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Vegetables

Our central aim for Canalside is to begin to grow a wide range of vegetables throughout the year . The project works in a similar way to that of a vegetable 'box scheme', with members paying a subscription for a weekly assortment of those items in season. Being a CSA (see FAQs) however, Canalside is much more than your average box scheme, offering the chance to be part of a community that works to support a local farm whilst enjoying a regular share in the harvest. Members are able to visit the farm and help with the growing, harvesting and weeding(!). With the community supporting the farmers with labour intensive tasks in this way, it makes the process of producing food a more economically reliable and affordable task. As well as these opportunities to help work on the farm with the growing of veg, there are also social gatherings celebrating the different festivals in the year, giving members access to the farm so as to enjoy the space.

What we do not intend to do is buy in out of season veg to bulk out the weekly box, as we believe in producing and supplying only what we are able to at any time of the year. We do not intend to try and compete with supermarkets or even local, ethical food shops (such as Gaia) at the job of sourcing organic out of season fruit and veg. As a result, your potential share in the harvest will be different from week to week. For example, in mid to late summer when the majority of vegetables are ready to harvest, a share will be both bountiful and extremely varied. In contrast, however, it is a hard task to grow vegetables ready to be harvested in late April, May and early June; this period is often dubbed the 'Hungry Gap' and a share will be smaller and less varied (see Shares to have a look at what you might be able to expect to receive as part of your veg share throughout the year). We will however, be working to make a share as interesting as possible throughout the year whilst still only harvesting our own in-season produce.

A view of one of the veg fields late summer 2006 The same veg area bursting with veg in June 2007

We currently have 5 acres of land in cultivation including five large polytunnels. This has been the result of months of hard work over the past year. These fields have been fenced against rabbits and divided into eight seperate rotational plots. Member's work days have been going since mid February 2007 and with some fantastic help on these days we managed to spread manure over the land, plant 115kg of onion sets, dig the trenches for two polytunnels, secure the fencing and weed the onions 8 weeks after they were planted! Our regular bi-weekly work mornings are running and veg share subscription members are receiving their weekly shares of fresh veg (see our Pictures page).

We have been employing a consultant, Thalia, since the autumn of 2006 who has helped to plan how the land needed to be prepared and what other essential elements needed to be in place on the land over the winter months. Thalia has organised and designed our system of growing and now visits to guide the process on a fortnightly basis. As for the day to day management, this is shared between two part-time growers Danny and Tom, with help from Stew. As well as this we have five workshare volunteers Ali, Graham, Dan, Will and Sue, who help on the land for three/four hours a week in exchange for their share of veg. Your link to the land and any of these folk is through our administrator, Caz. See the Who Are We page for more info about everyone.

We already have a small comittee of people that get together to discuss how to take things forward - as such, we will be constantly updating this information. So, please keep checking back for updates.

If you'd like to be added to the list of potential Canalside Veg members, and/or would like to be involved in the planning meetings, or if you have any other questions please email us.