Our plans for them went on hold during the summer. We held back as we didn't want to begin work we'd soon have to move again – but as our attempts to resolve the stalemate over the land was answered by the developers playing silly games (ruining an excellent deal for them I might add), we're going ahead with what's possible again.
Hanging around waiting for donated goods can be a bit frustrating, but you can't complain, we're lucky to get them and certainly very grateful.
It has meant the reorganisation of the NUFP and Sisyphean paperwork could be completed though, and there's a pretty good plan for the farm over 2010 – whatever happens.
I'll mention here how there are never enough volunteers when you need them, and too many when you don't – which is why I'm so grateful to those committed volunteers who keep coming back. It's one of those things where the more you put in the more you get out of it, so if you're at all interested please do get in touch – but we need people who get on with things.
There are opportunities for physical work, joining a committee, fundraising, PR, and helping with events.
I do have to make the statutory statement that there are no paid workers with the NUFP and that the NUFP has no intention of creating a contract or contract of employment with any of its volunteers at any time in the future – which is a bit stern, but necessary.
The dullest job is almost certainly filling the raised beds.
Originally the area was to be a quiet spot for any ill animals – out the way from visitors – but, with too little land coming into our hands that we could use to graze animals on generally, we quickly rearranged the current plans so it became our market garden.
It wasn't long before we realised the developers of the neighbouring housing had used the area as a dumping ground for rubble, sand, and rubbish. Add to that the previous occupants remnants, fly-tipped rubbish, and down-and-out refuse we find across the whole site, it didn't look likely we could plant directly into the soil. The regular discovery of broken glass made it clear we certainly couldn't.
Cleaning the soil out as best we could, we took a leaf from urban farming in Cuba and created an example of what they call agroponicos (or organoponicos if you‘re being particularly green). There’ll be more on that on our website soon via the Oakapple farm pages.
The beds were made from scaffolding boards donated by Apex Scaffolding (a big thank you again to them), and knocked together in an afternoon by a fantastic group from the University of Northampton.
They've been slowly filled with a mix of soil, manure, and rotted compost and as an experiment we quickly added a large number of turnips. Around 90 survived the dry spell, and next year we’re hoping to have various crops growing. Bulk is the key word though, we’re a farm not an allotment, so while there’ll be a selection of crops, not so many that we only have a six or seven of each.
Next time I'll explain what we grew this year in our rotation area.
Jamie
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