Who would have thought back in 2010 when we, as Green Ovingham, sat by the fire in The Bridge End pub (sadly a victim of Storm Desmond flooding and no longer open), considering all the ways we might create a sustainable village, that our ideas would have shaped dreams and that those dreams are becoming a reality.
Our idea was to find a way to make the food we eat more sustainable – fewer food miles, less washing and packing, chemical free, working in harmony with nature, encouraging wildlife, utilising skills and knowledge gained over generation, making sure our children were connected to where food comes from… and so our dream has been to create a community owned farm and in so doing, turning us as consumers into producers. And we discovered we were not alone, across the UK small scale, community farming was, well… growing.
So here we are celebrating 10 years of growing. We haven’t got to the whole farm part of the dream… yet. But we have for the past 9 years (we need to discount the first year as the summer of 2012 washed away many of our crops, it wasn’t a great start!) been producing a wide range of veg with very limited resources. And we are proud of all our achievements.
GO Local Food has gone from a 1 acre field, land that had not been cultivated for over 20 years, to 4.5 acres of land across 2 sites (Ovington and Matfen), with 5 polytunnels, growing up to 50 varieties of vegetables and, last year, producing approximately 10 tonnes of veg. All this means we are, as one member puts it “offering veg I have not tried before … making me appreciate the taste of truly fresh local food.” As you might imagine there are lots of ingredients that make this possible.
First and foremost are our members, each contributing in different ways, building co operative working. Growing each year (yes more growing) we now have 108 members and, of course, there is room for more. Our members get involved in tricky discussions, make decisions, volunteer – sharing skills and experience on and off the fields, benefit from social events, workshops and an ever growing (yet again) range of local produce from cheese to chocolate, and a plastic free refill zone…and of course have the opportunity to take a crop share subscription for a weekly share of the crops. “organic, local, and full of nice veg and lovely people”. And we have room for more – care to join us?
Vegetables are best grown with some assistance! Our growing team of 14 Workshares is led by an experienced horticulturalist, who doubles up as an innovative creator, turning waste materials e.g. bucket handles and 5 litre plastic containers, into useful tools. Poly tunnels make a huge difference to helping us grow all year round. And our compost bays produce tons of well cooked plant waste into worm full humus to spread on the fields. “demonstrating that small scale growing and local ownership works well.”
Compost in the making
And so to the celebrations, we are looking forward to welcoming visitors to our Open Days, supplying our Food Friends (local pubs, cafes, resturants) with a selection of veg and finding out how they have incorporated our veg into their menus, a grand Kale-ee for all our current, past members and supporters. We are also planning to be out and about again – so look out for us at Hexham Farmers Market and other community events.
