The Apricot Centre

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The Transition town movement believes we need to have a positive vision for our communities for the future – let’s say 30 years in the future – 2042 – when we have made a transition to a “post peak oil world”.

For most of us, including me, this is a terrifying thought – how can our lives and communities exist without the vast amount of cheap energy we have become used to. What will we eat ? How will we move around ? How will we get our children to school ? How will we heat our schools and homes? What work will we do ? Will there be conflict over resources? We have little in the way of positive cultural stories of how this future might look, there is the terrifying “Max Max” film where we all fight over the last bit of oil, or the ‘Star Trek’ story in which we go off to live on other planets where there are more resources to use. We have positive stories from the past from just 60 years ago from our parents and grandparents of how they got by in on very limited oil resources during the War and how happy they were (apart from the fighting bit!). They grew their own veg, pulled together as a community, darned socks, cycled to work, listened to the radio. But what visions are there for a future in which we have a happy and secure future in a world with less oil?

As a trainer in this area I often ask people to take a moment (well 15 minutes) and imagine that they lived where they live now but 30 years into the future; in a world with limited oil. You might want to do it yourself? They wake up eat breakfast , go to work, take the kids to school, go to a meeting or celebration, eat a meal and then go to bed again just like a normal day but in a world with limited oil resources. It is a surprisingly positive vision that people have, life is slower, simpler, happy, and quieter. There is less stress, and more time to talk to people. Work is local. People walk and cycle and notice the trees and flowers. Eat simple meals. Share more.

When I have asked people I know in Manningtree what they would like in their town in the future, the answers are; a full high street with shops selling food and other essential goods, a thriving market, cafes, a community centre with meeting places ,a youth club, a swimming pool possibly a tidal one on the river, a joined-up walk along the river front, a cinema …. All lovely things to have in a small town like Manningtree today. These are also things that would make Manningtree very resilient to the changes that are to come in the future, and able to thrive in a post peak oil world that may or not be 2042. Even if we do not have to face this challenge any of the things in this list would make it an even more wonderful place to live! I am not imagining for one moment that creating a community centre, tidal swimming pool or filling the high street up again with butchers and fishmongers would be easy to create, and in our current economic situation would it even be possible to create? My point is that it is important to have a vision and a dream and then to find a path to get to that place, and it seems that there is a very rich vision for Manningtree.

For many years Marina and I have been interested in the connections between wellbeing and our connection with nature. It’s exciting now that we are moving increasingly into the area of wellbeing through becoming a Care Farm and the development of the WellSpring – Community Wellbeing project in association with other partners.

Marina has always been interested in farming and growing methods which are kind to the planet, a slow relationship to life,  and back to the wild. Marina always encouraged me to think of the Apricot Centre itself developing ‘organically’, rather than pushing it along. Also i remember that when Marina setup the Organic Market Garden at Dartington in Devon, she used to work with very young people seeking employment, but also bankers and other professionals who had lost their ‘role’ or career in the 1980s and were finding new purpose through their connection with the Land (I wonder how they are doing now?). In more recent times Marina and Aiden’s work with school children, the homeless, and Bangladeshi women, address themes of alienation and feeling at home, a sense of belonging, living sustainably, locally, within our means, and the enjoyment of the seasons, community and ourselves.

I have come to all of this from quite a different direction. Although i was always interested in organic food, and trained as an Arboriculturist. But my interest seemed to come more from a connection with nature, and then back to how we live and eat etc… From early adulthood i was interested in Jungian Psychology, meditation, Tai Chi, dreams etc… and this eventually led me to find a lifelong training path as a Process Oriented Psychologist studying with Dr Arnold Mindell, Dr Amy Mindell, Jean-Claude & Arlene Audergon, Dr Max Schupbach, and many other inspiring Process Work teachers. I have always considered Processwork a nature and awareness-based approach to life and living. It is highly influenced my Taoism, Shamanism, Jungian Psychology, and Quantum Physics. Over time I have really come to realise that living according to your true nature is a far bigger thing than i would have ever thought, as we all have so much personal history, hurts, social expectations and imposed belief systems that overlay our direct experience. I have learnt though a great deal about bringing awareness to nature. Discovering what is trying to emerge from moment to moment, the potential unfolding within even the most difficult life circumstances.

