Can Wycombe Feed itself?
The FOOD Group runs
the following activities for Transition Town High Wycombe:
-
The Community Allotment/Vegetable Garden Project
-
A Community Orchard Project, planting fruit or nut trees in public places
or virtual orchard
-
Garden share/swaps (BareGardens)
-
Compiling a local Food Directory -
Compiling a database of local food growers/suppliers - £250
grant available to anyone volunteering to get this into
print - you'll need vendor sponsorship.
-
Food and land mapping
-
Local food events such as talks, a
secular Harvest Festival or Local Food Fair
-
Promoting local food to shops
-
Community Shop and/or Bakery
-
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) project to get local farmers to provide veg boxes in
return for money up-front
-
Education for Sustainability in Schools
-
'Rainbow' box schemes for schools
-
Bee-keeping/Save the bees - planting schemes & advice
on pesticides
-
A summer picnic-on-the-Rye of home-grown
or locally-produced food
-
Visits to local Organic Farms
- Surveying local people to find out whether they are growing
food, and if not, why not.
Encouraging the local growing of food, in gardens,
allotments, waste-land, balconies...in fact, anywhere
possible
- Teaching about growing, storing, cooking, and preserving
food
- Chicken and rabbit-keeping in gardens and on allotments.
- Organic, Permaculture and Forest Gardens in an urban setting.
- Guerilla Gardening concept: using 'unloved' and unwanted
land.
- Food co-operative/Bulk purchase of organic foods
- Seed swap / plant swap/ food swap
- Local Food Markets - persuading 'local' food suppliers to bring their food
etc. into HW so it becomes truly 'local' (i.e. can be
reached by foot or bike)
- Raising awareness of Food Miles and waste
- Education on use of seasonal food, to reduce food miles
- 'Wild' food, or food for free
- Composting: returning organic waste to the soil
- Glut & Gleaning Projects - Harvesting/collecting fruit which would otherwise go to
waste
- Sharing of equipment, e.g. shredders, flour grinders
The current Food Group consists of:
-
Jenny Rogers (BareGardens)
-
Celia Carter
-
Spencer Nash (BareGardens)
-
Julian Ilett
-
Frances Alexander
-
++many more on the Google Group
HERE
-
..and we are recruiting for more!!
Would you like to help with these ideas? Do
you have further ideas or would you like to join this group? Then please
contact us by clicking
Join in: Local Food Directory
 A
grant of £275 has been awarded to TTHW to produce a Local Food Directory
project. We need volunteers to liaise with local suppliers to raise further
sponsorship to cover the rest of the costs. We also need people to compile
the actual directory and someone of suitable time & talent to lay it out for
us. Can you help? Then please contact the Project Coordinator - Celia
Carter.
Notes from the first project meeting (30th March 2010)
Present: Celia, Mike, Nayani, Sheila.
Apologies: Ivan, Frances, Paul, Pat, Graham
Aims, Objectives & Criteria for Inclusion: We agreed to start with
defining an area of a 10 mile radius from the centre of Wycombe. Mike has
produced a map (see below). We will look at primary producers, small
manufacturers retailers and caterers. Over the next month we will gather
information on what local food producers/enterprises are available within
this area and refine our criteria at our next meeting.
Data Collection: We agreed on the basic information that we need to
collect at this stage and Celia will design a data collection form that can
be used electronically or in paper form. We debated the issue of consent of
producers. All producers will be approached and, preferably, personally
visited before inclusion in the directory, however it was not felt that this
was necessary for the preliminary data collection exercise. We have divided
ourselves roughly into geographical areas for the purposes of
research. Celia will do central Wycombe, Nayani (and Pat) Flackwell,
Wooburn; Sheila (and Graham) Amersham, Chesham, Missenden, Chalfonts; and
Mike Stokenchurch, West Wycombe. Obviously we can be flexible and all other
offers of help will be gratefully received.
Immediate action plan: Celia to collate information already available in
the BBO directory and will also contact the organisers of this directory as
a matter of courtesy. Sheila has contacted Trading Standards, to ascertain
whether there are any regulatory requirements, and is awaiting reply. Sheila
has also offered to create a spreadsheet for the data collected.
Printing and Costing issues: This was debated at length and it was felt
that it could be very difficult to produce the directory within the budget
provided by the sponsor and that it would be appropriate to investigate
other possible sources of additional funding. Celia will look into this. We
were also worried that an A3 format might not be sufficiently large enough
to accomodate all the basic information. We also considered the possibility
of involving local school children in some of the art work. We would like to
use the FOOD google group to facilitate communication, if all are agreeable
we will add your names, please let me know if any problem.
