail at rocks, soil and climate, people’s historical impact, animals and plants, woodlands, grasslands and moors. There are also chapters on succession or how changes in the landscape happen over time, water and roads and boundaries. There is a huge amount of information here, but the text is always accessible and easy to read and it certainly held my interest. Each chapter is interspersed with diagrams, sketches and notes that Patrick has taken on walks and train rides over the years. These really enhance the book and as a more visual learner were important to my understanding. They illustrate the points being made in the text with real life examples and give the reader a sense of connection with the author and his world – this is in no way a dry text book but the distillation of one person’s passion and connection with the land around him.

The book is an excellent learning resource and guide for permaculturists working on the land and permaculture teachers. I am sure it will go on the highly recommended list for our perma-culture courses here in Brighton. But its audience will I hope be much, much wider than this. Whilst Patrick never shies away from mentioning permaculture and his work as a designer and teacher, the book is in no way limited to being a permaculture text. It will appeal to a very wide audience of people who feel some connection to the British landscape and who are interested to learn more about it; how they can read it and how they, historically and in the present, interact with it. My neighbour is a tree warden and active on the South Downs joint committee and I have it in mind to give him a copy. I am convinced he will enjoy it and that it will also serve as a gentle introduction to lots of key permaculture concepts.

For myself, I now find I am looking at the landscapes around me with new eyes, understanding, where before I would barely have noticed, why the hills are a certain shape, or why a plant is growing where it is; seeing ridge and furrow shapes in the field and knowing how they were made and why, noticing the plants in the woods I visit weekly and beginning to form an understanding of the wood’s age and history as a result. It feels like the beginning of a journey that will serve me greatly in my permaculture work and will deepen my relationship with the land I live in.

Pippa Johns

Review first published in Permaculture Magazine No61

The Living Landscape can be purchased from The G r e e n S h o p p i n g C a t a l o g u e

THE ALTERNATIVE KITCHEN GARDEN An A - Z

2009-08-03T12:22:00.008+01:00

THE ALTERNATIVE KITCHEN GARDEN

An A - Z

Emma Cooper

Permanent Publications, 2009

160 x 205mm, 376pp

£14.95

The Alternative Kitchen Garden is, according to author Emma Cooper, an evolving idea of what a kitchen garden could be in the twenty first century – organic, environmentally sustainable, resilient and about re-localising at least some of our food production. Its also a place not only for learning and practising growing skills but for enjoying ourselves and having fun. There are many incar-nations across the globe, but Emma’s particular Alternative Kitchen Garden came into being in 2001 when she and her husband bought a new home in Oxfordshire and decided to grow a few pots of herbs on the patio. A self confessed ‘cyber geek’, she began to document the transformation of her ‘ropey old lawn with potholes and brambles’ into a fertile and abundant permaculture plot via internet radio and a popular blog site. Eight years on her postings and stories have been collected in this fascinating volume, illustrated with beautiful colour photos and arranged into easily accessible alphabetical order. Covering subjects as diverse as growing achocha (a lost Inca crop) to zucchinis, and forest gardening to xeriscaping, Emma’s style is light and friendly yet at the same time informative and based on personal experience. You feel you could actually be sitting in the garden chatting face to face as she shares her knowledge and experience, especially when she veers off onto non directly garden related tangents such as osteopathy and freecycling. A dual purpose book – a concise and valuable practical guide, but at the same time a lovely little read for the deck chair or hammock!

Graham Burnett

www.spiralseed.co.uk

Review first published in Permaculture Magazine No61

The Alternative Kitchen Garden can be purchased from The G r e e n S h o p p i n g C a t a l o g u e

PRODUCT REVIEWS FROM PM61

2009-08-03T11:21:00.020+01:00

From Serbia With Love
Q is always coming up with high-tech gadgets for 007, and I rather like some of the clever devices that cross my desk, but sometimes it’s the really simple things that turn out to be the most impressive. One such item is the Serbian Kotlich & Tripod that we used for our summer solstice supper here at the Sustainability Centre. It consists of an 8 litre double dipped enamelled cooking pot called a Kotlich and a twisted metal tripod with hanging chain.

It came with enticing recipes for moule mariniere, venison paprikas and nettle soup but you can use it for a wide range of meals from traditional Serbian stews (paprikas), to stir frys, corn on the cob, sausage and beans – pretty much anything you can cook in a pot over an open fire.

Unfortunately mussels were out of season (they would have been my first choice), also several of the expected diners were vegetarian so a non-meat paprikas seemed to be the order of the day. Penny (Miss Not Much Money Penny) and I chopped up a mass of assorted vegetables, both green and root, added half a garlic (yes I did mean that, about 6 cloves), one small but very hot red chilli, and some seasoning. The remaining space in the Kotlich was filled with water and some vegetable stock. The instructions said we would need more liquid than usual but frankly there wasn’t room for more than a bare covering. On top of this we floated two large Pimento peppers.
It is a testament to the design that I was then able to carry the full Kotlich in one hand and the folded tripod in the other and walk the hundred yards or so downhill from our kitchen to the campsite without spilling a drop.
With the tripod set up and the Kotlich hung in place over a small fire it was just left to wait the hour or so until it was cooked. It bubbled and boiled away, requiring minimum supervision apart from occasionally shortening or lengthening of the chain to maintain even cooking. This was not at all difficult as the handle and chain never got hot.
Ten minutes before serving I added the secret agent (well there had to be one, didn’t there?) in this case paprika. A ‘healthy’ amount was sprinkled in, enough to draw gasps from the expectant diners.
A few minutes later and it was served to the ten people present along with plenty of hunks of bread and slices of the pimentos. The overwhelming response was very positive both for the Kotlich and perhaps more surprisingly for the quality of the food. It was certainly the easiest mass catering I have ever done and one I intend to repeat. The Kotlich just wiped clean at the end of the day and looks as good as new.
So if you enjoy the simple things in life and outdoor cooking in particular then a Kotlich is probably for you.

Quantum Of Solar
Back to the high-tech, and a gadget I’m sure Q would be proud of; the Freeloader Pro professional solar charger.
In PM55 we reviewed the best travel solar chargers available and the original Freeloader scored well, and it’s very good value for money. The Freeloader Pro has gone up market both in terms of price and design. The main unit houses a 1600mAh battery and two micro solar cells in a stylish slim black aluminium body that wouldn’t look out of place in a dinner jacket pocket. The real change though is that this charger can output both 5.5 and 9.5 volts and comes with a caddy which can recharge the batteries of most digital cameras, SLRs and camcorders.
We have successfully charged mobiles, an iPhone and several different camera batteries with it, in fact the pictures in this section were all taken on cameras charged this way. We have had one failure; it couldn’t manage a Lumix G1 battery because the contacts were inaccessible – other than that it has been wonderful at keeping all our portable electronics going.

Gold Finisher
In PM60 we reviewed Flexcut wood-carving knives and scorps. If you’ve had as much fun with yours as we have, you will be needing to restore that razor edge by now. The Flexcut Slipstrop Set will do just that, using the easily applied Gold Polishing Compound for a perfect mirror finish burr free edge.
Just a quick mention for the Opinel Gardener’s Set which I think is a brilliant way of keeping your pruning equipment with you. It can be belt hung, shoulder slung or put in an outdoor jacket pocket. I’m going to keep mine handy for foraging stick making materials, etc.

John Adams

Review first appeared in Permaculture Magazine No61

The reviewed products can be purchased from The G r e e n S h o p p i n g C a t a l o g u e