“Cereals rich in anti-oxidants” shock

A study presented to the American Chemical Society and recently reported in the Guardian says that cereals have “surprisingly high” levels of anti-oxidants and that the benefit of eating cereals is not just that they supply fibre. This is not surprising to us at Burns. Our foods are based on the premise that whole grains are intrinsically beneficial to health. This is confirmed by the results we see. This is in stark contrast to the “natural” or raw food lobby which portrays grains as “cheap fillers” whatever that means. I’m not much for public speaking but I’m having another go at it next week at GLEE, the exhibition for the pet and garden trade. I’m doing one of a series of talks hosted by the Pet Care Trust. My subject is “The Alternative to Veterinary and Prescription Diets”. I hope this will go down better than my last effort which attracted about six listeners, three of them from Burns. Yesterday at 7.30 a.m. the temperature in the solar roof panels on our house was 12 degrees Centigrade. At 4 p.m. it was 113 degrees. The temperature of the water in the tank was 80 degrees. I’d recommend solar hot water to anyone. But beware of cowboy installers. One firm we used on a property only put on one panel which is insufficient to provide enough hot water, even on very sunny days. One thing I definitely would not recommend is to install a swimming pool. Even if you can afford it, the cost in conservation terms is enormous. That is unless you can heat and run the filter pumps off grid. An article in a magazine quotes a pet food manufacturer who advises pet owners “not to be fooled by clever marketing”. This is the same manufacturer who lists the first ingredient in his food as “brown rice and white rice” (my emphasis). I wrote about this recently. By listing the two as one ingredient it gives the impression that brown rice is the main ingredient when it may only be a tiny fraction of the total. It also allows the proportions to be altered at will. Roger Mathias from FWAG (Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group) was here yesterday. “FWAG” says Stephanie, “is that something to do with farmers’ WAG’s (wives and girlfriends). PostScript I started on cereals and I’ll finish on them. The rain has finally stopped and we have started combining our grain. I have been expecting we would lose the whole crop but, joy of joys, we are promised a fine couple of days. We should have it all safely gathered in by Monday. Much of it will be used to feed our chickens and the straw will be used for housing. I’m planning to experiment with straw bale houses which will be a cheap, easy to construct and replaceable option.

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