Produce available this week along with our other news, views and comment including volunteer sessions at the field and festival

Our news, views and comment including volunteer sessions at the field and festival

NEWS

Welcome to our new look Community Supported Agriculture. Gone are our newsletters and gone are the hours of nail-biting over wondering how we are going to plant the crops we need to feed people. Instead you come into our project when you can, without pressure to do so as we understand people have lives to lead and work to do. Come along when you can, you'll be welcomed.
What we do ask is for all our supporters to help us by buying our veg produce. That way you support not only the growing and consumption of locally grown veg but may also really benefit local students who have little or no facilities for learning hands-on growing or, as with our first school groups, have few opportunities for work experience as they all have learning disabilities and few employers take on the challenges required. We provide this service FREE OF CHARGE, go to our education page to find out more. They also really enjoy the veg as well as learning all about growing.
As an example a regular order of £10 would currently give us £9.50 to develop our project as we are all voluntary and only have direct costs to cover. So if you order a box you not only get a treat of unpolluted produce but also give us the means to develop and if you order for the summer and pay now we shall ensure you may have the best of our expanding selection over the months to come - £100 will buy you 10 boxes and you choose what you have when we have the choice.

News next week include our fab recipes back by popular demand.

Produce available this week  You may order what you like at a suggested donation of £1 per portion OR ask for a box of our seasonal produce - normally enough to feed a family of 3 or 4 for the best part of a week. Good value and the single best way to support our charitable work

NOTE, we are currently still in winter mode so our seasonal veg is very limited.

News: Eggs will be back this week. Orchard Eggs produce Biodynamic eggs of superior quality and very high 'Scratch' level.

VEGETABLES:

sorry to say our pumpkins have finally finished

Potatoes 'BINTJE' - mixed size as they come or ask for ....

very small potatoes 'BINTJE' - for roasting whole or....

large potatoes 'BINTJE' - for baking

spinach

Greens (broccoli greens)

Purple sprouting Broccoli

Leeks

Baby Leeks

HERBS:

Rosemary,

OTHER:

Bamboo clumps for planting as an attractive barrier 'hedge' - email bamboo@communigrow.org

We are currently sowing Carrots, garlic, onions, lettuce, salad leaf, spring onions, cabbage, brussels, parsnips, perpetual spinach, giant leaf spinach, giant leaf basil, beetroot, broccoli, mint, coriander, parsley, artichoke, rhubarb, kale, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, courgettes, pumpkins, squash, tomatillo, sage, rosemery cuttings, blackcurrant cuttings, willow cuttings. Celery.

We need help to organise. This may be for education or for the Community Supported Agriculture, growing or simply buying our veg (the best way you may help us).

Thanks to Brett for the hard work  on our new logo........

help wanted this week

Monday - 12 until 6pm
Tuesday - 12 until 6pm
Wednesday - 2pm until 6pm
Thursday - N/A
Friday - N/A

Saturday - from 10am at our food and craft fair, The Festival of Fairtrade and Local at the church centre, Ditton

then after from at the field - by special arrangement (Darren)

Many thanks for your help in advance.

Tasks this week include.....

Sowing - Tomato & peppers
Sowing - carrots & onions & garlic
Sowing - potato

Help needed for our Solar tunnel - base preparation for completion early april.









Please contact us to be sure of arrangements - we are on a private estate and public may be challenged by security. We are all voluntary and so have many other commitments than Communigrow.

Best drop-in times are normally Tuesday, Friday and Saturday afternoons only.

Education Co-ordinator .......

needed part time for our charity

Education co-ordinator for all the field sessions needed. Ideal for local applicants of some professional teacher/charity educational background.

It shall be voluntary to start, part time to suit applicant and later we hope to have funding in place soonish. We shall be happy to put whatever it takes into attracting the right person.

Must be skilled and experienced in running gardening/growing/farming/environmental sessions for schools and groups. Forest School may be useful as would conservation.

Further details on application to our steering group. email education@communigrow.org

As our vision is for a healthier, more balanced society through 'learning, teaching,sharing' applicants need to have some community engagement skills and knowledge of the local area with schools and groups, parish councils and general networks.

www.Communigrow.org

for more information on our education work CLICK HERE 

DONATE to our work

We desperately need your old seeds, pots and trays to plant up for this season. As you can imagine with that much ground to cover we need a lot!

The best way to donate to our charities work is by eating our veg! A box of seasonal veg (we do not buy-in any veg) is for a suggested donation of £10 and includes only £1 for our packing and delivery to nearby residents. Not only do you support all our educational work to provide land based experience free of to schools and groups BUT you get to eat the produce too. To order CLICK HERE or call us to make arrangements. 07806 708 386 (leave a message and we shall call you back)

You Donate direct via our Charities Aid Foundation page HERE: (https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/donatesteps.aspx?beneficiarycampaignid=3255)

Thank you in advance

The story so far... and yet so near! the Larkfield and Ditton Local Food campaign and project Communigrow

Learning - 'Zones'

FIVE PRINCIPLES FOR AN EDIBLE EDUCATION BY ALICE WATERS 

I. FOOD IS AN ACADEMIC SUBJECT
Ecology and gastronomy bring alive every subject from reading and writing to science and art.
II. SCHOOL PROVIDES LUNCH FOR EVERY CHILD
Good food is a right not a privilege. It brings children into a positive relationship with their health, community and environment.
III. SCHOOLS SUPPORT FARMS
Cafeterias buy fresh food from local farms, not only for reasons of health but to strengthen local food economies.
IV. CHILDREN LEARN BY DOING
Children work in the vegetable beds and on the cutting boards to awaken their senses and open their minds, both to their core academic subjects and to the world around them.
V. BEAUTY IS A LANGUAGE
A beautifully prepared environment, where deliberate thought has gone into everything from the paths to the plates on the tables, communicates to children that we care about them. OTHER RELATED TERMS 

FARM TO SCHOOL
The Integration of a hands on, farm based curriculum into classroom learning. 

http://www.lexiconofsustainability.com/

Communigrow may reach a conclusion - for now we are barely starting to write the 'introduction'.

