PS, sorry but the system would only let me put this in book reviews...

But heritage apple trees have been around and survived the local vagaries of climate and soil conditions, so it is good to protect and propagate from them, to maintain biodiversity. This will be needed as the climate is having extreme episodes, and hopefully, out of the large number of different varieties, some will have the resilience to carry on and survive.

Wouldn't it good if we all had an apple tree in the garden, whether it is a tall slim 'ballerina in a pot, or a spreading bramley in the grounds?  Local abundance for free - no more carbon foot prints wasted on refrigeration, transportation and storage. 

Today we had two apple grafting work shops and under the experienced and enthusiastic guidance of Mel and Nigel from the Leicestershire Heritage Apple Project Team, we achieved the potential of 21 new  apple trees!  In August, I will go and visit all the newly grafted trees, to photograph and open up the local virtual orchard for viewing!

 

 

 

 

After that it was put in the shed for a night and I thought that I would try it again to see if the cold has affected it... it now holds no charge at all so a new battery has been ordered... delivery time is 14-28 days :o(

In recognition of a new year, the commencement of the “Sustainable Harborough Challenge”, the fact that every Ounce of CO2 compounds the cumulative affect that is climate change  and the timely discovery that Sustrans have fixed the exit at the Northampton end of route 6 known locally as the Brampton valley way, I have decided that I am going to attempt to regularly commute to work by bicycle.

At this point I am only going to aim for once a week with the caveat that It will also be a fair weather venture as I don’t want to complete the 18.5 mile (According to Google maps) journey and be too disheveled before work.

View Larger Map

Why only once a week, initially fitness but until I know an accurate journey time to  and from work I have the issue that I might not see my 2 year old daughter. I would have to leave before she wakes and could possibly not get home until it is nearly her bed time.

I am giving myself a week to work my bike up to speed, slime filled inner tubes and lighting will be important factors in this… lots of light to cycle in the dark on an unlit route. I have already started this process, when I bought my bike about 9 years ago the shop gave me a light unit that came without battery pack or charger. I have cobbled together a 6v 4 amp lead acid unit and an old 6v 500 mili-amp charger that took about 2 days to charge the battery from scratch with… is there a better spec for the charger or is that about right?

My first ride target date is a week today, Tuesday 15th Jan.

For the few of us who watched Andrew Marr's first few episodes of the History of the World,  -the answer for people's survival lies in co-operation.  The early people started to help each other and co-operate and this led to the human kind surviving.

This appears so true today  -it will be the coming together of individuals at the grass root level.  By supporting each other's attempts to ratchet down our carbon foot print and improve our quality of life, by sharing ideas, lending a hand or a tool, then our own strivings will be facilitated and amplified.

Hence the importance of our Green Drinks meetings which are a coming together in the safety of a warm cosy pub room, and letting ideas be shared, expounded, explored and , like a run of drops in Tetris, create new scenarios and create the potential to link up and give energy and confidence to our grass root actions.

Come to the next meeting at the beginning of February - details in the next blog!

 

It's probably worth a visit.

Transition Harborough welcomes the appointment of Gavin Fletcher as the project manager for the forthcoming "Sustainable Harborough Challenge", as a former member of Transition Leicester we are confident that Gavin will understand the core drivers of the project as originally envisaged by the Transition Volunteers who have invested hundreds of hours in this bid.

Below is the RCC branded press release:

We are delighted to announce to partners the appointment of Gavin Fletcher as the Project Manager for the Big Lottery £1m Sustainable Harborough Challenge.

Gavin will join the RCC on 2^nd January 2013 and will initially be based at Community House, 133 Loughborough Road, Leicester,  until office premises for the Sustainable Harborough Challenge are identified and secured in Market Harborough when further appointments to the project will be made.

Gavin is currently Land and Biodiversity Team Manager at Groundwork where he has gained extensive experience of biodiversity and land projects and working with community and corporate partnerships.

He has managed a team working on planting community orchards and allotments as well as broader growing projects, sustainability and biodiversity. In addition he has experience of managing the Eco House in Leicester which is run as an inspirational community hub for those who want to improve the sustainability of their lives. Gavin has extensive experience of working with volunteers as well as managing a team of 7 paid staff who between them deliver 8 projects.

Gavin was chosen from a very strong field of applicants and clearly has the right experience to manage this exciting project on behalf of the many partners and the people of Harborough. We are delighted that he will be bringing with him such wide ranging experience and enthusiasm for sustainability.

