Join the Smallholder Club (From Smallholder)

Join the Smallholder Club

3:26pm Friday 7th August 2009 in Smallholding Clubs

This is the page for your news and views from smallholder clubs, breed societies and poultry associations.

This is your page to send us information about clubs and societies connected to smallholding - from bee keeping to breed clubs, machinery associations to smallholder training groups.

The more the merrier.

It’s a page for you to keep in touch with other clubs, find like-minded individuals and learn of events and meetings in your area. It’s what you make it.

It can be more than one page so do keep sending us your news and we’ll do our best to fit it in. Please send by email to liz.wright1@btconnect.com or post your newsletters to the Editorial Office, Hook House, Hook Road, Wimblington, March, Cambs PE15 0QL.

Remember for events to allow at least six weeks from sending to publication eg in September please send dates for events from November onwards.

Read on for news so far and if you want to send your news then use the links on the home page or e.mail editorial@smallholder.co.uk

CHESHIRE SMALLHOLDER'S ASSOCIATION.

Paul McAvoy reports on his local smallholding group.

The Cheshire Smallholder’s Association is a very active society, with around 60 member families. The group covers a wide range of agricultural interests from alpacas to vegetables, taking in bees, cattle, goats, sheep, pigs and a whole lot else on the way. The scale of the members’ holdings is equally varied, from domestic sized plots to small farms.

The group meets monthly between September and April, at Reaseheath Agricultural College in Nantwich, for lectures on topics that the membership has selected as being of interest. From personal experience these are generally of high quality, with speakers who not only know their subject but are able to get their practical knowledge across and then enter into a discussion with the audience. The sorts of subjects can vary widely, from ferrets, to first aid for sheep, to the virology of avian influenza – whatever people want to hear about, subject only to the committee’s being able to find a speaker – and they’re generally very successful.

In addition to the monthly lectures, the C.S.A. also organises and delivers smallholding courses. When the society started these types of courses were hard to find. Nowadays there are far more providers, so the C.S.A. tends to specialise on less obvious things like lamb butchery or hedge laying. These are practical, “hands-on” courses, lead by experts and you will finish the day with new skills.

However, in common with many other smallholding societies and despite having a reasonably large membership, the Cheshire Association does struggle to find members able and willing to volunteer the time needed to run the society and keep it as the active and enthusiastic body that it is.

This seems strange at a time when there is so much interest in growing-your-own, local produce, food miles, and organic farming but there it is. I suspect that the fundamental problem is one of TIME. Most smallholders also work full time too. Many have families. These are time consuming and rightly so. Add to these the demands of running a smallholding, by which I mean not just looking after stock, cultivating crops and maintaining the buildings and boundaries but also complying with government regulations and handling the mountains of paperwork that are required by law, and it is understandable why excellent groups like the C.S.A. are struggling.

Given that smallholding associations are an invaluable local support network for people in the smallholding world, it seems to me that if we’re not to lose something that is of real value, we need to think hard about what we can do. If you’re based within striking distance of Nantwich in Cheshire and are not already a member, I would encourage you to contact the Cheshire Smallholder’s Association. And if you’re prepared to contribute to some of the tasks that are essential to keep such an excellent organisation on the road then that would be even better.

Website : http://www.cheshiresmallholders.org.uk

PLOUGHING DAY.

Ploughing Day at Skylark Garden Centre 5-6 September 2009 There will be a fun ploughing day for beginners and experienced at Skylark garden Centre near Wimblington over the weekend of the 5-6 September with plots available for all types of tractors and horse teams. Held on Fenland land, this ploughing day is now an annual event and there will be a plaque for all participants. It will operate on a first come, first served basis so entries are needed before the weekend and cost £5.00 per plot except for horses who are free. For an entry form and full details please phone Liz or Mick on 01354 741538 or email liz.wright1@btconnect.com.

GRASS ROOTS.

Grass roots in Australia Printed on plantation growing paper, Grass Roots is a self-sufficiency magazine for Australia where they have other challenges besides foxes but still grapple with the same issues that British smallholders tackle. In the June/July issue a couple talk about their speciality cheese from goat’s milk – British Alpines being the breed of choice – while an enterprising handyman shares how he fits out disused fridges as a tool storage chest. But I can’t help thinking that it might be slightly easier to build a passive solar house in Clarence Valley, New South wales than it would be in rural Cambridgeshire – and not just because of the weather – and I notice too that they always have articles on reducing water wastage. It’s a fascinating magazine and its great to think there is a Smallholder type magazine the other side of the world. I’m certainly going to follow their advice for a Poultry-Proof No-Dig garden and I can only hope that the hybrid rangers have read the same article and abide by its spirit! Liz Wright.