Local food and community wellbeing
November 5, 2011 in apricot centre, clay oven, community, Community-supported Agriculture, Food, Great Food Swap, local economy, Marina, reskilling, transition valley, Uncategorized
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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A few years ago Marina and I ran a course called the HNC in Sustainable Environments – The Ecology of People and the Land, in which we explored various approaches towards sustainability. It was a magical time in many ways, and many of the students still remain in touch.
