Conservation, history, green living and local self-sufficiency are the priorities for these volunteers.

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Friday Jul 31, 2009

Elvis Gets An Eviction Notice And I Dig Up Lunch

Although it was my second trip to Heeley City farm, I still couldn’t get over the novelty of hopping off the train, wandering twenty minutes down the road, and finding myself smack-bang in the middle of sheep and pig pens. Today I was greeted by the sight of Elvis standing proudly on a single rock in the middle of his field, which struck me as rather surreal, as I’d only just turned off from a quiet residential street crowded with terrace houses.

My first half an hour was spent filling out forms, which wasn’t quite what I’d hoped, but it was a necessary evil. Thankfully, it was all up hill from there. After I’d finished signing my life away on health and safety forms, I was taken to the herb garden, where I helped shift barrow loads of mint and thyme around the farm. As lunch time approached, I got drafted into digging up potatoes which had been planted some months ago in the organic vegetable patch, and were now ready to be eaten. At twelve thirty we all congregated in the farm kitchen, to enjoy platefuls of the potatoes we’d dug up earlier in the morning, cooked with herbs from the herb garden, and a leafy salad, also freshly plucked from the farm garden. It was delicious - and how often do you sit down to a meal that’s been out of the ground for less than an hour?

After wolfing down a helping of potatoes and salad, in addition to the packed lunch I’d brought with me (I’d been working hard!!!) I was pointed in the direction of the South Yorkshire Energy Centre, where I was assured they’d have “something” for me to do. That “something” turned out to be sampling the fresh berry smoothies they were planning on selling in the farm café the next day. That’s the sort of “something” I like! But, potato-eating and smoothie-drinking fun and games over, I was charged with designing posters for the proposed smoothie-sale, before laminating and cutting out arrows for an ‘archaeological dig.’

Now, those were two words that required an explanation. Halfway through laminating my seventy-fifth arrow, I collared one member of staff and inquired as to what this archaeological dig was. Apparently, it was happening in Elvis’ field the following week. The plot where Heeley farm stood, used to be a row of Victorian terrace houses, which had been demolished to make way for a bypass. The residents were non too pleased about a bypass running past their back gardens and duly protested. The council eventually gave in, but the houses had already been demolished, and the land became Heeley city farm. Now, poor Elvis, standing all unsuspecting out there on his rock, was about to be temporarily ousted while archaeologists from Sheffield university, volunteers, and any passers-by who could be dragged into the fray, mucked in to dig out No. 57.

I realised this was something I’d like to get involved in. After all, how often do you get the chance to excavate a half-demolished Victorian terrace house, in a farm, in the centre of Sheffield? The Energy Centre staff kindly gave me a flier about the dig, and said they’d be happy for me to lend a hand the following week.

So, my first full day at the farm complete, and with new skills acquired in potato-digging, herb-shifting, arrow-snipping and smoothie-tasting, I headed back to the train station, hoping that, the following week, I’d be down in a trench, helping archaeologists excavate a Victorian terrace house.

Posted by Jessica ( 12:56 PM )
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Tuesday Jul 21, 2009

Bronze Age Sheep, Pineapple Mint and Elvis the Goat

A quick perusal of the do-it.org database revealed a wealth of opportunities, but one in particular leapt out at me, and that was Heeley City farm. If I'm honest, my first thoughts were of ace reality TV programme The Secret Millionaire, which had featured community and city farms on a number of occasions. I'd always thought it a stroke of genius, helping those in inner-city areas to get in touch with Mother Nature. "Why isn't there anything like that around here?" I'd wondered. Well, apparently there was all long.

My main reason for wanting to get involved, was that Heeley farm makes a point of bringing together volunteers from a range of backgrounds and cultures. Growing up in a small, self-contained village, I can appreciate how invaluable it is to get out of your bubble and meet different people.

So, three days later I was booked in for an informal interview and a nosey around. I wasn't disappointed. The sheer randomness of the place was impressive. There were animals ranging from your typical farm fare - sheep, pigs and horses - to rare breeds - a primitive species of sheep that has no flocking instinct, and looks like a cross between a goat and a deer - and the biggest and hairiest goat I'd ever seen, whom everyone called Elvis.

