How do you milk a hazlenut?

Train, Planes and a golf cart - to be more specific, one car, two planes, a golf cart, a skyrail train a quick sprint (to catch second plane) and a minibus -got me from Heathrow to Portland Oregon. Our Heathrow plane was delayed at both ends and with only an hour to catch our connections the great US Homeland Security response - open up more US citizen immigration booths (from 8-10) and close non us immigrant boothes (2-3) and anyone that's travelled to the US knows just how bloody long they take checking your fingerprints, intentions, background, time spent in Afghanistan training with rebels! JUST LET ME IN TO GET MY NEXT FLIGHT! -All this followed the extra security questioning at Heathrow - did i pack my bag myself? No I let some bloke Luke bought home from the pub last night do it. How long have I had the bags? Some guy down the pub sold me them yesterday. Am I carrying anything for anyone else? Yes 200lbs of narcotics. Do I have any electrical devices? Yes. When and where were they bought? -the laptop, phone, i-pod, camera, sat nav... where do I start? AHHhhhhhh!

Got a good chunk of reading done on the plane (I've seen most of the movies on the England to US flights now) currently 'Science in Agriculture' by Arden Andersen. So trying to comprehend the energy flows and magnetic fields associated with cropping and the chemistry behind fertiliser formulations.

So this morning I picked up my rental Hyundai Elantra (car) from a lovely Avis lady who was very concerned about letting this little brit lady out on the wrong side of the road all alone ''do you want me to find you a bigger car?'' I love it, if you're going to be a danger on the road at least be in a big enough vehicle to push everyone out of your way - do damage- do BIG damage!

But all was OK, after maybe a few laps of Portland - my Sat Nav is not so happy here - it tells me where to go... give or take about 5meters, which can encompass about 3 interstates at busy junctions. Good old Avis map sorted it eventually.

I think I like the West coast better than the East and South - had fruit salad and yoghurt for breakfast and got salad, quiche, fruit etc from the local deli here in Corvallis (and maybe a couple of beers and a piece of Oreo cheesecake which sounds much better than it tastes) and they have ATM type facilities here that you can pay cheques into -any time. Wouldn't you just love that - we probably don't need the drive through bit though.

Also discovered hazelnut milk this morning in my coffee -yum yum, I'm sold. But how? Why? Who? and Where?

Well, I've been home for far too long now - I know this because no one seems surprised to see me and the Guys on the farm have heard all they want to about my last soil course and can't wait to get rid of me again so they can get on with combining without me bleeting about my next great idea that is going to slow one of our operations like drilling down! - starter fertiliser anyone?

Been trying to get Dad Skype-ing ready for my next trip but between breaking his ribs and blaming the pain on being a bit short wicked and still insisting on going baling lessons have been a bit difficult.

I have been working hard since I got back, GPS soil sampling (blisters and bleeding hands - time to go!) hopefully a little more rain will have filtered through by the time I get back 4 inches is now penetrable just 2 and a bit more to go please mother nature! I have also been trying to obtain some funding to increase my meager (however very greatfully received) Nuffield scholarship - I think this is going OK, two tentative success's so far I think, two more applications to go.

Right will go and check the raingauge again - last count 7mm (yes, I know, 1/3 inch). At least we hit a barley high this week of £140 with the straw as well that might just be the best gross margin on the farm this year - if only we could co-incide growing malting quality when there was a market and feed when there isn't ho hum the tam man doesn't need it anyway!

Ok so a few translations: tiling: field drainage, a quarter section: about 20 acres, tea: it'll be cold with ice in

A few culture clashes: yes I do want a beer, no i don't want a large even if it is cheaper, no I don't want to sue, yes I can walk (so can you), no I won't melt without AC.

Yet to get my head around: crossing a state line does NOT constitute travelling. Spitoons. 32 ounce (1litre) drink cartons with modified bottoms to fit car cup holders. Consume food and vitamins separately. As a result of the last point I have felt pretty awful since I got here - I can't wait to get home now to eat food with both natural flavour and nutritional value and my skin can't wait to breathe in un-cooled air.

Damn it! I've been trying to be such a good american today. 1) I got a lift in a grt big car to st louis instead of the metro and bus, 2) The most exercise I've done today is lifting my remote, 3) I had coconut M&M's (which rule), Oreos and coffee for lunch, 4) I had a burger, fries and Bud for tea, 5) I'm watching glee. but I still feel I failed, I needed to add either drinking a litre of soda or using a drive through (food, money, car cleaning etc all available through this retail media).

All this aside I have been won over by the people I have met over the last few days, they are as warm, kind and as focused on their business's as any farmers I have met from anywhere in the world and I've loved meeting them all. I've met Organic citrus, beef, blueberry and strawberry farmers, conventional corn, rice, cotton and soy'bean farmers, advisors and some of their families.

Stick THAT on your soil management plan Natural England!

Day 3 in Sikeston Missouri, which Josh (Neals son in law) reliably informs me was the centre of an MTV programme about the 'capital of crystal meth'. This morning we headed out to Aarons farm - he works with Neal EC scanning to allow the creation of zones for sampling and variable rate spreading. I have colleagues who use it and swear by it but the maps they showed me here seem to change too often for the spreading gear to be able to keep up. Aaron and his EC scanner are pictured. Hank is also in the picture, his wife rides in the rodeos - now that's interesting

We headed out to the fields to see Aarons rice and maize, they grade the fields here with a blade and laser sights to allow flooding for weed control in the rice and to enable furrow irrigation (as pictured between the maize rows) having seen this it's no surprise they need to add so many nutrients, they do put levies (soil banks) at the end to catch the run off but it's still an awesome demonstration of land / soil management. Stick that on your soil management plan Natural england!
THE Woman from the UK (as Aaron calls me) in a rice field. We headed back to the classroom across the bayou via a bridge Luke 'my driver' (found me a luke out here) assures me is quite normal, old wooden sleepers going cross ways with large gaps between them, forded by what appeared to be broken down pallets running lengthways about 6 wide to run across, ummmm.

