AS IS WELL KNOWN the moors of the British landscape used once to be largely covered by forest. In part the deforestation was caused by the ancient primitive farming technique of felling forest in order to grow crops in the briefly fertile soil. Fortunately we are somewhat more efficient in our farming practices these days.

It is a wonder, too little appreciated, that in spite of living in one of the most densely populated countries in the world British agriculture is able to fill our shelves with a glorious array of healthy produce. It is sad that so much of this is taken for granted or misunderstood, but perhaps this is inevitable given how few people now work on the land.

At Ewell we are privileged to be able to play a very small part in this through our work with tomatoes. I have always been deeply impressed from reading the trade magazine for horticulture (the Grower) to learn of the energy and ingenuity of professional growers. Along with scientific research growers are continually trying to come to a better understanding of such things as nutrition, plant growth, control of pests and diseases, and always these days there is a strong eye on minimising environmental impact. This effort is found throughout agriculture, not just in the ‘organic’ movement.

Growth in productivity for tomatoes has been remarkable, five-fold since the war for a given area of greenhouse. This implies a considerable reduction in use of scarce resources for any given quantity of tomatoes. Control of pests and diseases has been revolutionised by the introduction of resistant varieties and in particular by the use of biological control (for example, using predatory insects to eat the pest). Advances in these areas are being made all the time.

The challenges of the future are immense, the main one being how to feed a rapidly growing world population. Thomas Malthus writing two hundred years ago predicted that population growth would always outrun the food supply. Whilst he was mistaken the problem of population growth is one that is going to stay with us. I am encouraged to think, given my brief acquaintance with the horticultural industry, that there is much reason to be hopeful.

The Expanding Web Presence

We have changed our web address to: ewell-monastery.co.uk It is easier to remember and to type in to a browser. The email address is now: community@ewell-monastery.co.uk We now have statistics of people who access our web sites. A recent list said that people from Virginia, California, Pennsylvania, Florida, South Carolina, Texas, Massachusetts, New Brunswick, Ontario, Chile, Colombia, Netherlands, Russia, Ireland, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, Japan, Australia and, of course the UK had been on line. If we had been based in the USA we might easily have had several postulants by now but in the UK everything tarries!

Monastery Tomatoes

Ewell tomatoes have again hit the highlights in Kent! It was a super crop but a poor season for yield on account of the lack of light. 1% less light means 1% less yield. So we were 5% down on last year, at 10 tons. But the market price was about 9% up at 35p pound paid to us. Not that we shall get rich! It is just very pleasing to be able to grow really good tomatoes for our neighbours in Kent.