Rock Dust and 'Food Unwrapped'

Channel 4's 'Food Unwrapped' will soon be running a feature on 'Grow Your Own', which is due to include references to increasing the carbon content of the soil and the role that volcanic rock dust can play in helping to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

This double benefit, removing harmful CO2 from the air and locking it into the soil to improve fertility, is the subject of ongoing experiments by the Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation (LC3M).  Follow links from our website 'Rock Dust Page' at http://www.blackberrylane.co.uk/rockdust.html  or go direct to http://lc3m.org/  They call the process of applying volcanic rock dust to soil 'enhanced weathering'.

We have been using rock dust for several years, simply to improve the quality of our soil.  The possibility of doing a little to reduce the effects of global warming at the same time is an extra bonus!

Prices rising 25th March !

Just a little advance warning:  We shall be increasing our retail prices with effect from 25th March, when the new UK postal rates come into force.

In fact, this year, there are only very small increases on small parcels and no increase at all on the larger Parcelforce ones, so that is very welcome GOOD NEWS !

On the downside, though, is the continuing uncertainty over exchange rates, which directly affects all our Glaser tools, the EarthWay range and the Ho-Mis from South Korea.  If and when the exchange rates stabilise in favour of the £ Sterling, then rest assured that we shall be able to adjust our prices downwards again, as we have done before.

For the first time in several years, Glasers in Switzerland have needed to increase their prices because of the upward trend of global steel prices, and BroadFork prices have suffered from the same effect.

Our margins remain pretty tight but we shall endeavour to keep them that way in order to keep prices as reasonable as we can.

We expect to change the prices on our website overnight on 24th / 25th March, so please plan ahead and save by ordering before then.  If we get a last-minute rush, then we shall honour the lower prices but will need some time to catch up, so it will help us to help you if you are able to order before the deadline.

Thanks.

BroadFork Feedback

Pete Dollimore's glowing review from December 2016 has a page of its own, but we thought it would be good to start a page of shorter comments from other customers who have been using their BroadForks, so here it is!

We continue to be amazed by the nearly world-wide reach of these simple and effective tools.  Apart from the UK, we have sent BroadForks to:– Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, France, Ireland, Spain, Chile, Finland, Germany, Estonia, Czech Republic, South Africa, Italy, Austria and Portugal – so far!!

When, back in 2009, Phil (above) went to Malcolm, his local blacksmith, to ask him to make a BroadFork for him, taking the specification out of Eliot Coleman's The New Organic Grower, he can have had no idea how successful they would be.  Many, many thanks to Phil, and all credit to Malcolm for producing such a sturdy piece of kit!

Some of these enquiries have come straight from simple web searches but an increasing number seem to come from recommendations.  Certainly, we have found the real benefits of using our own BroadFork and would still be recommending them even if we weren't selling them!

So, here are the first comments.  If you have some BroadFork experience you would like us to share on this page, please just email us.

David Horton (February 2019) says: "I know I've said this before, your broad fork is a brilliant tool.  I'm making a new veg patch, compacted ground. Broad fork  followed by devon spade is so much easier than just the spade.  Thank you, it is not a tool that I use a lot, but it is a very effective bit of kit. "Right tool for the right job" where it makes a hard job a lot easier."