Gavin’s appointment was the unanimous decision of the partnership interview panel which consisted of Jeremy Prescott (RCC Chief Executive) Diana Cook (RCC Community Engagement Manager) Oliver Savage (Climate Action, Leicestershire County Council)  Daniel Curtis (Environment Agency) and Sarah Clarke (observer on behalf of Transition Town Market Harborough)

When asked Gavin for a quote he said:

"I can't wait to meet all the people who have put so much effort into the sustainability of Market Harborough and securing this funding so far, and working with them on this exciting project to show what can be done when people come together with a common purpose supported by lottery funding.

Whilst I have been working in sustainability and conservation for many years, this project brings all of my interests together into a project that could show the way forward for many towns in Britain."

Please feel free to circulate the above information through your networks but please always use the Big Lottery logo (copy attached)

We will soon be arranging a partners meeting and will be  providing further details shortly.

Best wishes

Diana (RCC Leicestershire & Rutland)

Friday brought forth the fifth Transition Harborough AGM although this is the first time we have chosen to base an event around it... and what a good idea that was.

We met at the Green house vegetarian restaurant which opens in Joules eatery (in Joules yard at the rear of the Joules shop on the high street (Store number one of the chain)) on the first Thursday and Fridays of the month and is run by the lovely Nathan and Kerry.

We had some great vegan food, the Pumpkin casserole and a chilli seemed very popular and indeed tasted fantastic... I was particularly taken by the Garlic bread that seemed much more involved than standard garlic bread. This excellent food and three bottles of Shepherds Nene Organic Larger helped set the tone of the evening.

We had invited two members of the Transition Leicester group who had established the Green Fox Energy Cooperative to come along and explain their project to us and the synergies between our tow groups. Ben Dodds was also involved in the Woolhope woodfuel cooperative and left a number of prospectuses with members to read.

We then took out twenty minutes to process the necessities of an AGM, a brief statement from our facilitator Reverend Brian Davis who was duly nominated and returned to his position. Next I gave a very brief statement on our accounts which after three years of not much happening has been rather busy. We closed this section with Mark Baverstock briefly reflecting on what we have achieved this year. Both Mark and myself were also returned in our roles.

We closed the evening with a presentation from Dr Chris Stoats from the Allerton Project in Loddington which is a research farm exploring conservation grade farming... not quite organic but a huge step in the right direction. He explained some of the projects that they had been involved with and one was preventing run off from the fields, it transpires that over 90% of the run off is from the channels carved by the tractor tyres. This was just one of many fascinating gems of information and I am sure that I speak for the group when I say we look forwards to working closer with the farm in the future.

I wonder how much will change before the next AGM what with the Sustainable Harborough challenge about to start soon.

Onwards and upwards and as always, enjoy your Transition, it should be a party!

Darren

This year we have much to be proud of, we have had a stall at the Shambala festival, bought our own community apple press for community use, held our second annual apple day and invested hundreds of (maybe a thousand) volunteer hours into our bid to the Big Lottery "Communities livings sustainably" fund. With the help of our partner the Rural Community Council (Leicestershire & Rutland) they liked our bid and ideas and awarded our project £1 million over the next five years to help our dreams become realities.

So you see, there will be much to celebrate this year.

We will be holding the get together at the "Green room" vegetarian resteurant which is in Joules eatery to the rear of the Joules shop on the High street on November 9th and we are told we will be having a Vegan feast. Even as a non vegetarian I find this idea very appealing and so hope that as many of our friends and partners will be able to join us.

See you there

 

Darren

Three members of the "Sustainable Harborough Challenge" group were also in attendance as this project is inline with our projects desire to establish woodland for a number of projects including Agroforrestry, Managed woodland for woodfuel production and a green burial site.

Darren Woodiwiss agreed to sit on the Woodland committee to help plan and also co-ordinate the two groups activities. There is the slight difference in agenda as our projects are looking for productivity and job creation as part of the process.

In a nut shell the Welland Woodland projects would be looking to establish woodland that meets the following criteria

• Public amenity
• Mainly consisting of Native trees
• Bio-diversity

And the sustainable Harborough Challenge criteria is:

• Public amenity
• Bio-diversity
• Productivity
• Job creation through social enterprise
• Carbon sequestration

We are looking forward to the development of these two projects against the obvious challenges of finding suitable land with the backdrop of land being speculatively aquired by developers to drive forward the house building agenda that is so prevalent locally. To be community assets these woods must be close to the community that they serve.

To find out more contact Darren Woodiwiss on 07974 220102 info at transitionharborough.org.uk or Michael Hitchcox on wellandwildwoods at hotmail.co.uk

I think you know how many changes were made really so I will not tell you!