Next meeting will be 7.30pm Tues 4th May at Celia's home. You can
contact Celia by clicking
Join in:
Grow Zones
 We
are interested in starting a Grow Zones project in High Wycombe. To learn
more see
www.earthabbey.com/growzones. This involves a group of
around 10/12 people (though can be fewer or more) getting together to help
each other cultivate their gardens for growing fruit and veg. Although this
originated as a church project the emphasis is very much on involving anyone
in the local community and Transition Town High Wycombe would be very keen
to work with local churches on the project. There appears to be a common
interface between ethos of the faith groups and the Transition Town movement
in relation to the management of the planet's resources which is embodied in
local community food production. See Churches in Transition at
www.christian-ecology.org.uk If you would like
to join a local group please contact our Secretary Celia Carter.
Tamzin Pinkerton & Rob Hopkins "Local
Food"
 ISBN
978 1 900322 43 0. "Local Food - How to make it happen in
your community" was written by Tamzin Pinkerton and Rob
Hopkins. Published by Green Books in 2009. Finally! A really useful book about Transition. "Local Food" is the
best stab yet at showing Transition in working practice.
This is the real deal - littered with examples from around
the globe we get full coverage of everything from "The Great
Reskilling" through to School Projects and "Community
Supported Agriculture". Whereas the earlier Transition books looked
largely at the reasons for change and the theory of
Transition, "Local Food" really deals with the meat and
potatoes (pardon the pun) of HOW DO WE TRANSITION? Here is the answer.
 Now
if a spot of gardening really isn't your thing don't worry.
This is not a gardening book. It is more of a 'legs-up'
explaining each type of local food project and how to get it
started. Clearly it takes a lot of hard work and a little
bit of money. But enthusiasm seems to count for a lot too.
Some of the projects are really simple - like selling
organic veg at a primary school, but they do scale all the
way up to full grown farms and supply chain businesses.
There is something here for everyone. So if you are asked
for a project brief by your Council or funding agency then
please plagiarise this book shamelessly. It is eye-opening
just how many projects are up and running but also how
sophisticated some have become. Many pre-date Transition and
have since been absorbed by the Transition phenomena or are
now closely linked to them.
One of the high points comes on page 16
with a suggested model for local food distribution: 2.5% of
food should be from your own garden, 5% from your
neighbourhood, 17.5% from local sources, 35% from within 100
miles, 20% from the UK, 15% from Europe leaving 5% from
abroad. Hopefully this dispels the myth that Transition is
some self-sufficiency cult. It is all about redressing the
balance more in favour of the local to build resilience. Highly
recommended if you love food and feel the need to do something.
Mark Brown - November 2009
Group Introduction
The FOOD Group ('Food On Our Doortsep') was
launched in May 2009 by members of TTHW ('Transition Town High
Wycombe'). In TTHW we feel there is an urgent need to find ways
for our local communities to make a transition from a time when
oil and other resources have been cheap, plentiful, and
available, to a future where these things are not so certain. If
oil becomes scarce and expensive, our food supply is affected.
By localising as much food production as possible, we can save
money, save resources, and improve food security.
However The Food Group has its own
independent reasons to exist, and will operate autonymously. It
is for anyone who is interested in local food production for
local people, for whatever reasons, and membership of TTHW is
not essential. Anyone can become involved.
You may be reading this because you are
worried about the quality of our food, and what happens to it
during industrial processing;
You may be reading it because you are
frustrated at the difficulty of finding local organic food;
Or you may be interested because of what is
coming to be known as the Food Security issue - in other words,
how can we make sure we are still able to eat, no matter what
happens elsewhere in the world.
Alternatively you may feel that the current
situation where ten calories of fossil fuel are used to provide
one calorie of food on our plates, is simply unsustainable;
You may have an unfulfilled urge to follow
the progress of your food from seed to plate;
Or you may feel disjointed by our ability to
have strawberries in February, but no longer to experience the
delight of fresh, seasonal food which really tastes as it
should.
Yet again, you may be one of many who want to
see allotments for everyone who wants one, as Local Authorities
are obliged to provide allotments 'when there is perceived to be
a need' (Allotment Act 1908);
Or you may know in your self that it is the
sedentary way we now live that is causing a massive increase in
obesity and diabetes, and a sense of helplessness to do anything
about it.
You may worry that joblessness or financial
insecurity may make sourcing cheaper food a necessity.
Or you may actually produce local food
already.
If you are reading this for any of the
reasons above, or other reasons not mentioned, we welcome you.
