Future Frights

What does the future hold for us and the Earth as a functioning system ? One can be optimistic or pessimistic. In fact there are two forms of pessimism: the glass half empty kind and the sort where there is no water in the glass at all.

I find myself sometimes feeling uneasy about what might come. At other times I am glad to live in a country such as this which usually does nothing extremely dangerous or life-threatening and appears mild-mannered at all times, and will sustain us for ever, more or less without fail. It is not however being so mild mannered at the moment, reminding us that water in the form of rain is not something to be taken for granted.

What frights might befall us ? Rationing of energy and other resources (food, water and everything else) and the corresponding reduction of personal liberties. After all if you can't have fuel or energy your movements will be limited physically. But they will also be limited by governments who will have the task of keeping large populations fed and watered without a total breakdown. There may well be possible restrictions on reproduction. A war footing will be the norm. Will it be sustainable ? Possibly in temperate countries such as this which escape the worst of climate change and manage to limit their populations. Elsewhere, who knows ?  Needless to say the elites will be even more elite, having access to all the energy and other resources they require. Perhaps all government will be privatised and only accessible to those with the required financial resources. The rest may be sustained, but no more.

The Earth and the humans who inhabit it are resilient, though. Remember when rivers like the Thames or the Rhine were dead, used as open sewers ? The scene is very different today. I would not want to do much bathing in the Rhine or even the Thames, but fish and other form of life now thrive there because we have realised collectively that we have poisoned these water courses and take action to reverse this. Nature has done the rest, without hesitation. We should really be thankful for the irrepressibility of life.

Natural

An organic vineyard in Spring

Can a wine be natural ? For that matter can a vine or a vineyard be natural ? Neither are really.

Grapes on their own or even grape juice on its own would rarely if ever produce something resembling wine without human intervention. The propensity of grape juice is to turn to vinegar if one is not very careful, and this is what happened no doubt in the past. First discovery, vinegar. And very useful it is too. Then one day a certain yeast got to work on the must and produced a fascinating alcoholic drink. The water became wine. The human winemaker has been seeking to reproduce and refine this process for thousands of years now, by and large successfully. The natural part of this process is the action of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae selected for its ability to ferment reliably, stand up to relatively high alcohol and temperatures (thereby out competing other yeasts for access to the sugary juice) and provide some protection for the finished liquid as a by process. How natural is that ? Reasonably so, as long as that is all that happens and no other additives are used, except patience and letting the wine be.

The vineyard itself looks like nothing other than a very large garden. In modern times the vines themselves have become clones grafted on to various rootstocks provided by vine varieties conferring pest and disease resistance to the vine roots. Choice of grape variety and rootstock are all important for the success of the vineyard, and this does not happen by chance or over eons of evolution. The varieties found in most vineyards have been selected by growers because of their particular qualities, the rootstocks used to combat pests such as Phylloxera devastatrix or excesses and deficiencies of the soil. Typical problems of monoculture. Hence the need to foster biodiversity in all its forms in the vineyard and to ensure the soil can support healthy plants able to defend themselves. If not beware pests of all kinds and the doors are opened to chemistry in all its forms to provide protection.

There is not much that is natural in any part of the process of making a bottle of wine but lightness of touch and logical organic principles (in fact the oldest forms of non-chemical agriculture) can bring us closer to that mythical beast, a natural wine, the elixir of the Earth. Drink the Earth and drink to the Earth.

Weeds

Spent some time in the garden today weeding. Of course weeds are not weeds. They are just plants some human being doesn't want growing in a particular place. My problem was that my onions were being crowded by various species of indigenous plants so I wanted to give them a bit of space. The indigenous plants ended up on the compost and they will find their way back into the soil in few months time.

Of course some 'weeds' such as those in the photo I sowed on purpose to provide flowers and ground cover.  All in all I welcome plants wherever they may grow but sometimes they need to be moved so I can grow something I like or need. I suppose the idea is to remove what you need to remove and make sure the rest of the plant population is composed of plants you like, or non-invasive annuals.

I think of vineyards with bare soil under the vines and wonder how much herbicide was used to achieve such a result. I have never seen anyone weeding under vines. Most organic producers will plough a strip on either side to keep invasive plants in check. I have though weeded a vineyard once at Marden (Herbert Hall run by Nick Hall): removed a lot of very vigorous fat hen from around some very young vines which were being bullied. A truly organic approach to vineyard management, just elbow grease. Reminds me of Domaine des Côtes de la Molière in the Beaujolais where the owners idea of vineyard management is to wield a hoe. There are others I could mention.

Plants are there because they want to be there even if they are 'weeds'. We should learn to live with them.