Today we had 1/2 the course notes to cover in one day, needless to say with Neals vast experience we didn't make it. Only had P and N left to cover - nothing major then! -Still loads of good stuff on micronutrients, S, K etc.

Ending the course meant the beginning of the goodbyes, it's always sad when a bonded group has to split up, so goodbye to Nancy, Grant and Tom who were great fun. Off for a phat steak for the rest of us and a drive by the lavish Kinsey Ag offices, I think they've taken 'keeping overheads low' a bit seriously! We had a great meal with all Neals family and staff which was a great way to finish a great few days -even if the waitress asked me if I was the mother of a 17yr old? (guess this might be the place to get some botox before i return). Anyway, more goodbyes and greatful thanks particularly to John - my buddy at the back of the class, Alan, Hank, the Kinsey family, Chris, Shannon, and plenty of promises to come see us in the UK - I really hope they do.

The final two bonuses were winning the mobile phone sweepstake and grabbing a lift with Winslowe back to St Louis saving the need to catch the luxury Greyhound and the Gangster rap metro!

Spitoons, Chewing Tobacco and Tea

Day 2 of the soil course. Off to Keiths farm today (in Neals son in laws gigantic truck complete with a spitoon in the drinks holder - not something I've come across before and didn't really understand until I saw one of the other farmers take out a tin and scoop some black stuff out and then chewed on it...tobacco - never seen that before either) were he raises corn, soybeans, rice and cotton. Keiths been raising continuous corn for 4 years in places. They have a problem with the stalks no longer breaking down in the soil year to year with the BT corn - they think there must be a negative reaction to the BT gene from the natural soil flora. Keith is trialling the use of teas and nitrogen to help break the stalks down - a possibility for us on chopped straw to help it break down before incorporation as a sort of semi compost???? (Apparently the best way to deal with the debris is burning).

...back in the classroom, the aircon is on flat out freezing those of us with the misfortune of sitting over the vents but keeping us all alert! Todays topics are Ca:Mg percentages, the true meaning of pH padded out with many many annecdotes from Neal vast experience. Everything they talk about with nutrient levels here is the converse to most of our soils but the theory is still relevant. Ref: the tea - they think I'm the funny one for putting milk in the tepid tea - they put ice in it!

Just need to work out how to get around the 'lab' problem - Neals lab is apparently the only one in the world using the Albrecht techniques necessary to use the information properly - a synic may find this convenient? Where there's a will...

Tonight was a visit to a rib restaurant and a presentation on EC mapping and variable rate spreading -I was surprised to find the technology only just being adopted here.

''We're still burning bras up here''

What a day, I guess I'll start at 7am when I met Skip - a biodynamic farmer who sprays organic citrus by phases of the moon with an electrostatic sprayer.

Ok, then we drove through Sikeston's rice, cotton and maize area which somewhat resembles the fens, very flat- fields once part of the missisippi basin now farmland and about 4ft lower than the road. We headed for Alans Farm (pictured above with Neal Kinsey who's running the course). Alan rotates cotton with either rice, soybeans or corn.

This is a picture of Alans band sprayer for the cotton which could maybe have a place with subsoiled OSR??? Alan has been a customer of Neals for over 20years - most of his focus has been to lime applications.

We headed back to the hotel for the learning to begin and I sat at the back with two of the loveliest farmers I've ever met. When they found out what I did they thought it was great a girl could be an adviser to farmers swiftly followed by 'do they ever listen to you?' I assured them they do (mostly) which is when one of them said 'that's great, we're still burning bra's round here!' -priceless.

I already have three pages of notes - so Dad, watch out when I get home!

This evening we all headed for 'Lamberts' -I went with Nancy another lady farmer (raising blueberries and strawberries) and two other guys in Nancy's pick up- 4 a breast! -does that sound wrong? oh you know what I mean! Lamberts was fantastically American, huge plastic steins of soda, massive portions of meat and fried food and sweet rolls 'pitched' at you by the waiters - who must be paid a fortune to wear the funky uniforms, plastic red belts and braces - check the picture (that's fear in my eyes).
So now with bursting belly it's off to bed!

A Rough Start

...and so it begins - my Nuffield Experience 'Solo' (as opposed to the Washington Contemporary Scholars Conference that I went to with all the 2010 Scholars). Trip 1 is off to a soil and micro nutrition course lead by Neal Kinsey in Missouri, USA - not a place you're going to stumble across! Think plane, 4 hr delay, taxi, hotel, taxi, plane, metro, greyhound bus, taxi... hotel, done! However I am feeling a bit smug that I managed to book it all on the internet with 100% success - 'touching wood' as we speak. OK, so I have a question - what do Americans keep in their kitchen cupboards? I have seen soooo many eateries but only two supermarkets and while I'm on the food subject what do you call a black and brown sloppy mess with chicken and chees on top in a plastic tub - apparently a very old caeser salad urgh, I might have to give in to Mc Hell. There is one benefit to the supersizing over here, I have two beds, two tv's and two couchs in my hotel room...but just me.

So welcome to my travels!