Care Farming

So it is interesting that the Apricot Centre was envisioned and has then evolved ‘organically’, and at this point we find ourselves on the threshold of what we understand to be called ‘Care Farming’.  Take a look at Care Farming UK and see how it is defined there. I think we already tick all the boxes, so in many ways it is not a huge step to identify ourselves with this direction. People will be able to come to the Organic Farm and participate in seasonal activities and celebrations throughout the year. We think that developing a relationship with nature can have a huge impact on wellbeing, simultaneously deepening your relationship with yourself (your nature), enhancing your relationships (the nature between us), and the earth. I think that people will be able to come to the Apricot Centre and Organic Farm and will felt accompanied in discovering their uniqueness. Welcoming diversity both inside and out. On a more practical level, people will develop skills in growing, harvesting, processing, cooking, sharing and enjoying fruits, vegetables, flowers, mushrooms …..

WellSpring – Community Wellbeing Project - can you complete our short survey?

We hope WellSpring may become a significant project funded to benefit disadvantaged people in Tendring, Colchester, Ipswich and Southend. If you are a local community leader then feedback from you about WellSpring would be invaluable. WellSpring is really a package of 4 wellbeing projects that can be designed and adapted to various community groups and contexts to boost the mental and physical wellbeing of the wider community. WellSpring can benefit many disadvanaged groups.  From young to elderly people, teenagers, the unemployed, young mothers and families, – and other community groups – WellSpring will provide a range of sustainable techniques and tools to help develop resilience and unlock the potential of each individual. We are teaming up with the-Lightworks.co.uk, Lifeflows.org and the Dedham Vale Food Hub to develop and deliver packages of the following 4 WellSpring projects described in a nutshell below. For more detail read our invitation leaflet PDF – WellSpring Community Invite.pdf or watch developments unfold on the WellSpring Blog

 4 WellSpring Projects – in a nutshell

1. The Kitchen Table – grow, cook share, and celebrate great food from the farm to the kitchen table with our organic farmers and chefs
2. Metaplay – an interactive life-game for young and old, to re-engage the imagination, have fun, build teamwork, and discover your life journey,
3. LifeFlows – Workshops to deepen our relationships to ourselves, to each other, to community and to nature.
4. CoolFire – Dynamic workshops that will develop a calm balance and perspective through gently connecting with your underlying feelings and emotions to help resolve challenging life issues and situations.

Thankyou for your interest and support.

Mark and Marina

Marina will this year be running two course series which may be of interest to you this year.

The LAUNCH Transition Training is a part-time course for people just starting out with new transition groups. It is usually run as a two day training, but this is now being made available as a 6 Tuesday Evenings course starting on the 17th April 2012. Full details can be found by downloading this leaflet.

www.apricotcentre.co.uk/docs/launchtransition2012.doc

 Organic Gardening Courses 2012 – These will start from the 26th of January 2012 and can be booked individually or as a full series. The series covers such things as diggin, mulching, nutrition soils, biodynamic gardening, planting vegetables in rotations, biodiversity, sowing seeds, pricking out, plant raising, planting and weed control, pest and disease control and summer maintenance of plants etc.. Full details of these exciting courses can be found by downloading this leaflet.

www.apricotcentre.co.uk/docs/gardening2012.doc

Mmm! Love the sharpness of those organic Blackcurrants in this delicious pudding. Marina celebrating at Duke of Cambridge @dukeorganic

This is the first of a regular monthly series of Newsletters from the Apricot Centre providing news, ideas, and upcoming events. In this newsletter we will be catching up on what has been going on since the summer. This has been an incredible bumper year of fruit production on the farm, starting the season with many varieties of soft fruit, and then from late summer and into autumn with many tonnes of apples picked, packed, played-with, and pressed.

The Dedham Vale Food Hub research and networking is now in full swing following a grant from the Dedham Vale Sustainability Fund. After months of inviting the contributions from and participation of local organic producers and processors a firm group of 4 local growers are now forming the hub which will centre on the Dedham Vale, but whose spokes will spread out to surrounding communities, schools, and local markets. An opening event was held at the end of August 2011 at Chris and Ian’s Farm and saw many people young and old coming from local communities to savour local produce; hand pressed apple juice, local fruit sorbet/ ice-cream, barbequed meats and salads, ‘make-your-own-pizza’ fired in the newly made Clay Pizza Oven. If you haven’t done so already, please do fill-out one of our questionnaires which can be found on the DVFH website. Find out how the food hub can work for you.

Visits to the Apric farm continue this season with groups such as a Bangladeshi women from London, who last time showed great enthusiasm in discovering Fat Hen which they use in a particular dish fried with garlic and spices. This time they brought with them a wide range of dishes which were shared with Apricot Centre staff. Visits from schools have included apple pressing and other apple activities, as well as a session making adobe and willow nesting boxes.