Here it is

Darren

Saturday October 13^th till 4pm

The Square, Market Harborough

Apple Press, Tombola, Stalls and Children’s Activities

 

Apple juice for you to try

www.transitionharborough.org.uk

 

Today was the first day of the Lubenham Straw weekend.  The sun shone down studiously all day from a blue sky - summer!  The crowds oozed in and out of the Green all afternoon, swirling around on the tractor rides, and seeping down and into the many cul de sacs in the village, seeking out yet another surprise scare crow location.

We had the Apple press in prime view of the tractor ride  behind the Main Street.  I thought that promoting this community owned press may have been difficult in a year where the early cold nights affected the apple blossoms, then the protracted four months of rain kept the bees sheltering in the hives, leaving much of the surviving blossom unfertilised.  Though there are pockets of productive trees, many have very few apples on.

So we meant to have lots of discussions about eating the fresh apples, and enjoying cooking with apples, and sharing recipees.  We could have mentioned storing of excess apples by bottling or putting into boxes in a cool place.  But no, the conversations were all around the press, and testing our remaining apple juice pressed and pasteurised from last year.  And hey! It won first prize in the Lubenham local produce competion!

The Apple press is community owned and includes the scratter for grating the apples and a pasteuriser. We hope to share the ownership with 25 people, each having a share (at £55 each) which will mean having all this to take home and use for two days during the apple season in the autumn.  We have set up a calendar so that people can select a date to suit themselves and fit in with everyone else in the group.  Perhaps a group of friends may get together and share a share even!  I am thinking of how we could use the press and pastueriser at different times of the year, such as using the pasteuriser for bottling.  Next year if there are more apples, we will do a bring your apples to the Annual Apple Day in Harborough (or Lubenham) again!

Moving on, the next topic to expound on, is the pilot grafting project.  We are enlisting the help of the Leicestershire Heritage Apple Project team to run a work shop in February or March next year.  As the numbers in the work shop are limited to 10-15 people, the plan is evolving that the first work shop will be with the Heritage Team training us to take the apple grafts.  Then if there are lots more interested people, we may then run our own second work shop to allow everyone to have a chance to join in.  The Heritage team charge £15 per person, and this pays for two 'root stocks'.  Root stocks are young established apple varieties that are regularly used in grafting.  Then this will mean that each person will have take two grafts from local Heritage apple varieties.  They can take these home to nurture and become it's Apple Guardian! 

It sounds easy, but if you are new to grafting, success rates are down to 50%, which means that some people may have bad luck, and both their trees may not survive, and others will have good luck, and have two successful grafts.  So we will aim to have emotionally hardy people to sign up for the work shops, who can cope with the vagaries of these young grafts!

As we get organised, I hope to contact people who have left us an e-mail contact, and advertise in the Harborough Mail to find people to help pilot these ideas.

(For all those who did a hand print with a pledge to reduce your carbon foot print today at the Lubenham Scarecrow day, I am working on the idea to photograph and scan the wonderful prints!)

Judithe

 

Sustainable schools, bringing sustainability into both the management of the school buildings, and also inspiring the people in the schools to teach, learn and handle sustainable ideas

Buzzing borders, which supports the bees who provide the service of pollination, and in turn we must fulfill our side of the contract , to appreciate the flowers they need to collect nectar and pollen from.

Eco homes The setting up of an Ecohouse which demonstrates sustainable systems, and inspiring people to develop super homes - ie increase the energy efficiency of their homes by 60% and so achieve Super home status.

New Home Owner Leaflet this will bring together lots of information such as about council services, water metering, local groups

State of the Town Report this will monitor the key indicators of the health and sustainability of the community, economy, happiness

Growing Initiatives which range from community gardens, to community supported agricultural market gardens, to orchards, both community and virtual

Local Food Hub where you can offer produce for sale ranging from small scale excesses to large scale production, and then people can access these to buy, and so stimulating the local food production economy

Insulation Retrofit co-operative  which supports making homes more energy efficient, and supports subsidies to those in disadvantaged situations

Community Champions these are champions in lots of areas such as composting, Green Deal Advisors, water use

Community Energy Co-operative to fit renewable forms of energy systems (PV, solar thermal, biomass)

The Harborough Pound this local currency will help to keep local money circulating in Harborough, stimulating the local economy. (We visited Stroud and looked at the Stroud pound to see how this worked earlier this year)

The lottery money will be used to put project managers in place to co-ordinate these project areas, with the support of local professionals and volunteers.

Judith

 

 

 

Nigel and Mel are setting up an orchard concentrating on these unique Leicestershire apples. They are also training people and organisations to be 'Apple Guardians'. These are people who have space to keep an apple tree, and nurture it, and eventually offer budding wood as grafts. In this way, the varieties can be reproduced and preserved for prosperity.