This creative process is a struggle. Not only do we have very little funding (thank you South East Water, you saved the day) but it has been so few doing it. Only very recently we've inspired more to join us, and we still need more, many more.
Luckily we have the sound basis of learning to help to plan and propel the project forward. It is all about people, and food, and hopefully we'll inspire many more to get involved as keen consumers of fresh veg, dabbling gardeners and even ways to save the planet! So that's all good then. And it gets better.
We are no experts. We've had skilled advice on Community Supported Agriculture (thank you Plunkett Foundation) but learning is in all that we do. Learning about the soil, natural systems for growing, learning about the options we have to turn a field of grass into a productive plot for all to benefit. It is this 'all' that brings in the largest scope for learning, how to get 'All' involved, active and in some small way contributory to our aims.
Example is great. Each potato is an example of what we can achieve. Every onion a little parcel of bursting flavour and a sensation of community involvement. Taking this forward we now need more in the way we label our greater packet of produce, the message we may give. Everyone knows what that potato or onion looks like but why is it there at all, you can buy the same from the supermarket down the road, so what makes it 'Local Food' and why should people choose to buy it?
Follow this through to the boarder aims. Why should people join us as 'Friends' and why come along to pick the spinach or slice the pumpkin on a friday? It is very much about those learning, teaching and sharing tag lines. A few words that frame so much.

Next time.... more on our own 'Show' gardens and school pocket patchwork

Case study.....

Stroud Community Agriculture

All About Stroud Community Agriculture
Stroud Community Agriculture Ltd (SCA) is a community-led enterprise, which is developing a local farming business to produce fresh organic/biodynamic produce for its members. Members pay an annual membership and a further payment in order to receive produce including vegetables, pork and beef, and diversifying into other produce. The farm is certified organic and is influenced by biodynamic methods.


Our Principles
The guiding principles of Stroud Community Agriculture:
The Community Co-operative is bound by a set of principles established by the members at an early public meeting.
The principles are:
To support organic and biodynamic agriculture.
To pioneer a new economic model based on mutual benefit and shared risk and ensure that the farmers have a decent livelihood.
To be fully inclusive. Low income shall not exclude anyone.
To encourage practical involvement on all levels.
To be transparent in all our affairs. To make decisions on the basis of consensus wherever possible. To strive towards social justice.
To offer opportunities for learning, therapy and re-connecting with the life of the earth.
To network with others to promote community supported agriculture to other communities and farms and share our learning (both economic and farming).
To encourage members, in co-operation with the farmers, to use the farm for their individual and social activities and celebrations.
To develop a sense of community around the farm.
To work co-operatively with other enterprises that share our principles.

Our Vision
Stroud Community Agriculture (SCA) provides a link between people and farming. It does this by providing an opportunity for people to support and benefit from farm projects in various ways;
by paying towards the costs of running farm projects,
by receiving a share of the produce
by volunteering time to help with farm work and other work linked to the running of SCA,
by setting up and attending events linked to the farm,
or just by being interested in SCA

SCA aims to provide as many people as possible in the Stroud area with opportunities to make these direct links with farming and food.

SCA aims to:
Pay the people who work on the farm a fair wage
Develop a rich variety of crops, livestock and other projects that meet the needs of the farm and the people who support the farm
Provide opportunites for as many people as possible to make connections to the farm in whatever ways work for them.
Manage the farm in a way that is sensitive to the environment, wildlife and ecological system that the farm is part of
Encourage other, similar projects to set up

How is SCA organised and how do we operate?
Stroud Community Agriculture Ltd is incorporated as Community Co-operative. As a Community Co-operative every member has a vote, which puts everyone on an equal basis. Membership spreads the costs and risks involved in business.

Members hold quarterly planning meetings to set the direction for the farm. At an annual general meeting members elect a core group of (currently 8) volunteers to act on the plans set at members meetings. Read the minutes of AGM's.

Decisions are usually reached by consensus. The farm business is owned and controlled by the members, who employ the farmers. The farmers are members too, and sit on the core group, although they cannot take decisions about their own pay.

Another benefit of the Community Co-operative is that it is possible to raise capital by shares, should we wish to, by allowing investment with a return for investors as a profit-sharing organisation. Although this is not likely to happen, it does mean that it would be possible, for example, to raise money to buy land to set up a land trust.



Transition Network is a charitable organisation whose role is to inspire, encourage, connect, support and train communities as they self-organise around the Transition model, creating initiatives that rebuild resilience and reduce CO2 emissions. 

Ultimately it’s about creating a healthy human culture, one that meets our needs for community, livelihoods and fun.  We’re here to support you.

We shall soon have a few copies of the 'Transition Free Press' available for a donation of £2 to cover costs. To order email laurence@communigrow.org.

also for your information... a local event this coming Saturday 21st - build a pizza oven in Larkfield