a project run by the Apricot Centre in association with Transition Stour Valley

The Dedham Vale Food Project started in September 2011 with AONB support from the Devon Vale Sustainability Fund. You can find the details of what we working on in association with Transition Stour Valley and Transition Nayland below. Also take a look at the 30 miles for 30 days Local Food Challenge.. And recommended recipes.  You can also now find most of the local reskilling interviews here. You can find the details of local food suppliers and producers here

How can communities within the Dedham Vale become more resilient and sustainable in terms of food? This project aims at inspiring and supporting the re-localisation and seasonal relationship to food within the area, minimising the use of oil and softening the impact that food growing, transportation and marketing has upon the environment. Modern society has become increasingly dependent upon food that travels many miles from farm to table. Many foodstuffs produced locally are taken to markets more than 50 miles away, and the majority of all food consumed Nationally is imported from outside of the UK. Communities within the Dedham Vale (as elsewhere in the country) are surprisingly reliant upon cheap oil, making them vulnerable to present and future changes in the availability and price of oil, as well as to climactic change.

The Dedham Vale Food Project will:

• document the availability of local food production
• increase capacity for local food production
• inspire a new relationship to food in the area,
• encourage local markets and buying groups,
• highlight consumer awareness of where food comes from and how it is produced,
• encourage relationships between growers, producers and consumers,
• link-up local food networks, community members, and businesses,
• build-in a contribution to sustainable transport in the valley by reducing food miles
• engage young people and schools in the area to relate to the nutritional, health, community, and environmental benefits of a re-localised and seasonal relationship to food.

The project will involve the Apricot Centre working closely with the Transition Stour Valley and Transition Nayland Networks coordinating activities such as;

• ’30 miles for 30 days’ a local diet initiative;
• a garden or land share project,
• documentation of local food production,
• creating local food links, including creation of an ‘electric pony’
• re-skilling workshops in schools focussing on skills around the theme of food,

The project will be documented and networked on the Transition (Stour) Valley Network website, and will include write-ups, press releases, blogs, how-to sheets, recipes, YouTube videos, photos and more, with the aim of inspiring an enthusiastic network of people and activities throughout the Dedham Vale. The project will invite the co-creativity of old and young towards creating increasingly resilient community within this important bioregion.

1. I. Documenting local food production in the Dedham Vale – Researching and writing a booklet on existing producers of low-carbon food within the Dedham Vale. This would also include a ‘how to’ guide for the ’30 miles for 30 days local food challenge’, as well as serving as a research process for the basis of the ‘local food links’. We would aim to launch this on the 18^th September 2010 at the Transition Nayland Fete that has the theme of ‘food’.
2. II. Creating a landshare project for the Dedham Vale – Documenting land available for growing food: Finding plots of land or gardens that are not being used and linking these resources to people wishing to grow things. This would be documented on the Transition Stour Valley website (www.transitionvalley.com) and ideally on the Dedham Vale AONB website
3. III. Creating local food links – Undertaking an extensive community audit and linking this to the food producers in the Dedham Vale. And in consultation with the ‘Making Local Food Work’ (www.soilassociation.org/csa) organisation for the East of England, devise a business model for the effective marketing of local produce to the local community.
4. IV. Sustainable Food Transport – The March 2010 ‘Ways and Means’ walk  through Dedham Vale (Reskilling Project) showed how produce and resources were moved through the valley and marketed in years gone by, using green lanes, packhorse and pony for transporting fruit and vegetables as well as other important resources. This has inspired the idea for an ‘electric pony’, a retro-modern vehicle, to move and market local seasonal foodstuffs through valley. We have found a 1946 Wallace & Edwards 3-Wheel Electric Milk Float with the aim of renovating and bringing back to life this beautiful vehicle. The vehicle would be to roll through the valley, linking up communities, marketing produce from local growers, a movable base for cooperative food buying schemes, providing and networking information about local community and Transition Valley events, providing also a community service for people unable to easily access shops due to old age or mobility difficulties.
5. VI. Re-skilling workshop for the public and schools on the field of food – Following on from the success of last years Re-skilling workshops we would run 8 workshops/demonstrations on the theme of ‘food’ for the public, and 4 in primary schools within the Dedham Vale. These may cover: Fungi foray, wild food in autumn and spring, bread-making, cheese-making, wild health, open farms
6. V. ’30 miles for 30 days – a local food challenge’ – Eating a diet sourced from a radius of 30 miles (centred on Dedham Vale) for 30 days, and then reflecting upon this process. Encouraging as many people as possible to take part in this diet, starting on the 10^th September and culminating in a celebration at Old Hall on the 10^th October 2010 (This links in with the 10:10 campaign reducing your carbon emissions by 10% by 2010)