 

I visited Cotesbach Hall last month, and was shown their row of sturdy apple grafts taken last year, and now standing about 1-2 feet tall. They also have a very old orchard, dating back to the mid eighteen hundreds, with an old victorian brick wall rising up one side, and a huge old hedge on another side. In this orchard there are a whole group of heritage apple trees, rising up 6-8 feet into the air. There was not much blossom, which is not surprising after the frosty nights early on, and then the months of rain meaning the bees have been much less active.

 

Then, there it was.....Martins Custard! The heritage apple of loca lrenown. It had old wrinkly bark and arms standing up like a witch towering over her cauldren!

 

The latest Leicestershire Heritage Apple project is around the Foxton's Pride. Interestingly, when the three old Foxton trees of this name flowered then fruited, they are had different shaped apples. This means that they are probably of differing varieties. They have all been grafted, and the fruits of this next generation will be awaited with interest. Discussions with the British waterways (who are partners with the Harborough Transition's Communities Living Sustainbly Grant) reveal that they have old apple trees on their land which have been labeled as Foxton's pride – so another project in the making, to identify these.

 

To tie this all up, I have completed a grant application from  'Project Dirt'. If this is successful, then it will provide funds to buy 100 apple trees to create our own 'virtual' orchard and apple guardians local to Harborough!

 

 

10.30am Cotesbach Hall LE17 4HX

The site of the 1607 Enclosures Riot , a restored Tudor farm house, and acres of agricultural and wood land, now managed under Natural England Countryside Stewardship.  I learned about the two metre field margins where nitrogen poor soil supports the wild flowers, the pollen and nectar mix fields of white and pink campions garishly enhancing the lush green growth of therippling meadow adjacent.  The layering of the hedges with hazel and willow wound into the native hawthorn and blackthorn,  trees spiking at every four metres.  There was meadowland, uncut,  providing seed for the birds.  Ancient, jagged gaunt hawthorne trees standing like old men, for an enclosure.  The ridge and furrows extending beyond.

 

They have recently gained organic farm status, and so now have a flock of Texel sheep grazing, uncrowded, who move as part of a rotation around the pasture land.  the Texel breed originally came from the island of Texel in the Netherlands and are used for meat, supplying Jason's butcher shop on the farm.

 

Saw my first orchid of the year, a pale spike of purple merging with the grass in the boggy field margins.  Browsing through the flower books later, I wondered whether this was the Early Purple Orchid (Orchis mascula), recognisable by the black splodges on the leaves.  Next time, I will look more closely at the lower petal lip for broadness and depth of the two indentations.  This would help distinguish O mascula from the Dactylorhiza fushi (lives in basic soils) and the D ericetorum (lives in peats), together the depth of purple colour.

 

2pm Eyebrooks Wild Bird Feeds LE16 8SN

The next farm was cross country towards Eyebrook Reservoir.  The courtyard was full of bird food hangers in all corners, and of all shapes.  This is another farm who has Stewardship of the English Countryside, and have guided tours to see the aspects of this demonstrated. Alas, I had missed the tour, but felt well compensated as I was able to buy 26kg of Nigella bird seed for the gold finches!  I'll be back next time for mixed corn for the hens.

 

4pm Whetstone Farm and Community Allotment LE8 6LX

Chugging back at my optimal 55mph, I found my final destination at Whetstone Farm, a PYO fruit farm.  A quick dash round their courtyard stalls, of fresh cranberry and olive focaccia bread, fire oven cooked pizza and Sandra's jam stall, had me leaving loaded with Pear and chocolate jam. Then onto the CSA to join in the Community day .  Ahh ... the last couple of volunteers were coming out,  their weekly veg collection bags swinging from their arms.   So I joined Simon for Red Bush tea,and helped pot on the last few marrows that were bursting the seams of the pots, waiting to go into the field.  Trays were stacking up, of lettuce, brassicas and leeks, impatiently waiting for the sun to dry out the rain logged field.

 

All the original aims of the day were a faded memory, as orchids, ancient hawthorne men, sacks of  bird seed, and the CSA polytunnel full of produce and plants filled the vision.

Hi there,

We are holding a community consultation on Saturday by asking the public to fill in a quick questionnaire about issues relating to our £1 million ‘Communities Living Sustainably’ lottery bid. This is needed as part of the bid to provide proof of need for some of the elements of the bid.

If you are available between the hours of 10am and 2pm when we anticipate we will be undertaking the surveys please let us know as we need your help!

You can also fill the form in yourself at

http://www.ruralcc.org.uk/uploads/294fc3af66dbbfe449422309.htm

Best regards

Darren