There were also herb gardens - boasting everything from garlic chives, to pineapple mint - and organic vegetable gardens, onsite historical projects where I could really get my hands dirty, and a whole building dedicated to promoting sustainability and renewable energy, causes rather dear to my heart.

I had a chat with a few staff members, who asked me what areas I'd be interested in working in, to which I replied "everything!" I was duly assured I would get the chance to try everything.

My first visit left me convinced that the farm's aims and ethos were in tune with my own, and I couldn't wait to start volunteering proper, the very next week.

Posted by Jessica ( 8:42 PM )
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Monday Jul 20, 2009

Haikus, hospitals and now volunteering

Hello, this is Jessica, and welcome to my Blog! I'm 22 and finished a BA in Creative Writing at Bolton University a year ago, which was lots of fun, even though being able to knock out a haiku in ten seconds flat, isn't a skill most employers look for.

So, I spend my days alternating between writing for various websites/newspapers/magazines/whoever will have me, whilst working as a Catering Assistant at my local hospital and spending approximately twenty hours a week on job websites. All in all, it's not a bad set-up, I have some pennies to go to the pub with at weekends, my various writing commitments stop my brain from dissolving, and a more exciting 9-5 will come around the corner soon (fingers crossed!)

However, recently I began to see a pattern emerging, and that pattern went: home-work-pub, repeat, and it's never a good thing to have three main ports of call at the tender age of 22. So, I decided to do something about it, and since no-one seemed about to ask me to move to London to run their international business empire single handedly, I decided to try out some volunteering.

Volunteering is something I've always been interested in, especially anything to do with animals. I'm a vegetarian (with several ill-fated but well-meaning attempts at veganism under my belt) and while at university I volunteered with a fantastic conservation group that had me chopping down saplings and small trees and weaving them into hedgerows on the very first day - which isn't your usual Monday morning activity! Although, spending my first session in the middle of an abandoned parkland with a bunch of axe and chainsaw-wielding strangers, did put me slightly on edge!

So, I set out to get out of my rut and hopefully contribute something to society in the process. Hopefully something that involved animals and conservation, without any chainsaws and axes this time.

Posted by Jessica ( 10:24 AM )
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Wednesday Jul 15, 2009

Dig for victory?

Last night my transition town did our first Guerrilla Gardening. Under cover of night... OK it was still light, and we weren't being that covert.

Despite spending my tired monday night on the end of a spade, I couldn't recommend the activity highly enough. In fact our growing group has made some really exciting progress in the last few weeks.

Thanks to the enthusiasm of our co-ordinator we have made tons of links with our community in a matter of months, and thanks to her we found ourselves standing on an unloved pile of earth beside the A10 for two hours last night.

As I stood atop the brick-built council planter, digging away in the fading light, I saw London rushing past in buses, in cars and on foot, and I thought: this is my street, my city and I am making my mark. 

At the end of my old road is a medium-sized estate. The unloved planter stands on the corner, looking out onto London's longest road. The space was a lot bigger than we anticipated. Big enough to hold two trees, now only one remains, and the rest was a rather uncharming mass of brambles, with copious amounts of litter. Oh, and about a gozillion snails.

By the time I got there three of them (not the snails) were well underway in the bramble clearance. A broken bench facing our patch was being repaired (ever-resourceful Jo had bought some timber at the weekend to slot into the concrete legs). I dug up a rosemary plant from my garden for the project and it smelled wonderful while we worked. Passers-by showed varying amounts of interest, and one man, an Egyptian farmer who knew Jo from their children's school, helped us dig. A friend of his walking past joined in too.

I fought the bramble roots with a spade for about an hour, pulling out cans and food wrappers, and there was so much gusto flying about, the middle prong of one of the forks snapped. The impromtu helpers dug and wrestled out some old bricks buried in the soil just where we wanted the mulberry tree.

All finished and contented at about 9.30 we tested out the bench, while admiring our work and sipping some Turkish wine. Eventually we took the snails, the recycling and two or three wheelbarrows of compostible foliage with us to release and recycle.

