Feeding Shipston in 2030 - the first step!

There were 20 people at the first Transition Shipston Open Space entitled "Feeding Shipston and the Surrounding Villages in 2030" on Tuesday 8th September.

At the beginning of the meeting several local people who had already started producing food locally told of their experiences.

* Frances Lee (see photo) from Witchford showed slides of the allotment she and others had started in the village earlier this year when they managed to get a local landowner to provide a hectare of land for a peppercorn rent. There are now 12 allotment holders who have all produced good crops in their first year.

* Keith Finlay told how they had bought their smallholding of 9 acres at Rowborough 20 years ago and are now able to feed an extended family of around 12 people for most of the year from their produce. he said that other local land owners had recently offered him land to farm and he was now looking afer an extra 6 acres along the Fosse.
* Graham Collier explained how he had the idea of a community orchard in the Tysoe area, put an advert in the local magazine and had now formed a nucleus of interested people. They are putting in for funding.
* James Pavitt from Transition Stratford told how the transition food group there had taken over allotments in a large urban garden in Stratford and how the first year had been a resounding success.
* Liz Atkinson asked for any information about existing local food production to be entered into the Local Food Directory that she and some friends are compiling.

The Open Space then formed into discussion groups based around:
- local meat and fish production
- finding land
- Bees
- Orchards
The discussions resulted in many ideas for future projects which are to be discussed further at the food group meeting in the Black Horse pub at 7.30 on Tuesday 21st September. Anyone who is interested in local food issues and activities welcome.