Twelve of us spent today (Wednesday 7th March) on a day-long horticulture course run by Jenny Griggs of Climate Friendly Food. It was the first day of four consecutive Wednesdays as part Kindling’s work to encourage more people to consider commercial-scale food growing in the North West.
The day started at 9.30 with an introduction to The Kindling Trust & our Land Army project. Jenny then took us through an introduction to crops and crop rotations. We then focused on business skills to run a community food enterprise that grows vegetables e.g. legal, records, H&S, working with volunteers, seed sowing schedule, etc.
The training, running on four consecutive Wednesdays, is a mixture of practical work and theory, and includes visits to Glebelands City Growers, Moss Brook Growers and Fir Tree Community Growers. The days are themed, with one day each being spent on: business skills; salad production; machinery skills and field cropping.
Our twelve attendees came from Preston, Bolton, Liverpool, Salford and Manchester and ranged from Land Army volunteers, allotment holders and a few people interested in becoming commercial growers. Each attendee has committed to spend four days volunteering with the Land Army over the year and we hope some of them will join our new generation of local organic farmers.