In the end our aims are to do all that we can to promote the
production and selling of local food for local people.
We have monthly meetings at the High Wycombe
Environment Centre, on the first Friday of the month, at
7:30p.m, so please just turn up whenever you like, and see
what's happening. We aim to have a topic each time – some
possible ones are Bee-Keeping, Preserving Soft Fruit, Growing
Veg, Composting, Campaigning for Allotments, Setting up a
Community Supported Agriculture Project, Making Bread, Food
Co-operatives for buying Organic Food in Bulk...and we plan to
have a Trip to a Local Organic Farm some time soon! Please also
look at our Google Group from time to time, because we will be
posting items on what we have been doing, or what we plan to do
in the future. And ideas are always welcome!
What we hope to achieve
We already have some ideas as to what a Food
Group might do, and we welcome any and all ideas from those who
are interested in getting involved.
Some of these ideas will appeal to some
people more than others. What is certain is that the more people
we have, the more we can do.
Therefore we need enthusiastic individuals
who will get going in some of these areas, be self-motivated and
enthusiastic. Do not worry too much if you haven't done anything
like this before: neither have we! Even if you have only a
limited amount of time to devote to this cause, that is a whole
lot better than the job not being done at all.
With the aim of encouraging people to grow
food, we have set up a local garden-share scheme called Bare
Gardens, where someone with a garden they cannot manage, can
lend it to someone who wants somewhere to grow food, in return
for half the food. You can find this at
www.baregardens.org.uk
Another area of interest is allotments, and
we passionately believe that allotments should be much more
readily available. Growing food like this is excellent for
physical and mental health, it helps you to meet people, it
saves money, it fosters a feeling of community...and it is fun!
One of our members has converted most of her
back garden into an orchard for fruit and herbs, and is learning
about Forest Gardens and Permaculture, where trees, shrubs, and
perennial plants are left to grow without constantly disturbing
the soil. The ultimate aim would be a completely edible garden
that still looks beautiful, but that might take a while to
achieve!
To sum up, we want to do all we can to help
encourage the production of local food for local people. It's
that simple...but we need your help!
Food and our current situation
 Food
supply – or what is increasingly being called Food Security - is
one of our most vulnerable areas as we approach peak oil. We are
vulnerable for the following reasons.
While we can save energy by travelling less,
buying less, and keeping our houses cooler, we all need to eat
every day, preferably several times a day
The system we operate at present has built
into it huge amounts of energy use. If you include the use of
fertiliser, pesticides, fuel for agricultural machinery,
transportation, processing, and packaging - all of which have
become hidden because plentiful cheap oil and cheap food has
meant we need hardly consider them - roughly ten calories of oil
are used for each calorie of food that we consume.
For an adult consuming 2,500 calories per
day, this translates into the use of 6.42 barrels of oil per
adult each year, just to get our food on the table.
If oil remained plentiful and cheap, and
there was not the additional problem of use of fossil fuels
exacerbating global warming, we could carry on as we are; but
with the twin looming crises of peak oil and climate change, we
urgently need to address this problem.
If oil prices rose to $200 a barrel: the cost
of getting our food to the table would rise to $1,284 per annum,
per person.
The sums speak for themselves. A family of
four - two adults and, say, a ten and fourteen year old, with
oil at $200 per barrel, would spend roughly $5,136 just for the
oil component of their food.
There is no need to go further into the
mathematics of this to make the point that such a way of living
will be unsustainable in times of ever more expensive oil, apart
from being unethical in regard to climate change. If we are, as
many now believe, at or near peak oil, it becomes obvious that
we must urgently deal with the way we use oil in our food supply
chain. My belief is that we must start to do everything in our
power to re-localise our food supplies, to help mitigate some of
the problems we will face if we continue to expect 'business as
usual'...
For a Food and Oil Factsheet click
HERE
Our Community Allotment Project 2009 - The Exhibition
There was an exhibition of plans for the Allotment at the
Environment Centre on Holywell Mead in High Wycombe. The exhibition started on the 14th
February and ended on the 26th April 2009.
This was a must-see
exhibition about allotments, compost, worms, vegetables and
flowers...and just in case you thought it was boring, take
a look at this:
-
You
think carrots are all orange? You can get red and purple
ones, round ones, fat ones, thin ones...
-
Radishes are round? They are all shapes, colours, and sizes.
-
Potatoes are all round or oval and a sort of browny colour?
They can be red, pink and knobbly, yellow...and inside
powdery, waxy...
-
Beetroot is red and sliced in vinegar? There are many
different shapes, colours and sizes, and they can be cooked
in lots of ways!
