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31 Jan 2012 How are we doing then? admin

Since we re-launched HebVeg as a membership based Community Supported Agriculture scheme in October with a party, we have taken on 19 full cropshare and 8 half cropshare members.

Members and volunteers are happy with our new home at Nutclough Tavern but the size of packing space and storage for boxes and equipment means we can’t grow much more until we have better storage. This should happen soon as a garage is being built in the garden at Nutclough for groups like ours to use. Once it is up, it will provide better facilities for boxes to be left for later collection and a swap box to be left out too. We are still trying to negotiate a second collection point at the other end of town, too.

 

In the longer term, we hope to be part of a bigger project to provide space for a number of social enterprises in the town. A small group of us are just working on a business plan and looking at premises at the moment.

 

Produce is mainly still coming from our supplier in Hipperholme near Halifax and he has offered us up to 2 acres of land to grow on this coming season, so this will help immensely with the quantities of our own grown produce we can provide. Our grower, Tim will also be getting on with managing the plots loaned to us by generous locals. Other local growers have offered us produce too so there should be a good variety of veg and a spreading of the risk of crop failure. CLOG have been supplying us with apples of course and we hope that will continue.

We have just completed a survey of what people want to have in their boxes and are planning what to grow where so as to provide as many of the requests as possible.

 

We learned a lot from our first potato harvest this year. The quantity saw us through to Christmas but some varieties worked better than others and the plot may not be best suited to them as it is quite heavy clay.

 

We were sad to lose the benefit of lovely produce from Sally and Ben at Crimsworth Farm but Sally has recently taken up a post at Valley Organics and they understandably would prefer her to supply them rather than us. We are still able to use the adjoining plot they have kindly loaned us for our own growing, though.

 

Volunteering is an important part of the HebVeg experience and many members and non-members enjoy regular slots packing, serving, driving and helping on the land as well as carrying out admin tasks. We decided to make a new category of Volunteer Member available for people who couldn’t afford or make full use of a cropshare but still wanted to volunteer.

 

We didn’t manage to join up with Hebden WI to do a preserving event but I still hope we can do something before all the veg disappears. We just need use of a nice big kitchen..

 

The hungry gap approaches and at HebVeg, we don’t compromise by supplying out of season, imported produce during that period. Between mid March and May we will take a breather and do some other sociable things – a trip to Oldroyd Rhubarb is planned, visits to our growing sites, volunteer days of course. The one exception we have made has been to make contact with a Community Supported Agriculture project – La Jimena in Spain so that members can order lovely sunkissed produce – olives, olive oil, citrus fruits, almonds and figs – for delivery in February. Mathis gathers orders from CSA’s across the UK and does a one off run over with a van full of their mixed boxes.

 

All this HebVegging has meant that the wider Transition Town Food Group has rather taken a back seat but if anyone is inspired to re-invigorate it with new projects, please get in touch and I will give you all the support I can. I would be particularly interested to hear from anyone who wants to help run a local ‘Bake Your Lawn’ initiative. This is being encouraged by The Real Bread Campaign. They want to get schools and community groups growing, harvesting and milling grains and then baking them and learning about the processes as they go. I also know of a couple of people who are looking to set up a mushroom growing project and they are looking for premises at the moment.

 

So, a lot going on. Let’s keep it up!

 

Ben

 


ps. If you're not already a member it's not too late to join in.

To join the scheme simply download your printable application form, fill it in and return it to us.

06 Jul 2011 HebVeg every Saturday alanm

Meeting Sat 16 July, scroll down for details.

Would you like a HebVeg box this Saturday, 16th July? Cost as usual is £10
and the contents will be:

Basic box: new potatoes, onions, carrots and lovely little calabrese florets
(green broccoli). Also strawberries or redcurrants.

Then you can choose two additional items from: broad beans, baby beetroot,
purple sprouting broccoli, lettuce or spring cabbage.

Some of the produce will be super local, from Crimsworth Farm, Pecket Well
and Fruits and Roots at Callis Bridge.

Come early to get your favourite choices! As usual, a swap/additional items
box will be in operation where you might find something that pricks your
vegetable fancy more.

If you would like a box, please let Ben know by emailing info@hebveg.org.uk
by midday Friday 8th July and include a contact telephone number if you can.

