The Sims Hill Shared Harvest AGM will take place on 26 February at 7:30 pm at Horfield Meeting House, 300 Gloucester Road, Horfield, Bristol, BS7 8PD. (see map) Please save the date!
As a member-owned co-operative, Sims Hill can only survive and thrive with the active support and participation of all of its members. We plan on being done as close to 9:30 pm as possible, and we hope to see all of you there! (Non-members are also very welcome!)
New Year Workday – Timber Decking Removal
Sunday 13th January
10am-3pm
Eastside Roots, Stapleton Road Station, Easton
Eastside Roots is losing half of its site, so they generously offered us their timber-framed shelter and decking.
The plan is to rebuild it at Sims Hill as a packing shed/tea shed, using the decking for cladding.
A gang of volunteers and James’n’ Tim have taken down the shelter and some of the decking.
We need to get the rest out by the end of the month, and could do with some help.
Please bring a cordless drill with phillips screwdriver bits and/or a saw and/or crowbar, if you have them.
(N.B. this workday is not suitable for small children)
New Year Celebration – Big Bake, Stew’n'Roast
Sunday 13th January
5pm-8pm
Easton Community Centre, Kilburn Street, Easton, Bristol, BS5 6AW (see map here)
To welcome in the new year we are celebrating with a bring and share meal at Easton Community Centre.
Bring a big bake, stew or roast to share and any homebrew or left over goodies from Christmas!
Emmy is coming along with her harp and some musical friends to add to the ambience.
(N.B. this celebration is definately suitable for small children!!!)
Request: If you live near Easton Community Centre and are happy to bring along easily recognisable cutlery and crockery etc., please let me know Thanks (Tim 07973 256572)
Happy Christmas from the Hill!
Hello everyone, and thanks so much for your support this year. As a community supported project, Sims Hills Shared Harvest wouldn’t exist but for the support and belief of its members. 2012 has been a tough year, but we are still standing, and with your help have put together some exciting ideas and plans for 2013!
Perhaps the most important decision made at the last member’s meeting is that we need each member to recruit a half or full veg share member over the next few months to ensure that we meet our financial commitments for 2013.
read more »
Please take note of the following dates for Board meetings and Members’ meetings for 2013. The first Community Celebration date has also been confirmed (more details on that following shortly). Dates for the remaining Community Celebrations tbc.
Should any dates need to change, members will be notified by email and this will also be noted on the blog.
The next members’ meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 27th, at 7.30pm at Horfield Meeting House, 300 Gloucester Road, BS7 8PD. See map.
This is an open members' meeting, so please bring along any of your friends and neighbours who might be interested in learning more about Sims Hill. This is the meeting where we will be adopting the budget for 2013, so we need input from as many of our members as possible. The papers for the meeting will be sent out on Friday, 16 November.
Please find the headline agenda items below:
1. Update on drainage and landscaping from James Adamson
2. Update on plans for becoming a Permaculture LAND centre from Chris Sunderland and Alison Crowther.
3. Update on apprenticeship scheme planning from Tim Lawrence
4. Plans for new member recruitment from Chris Sunderland and James Adamson
5. Financial update and budget proposal from Bobbie Sunderland
6. Decision to be taken on budget for 2013
7. Winter celebration planning discussion led by Tim Lawrence
We look forward to seeing you there!
From Nicole Vosper of Somerset Community Food:
On Wednesday October 3rd, I joined a group of others to focus on answering the question, “How can we scale up urban agriculture in Bristol?”. Organised by Bristol Food Policy Council, the event took place at Co-exist in Bristol and brought together urban growers, community organisers and local foodies in Bristol who all care about how the city gets fed.
I went with interest as a rural grower that is soon to be feeding into the city and also to raise awareness that if Somerset was to feed itself that would impact on Bristol’s chances! Unfortunately cities aren’t the best model of human habitat patterns and would ultimately need to be fed by counties like Somerset that surround the city.
read more »
Hello! Because of the need to bring the tomato season to a close, we will all be receiving green tomatoes in our veg share this week. To help us deal with this sudden glut of the green stuff, Sims Hill member Naomi Woodspring provides us with the following recipes. Enjoy!
In the States, one of the joys of the end of harvest season is green tomatoes, especially in the South. Below are some of my favorite preserving recipes. Jars should be sterile, etc but I’m not going to go into those instructions – they are easily found online. These recipes are all in American measurements (cups, teaspoons, etc) again, equivalents are easily found online.
read more »
Due to scheduling conflicts, the Sims Hill Shared Harvest Autumn Community Celebration will now take place on 20 October instead of 13 October.
EVERYONE WELCOME!
Whether you are a member, interested in joining or just think this sounds like fun…
read more »
How do we scale up urban agriculture in Bristol?: a roundtable discussion
Date: 3 October, 6 to 8 pm
Venue: Co-exist, Hamilton House, 80 Stokes Croft, Bristol, BS1 3QY
Facilitators: Shannon Smith of Avon Organic and Joy Carey, author of Who Feeds Bristol?
Participants:
Misty Tunks of Knowle West Media Centre and the Elm project on using technology to link growers and their markets
Keith Cowling of Ashley Vale Allotment Association on the barriers to setting-up urban agriculture projects
Rebecca Marshall of the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens on their Community Land Advisory Service toolkit for urban agriculture start-ups
Tim Lawrence of Sims Hill Shared Harvest on urban agriculture and climate change
Mike Lloyd-Jones of the Bristol Pound Farm Link Scheme on developing local markets with the Bristol Pound and the Farmlink scheme
Read on for the latest report from the Hill and how the Board is proposing Sims Hill collectively responds to the current climactic challenges at our next open members’ meeting on 25 September. We need everyone there to help us make Sims Hill one of the most creative and resilient CSAs in the UK.
What is happening on the Hill?
As you know it has been very wet now since April (bar two short sunny interludes). Indeed, it was the wettest June on record (159 years) and one of the wettest springs on record. It is not just rain, from April through mid-July there was precious little sun and warmth. To add to this it has been perfect conditions for slugs; they are at pretty unknown population levels and voraciousness.
The cumulative effective of these conditions is bad news for vegetable growing. Growers with 20-30-40 years experience are saying that this is the worst year they can remember. Iain Tolhurst, one of the most respected organic growers in the country, recently wrote an email saying:
“…this season I am close to admitting defeat in a way that I have never felt before, (actually I am sure I have many times before but have fortunately forgotten the occasions) The weather of course as you all know, well those of you in the south that is, has been an absolute nightmare since the end of March. Never in all my years, have we had to endure such a long period of almost continual rain at this time of year, for 15 weeks it has been relentlessly wet. I have rainfall records going back 23 years and this is the worst so far. Occasionally there have been a few odd days when it just starts to dry out enough to contemplate some weed control or to re-drill some slug destroyed crops.”
read more »
