On Monday 9th November Hattie Winter from the Blackdown Hills “Making it Local Fund” visited the Project for the first time to see how the fund can help us. She was impressed with what we have achieved, being very surprised to learn that we have achieved so much in only one season ! Hattie is very keen to help provide advice and channels of any support that's available to Tatworth Growing Together via the Blackdown Hills “Making it Local Fund”.
On 29th October Lord Cameron of Dillington wrote to the Parish Council to announce that we had been awarded the 1st Prize of £5000 in the Somerset Strategic Partnership‘s “Sustainable Communities Competition 2009”. This is the first big Grant we have won. Click the letter to see what he wrote and then Click the Back button at top left to come back here.
Click this SSP logo to see the announcement of the Award
and Click the Back button to come back here again.
We have received a quote for a 20' x 16' greenhouse and have sought a quote for two the same size which would give us 60 sq metres of floor space for round the year veg.
On Saturday 10th October our most
senior Volunteer came to see the Project out of interest and wielded a mattock as though she has been doing it for years ! In fact she has !
On 27th September the local Church - St John the Evangelist - very kindly invited Tatworth Growing Together to display a Harvest exhibit of our produce at the Church.
Over August and September activity has centred on harvesting all our produce and getting it to the Post Office and Herberts News as soon as possible. There aren't many plants left! The rest of the activity has been 
to clear plots of the land as the veg is depleted and to vegetable organically (without poo!) manure the bared soil and 
then cover it with cardboard to halt weed growth. The method was devised by Julia.
On 29th July, the Chard & Ilminster News published a picture of Sandra cutting out cabbages for sale on the front page, and on page 35 is an excellent write-up and photos by Richard Purdon - who you all know. We were really impressed with the way he researched our website and still asked loads more questions. Now he's put us on the Map! Thanks Richard and the Chard & Illie.
Andrew and I met Henry Hobhouse on Saturday 25th July He's an expert on anaerobic digesters for compost making - in only 21 days - and on installing wind turbines and ground water heat pumps. He explained how they work, advised on what we should do at the Project and said "solar panels are useless for your requirements! They take 40 years to pay back what they cost." He'll be coming back soon to advise on specific plans. Thanks to Henry for all his advice.
Our second harvest went to the 'Spar Shop' and Jenny's 'Herbert News' on the evening of 23rd July - three hours after picking. 56 kilos of the best and cheapest potatoes around, massive cabbages, shallots and curly kale. Les and Margaret gave me £7.80 today (23rd) to hand back to the PC's fund for sales last Friday. Fresh lettuces to be delivered early tomorrow.
You probably know that on 22nd July, the Western Daily Press printed a leader on their front page, a big spread on their middle pages and an article on Page 12 about how Al Gore - the green Presidential Candidate in the USA's last election as you know - will be very pleased to hear of what we are doing in Tatworth, England ! He will know soon.
Saturday 18th July 2009. Jonathan and Tracy Matherick - the Landowners - came up to see the Project and were delighted with the progress, having not been here since the potato crop was planted (Good Friday).
Of course without their generosity Tatworth Growing Together would probably not been in existence - so huge thanks to them!
On Friday 17th July we sold curly kale, and cabbage - for the first time ever - at the Spar Shop / Post Office on Dyke Hill - courtesy of Les and Margaret - at very very competitive rates, especially for chemical-free food! £7.80 - our first earnings (received 23rd July) - straight back to the Parish Council's ring-fenced fund for investment in seeds.
As of 12th July we have learned that interest in our Project and ambitions to organise a local kitchen waste collection and obtain an anaerobic digester, has been expressed by a MAJOR company and a local one too.
11th July, 2009. Jan Morse is absolutely certain that there is no potato blight and will monitor the crop.
10th July, 2009. Les and Margaret Gilbert - who own the Spar Shop and Post Office at Dyke Hill - visted the Project with Andrew and have kindly offered to display and sell our organic crops to the Community as they are harvested - and for nothing! So thanks very much to both of them. An outlet like this is great news for a Community Project.
9th July, 2009. Liz Carney found a few potato plants with what she suspects is blight. Jan Morse to be consulted on this. That's the possibly bad news, but the good news is that in digging up a few plants to be burned, we sold some potatoes and some bottom leaves of curly kale. Our first ever harvest! Just wait for the rest soon.
The Parish Council has unanimously adopted the Mission Statement for the Project (thereby giving it a Constitution which we will stick to to the letter).
The Lady Mayor, Jill Shortland came to ‘inspect’ the Project and went away with great praise.
3rd July, 2009. After the visit of David Knight, Head Teacher of the local Tatworth Primary School, the Governors' meeting unanimously decided that the Project was perfect for them to take their ‘Friday Club’ school-children to so they can get involved with setting up their own crops and learn about the aims of this ‘sustainable Transition’ Project, the local environment and our conservation efforts.
