Insurance boss’s pride and joy
	SINCE the age of 14, when he kept his first bantams, to his present job as head of the rural insurer NFU Mutual, Ian Geden still finds time to keep poultry.

Corpse paths and Lyke Wakes - Maureen James explores some strange customs

ROBERT Staff, who formerly kept the Maid's Head Inn at Stalham Norfolk, opposite the churchHe and two other menwatched the church porch, opposite to the house, on St Mark's Eve The above passage, recorded in 1849, is one of many accounts of a macabre ritual carried out by brave parishioners who wished to gain knowledge of who would die or be married in the next twelve months. In this article I would like to explain more about this practice; consider the significance of the church porch and the lych gate and attitudes to the dead in the past; and finally look at a modern homage to death customs in the form of the Lyke Wake Walk.

	A man with an organic mission - Michael Wale meets Craig Sams, of Green and Blacks Chocolate, on his small farm
	THERE are moments when you could be excused coming to the conclusion that without Craig Sams there wouldn't be an organic movement.

	World’s biggest smallholding - Michael Wale meets a man whose life in the fast lane has led to fufillment on a farm
	IF you won the lottery how would you spend the money? Agriculturally, the question is answered when you visit Jody Schekter's 2,500-acre organic farm at Laverstoke Park in North Hampshire, which he calls "the biggest small holding in the world".

The pleasure of making cider - Jeremy Hill discovers the fun of turning surplus apples into a surprisingly punchy brew

CIDER is back in fashion. At least that's what they are saying in the newspapers and certainly adverts on television show glamorous young things drinking the stuff.

	It’s Christmas at Ffarm Fach - Jo Knight recalls yule tides past and the origins of some traditions of the festive period
	ARE you dreaming of a white Christmas? Well, probably not; if you've got livestock to look after.