Inaugural Repair Cafe Ledbury

Just having lunch at The Nest, Ledbury, after an enjoyable and successful time as a repairer at the inaugural Ledbury Repair Cafe.

I spoke to more than 30 people during the morning and repaired an assortment of things, some involving sewing in some form,  repaired a zip with pliers, and advised people on other craft based repairs. Many people are bringing me stuff to fix "next time"

We had a lot of people visit us in the three hours we were open, and all 14 of the repairers were busy, as was our cafe!

Compostman was also a repairer and fixed a number of things, a cd player, a table lamp and a kettle, amongst other stuff.

Good to be part of something helping to reduce landfill waste and promise a more sustainable way of life. 

Getting ready for the off! 

Darning a hole in someone's much loved fleece

Compostman fixing a kettle

Ink Wells waiting me to research glue removal and restoration. 

Various jobs done today

 Best job done? The one Compostman did to fix my heated propagator cover so it can be used again :)

Other jobs included me putting on one of my volunteer hats to sort out the Love Food Hate Waste cookery demonstration items and box them up so we can store them safely. I purchased a lot of the items,  after discussion with the other volunteers and our Council manager, to make sure we had the most useful set of kitchen equipment for what we needed to do. It was quite difficult to whittle down what we needed to a minimum of useful kit which would serve our needs and be storable as well. I got a number of plastic storage boxes, which are easy to keep clean and sanitised ( important with food handling and preparation). Also they stack! 

One box for clean pots and pans, one for dirty stuff  ( waiting to be washed) after events, one box for clean plates, cutlery, aprons etc and one box for cleaning supplies and other non food items. I have also sorted out the HACCP file and the risk assessment template for the events so we have a folder with all the essential paperwork inside. This can live in one of the boxes.

I am not going to store all these boxes at my house as I do not have the room to do so and so I will be handing them over to Ste the County Council officer for him to find a safe storage place at County Hall. I already store a lot of the Master Composter spare stuff here so have no more room. I have enough "stuff" of my own to find a home for :)

I am still working on the Hillarys Blinds competition fabric - have another idea to try out in "rough" to see if it will work. I knew all those old sheets would come in handy, one day! And what a good job I tidied up the Study of Doom, so I could find the box they were in ;)


In other news,  both Compostgirl and I have been poorly so we watched "Catching Fire" on dvd yesterday - excellent film, nearly as good as the book. Well worth reading and watching, if you have not already.

Flour free pancakes - yummy!

I just made some banana pancakes - over ripe bananas, eggs, and a tiny bit of baking powder - yummy! No flour at all. I will be adding them to my Love Food Hate Waste demo recipe list!

Compostgirl and Compostman liked them as well  

How to make them

 

Mash up peeled ripe bananas until very smooth

 

 

whisk eggs in another bowl (two eggs to every large banana) Mix together the banana and eggs (optionally add a pinch of baking powder) and then 

drop a tbs or two ( no more for each pancake)  into a medium fry pan with a small amount of oil already heated.  Dry frying WILL NOT WORK with this even in a non stick pan. 


Gently cook until pancake is set and you can flip the pancake over without it falling to bits (!)



When other side is golden brown serve 

 

and eat - Honey, Golden Syrup etc are lovely additions but these are seriously yum as they are.

 

This recipe needs to have starchy veg/fruit to substitute for the flour so I am going to try with pumpkin, tomorrow :)

I know mashed potato works and from reading on line, Plantain also works as a substitute for Banana.
 
 A good result I think:)




Recipe here

Food handling training - with a difference!

So yesterday I spent all day on a CIEH (Chartered Institute of Environmental Health) Food Safety Level 2 course - with a difference!

I spent it outside, cooking in the woods at Bishops Wood Environment Centre

We were an assorted group of ( mostly) Forest School leaders, but although I am a FS Leader, I was actually there with a couple of other Love Food Hate Waste Ambassadors, as we want to do some cooking demonstrations as part of our volunteer role.

We talked through the usual Food Safety stuff, different bacteria, danger zone/safe zone temperatures, how to keep clean, the use of different colour coded chopping boards, general food preparation,  the importance of proper storage and reheating,

and then we put it all into practice by making a delicious vegetable soup for lunch, cooked over the fire

We also toasted teacakes and made hot drinks and then mid afternoon packed up camp to do the CIEH (Chartered Institute of Environmental Health) Food Safety Level 2 exam

I have done a more conventional version of this course before and although it was helpful I did have a lot of questions about cooking outdoors which were not really addressed. This time they were :)

The course was taught by Sal Teasdale of Anubis Training - those of you who read my past posts will know I have done lots of training with Sal and Anubis and as usual the whole day was excellent.

Just hope I have passed!

Low Carbon Ledbury event at Ledbury Community Fair.

