A community in transition to a low carbon, sustainable, resilient life.
Food and Land Group Minutes of meeting 24 July 2008
TTFR Food and Land Group
Meeting Thursday 24th July 2008
Agenda
1. Recap of last meeting
2. Pupak’s feedback and Emerson fruit garden
3. October visioning events
4. Forest Row News articles
5. Research
6. Community Market
7. Projects to get stuck in to
8. Land
9. Date of next meeting – Thursday 21st August, 7:30 – 9:30 @ Flora’s house (Post Cottage, opposite Java & Jazz)
It was generally agreed that it is helpful to everyone if in addition to a volunteer facilitator/Chair for each meeting, that someone present will always take notes/simple minutes to keep us on track!
1. From last meeting:
• Arjen and Rowena to approach Co-op re: getting local food stocked there (the idea is to make locally produced food highly visible and easily available to all)
• community market attendance in July was successful, and there is great potential to turn this monthly event into something very lively – see point 6
• there’s a need to bring local landowners together to discuss the implications of peak oil/climate change/transition; something for this group to work on
• information gathering on profile of our community – see point 5
2. Emerson Fruit Garden
About 60kg of blackcurrants were harvested from Emerson garden. These have been sold (Seasons, Plaw Hatch, Dave in the woods) and this has generated some income for the group, but there is more still to do; blackberries and autumn raspberries still to come. Pupak has also made about 64 jars of jam.
To make sure the garden is well loved for the rest of the year, we need to make sure that we commit to managing it and advertise it well – both the need for pickers, and the availability of the fruit for Pick Your Own. Emails are not working well at the moment.
ACTIONS:
Peter and Kira to plan and advertise two days each month that will be spent in the garden, open to volunteers, to help manage it. (Ideally e.g. first and third sat of each month.) These dates will broadcast ASAP, and will start in August.
Flora to find out how we can use the ‘What’s On’ page for advertising Pick Your Own days, as well as volunteer work days.
We’d like to set up a Transition Town notice board in town – should this be explored with the other group contacts?
We’re going to operate a phone tree as a reminder for our own meetings from now on.
3. October Visioning
A visioning exercise is being planned for October, to try and bring in everyone from the village in the process of imagining how Forest Row could look in 2020. Suggested dates at the moment: Tues Oct 14th and Sat Oct 18th.
ACTION:
Anyone interested in feeding into this or finding out more should contact Mike Grenville or Charlene Collinson
4. Forest Row News Articles
These are going well. We will need people to volunteer to write in the coming months. Our brief is to do an article each month of around 500 words, plus a couple of photos, on a particular vegetable/fruit/foodstuff that is available to eat/pick that month. They would like ideally some background information on the foodstuff in question, some tips on how to grow it well/where to find it, and a short simple recipe for how to turn it into something delicious! We have volunteers up to September so far, plus November (Adrian writing on hazelnuts) and March next year (Justin on bees and honey).
ACTION:
Peter will try to find someone to write about bread for October issue (deadline for submission September 12th)
Would anyone like to volunteer for December?
5. Research
We need to find out how much food people eat! i.e. how much food – and of what kind – would we actually need to feed people in this area.
ACTION:
Peter to explore existing statistics on food requirements
Flora to continue finding out about our community – how many people, what kind of groups there are.
6. Forest Row Community Market
The community market happens on the first Saturday of every month in the community centre on Hartfield Road. The Food and Land group went along in July to sell raspberries from Emerson fruit garden, and it was very successful. A donation is made to have a table, and this needs reserving in advance.
The market itself is quite small, and it seems that there’s HUGE potential to make it into something lively and fun, e.g. where people could bring their own produce to sell/swap, could have a tool repair stand, some live music, the list could go on!
ACTION:
Next market is SATURDAY AUGUST 3rd, then SATURDAY 6th SEPTEMBER
Put this topic high on the agenda for the next meeting, and come with ideas for how to invigorate the community market.
7. Other Projects to get stuck into
A new idea: a very local food directory. Juliet has offered to coordinate work on this – a free guide to local producers small and large which do or would sell direct to the community. To be sponsored, published, and given to every household.
ACTION:
support Juliet and discuss progress at next meeting
Juliet: 01342 824 263
8. AOB
Funds raised from Food & Land group work. It was suggested that the F&L group raise and manage their own funds for Transition work (for when things cannot be bartered) eg from the sale of jam etc, to tap into that kind of responsibility and energy. This was generally felt by those at the meeting to be a good source of strength for the group and a good system to work with.
ACTION:
Needs some more discussion on the practicalities.