Everything we planted was edible, and we promised to water something every time we pass by, which is every day for most of us. I can't wait until the rosemary's, big and the smell, like roast lamb, wafts out reminding the city where the food we eat comes from serving as a testament that even in London nature is closer than we think, and more than just a convenient place to throw litter.

 

Posted by Laura ( 4:56 PM )
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Wednesday Jul 08, 2009

Transition towns

It’s about a year since I first heard about Transition Towns when, in a baptism of fire I went along to their annual conference in place of a friend who couldn’t make it. I didn’t really know what to expect from the weekend butwas approaching the finals for my degree and desperately needed a break to refresh myself.

I’ve always been passionate about the environment but that week I felt I entered a whole new world. There was a tangible optimism and an infectious energy about what these people were doing. Visioning exercises followed workshops before we ended the three days doing what can only be described as a giant hokey-cokey!

I met people who had come from as far away as Japan to talk about sustainability, and soon learnt more about the concept of Peak Oil and how it would affect our lives. Peak Oil describes the point when oil reserves become depleted and prices ‘peak’, a process which has already started. In the next decade it is predicted it will become too expensive to maintain our current way of life and when you think about how much we rely on this black gold, it is a frightening prospect.

However, rather than standing on a soapbox and waving a self-righteous finger at the world, founder Rob Hopkins came up with a workable and rather attractive solution. As our food supplies are so vulnerable to oil prices he realised that by relying on our own communities and producing food locally we can tackle this.  

Coming back to London I just couldn’t see how the idea of local self-sufficiency could work in a city, however, with so many people crammed into a small space, and hardly any free land. After some discussion with members of my Friends of the Earth group, who felt the same, the idea went to the back of my mind.

A year later I was elated to find that someone in my area felt brave enough to address these issues and start their own group, to take a part of North London on the transition away from oil dependence. And they were based just 10 minutes from my house! I sent them an email and less than a week later found myself with three other women in the co-ordinator’s front room discussing growing vegetables on railway platforms.

Transition Towns can address anything from reducing waste to creating a local currency to keep transportation down, but my group focuses on growing food. This suits me perfectly as I love nature and gardening. We’ve had two meetings so far with another coming up, but we’ve managed an event in the local school and one in the park, as well as making lots of connections with our community. I’ve met some great people I may never have spoken to otherwise.

I’ve taken on two projects of my own, both in their early stages, and one entirely my idea, and this week I’m arranging meetings with a horticultural centre to try and set up training for people to grow their own food. So many people love the idea of community and we have had so much support so far. I really feel I’m part of something special where I can make a difference.

Posted by Laura ( 3:46 PM )
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Ecological learnings

So, an introduction...I'm Laura. I'm a recently qualified – and largely unemployed - journalist. I'm originally from Somerset and finished my degree in Nutrition last year at Westminster University in Central London. As I'm a sucker for punishment I went straight into a very intensive NCTJ (National Council for the Training of Journalists) qualification in January, where I had 'writing tight' drilled into me. I am now fully able not to waste a single word (!) I stayed in London for the jobs and now write for a handful of websites, mostly on the environment.

My ecological leanings started in childhood, when a friend and I were nicknamed 'Greenpeace' for trying to save the pond newts from becoming crude science experiments for the more gruesome boys in our class. We were tiny defenders of the environment then, and I like to think I'm carrying on that tradition now. I've been involved with various environmental organisations and activities in the last few years but things moved up a gear after I discovered Transition Towns about a year ago.

Since then I've found myself more involved with trying to make a change to my environment than I ever was before. Because Transition Towns work at a community level they get you in touch with the people around you, which really appealed to me. In the past I've stood on the street trying to get people to sign bits of paper about airport expansion, but it always felt like I could come and go from these activities and more often than not I'd drift away from them when something else came up. Because our Transition is so small (there are about 15 of us running the projects in our area) I feel the weight of responsibility on my shoulders, and that's really motivating: I don't want to let my group down.

 

Posted by Laura ( 3:44 PM )
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