This weekend Ledbury celebrates The Coronation by recreating the Ox Roast which was held here, in 1953.

The Ox Roast event is happening tomorrow, but today was a town wide celebration of all the good things which happen in our little market town -  the Ledbury Community Day.


I was upstairs in the beautiful medieval Market House doing a h Energy/ Master Gardener stall, fellow Master Composters also had a stall there, as did many other local "green" groups. Lots of other community groups showcased their activities all over Ledbury.

 Nigel Hand from the reptile group was there, with wonderful slow worms, newts and grass snakes.

The Worcester Scrapstore had a stand and did some wonderful activities throughout the event - Compostgirl made an insect out of a plastic bottle top :-)

Herefordshire and Worcestershire Master Composters stand with seed planting activities, composting advice and Love Food Hate Waste information.

Compostgirl went off to do Guides activities in The Walled Garden with Ledbury Guides - very proud to be dressed in her uniform and necker and to be part of the day's events, which were happening all over Ledbury town. (link to map)  :-)

It was great fun; Speaking purely from my own experience -  I spoke to over 40 people on my stall alone; five households signed up to take part in h.Energy Savers and two households signed up to have me mentor them for a year with advice on getting started in vegetable growing - so all in all a very successful event :-)

Judging by the crowds of people and the conversations I had with visitors, the other stalls were equally successful and the whole event went very well.

We finished at 2 pm and packed up; being upstairs in the Market House created some "challenges" getting boxes and display boards up and down the stairs but finally everything was loaded into the car and Compostman drove me home.

And I am now officially exhausted. Compostgirl has gone off for a sleepover with a friend, so I think a sit down and a cup of tea is in order, before I start on the planting and watering routine in the garden.:-)

Blossomtime - Master Composter stall as part of Compost Awareness Week

On Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday I spent a considerable amount of time basking in the sunshine, in order to offer composting and gardening advice and seed planting at the Blossomtime event in my area:-)

 Both the days were both very hot and sunny and I got sunburn! 

I had a prime pitch for my composting stall,  at the front of the Hall by the entrance,

on Sunday next to a lovely lady called Gilly, from the ONE network of Cider and Perry growers.

and on Monday next to a lovely lady called  Sophie, (this is her, above)  from Pixley Berries who grow huge quantities of Blackcurrants near us, and make delicious cordials from them.

I talked to lots of people about composting and gardening, sold lots of my plants , to raise funds for Garden Organic, did some seed planting with children and had a generally wonderful time at this local celebration of cider and perry making. Compostgirl was there with me on both days and she had a lovely time as well - mainly going around the event with a friend or tending to the animals Paul Hand had brought along :-)

We both enjoyed watching the Leominster Morris Men dance to greet the May

 Some photos, in case the video doesn't work ;-)

I was too hot to join in, though !

 Was a very tiring, but oh so worthwhile, two days of volunteering :-) Especially as I was part of the Compost Awareness Week activities across the UK and World.

h.Energy Saver volunteer facilitator training.

I spent yesterday (Fri) doing this training, funded by Herefordshire New Leaf  as part of a project to actively engage Herefordshire residents in their own long-term household and personal energy descent plans.

The training has equipped me, and other people from around the county as h.Energy Savers, to work with small groups of 5 - 6 local people (friends, neighbours, community members) in order to start to address the energy efficiency needs of our households.

 The training was free of charge, and was provided by Hal Gillmore and Mary Popham of Transition Town Totnes. 

The h.Energy Savers training is based  on an adaptation of a proven, award-winning peer-to-peer model developed by Transition Town Totnes where groups of friends and neighbours meet every few weeks,  with a practical workbook to help seed ideas,  to make easy changes in how they use energy, water, food, packaging and transport.  

I help to get things going in my neighbourhood and go to the meetings to give any support needed as the group works through ideas from the workbook  but it is NOT my meeting and the workbook is NOT a text book which has to be followed to the letter but  more of a general guide, full of good ideas.  I like that :-)

As the h.Energy Savers website says

Previous experience suggests that householders working together in this way will save an average of £570 per annum and reduce carbon emissions by 1.3tonnes, whilst learning more about issues such as water use, waste, transport and food.

In addition to this the project hopes to generate up to 250 home energy assessments, carried out by accredited Green Deal Assessors. These homes will then be regarded as 'Green Deal Ready' - i.e. eligible for finance to support their recommended energy efficiency measures once the Green Deal provider network locally is established (work to develop this network is continuing alongside the h.Energy Savers project).

I know this pattern of engagement works as it is how the Master Composter and Master Gardener schemes work and I know they work really well!

I really believe we need to be building more sharing and resilient communities around us all  as the impact of Peak Oil and other issues begin to really hit home. I already try to help with this as a Master Gardener and Master Composter and the other things I try to do and this looks like a good way as well.

