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Bread Facts
Bread has been a staple food for humans since 7000BC. The workers who built the Egyptian pyramids were paid in bread. Wheat production is estimated at 350 million tonnes annually. 12 million loaves of...
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Bring Back The Hippies
True organic farming requires learning and acquiring a deep and long-term understanding of a farm’s ecology and its crops. It is about a subtle management of the environment to grow our crops with the...
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Aberteifi & Fish
The river Teifi is 75.8 miles long and is one of the largest rivers in Wales. It is also one of the most pristine and least modified river catchments in lowland Britain. Cardigan (Aberteifi in Welsh)...
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I have two best friends that have kept me well during my time on this planet.
They have at times been the subject of makeovers and suffered the whimsy of fashionistas that try to re-invent them. They always come back stronger and more focused after such trifling. I can do every...
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Here’s to the slow guy
The Slow Food international movement officially began when delegates from 15 countries endorsed this manifesto, written by founding member Folco Portinari, on 9 November 1989. Our century, which began...
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How to catch your own supper
Between the months of May and September, the coastal waters of the UK are visited by shoals of mackerel – a delight to those who prefer their food direct from source and without clingfilm. For years...
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Why we need a real bread campaign
What’s in a loaf of bread? Flour, water, yeast, salt and maybe some seeds or flakes? Wrong. Take a look at the label of an ordinary sliced loaf and you’ll find some other ‘ingredients’. You may...
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Why I Ride
I ride my bike for selfish reasons. I ride my bike so that I am not one of the ordinary people. I ride my bike for the adrenaline, for the confidence it gives me, to feel empowered. I ride my bike to...
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My big feet
My foot measures a foot, as in twelve inches. Actually both of them do. Pretty big and very useful for measuring out an impromptu swimming pool. My footprints can vary in size though. Sometimes...
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An ode to a surfer's soul arch
The soul arch is seen by some as a functional element of style, and is dismissed by others as a flamboyant indulgence. I see the soul arch as a functional expression of a surfer’s joy. I believe it...
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Document falls victim to the credit crunch
Well yes, the current economic climate’s over-eager scythe did have a good slash at us, but in the past ten years of making skateboarding appear on paper our sturdy legs have been kicked from under us...
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The Wind of Change
Portugal’s international reputation usually orbits such things as wine, port, olives, fish, cork, and holidays. Being half Portuguese, to me it also means cold beer, Catholicism, gossipy old women in...
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Footprints
You can still find dinosaur footprints if you look hard enough. They've stuck around, in old riverbeds and slabs of sandstone. They're a good thing to go hunting for when you've got a spare afternoon....
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Technology is not the enemy
Whenever my Dad fills up his car with petrol he notes down how much he put in and his latest mileage in a little notebook. And, every now and then, he sits down and works out how the car’s performing....
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These are the days
Come rain (and there will be), come shine (here’s hoping). Even if our knees have knobbles and our calves are like sticks, we’ll be hunting through our wardrobes for our favourite shorts. Because just...
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Learnings from a chicken shed
1. They like simple. Up at dawn. Roost at dusk. Eat all day long. 2. They like regular. Food and water each morning, come rain or shine. 3. They respect each other. The cockerel waits for the hen to...
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Why I ride
When people ask why do I like to ride my bike, the first thing that comes to mind is that it is fun. The fact that it is economical, healthy, environmentally friendly etc are all just (big) bonuses. I...
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This is your pilot speaking
You can see them in your mind’s eye; the young, bright-eyed pilots, who take off – one after the other – in order to carry out their mission. They fly through the night, crossing borders and...
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Ten things we can learn from Sweden
1. Trees are precious. (Their economy depends on them) 2. Drive slower. (They have way lower speed limits than us) 3. Mend things. (We met a chap called Bengt who collects and fixes up old bikes....
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It's all about the people
Before we left for Sweden it was all about Sweden. I was nervous about the people bit. The places were going to be new and exciting, but people are hard, people are complicated. For the most part it’s...
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Just the way it is
Where there are hills, there are bikes Where there’s concrete, there are skateboarders Where there’s toast, there’s butter Where there’s tea, there are biscuits* Where there are paddling pools,...
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Born too early to die old
Getting up early used to be difficult. But I think I read somewhere that the older you get, the earlier you wake up. Which gets you thinking that as you age, there’s something nagging away at you,...
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Give a man a loaf of bread
Give a man a loaf of bread and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. But give him a loaf of bread and some fish fingers and he can make fish finger butties.
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Find your inner Sven
The Swedes make great explorers. Their long dark winters might well be the reason. Växjö in the south got just 22 minutes of sunlight a couple of Decembers back. Phew. Enough to make even die-hards...
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Super Nice
Nice is boring. Super Nice is strangely interesting. Nice is a stroll in the park. Super Nice is a ride through the forest. Nice is a ‘thank you’. Super Nice is a gift of home-made pepparkakor. Nice...
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Tax: 60%, Happiness: 91%
Sometimes you go to another country, and it looks like everything’s upside-down. But as you get to know more, you wonder if maybe they’re the right way up – and it’s the rest of us who are...
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Sverige år fantastiskt.
I am 27. Jacob is 27. I ride BMX, so does Jacob. But that is where the similarities end, as I was born in England and Jacob was born in Sweden. My local spot was a concrete abnormality where I...
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Bengt the Fixer
This is Bengt. One super nice Swede. He invited us into his home and fixed Jon’s bike. Bengt is a fixer of everything, particularly old bikes. You name it, Bengt can mend it. His shed is an amazing...
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Man make fire. Man stay warm.
I don’t know what my carbon footprint is. But I do know that I make an effort to keep it small. Yet, only since we moved from the city and disconnected from mains gas (choosing to heat our house by...
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The Golden Hour
As my cycle journey around the coast of Britain over the Summer has progressed, there is a question that people ask a lot “what’s the best place that you have visited?”. I would say that our coastline...
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Frawley’s Bar
Tom Frawley was born here in 1914. He has been pulling pints where he had always lived – for 86 years. Think about that for a moment. He and his bar are still points in the flow of time. Ireland has...
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Getting out the door
Exercise makes me happy. If I run a couple of times a week I think clearer, I sleep sounder, I eat better, I work more productively. I am happier. And yet, I can go for months without going for a...
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Riding a bike should be easy
Isn’t that what we are told? You learn when you are small and, like an elephant, you never forget. What an amazing deal. Once mastered, you have a gift that lasts a lifetime, and even if you part ways...
View ArticleRest Less Ride Film
On the night of the Spring Equinox, Rob Penn and friends took off on an overnight cycle ride across Wales. The Rest Less Ride took the peloton of 16 riders from the west coast, all the way to the...
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