Katherine Hallewell and Flora Smith, August 2008
Meeting Thursday 24th July 2008
Agenda
1. Recap of last meeting
2. Pupak’s feedback and Emerson fruit garden
3. October visioning events
4. Forest Row News articles
5. Research
6. Community Market
7. Projects to get stuck in to
8. Land
9. Date of next meeting – Thursday 21st August, 7:30 – 9:30 @ Flora’s house (Post Cottage, opposite Java & Jazz)
It was generally agreed that it is helpful to everyone if in addition to a volunteer facilitator/Chair for each meeting, that someone present will always take notes/simple minutes to keep us on track!
1. From last meeting:
• Arjen and Rowena to approach Co-op re: getting local food stocked there (the idea is to make locally produced food highly visible and easily available to all)
• community market attendance in July was successful, and there is great potential to turn this monthly event into something very lively – see point 6
• there’s a need to bring local landowners together to discuss the implications of peak oil/climate change/transition; something for this group to work on
• information gathering on profile of our community – see point 5
2. Emerson Fruit Garden
About 60kg of blackcurrants were harvested from Emerson garden. These have been sold (Seasons, Plaw Hatch, Dave in the woods) and this has generated some income for the group, but there is more still to do; blackberries and autumn raspberries still to come. Pupak has also made about 64 jars of jam.
To make sure the garden is well loved for the rest of the year, we need to make sure that we commit to managing it and advertise it well – both the need for pickers, and the availability of the fruit for Pick Your Own. Emails are not working well at the moment.
ACTIONS:
Peter and Kira to plan and advertise two days each month that will be spent in the garden, open to volunteers, to help manage it. (Ideally e.g. first and third sat of each month.) These dates will broadcast ASAP, and will start in August.
Flora to find out how we can use the ‘What’s On’ page for advertising Pick Your Own days, as well as volunteer work days.
We’d like to set up a Transition Town notice board in town – should this be explored with the other group contacts?
We’re going to operate a phone tree as a reminder for our own meetings from now on.
3. October Visioning
A visioning exercise is being planned for October, to try and bring in everyone from the village in the process of imagining how Forest Row could look in 2020. Suggested dates at the moment: Tues Oct 14th and Sat Oct 18th.
ACTION:
Anyone interested in feeding into this or finding out more should contact Mike Grenville or Charlene Collinson
4. Forest Row News Articles
These are going well. We will need people to volunteer to write in the coming months. Our brief is to do an article each month of around 500 words, plus a couple of photos, on a particular vegetable/fruit/foodstuff that is available to eat/pick that month. They would like ideally some background information on the foodstuff in question, some tips on how to grow it well/where to find it, and a short simple recipe for how to turn it into something delicious! We have volunteers up to September so far, plus November (Adrian writing on hazelnuts) and March next year (Justin on bees and honey).
ACTION:
Peter will try to find someone to write about bread for October issue (deadline for submission September 12th)
Would anyone like to volunteer for December?
5. Research
We need to find out how much food people eat! i.e. how much food – and of what kind – would we actually need to feed people in this area.
ACTION:
Peter to explore existing statistics on food requirements
Flora to continue finding out about our community – how many people, what kind of groups there are.
6. Forest Row Community Market
The community market happens on the first Saturday of every month in the community centre on Hartfield Road. The Food and Land group went along in July to sell raspberries from Emerson fruit garden, and it was very successful. A donation is made to have a table, and this needs reserving in advance.
The market itself is quite small, and it seems that there’s HUGE potential to make it into something lively and fun, e.g. where people could bring their own produce to sell/swap, could have a tool repair stand, some live music, the list could go on!
ACTION:
Next market is SATURDAY AUGUST 3rd, then SATURDAY 6th SEPTEMBER
Put this topic high on the agenda for the next meeting, and come with ideas for how to invigorate the community market.
7. Other Projects to get stuck into
A new idea: a very local food directory. Juliet has offered to coordinate work on this – a free guide to local producers small and large which do or would sell direct to the community. To be sponsored, published, and given to every household.
ACTION:
support Juliet and discuss progress at next meeting
Juliet: 01342 824 263
8. AOB
Funds raised from Food & Land group work. It was suggested that the F&L group raise and manage their own funds for Transition work (for when things cannot be bartered) eg from the sale of jam etc, to tap into that kind of responsibility and energy. This was generally felt by those at the meeting to be a good source of strength for the group and a good system to work with.
ACTION:
Needs some more discussion on the practicalities.
Katherine Hallewell and Flora Smith, August 2008
© 2013 Created by Mike Grenville.