I really enjoyed the day of training ( although it was a very long  and tiring day's work!)  I am very excited to be a part of this.

Watch this space!

"Meet the Masters" event at Garden Organic, Ryton

I spent today at Ryton, the HQ and showcase gardens for Garden Organic

Throughout the spring and summer Garden Organic have been running a series of events called "Meet the Masters" where Master Composters and Gardeners are present at Ryton on a Saturday or Sunday, to answer queries and talk about composting and gardening to the public.

I had offered my services this weekend and, as Compostman and Dear Daughter have never been to Ryton, we all went, along with a friend of El's.

The journey across was a bit long as there was some terrible traffic through Worcester, but we arrived in glorious sunshine ( which lasted all day!)

My fellow Master Composter and Master Gardener had already set up our stall, in the new Home Composting area and I was very pleased to see this had a nice shelter for us to stand under - most of the summer we have been hiding from the rain but today we were sheltering from the hot sun.

The rest of the family went off to join in a garden tour with one of the volunteer guides while I got on with answering questions - lots and lots of questions - from the public!

There was an Exotic Food Fair happening as well, so we had a lot of visitors who had not been to Ryton before, and were not Garden Organic members, coming in to see what was happening. We had some really good conversations and I think we helped a lot of people with their queries about gardening.

There were all sorts of attractions going on, Alpacas being the most popular outside I think! (They were very lovely)

An Indian cookery demonstration, a talk on seed saving, demonstrations of various exotic foods which can actually be grown in the UK ( although you might not have thought so!) and tours of the new Exotic Garden at Ryton.

We had lunch in the excellent cafe and later, some very welcome tea (and scones for the two children)

I think it is a mark of what a terrific place Ryton is, that two 11 year olds were occupied and had fun for 5 hours there. They really enjoyed wandering around looking at the gardens, they LOVED The Vegetable Kingdom  and stroking the Alpacas, they thought the food was really good and the whole place was excellent. They did have electronic games with them which they played with towards the end of the afternoon for a little bit, while sitting under some trees waiting for me to tidy the stall away.)



Compostman also saw some of the things I have been talking about incorporating into our gardens here at Compost Mansion and, while he thinks most of it would cost too much/be too much work etc  - he CAN see the merit in some of what I have been saying so that is good ;-)

I had a chance to look around, with my family, during my breaks - and stroke an Alpaca :-)

Home for tea time having spoken to 45 people on the stall and handed out a lot of leaflets with advice and ideas.

A good day out - so please go, if you are in the neighbourhood - Ryton Gardens is open every day except Christmas Day, and admission is free if you are a Garden Organic member.

Next event is Apple Day on Oct 13th.

A day out with fellow composters....and a really good talk!

Back from a lovely day out at a social gathering of Herefordshire and Worcestershire Master Composters held at Worcester Woods Country Park. We had a fabulous talk from a member of the Countryside Services, Senior Greenspace Officer Wade Muggleton, on his amazing recycled garden

Wade is a local award winning gardener and writer. His talk was titled "Gardening like a Womble! a talk on permaculture and gardening"

Wade has travelled extensively in New Zealand & Australia, visiting and working on organic farms and permaculture projects. He “walks the talk”, having spend the last 7 years developing his own small garden into an intensive food producing plot that contains more than 23 kinds of fruit and about 20 types of vegetables. “Grow It” magazine awarded him their coveted “plot of the year” award in 2009 and he writes for Permaculture magazine.

It was a really good talk, as Wade said, “if we use small garden plots and allotments we reduce carbon emissions, waste, transport and pollution.” He is the most amazing skip diver, vegetables and fruits were flourishing in an amazing variety of containers and raised beds. As you might expect from an audience of Master Composters, we then had a lively question and answer session .

We had some lovely lunch, followed by a workshop, again headed up by Wade, on making willow structures such as obelisks and hurdles. We all had a really good time and, as always ,I came away enthused and energised by these gatherings with like minded folk.

Wade demonstrating how to make a willow obelisk

Also no hens were killed today and it was lovely weather.

So all in all a good day!.

Master Composters cutting willow.

Finally, if anyone reading this lives in Herefordshire or Worcestershire, the Waste Management team are looking for some more people to train as Master Composters? So, if you are interested, give me an email and I can give you more details?

Me and my lovely willow obelisk.

CIWM Recycling Champion Award

Oh I am so excited! Once again I am up for this award! I am so pleased, for me, my family and for all the people and the children I work with :-)

From the organisers, The CIWM,

We are delighted to inform you that once again you have been short listed for this award and will be put forward as a finalist to our judging panel, who will be choosing the category winners and also the winner of the overall Award for Environmental Excellence. All the winners will be announced at the ceremony which takes place at the Dorchester Hotel in November.

Hope this time I have better luck actually getting to the event, though....