During the half-term holiday we were delighted to have Ann Sweg join us in making a replacement Earth Oven having knocked down the one we made in 2007. We worked together all day between bouts of heavy rain, using a sand form, and creating as large as possible an oven. By the end of the day this was complete and Ann brought her mosaic magic decorating it with geometric shapes and small mirrored tiles.

The principles of the Apricot Centre have always been a focus on Food, People & the Land. As well as the local food hub,  we are now moving with intent towards developing our work around community wellbeing. A Local Community Wellbeing project is in the pipeline with fabulous workshops, events and projects which we hope will engage local community members and organisations. We are only steps away from contributing to working in association with Lifeflows and Process Work Scotland towards helping to deliver Process Oriented Psychotherapy training in Slovakia. Mark will be giving a seminar in Slovaki and in the UK in Spring 2012 on the theme of ‘It takes a village – Child & Family Wellbeing’. The Apricot Centre has yet to realise it’s ambition to become a Care Farm, but this now looks increasingly close.

We thankyou for your interest and support. Please do let friends and colleagues know us, and invite people to subscribe to the website to receive the Newsletter and get involved. You can also unsubscribe with the details below.

Mark and Marina O’Connell – Directors

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Hello, I thought I’d let you know how the ‘electric pony’ aka Wallace and Edward 3-wheeler milk float renovation project is going. As you may remember the Electric Pony was conceived during a ‘Ways and Means’ walk through the Dedham Vale as part of the Reskilling Project in March 2010. I was inspired by Val Belsay’s (Green Lanes) description of how produce and resources were moved through the valley and marketed in years gone by, using; green lanes, packhorse and ponies for transporting fruit and vegetables as well as other important resources. They seemed also to have the networking role of sharing news across the valley also.

This led to the idea for an ‘electric pony’, a retro-modern vehicle, to move and market local seasonal foodstuffs through Dedham Vale and the surrounding area. Later that year we found a 1946 Wallace & Edwards 3-Wheel Electric Milk Float. The float was purchased from a farm just off the M25/A12 when it was found on Ebay.

The vehicle is looking much the same, however we have done alot of work stripping down the components and having them tested. The good news is that it is mechanically sound, and even the electric motor is working! The downside, which was expected is that the lead batteries are no longer working, and this will be the most expensive thing to replace.

This year (2011/12) the Apricot Centre has collaborated with other organic producers and sellers in and around the Dedham Vale and is working on the Dedham Vale Food Hub researching the possibility of providing a wide range of organic foodstuffs (the whole basket), educational visits, seasonal celebrations etc.. And the Electric Pony is planned to play a role in delivering to local venues, schools etc.. reaching out to local communities from the hub.

We hope to gain some further funding in January 2012 towards completing this project and bringing this delightful vehicle to fulfill the dream of linking up local communities with local organic food, and local news.

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Marina filmed this on her phone this weekend. She said the atmosphere was particularly lovely. Apple pressing was taking place. I believe Harry was knackered!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw94sWJIQcM

Here’s a little bit more information about growing communities

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ecQ6gI9xEQ&feature=related

Brick lane is a few minutes walk from Liverpool street station and is famous for its curry houses and Bangladeshi community. Hungerdown lane is half way between Manningtree and Colchester and is very pretty but not really famous for anything !

This summer Sally decided to bring her class of Bangladshi women from the Brick lane area to Hungerdown lane to visit my small farm to pick fruit practice their English and to visit rural England. They caught the train to Manningtree and walked up the hill through the very pretty Dedham Vale to Hungerdown lane, arriving hot and hungry on a July morning.

We had a delicious picnic lunch that they brought, and a chat. I am a woman farmer or grower which unusual in the UK , and these women probably farmed themselves in Bangladesh. They asked me about it and seemed happy with me being the farmer, they took off their face coverings and relaxed and seemed to ignore Aidan who works here and kind of disappeared picking something. !

I showed them around, they didn’t seem too interested in Gooseberries or blackcurrants, they loved the unripe apples. And then came the magic moment – one of them spotted Fat Hen, a “weed” of which I have a few on the farm ! They asked me what it was, and I confirmed that we call it “poor mans spinach” and yes it was edible. They recognised it from Bangladesh and suddenly 7 women got down to business picking all the fat hen they could find and filling loads of bags with it. They told me they would cook it with chilli and onion and wilt it down. They even offered to pay for it … the connection for them suddenly with the English earth was a palatable moment and Sally and I were mesmerised watching their excitement. They are coming again in a few weeks and I am really looking forward to it – I am wondering if they will like the ripe apples how is the fat hen coming along …. and am thinking of a return trip to Brick Lane – yum yum.