Collection will be in our usual location – Hope Baptist Church rooms
(entrance of Cheetham Street) although we may be located in the manse garden
to the right of the door (it will be signposted) and you can collect your
box between 12midday and 2pm on the Saturday.

------------------------

HebVeg is not just another box scheme… we plan to become a fully fledged
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) scheme. To help make that happen we
really need you to come along to our meeting between 12 and 2pm on Saturday
16th July at Riverside School, Holme Street. Even if you have just had the
occasional box or never had a box from us, do please come and join us for a
short facilitated session (FREE HEBVEGGIE LUNCH PROVIDED) to discuss the
future direction of the scheme and our plans for local growing and
membership. Then, if you have ordered one, you can pick up your box between
2pm and 4pm.

So, on July 16th the times are:

Volunteer packing: 10.30am – 12

Meeting: 12 – 2pm

Box collections: 2 – 4pm

All at Riverside School.

10 Mar 2011 Community Supported Agriculture And Hebveg admin
The next Food Group meeting will be on Wed 16th March at the White Lion Hotel at 8pm. We will specifically be reviewing all the land opportunities and possibilities that have arisen since we began the Community Supported Agriculture research and proposing a systematic way to identify further land and owners and present our ideas to them so we can get closer to our goal of all the food for the HebVeg scheme to come from within 3 miles of Hebden within 3 years. HebVeg has been very successful so far with over 100 people on the list and 40 regular HebVegers. We also have a pool of around 15 volunteers who help with packing and serving. At the moment, we are having a hungry gap holiday until mid April when we will come back with new veg and a new pay up front system. Also at the meeting on the 16th March, we will be discussing the possibility of running a workshop on Community Land Projects to be held on May 21st, sponsored by the local Steiner Community and run by Martin Large. Martin is a facilitator, academic and entrepreneur who speaks from experience. He has set up projects such as a theatre, art college, Stroud Co-op Woodland, Stroud Communiversity, community land trusts for affordable homes and farming, and facilitating business, government and civil society renewal. Founder of Stroud Common Wealth in 1999 for social enterprise development, he works with Transition Stroud on the Stroud Debates. He is keen to work with Transition Town Hebden Bridge to further Community Land Initiatives and the Food Group would like to invite him to run the workshop to help us further our Community Supported Agriculture aims. As always, we need volunteers to help us with these important jobs so please do come along and get involved.
19 Oct 2010 CSA Meeting admin
We had a good meeting about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) on Thursday 30 September where Kirstin Glendinning from The Soil Association presented case studies and other information about CSA's in the UK and elsewhere. In our discussion afterwards, we decided to consult a bit further on three different model options for running a CSA in Hebden:
  • Option 1 - Growing group where members do the growing
  • Option 2 - Buying and growing group with employed grower
  • Option 3 - Buying and growing group where the members do the growing
Library garden: We ran a stall at Fruity Festival - a very well organized and supported event at Hope Street Baptist Church on October 9th - and asked visitors to vote on their preferred option. Option 2 came out top. It seems most people are keen to support a local CSA but would prefer not to have too much responsibility for the growing. They do, however like the idea of establishing a bulk buying group to obtain produce from other nearly local sources whilst we look for land and get our own growing established. The next step is to work up a draft business plan for Option 2, so we can get more people signed up and have a really good case to take to local landowners. We hope to hold the next meeting in mid November where we can all discuss the draft business plan. In the meantime, Ben is seeking volunteers to help him in producing that draft plan. He can be contacted on 07957 192112.
18 Oct 2010 Community Supported Agriculture admin

Our next Working Group Meeting will focus on how we can establish Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in the area. We've identified some likely land, now we need to sort out resources: when, what, who and how. Thursday 30th September at 19.30 Hopefully, we will have a representative from The Soil Association CSA team there (see their website info about this topic here).

There'll also be a discussion about 'Local Food Systems' a new lottery-funded initiative from Making Local Food Work - shall we submit an expression of interest?

14 Jul 2010 Getting started... admin
The food group will be looking at what would need to happen to make us self sufficient locally in food and will be writing the food section of our energy descent plan. More details will be available soon. If you would like to be involved in this workng group please get in touch via the form to the right.