Tuesday 25 November 2008

Public Meeting January 09

Torganics CSA will be holding a Public Meeting on 28th January, in the Small Hall of Glastonbury Town Hall from 7.30-9.30pm

Dan Keech, from the Soil Association, will be speaking, alongside Colum Pawson, our grower.

This is a chance to hear more about our plans, ask us any questions, volunteer and sign up for the harvest!

More details coming very soon - in the meantime please let us know if you would like to come by emailing torganics@hotmail.com

We hope to see you there!

Monday 24 November 2008

Film trailer

Our friends at Canalside CSA sent on this link - it's a trailer for a new film by Jean-Paul Jaud called 'Nos Enfants Nous Accuseront'. It makes for frightening but very interesting viewing and certainly reinforces the belief that there is just no doubt that organic farming is the only way forward.

http://www.nosenfantsnousaccuseront-lefilm.com/

Click on the link, wait for the page to load, then click on 'Voir la bande-annonce'

The site

This is the field next to the polytunnels at the CSA site, Paddington Farm on the outskirts of Glastonbury. Plans for next year are to cultivate this area, which until now has been pasture. Some drainage improvement and wind protection work on the northern boundaries (willow hurdles) also need to be done over the winter.


The polytunnel - crops of coriander, broad beans and winter salad are in the ground now, and the central path has been dug out with the soil piled up to make raised beds. Colum's in the picture here, with our friend Caz from Canalside CSA in Leamington Spa (http://www.canalsidecommunityfood.org.uk/) - one of the projects which inspired us to start Torganics.

Work's begun :)

Torganics Community Supported Agriculture is a project set up for the people of Glastonbury and surrounding area, to provide fresh organic produce locally and also opportunities for those involved to get their hands dirty, helping Colum the grower on volunteer days and taking part in seasonal celebrations of the harvest, throughout the year's cycle.

For more information about CSAs - the history, concept and other similar schemes in Britain, go to the Soil Association website here http://www.soilassociation.org/csa

We'll be posting up some photos of the site as it is, and updates on work there as well as the public meeting we're hoping to hold at the end of January in Glastonbury, where we will be explaining the idea behind CSAs, as well as inviting membership and subscription to the scheme.

We have a core group who are supporting Colum in the set-up, and anyone who would like to help out on the land is invited to let us know (torganics@hotmail.com) - Wednesdays will be our volunteer day for now.

Apart from the growing work, we are applying for a Somerset Grassroots grant, and for money from the Big Lottery's Local Food grant scheme - we hope that if we get this funding, it will cover some of the initial set-up costs.