In the days of rising food costs and the ever increased use of chemicals in the production of food there is a growing band of people growing their own. From turning front and back gardens into vegetable plots or looking further a field and taking on an allotment.

Many local authorities are opening up partially abandoned sites for the increasing numbers of the population seeking a great working environment and somewhere to grow the five a day we should all be eating. Somewhere also to teach children about nature and where fruit and veg comes from, from seed to eat.

Easy for me to sit here banging on about growing vegetables and fruit. I have built more raised beds, invested in a basic green house to bring on more crops and fenced off areas of lawn in readiness for more fruit trees.

As a household we are trying not to buy out of season fruit and veg but have to admit we are struggling. One, because we want to eat tomatoes all year round, and two, we are aware that some farmers who supply our shops from abroad depend on that trade. It is a chalice of poison whichever way I look. There are also the EU subsidised payments to farmers here who can afford to undercut the farmers in the emerging countries thus ruining their chances of building up a sustainable business.

There you see I am off somewhere else again. Back to allotments. I do want to have an allotment, however it will take me two bus trips and ten minute walk at either end with all the tools I would need for the day. Not an option as it is also too far to cycle. My cunning plan is to look around my home area for a piece of land that is overgrown and find out who owns it. The plan is to get together with a few neighbours and set up our own allotment group. The local council would be willing to help if we had problems finding out who the owners are and may have a small amount of money to get water to the site.

Not all councils are as helpful as many allotment holders have found when councils see them as a cash crop for housing. Some believe it is not the councils fault as they struggle to meet the government’s house quotas. The thought of working a plot for years, of getting the soil just right only to see it all pulled down and throw up houses appear with stamp-sized gardens. Sad times.

The other day I was asked about natural condoms which took me back a few years…no don’t be rude. My thoughts went to an archaeological dig I was on in Wales as a teenager when we came across a submerged jar containing animal skins stitched in the shape of a long straight sock. Little did we know at the time we had found a jar of natural condoms. So my mind rambling I started to research if this product was still available and, guess what, it is. The lambskin condom called ‘Fourex’ and another Kling-tite both use the thin intestine of the animals to provide the sheath. Whilst the natural skin condom does prevent the larger sized sperm escaping, it will not protect against the smaller HIV/AIDS cells so one may like to use the condoms the Vegan society approves, made by a company going by the name of Condomi who use natural latex and no plastic. Even the government in Brazil are getting into the production of natural latex condoms as a way of protecting their rain forests. The idea is that trees are tapped for the natural latex in the Chico Mendes reserve as a cash crop rather than allowing trees to be cut down for the ever increasing need for hard wood. The government estimate that Brazil imports 100 million condoms into the country so the latex will provide a good income for the farmers and locally produced condoms. This, in turn, will cut down on air or sea miles thus reducing the countries carbon footprint. Unfortunately, there is no natural product based female condoms I have been able to find. However, the Femidom is a product made from polyurethane that is safe to use and if disposed of in a tissue and then the bin it is a suitable alternative.