Sims Hill Shared Harvest

Sims Hill is looking to recruit a Farm Manager to build upon the great work of our current Farm Manager Miriam Schoen who is moving out of the country.

Job Title: Farm Manager – Sims Hill Shared Harvest, Bristol
Status: Employed, 4 days per week
Contract: Permanent, subject to three months notice by either side. Working hours may also be varied at three
months notice.
Pay rate: £10/hour
Closing date for applications: 30th of November 2017
Start date of post: 1st of Feb 2018, or earlier by arrangement

We are looking for an experienced commercial organic grower with an understanding of CSA values and the ability to lead a team of volunteers and other employees. The role will be responsible for the planning, production and delivery of CSA and wholesale vegetables, as well as developing relationships with partners and wholesale clients, and developing other income streams. Part of the role also consists of the continuing setting up and development of infrastructure on the site including raising funds.

You will work with Chloe, our existing paid grower and may delegate some responsibilities to her by agreement with the board.

Please apply in writing including a cover letter and CV to simshillsharedharvest@googlemail.com.
Closing date 30th of November 2017.

The complete job spec can be found here.

Sims Hill education project recently engaged with 60 year 1s at Christchurch Primary School in Hanham. Children got happily stuck into all the activities, from understanding soil, seeds and plant cycles to tasting garden peas and salad leaves and flowers. We looked at the latest Sims Hill veg box and what we could cook with it while children got acquainted with some new vegetables including ‘snippers’ (parsnips!) and ‘brutes’ (beetroots!).

Thank you to all the pupils and teachers for their enthusiasm.

The Sims Hill AGM will be held at 7:30 pm 28th February at St. Werburghs Community Centre, Horley Rd, Bristol, BS2 9TJ

Light refreshments (and great cake!) will be served.

We are very much looking forward to sharing with you all the exciting things that have been happening to us in the last year. Sims Hill is on the move! We have added new social projects, held our first crowdfunder, hired a new Membership Coordinator, and are now in the midst of recruiting an Assistant Grower. And of course, concentrating on growing more and higher-quality veg for you all while we are at it.

Agenda:

Presenting of the 2016 accounts

Election of the Board: This year Kristin Sponsler and Simone Osborn will be standing down from the Board as per our articles, and will also be standing for reelection. We still have space for 1 harvest share member and 1 supporter member to stand. If any one would like to stand for the Board, please write to simshillsharedharvest@gmail.com with a brief bio in the next few days so we can announce this before the meeting.

Grower update: Farm Manager Miriam Schoen will report on the farming highlights of the last year, her new growing plans for the next one, and how she plans on using our new tractor!

Education project update from Kirsty Philbrick

Sims Hill Community Food Centre project update from Laurie King

Our new Membership Recruitment Coordinator Alice Lee will tell us her plans for recruitment for the year ahead and how you can all get involved.

Hope to see you the there!

The Sims Hill team

Last week we joined up with the Real Economy  community food event in Southmead where residents got together to watch the film Ratatouille and cooked up a delicious seasonal ratatouille and other healthy snacks. Thank you to Tasha of Real Economy and everyone else who helped organise this event.

We’re inviting groups of families with children in Southmead to come and visit us to find out more about veg growing and get involved with harvesting and cooking up a nutritious dish. Please get in touch with Kirsty (simshilleducation@gmail.com) if you’re a Southmead resident who’s interested, or know someone who might be.

We held a ‘veg with a face’ competition for children to win a veg box, seasonal recipe and Real Economy Real Food Club Gift Voucher.

The lucky winner was Kayla (pictured above) and the runner up was Lisa.  We got in touch with them today and hope to deliver their prizes next week. See all the children’s fab drawings below.

We are now recruiting for an Assistant Grower to help our Farm Manager, Miriam Schoen, keep producing even more amazing local veg for our members.

Job Title: Assistant Grower – Sims Hill Shared Harvest, Bristol
Position Type: 3 days a week for 6 months [with the intention to extend the position beyond]
Status: employed
Pay rate: the post is paid at a full time salary rate of £16,600, so 3/5 time will be paid a total of
£9,960 per annum (or £191 per week).
Closing date for applications: February 28, 2017.

The complete job spec can be found here. If interested, please send a cover letter detailing relevant experience and a CV to simshillshared@gmail.com by 28th February, 2017.

We’re excited that the first shoots of spring are sprouting their heads out the ground – we’ve already seen the first snowdrops!

With the growth around we’re also growing what we have to offer schools to learn about food growing. We’ve devised an early years programme to immerse children in the field and deepen their understanding of the world. We have our first bookings coming in and look forward to welcoming more schools in soon.

We’re pleased to be able to support schools to achieve their ‘Bristol Healthy Schools Mayor’s award’ by helping schools with their food culture and food growing (Standards 9-11).  They’ve recently launched their ‘Sugar Smart’ programme which we endorse and think eating locally grown seasonal food can help support people to reduce their sugar intake.

Watch this space for more info about our early years programme.

Get in touch with Kirsty at simshilleducation@gmail.com for more info.