Bank Holiday Potato Planting 7/8 May 2023
Through our Grow and Graze project, we have been trying to persuade landowners and farmers to have a go at growing more veg on 1-2 acres of their land. We have said we will try to match them up with a grower who would either pay them rent or come to another mutually agreed arrangement. There is a great incentive to succeed because together with Valley Organics, Pennine Cropshare can provide a ready market for a significant amount of produce. We suspect our customers would be super thrilled to have more locally grown veg in their bags and boxes
But firstly, we need to prove to landowners, (and also to ourselves!), that it is possible not only to grow healthy veg in our valley but it is possible for growers to earn a reasonable income from their labour and that regeneratively or organically grown veg can be affordable for a wider range of people. That is a huge challenge.
Today we took the first practical steps towards achieving that ambition. We are renting 3.5 acres of south facing land in Hebden Bridge to start what we hope will be the first of many flourishing peri urban market gardens in our valley. Successful enterprises which will enhance our environment and provide our community with fresh healthy food. There is a long road ahead and many hurdles to jump. We will have to apply for planning permission for polytunnels and other infrastructure, raise money to pay for an access track and mains water connection. But most importantly we will need to find initially one or two unbelievably motivated individuals with the right growing skills and motivation to help make it happen.
But all this is likely to take a frustratingly long time and in the meantime we wanted to start to grow something on the land. An easy to grow, low risk and low maintenance crop which would help us prepare the ground for more serious production in the next growing season. Of course, you have guessed it - the lovable spud!
Growing potatoes on a small scale is not economically viable for growers but for our band of volunteers out in the field over the bank holiday, it provided a fantastic sense of achievement. But we couldn’t have done it without the help of the donation of a huge mountain of luscious green waste compost from Holroyds Farm and an even bigger mountain of woodchip from Viking Greenscapes. We are also indebted to our invaluable advisor, local grower Nick, for showing us how the professionals use “no dig” methods to keep carbon in the soil and how they actually manage to plant in straight lines. We also want to thank the cardboard scavengers and cardboard donators, our amazing volunteer army complete with wheelbarrows and shovels and the Pennine Cropshare team for saving the sprouting potatoes from ending up in the tip. We didn’t count them but estimate we have planted about 300 spuds and it hasn’t cost us a penny except some of our bank holiday time. And the spuds will do us the great service of breaking up the soil for next years serious venture. Watch this space!
