Crops

First, let's tackle the pasta. Bring a 4l“ pot of water to the boil. Add the 500g of fettuccine and let it boil for the time suggested on the packet.

I've borrowed the information in this week's column from the New York Times newspaper of 17 August 2010 - I thought you might find it interesting.

With careful planning you can make sure you don't end up with far too much of certain vegetables and not enough of others, writes Bill Kerr.

You can lose a lot of money if your crop goes to seed when you don't want it to. You need to know why and when this happens to take precautions.

'I see three previously disadvantaged farmers, but not one commercial farmer, market agent or buyer on the panel. They account for most of a turnover exceeding R8 billion and they don't even have a say!'

Vegetable farmer Gary Fyvie is using green manure crops to replenish tired soil and to fight weeds.He told Robyn Joubert how he sacrificed 6% production for healthier soil over the long term.

Despite repeated calls to plant less maize, producers still managed a bumper maize crop of nearly 14 million tons in the 2009/10 season, pushing maize costs down to import parity.

Most farmers don't pay enough attention to what's happening in the soil. We usually take our soils for granted - we only monitor the chemical composition, if that, and often leave that up to the fertiliser supplier.

Depending on which side of the fence you are on, 13 August proved to be a watershed day in the fresh-produce market sector.

Leafy greens like lettuce is an important part of most people's diets, especially as we approach the warmer months and salads return to our menus.

The answer is yes and no. IT depends. A prime benefit of organic produce is that it's free of pesticide residue, which is blamed for the progressive increase in cancer.

Something quite significant has happened on the Durban market. I recently contributed to a week's training session there for prospective salespeople. The significance is that this was a joint venture between the Durban Market Authority and the Durban Market Agents, the first of its kind on markets in South Africa.