Alex James: Rural Notebook

Been up and down the land judging the Farmer of the Year for the BBC. I've seen cows, I've seen cucumbers, I've seen all sorts. There was a lady in Aberdeenshire growingorganic vegetables, the cutest little market garden I've seen outside of Africa. The broccoli, beans and kohlrabi in lovely long rows. It actually looked like a supermarket, the best supermarket I've ever seen, aisle upon aisle of hearty, fresh organic vegetables. There were weeds growing in there, attracting butterflies and bees – they all help in the end. We walked round with scissors snipping and nibbling. Amazing how vegetables picked fresh taste so much nicer, eaten raw.

Vegetables this good can only be grown on a reasonably small scale – tens of acres rather than hundreds. For the top-end organic vegetable grower, the expense is not in the actual growing, but in the hand-picking, sorting anddelivering of the produce.

"Pick your Own" is a bit faded as a concept, but I'm sure if it were marketed correctly people would prefer to pick their vegetables out of the ground than from a supermarket shelf. You're getting them fresh, with no food miles, and cheap. All you need is a sexy trolley with big wheels. I might do that in one of my fields next summer. If it works, I'll put up polytunnels for melons and bananas. As Wendy the farmer pointed out, growing vegetables commercially seems to be reserved for recovering drug addicts, but we seem to know more about the stars than we do about the soil. It's hard to make money from agriculture. If it were easy, supermarkets would own more land than they do. Thank goodness they don't, and most of it is in the hands of resourceful, hardworking people – and increasing numbers of women. Two of the three Farmer of the Year 2008 finalists are women.

Packing a prize Wallop

So, Cheesey Rider failed to set the world on fire. I cancelled it on Thursday, having discovered only two tickets had been sold in Wensleydale. We're making such tiny amounts of cheese. What is the point? I was beginning to wonder. Still, I went along to the British Cheese Awards on Friday anyway. Whaddayaknow – Farleigh Wallop, my second cheese, "Best Goats' Cheese". Who needs Wensleydale?

Not mooseum pieces

Mary Mead, the farmer behind the Yeo Valley brand, showed me around her dairy in Somerset. She has an immaculate herd of British Friesians, lovely robust animals. They are no longer seen as a high-yield breed. Even so, one cow produced 10,000 litres of milk this year – 10 tonnes, enough to make a tonne of cheddar. Might get one.

More from Alex James