ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The Annual General Meeting of the Harpers Lane Allotments Society will take place in the marquee outside the Amenities Hut at the site on Sunday October 14th at 2.00 p.m.

A formal agenda will be put up in the Brew Room in the next couple of weeks but items will include:

• Secretary's Report
• Treasurer's Report (and presentation of Annual Accounts)
• Report by the Self-Management Steering Committee
• Election of Society Officers for 2012-2013 (it is anticipated that the committee elected at the meeting will also form the founding Board of Directors of the Harpers Lane Co-operative)
• Presentation of Society Prizes

Would any members wishing to stand for the Committee / Board in 2012/13 please contact the Secretary as soon as possible.

OPEN DAY

Despite the occasional downpour Open Day on August 12th was a great success.

We estimate that around 500 people came onto the site during the afternoon.

The two new marquees worked wonderfully - many thanks to Bolton CVS and the Big Bolton Small Grants Programme for the grant that enabled us to buy them.

We raised around £580 for Society funds - as usual the Tombolas were major contributors (£227) and this year the cafe raised more than £250 - plus the Hospice raised over £125 in collections

Many thanks to everyone who helped (and to Bolton Council, St Peters Church and Peter Williams for the loan of chairs and tables) and to all the people who had stalls or ran games etc. Special thanks to the dancers and the Soya Band, much enjoyed by everyone. Special thanks too, to the teams who erected and then dismantled the marquees.

We're hoping to publish a set of photos and the Show results in the next couple of weeks, but just now we all need a chance to recharge our batteries. Next stop the play!

Food Growing Courses

From Transition Town Bolton ..............

More veg growers needed: Come and learn from the experts!

Fancy a career change? Want a better quality of life? Why not help make our region more sustainable? We are looking for more farmers and new food growers for a proven market in and around Greater Manchester.

Make the most of an amazing training opportunity to learn how to set up an organic food growing business from the growers themselves this Autumn. We have a growing market for organic local food, an amazing network of support and training straight from the field – what's stopping you?!

We are in the unusual position in Greater Manchester, of having a market for local organic produce that actually pays the cost of production, not the volatile market prices! But we need more crops, and therefore more organic commercial growers local to Greater Manchester.

To try and address this, and grow more growers to supply the likes of Manchester Veg People, Unicorn Grocery and Dig Food, we are running a unique four and a half day course for people who are interested in starting up a market garden/veg growing business.

The course, is being organised as part of Kindling’s

Greater Manchester Land Army and Big Dig projects and is being taught by the experts themselves:

Jenny Griggs of Climate Friendly Food /Fir Tree Farm,

Glebelands City Growers and Moss Brook Growers.

The training will run on four consecutive Saturdays in September/October and will involve additional placement days at local organic farms (these will ideally be during the week in between the Saturday course days, but alternatives can be discussed if trainees need to fit them in around work). The idea of this is to put what you are learning into practice and to bring up questions while you are still on the course.

The course will run from September 22nd to the 20th October, on five consecutive Saturdays (with one of those a half day with an accountant, focused on finance and business, date tbc.).

It will be a mixture of practical work and theory and will be based at the different organic growing sites of the course tutors:

Glebelands City Growers , Climate Friendly Food's base at Fir Tree Farm and at Moss Brook Growers .

The course will cover the key areas for setting up and running an organic food growing enterprise, including:

· Introduction to setting up a commercial veg production enterprise e.g. legal, records, H&S, working with volunteers, seed sowing schedule.

· Understanding and maintaining soil fertility (a foundation of organic veg production)

· Commercial small scale market gardening – focusing on plant propagation and salad leaf production

· Field scale veg production

· Pests and diseases.

· Machinery maintenance

· Finances and running a small business.

Anyone interested in becoming an organic grower for Greater Manchester, who can commit to all the days of the course (including the placements – though days for this can be negotiated), can apply for a place on the course.

We need more growers, you want to grow, what's stopping you? Get in touch now!!

This course is free (Funded by Making Local Food Work), but a deposit will be required as way of making sure people take it seriously and turn up! (you will get it back when you've completed the course and placement days). Places on this training are limited so please get in touch now to avoid disappointment.

To book your place please contact

helen@kindling.org.uk or call 0161 226 2242

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http://www.transitionlinks.org
http://www.twitter.com/ttbolton
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Wigan Diggers Festival

 

8th September 2012

 

12.00 - 8.00 p.m. 

 

Town centre procession, symbolic digging re-enactment and tree planting ceremony from 11.00am until 12.00 noon. Assembly point to be confirmed.

The FREE Open Air Festival will celebrate, via the medium of poetry, songs, film and a range of other activities, the life and ideas of Wigan born and bred Gerrard Winstanley (1609-1676) and the 17th Century ‘Diggers’ movement he was the inspirational leader of.
Also known as the ‘True Levellers’, the Diggers were one of the first truly egalitarian political movements of the poor and propertyless anywhere in the World, and the first to argue for full equality of men and women. Winstanley and they famously asserted: “The World was made a common treasury for all!”
Festival organisers intend to pack the day with an array of activities, including audio visual presentations, an exhibition, stalls and live entertainment featuring a range of bands, acoustic artists, and radical
http://wigandiggersfestival.org/performers/
Map of location at: http://wigandiggersfestival.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/diggersfestsite1.jpg
Circulated by Transition Town Bolton
Community solutions - designed by everyone
http://www.transitionlinks.org
http://www.twitter.com/ttbolton
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Transition-Town-Bolton/222284704464582?sk=wall