Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Direct action

Today the Guardian felt the need to include a free wallchart featuring pictures of crops on it. Now I'm not sure how many Guardian readers have a need to know what fodder beet looks like, (this if you're interested)



but I suspect that farmers already know and the rest of us don't give a toss.
Maybe you have been waiting for a crop wallchart to make your life complete, feel free to tell me about it if you have, but if so I suspect you are in a very small minority.

The thing that annoyed me is that they did it on a day when they also published this, so why not do what I'm doing and post it back to the hypocritical bastards.

25 comments:

Geoff said...

We only get the Saturday Guardian and are always happy to get another dvd or some wildlife stickers to brighten our lives.

Plus all the stuff about things we can't afford and wouldn't want if we could.

llewtrah said...

Growing up in a rural location, I knew what all the locally grown crops looked like. At school we did projects on them. It dismays me that so many modern youngsters don't know or don't care. They've lost touch with where food comes from or how to cook it (or whether it is for human or animal consumption). They rely on crap food.

If stranded in the countryside they'd either poison themselves or, more likely, they'd starve in the midst of plenty because simply it's not emblazoned with the golden arches or KFC logo.

Anonymous said...

Ha! Twats. They're hopeless aren't they. I'd like to see them try that in Tesco's in Crewe.

Del said...

Not like the Graudain to be self righteous. Although to be fair, my Auntie has pretty much identical wallcharts from about a million years ago that hang in her loo. I spent many an hour sat in there studying flora and fauna whilst getting in touch with nature.

Valerie Polichar said...

That pic kind of looks like vegetable porn to me. So maybe it DOES belong in a separate tear-out section.

West said...

It's all been a silly misunderstanding Doc.

The 'o' was meant to be an 'a'...


It's all ballacks, isn't it?

Wyndham said...

You get the feeling The guardian is scraping the bottom of the barrel with the wallkchart thing. I look forward to the wallcahrt detailing contagious diseases.

Zig said...

One would question (if one was that sort of person) why one would buy a newspaper at all when one can read them online thereby not wasting paper - luckily I'm not that sort of person and need newspapers to line my rabbits' shed.

West said...

We put the Cattle one up in our office [...for non-Swipe aficianados I occasionally help out in a University Library, when I'm not spamming the Grauniad, being a web terrorist, that sort ofd thing - just to keep my hand in, you understand...] Anyroad, being the jolly japesters we are, we couldn't resist appending a piece of paper after the word 'cattle' with 'loguing' written on it...

And they say Librarians are no fun....


wrod vrecficatoin rant: when will they stop putting two vs so close together that they look like a w???? Bastards.

realdoc said...

I had an umlaut in a word verification, beat that.

Molly Bloom said...

Hello Realdoc, we have the 'Pigs and Goats' poster on our floor at the moment as a spaghetti catcher mat for my daughter's tea. It's very good - doing its job quite fine. Hee hee. xx

patroclus said...

I think the Guardian wallchart designers are having a massive laugh at the left-liberal middle class population's expense. Private Eye's 'Wallchart of Wallcharts' thing was great.

Here in la belle France, they feed parsnips to the pigs, and wouldn't dream of eating them. In fact, very few French people (around here anyway) can recognise or put a name to a parsnip when showed one. The heresy!

llewtrah said...

I love parsnips. Historically, they went out of fashion when the sweeter, juicier carrot was introduced.

The English had the same prejudice against Scottish staples such as oats and kale. Oats are things "the English feed to horses and the Scots feed to their children". Nowadays oats are known to be good in lowering cholesterol and kale is known to be full of folic acid.

Parsnips just need some positive press.

realdoc said...

Parsnips slow roasted with parmesan a meal in itself.

Pat and yet the french eat snails go figure.

patroclus said...

Mmm, parsnips slow roasted with parmesan sound lovely. And I have porridge for my breakfast every day (with muscovado sugar, mm), so now I just need to get going with the kale.

Snails are quite nice too, mind.

llewtrah said...

I usually get snail infestations in my garden so this year I'd planned to eat the blighters. The hot dry summer meant no snails (also no veggies as I couldn't water them regularly enough). Still, maybe I'll cook and eat home-grown snails next year.

Parsnips chips are nice too! Sautee parsnips are good. Parsnip, potato and leek mash (with or without grated cheese) is yummers. None of my veggie casseroles would be complete without diced parsnip cooked till it turns into thickening..

Romeo Morningwood said...

How ironic..I pity newspapers, they are desperately trying to find their place in the new E-world..
we get mountains of FLYERS & CRAP every week! It should be made out of Mission Impossible materials that self destruct after you read it!

Sure they use recycled paper but aside from wrapping fish, training puppies and lining the bottom of budgie cages I wonder how many tons end up in our landfills instead of getting recycled.

I agree with valerie on the obscene veggie porn! wth?

I have never had an umlaut in the word/verf

patroclus said...

Llewtrah: apparently they're only tasty once they reach a certain age/size. Will check with my neighbours and report back.

Anonymous said...

There will be roast parsnips round whatever meat I cook for Christmas dinner. I find them slightly too sweet but I would rather neeps and tatties than the abominable sprouts and cauliflower.

(deliberate attempt to widen the vegetable debate)

llewtrah said...

I love sprouts, cauli, kale, cabbage and other brassicas!

Patroclus - my snails are bloomin' ginormous. Any bigger and they'll give the giant African Land Snail a fright!

realdoc said...

cb has comments threads about porn, I have comments threads about brassicas. What a varied tapestry this blogosphere is.

patroclus said...

I noticed Valerie trying to unite the two leitmotifs earlier on, mind you.

The blogosphere is a lovely varied tapestry indeed, and one that makes me very happy, especially now I can spend every single minute of the day in it.

Del said...

I like parsnips. I have never eaten snails. Um. That's it.

Anonymous said...

The only decent cauliflower I've ever eaten was on a flight back from Tenerife last March. Cauliflower cheese. Sharon doesn't eat green veg as a rule (she doesn't need to, it's ok) and hates cauli as much as I do but even she had to agree it was great. Airline food, eh?

GreatSheElephant said...

I dunno. I quite like my sheep wallchart and am gutted that I missed the pigs.