-
The
only kind of beans are French or runner? You can grow beans
to eat raw or steamed, cold in salads, beans to dry for
winter...red ones, brown ones, yellow ones, spotty ones,
stripey ones...
-
Flowers
are just there to look pretty? Many flowers encourage bees,
hoverflies, butterflies...
-
Worms
just look funny and wriggle? They work hard to turn over the
soil and improve its fertility for free.
At the
allotment you may see foxes playing, birds of all sorts ...and
lots of enthusiastic people digging the ground so we can plant
our first crop.
Diary: A Start - December 14th 2008
The first ground has been turned at the new
Transition Town High Wycome Allotment. On Sunday Dec 14th morning Julian,
Spencer, Justin and Celia (of the Allotment Group) arrived for
the first dig. Bad colds prevented two further team members from
making it on the day. However the digging will continue through
the Christmas break. Spencer's son William certainly made up for
the absentees! 10 square meters of ground was cleared in
addition to a similar size area uncovered by the removal of
tarpaulin. Hot Tea kept the team going although the mulled wine
failed to show as poor Frances was tackling computer problems!
Please let us know if you wish to join the team.
We are
seeking experienced gardeners and local permaculturists to advise us.
Can you help?
 The
current plan is to divide the plot up into demonstration
segments. One will follow conventional UK gardening techniques.
The next will follow permaculture techniques and one may have
raised borders. Other plots will experiment with "no dig"
techniques and anything else we find in the books that we would
like to try. It will be a great chance for us to learn and share
skills. We'll start an Allotment page on this web site so you
can track progress.
Update (29th March 2009) - since the
Bassetsbury Allotment is now closed indefinitely, due to alleged
contamination, the open invite to the public to see the site has
had to be withdrawn. However the Food Group has other Allotment
sites which they are working on. There are also other ideas - so
watch this space!
The Plan
This plan was done in Visio to indicate the
sort of Plans we will be working on. This is a work in progress
design featuring forest garden (left), conventional (center) and
raised borders (right).
The Importance of Growing Traditional and
Unusual Varieties of Veg
The EU has a list of 'approved' vegetables whose seeds are
allowed to be sold in the UK. Most of these are F1 Hybrids (a
cross between two chosen parent-plants belonging to the breeder,
meaning they will not breed true in the next generation i.e. in
your garden; in other words you have to buy the seed again next
year). These tend to be ones which crop at the same time, are
roughly the same size, and have uniform and known
characteristics – and probably not too much flavour either!
Uniformity is of course what large-scale farmers want, but is
not at all appropriate for gardeners or allotment holders.
Having such a small gene bank (i.e. just those on the approved
list) is ecology risky too, because it makes the crops
vulnerable to disease - one disease could spread through and
wipe out the whole variety - , and unable to adapt to changes in
local conditions. It is only by people growing the ones that are
not on the approved list, that they will continue to exist at
all. By growing these older varieties and saving seed, the veg
in question will modify itself over time to take account of
local conditions, thus becoming even more resilient.
Because of EU rules, the Real Seed Catalogue is not strictly
allowed to sell its 'unapproved' seeds to the public. They get
round this by counting 1p of your order as membership of their
seed club, after which they can sell to you as you are a member,
and not 'the public'! I labour this point a bit because it shows
how important it is for us to be doing what we are with the
allotment. It is an important thing to keep the skills of
growing food alive in the community, and keeping as many
varieties going as we can.
Where the seeds come from:
Key: [RSC] = Real Seed Catalogue http://www.realseeds.co.uk/
[CS] = Chiltern Seeds http://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/
Crop Rotation and why it is important
Crop rotation is the practice of growing crops in different
places each year, for the following reasons:
To prevent a build-up of pests and diseases in one place.
Crop Rotation Considerations
Crops in permanent beds such as rhubarb,
asparagus, globe artichokes, soft fruit bushes, comfrey and
other perennial herbs obviously do not need to be considered in
a rotation plan, although when they need to be replaced it makes
sense to put them in a different place if you can.
The following crops do not suffer from being
grown in the same place in consecutive years, and these can be
put wherever there is space:
- Aubergines
- Beetroot
- Chicory
- Courgettes (JR)'Verde di Milano' Dwarf Bush[RSC]
- Cucumber
- Endive
- Fennel
- Lettuce
- Marrows
- Melon (JR) 'Collective Farm Woman' Canteloupe [RSC]
- Orach/Mtn or German Spinach
- Peppers
- Pumpkins
- Quinoa
- Runner beans
- Squash (JR) 'Anna Swartz Hubbard' Winter Squash [RSC]
- (JR) 'Waltham Butternut' Squash [RSC]
- (JR) 'Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato' Winter Squash [RSC]
- Sweet corn
All other crops should be included in a rotation plan.
