Richard Gittins at The Plot
New FarmStarter at The Plot Richard Gittins explains how communities can become more sustainable in a changing world…
Over the next two or three decades, the impacts of the change in our climate will bring increased numbers of wildfires, floods and droughts.
Whilst many of these disasters will play out abroad, and on our TV screens, in time the effects will be felt at home.
This is particularly true if the global food supply chain collapses as many experts predict.
The Climate Majority Project advocates Strategic Adaptation For Emergency Resilience (SAFER).
At a household level this means adapting our properties to collect rainwater, learning how to take solar panels off-grid so they can produce electricity if the National Grid goes down, and growing your own food.
But we also need to adapt at a community level.
This is very much what FoodFutures is about in terms of food sustainability.
I realised I could grow enough food for my family, but what if my neighbour was hungry?
I started to think about the possibility of using common land in Slyne-with-Hest to grow food for the village.
But before considering this in too much detail, I needed to learn how to grow food at that scale.
This is where the FarmStart course came in – a year long programme run by FoodFutures that enables future growers to learn both business and horticulture skills needed to run a small-scale growing enterprise.
We’ve been learning about crop plans that help you ensure that you sow enough seeds, but not too many, to plant out in the area reserved for that particular vegetable or herb.
How to get the right temperature in the polytunnel for successful germination.
How to prepare the ground for planting. Put another way, how to get good tilth (tilled soil).
We learnt about what you can add to soil to get the perfect pH, and about drainage and nutrients without bringing commercially made fertilizers.
The two-hour presentation on composting was fascinating. “It’s real- life alchemy – changing scraps into black gold.”
The course is both theoretical and practical. Dennis, the course leader, has a PhD in hydroponics and years of experience as a grower both in the UK and in Greece.
The other course participants also bring a wealth of ideas and humour which adds to the experience.
With apologies to The Prodigy, hey, hey, hey, I’m a farm starter.