Principles of Crop Rotation
Potatoes should not occupy a piece of ground where potatoes have
grown before until as much time has passed as possible. They
like manure, but not lime.
Brassicas, the cabbage family, also need the longest possible
gap between two crops. Brassicas like soil that has been limed.
Root crops such as carrots and parsnips do not want soil that
has been manured the previous autumn. It will cause them to fork
and split, and produce leaves at the expense of root.
Where possible, keep plants of the same family together as their
requirements will be similar
The Four Year Crop Rotation
I estimate that as we have half an allotment, we have
approximately 125 square metres of ground. This needs to be
divided into five beds of roughly the same size.
Ideally long thin beds are best: a bed 20m x 1.25m across can be
reached from either side without standing on the soil. This
method has been shown to produce the best crops, as the plants
can more easily get their roots down into the loosely-packed
soil. It also has considerable advantages to the people growing
the crop: the plot does not have to be dug as deeply in
subsequent years! However, beds 1.25mx20m may not be possible.
Whatever shape the beds are, bear in mind that the less you walk
on the soil the better.
Keeping a plan of your plot and marking in what has been planted
where as you are unlikely to remember what was planted where
after a couple of years.
Example of Four Bed Rotation: Year One
Bed 1: Potatoes
Enrich area with compost/manure and plant potatoes and
tomatoes, and any others (Solanaceae family).
- Potatoes
- Tomatoes (JR) 'Millefleur' Yellow Vine Tomato [RSC]
- (JR) 'Urbikany' Tall Bush Tomato [RSC]
- (JR) 'Lettuce Leaf' Early Bush Red Tomato [RSC]
- (JR) 'Gardeners Delight' )Supersweet Irish Version)
Cherry Vine Tomato [RSC]
- Aubergines
- Pepper
As these are harvested, follow by winter varieties of onions
and leeks
Bed 2: Carrots etc
Sow parsnips, carrot, parsley (Chenopodiaceae family) and
lettuce, plus others in list.
- Carrot
- Parsley
- Lettuce
- Onions
- Garlic (JR) Garlic Chives (CS)
- Shallot
- Leek (JR) 'Bleu de Solaise' Hardy Leek [RSC]
- (JR) 'Jaune de Poitou' Early Season Yellow Leek [RSC]
- Celeriac
- Celery (JR) 'Reselected Giant Red' [RSC]
- (JR) 'Full White' – self-blanching [RSC]
As these are harvested, sow Green Manure: Alfalfa, Clover, or
Phacelia Tanacetifolia
Bed 3: Brassicas
- Grow cabbage, kale, rocket (Brassica family) during the
summer.
- Broccoli (JR) 'Early Purple' Sprouting [RSC]
- Brussels Sprout (JR) 'Sanda' [RSC]
- Cabbage (JR) 'Rouge Tete Noir' Early Autumn Cabbage
[RSC]
- Calabrese
- Cauliflower (JR) 'Autumn Giant' [RSC]
- Chard (JR) 'Sibilla' [RSC]
- (JR) 'Leaf Beet' - Perpetual Spinach [RSC]
- Kale (JR) 'Red Ursa' Russian Kale [RSC]
- (JR) 'Sutherland' Kale [RSC]
- Landcress
- Mustard
- Radishes
- Swede
- Turnip
When these are harvested, follow with Winter cabbages and
Brussels sprouts
Bed 4: Legumes
Sow peas and beans (legume family). When harvest has
finished, lime the soil for brassicas which will move from area
three to occupy the space next.
- Alfalfa
- Clover
- Broad Beans
- French Beans (JR) 'Cherokee Trail of Tears' Climbing
French Bean [RSC]
- (JR) 'Cupidon' Dwarf French Bean (filet type) [RSC]
- Runner Beans
- Peas
After harvest, lime the soil for Brassicas which will be here
next
Bed 5: Perennials (not involved in Rotation):
- Globe Artichokes
- Asparagus
- Rhubarb
- Currants
- Gooseberries
- Raspberries
- Comfrey (JR) Russian comfrey [CS]
- Borage (JR) Borage [CS]
- Hyssop (JR) Hyssop, Pink-flowered [CS]
- Siberian Purslane (JR) Siberian Purslane (Montia
Sibirica) [CS]
- Rosemary
- Thyme
- Sage
- ......etc
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