Well loads of good work was done this morning at the allotments fields in Skerries. A bit of fun and banter was the order of the day in the beautiful Autumn sunshine.
Over 60 people turned up to give a hand at preparing the fields paths and marking out allotments. Stones were cleared, the ground was prepared for grass seeding on the walkways. All of this done in the old fashioned way without machinery.
Its amazing what zeal and enthusiasm will achieve even in the absence of the kind of real financial support other allotments such as the ones at Turvey recieved. It is a real credit to the people of Skerries that they have shown such resilience. Tom Hussey from Fingal Co Co, came along to organise and help out in the measuring and marking. Sustainable Skerries would like to thank Tom for his unwavering support for this project.
The next Work Party will be next Saturday the 2nd of October at 10am. Hopefully we will have good weather. Hope to see you there.
For those of you who are planning to take one of the new allotments on the Golf Links Road, we will be organising a work party next Saturday 25th September at 10am. Weather permitting…..
Meet up at the field. Please note there is limited parking in the new car park, so please reduce your carbon footprint. We would encourage everyone to walk, cycle or car pool if possible.
We hope to mark out perimeters of allotments, remove stones from pathways, and seed these.
Please bring rakes and shovels. and help us turn our open fields into allotments.
Sustainable Skerries has won a TidyTowns Sustainable Development Award. This is a special competition sponsored by Comhar, The Sustainable Development Council to recognise projects undertaken by individuals or groups within the community that have helped to promote sustainable development in their local areas.It is a great honor to win this award in conjunction with the Skerries Tidy Towns Committee. It is a great example of the co-operation which thrives between the various sub-committees of the Skerries Community Association.
Just a quick note about the official opening of the allotments which was scheduled to take place on Monday 16th August. Unfortunatly this has been defferred because the work needed in the two fields has not yet been carried out.
We are still waiting for the fields to be ploughed then harrowed. Then the plots to be marked out and fenced. This is the minimum required to open the allotments. Sustainable Skerries will be having a meeting with Fingal CC to discuss progress……..
Watch this space.
Community Supported Agriculture or CSA is a concept which has really grown in popularity in the USA in the past 10 years. However I know of only one in Ireland. It’s in the Eco-Village in Cloughjordan, Co Tipperary. What is CSA?. Community Supported Agriculture consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that the farmland becomes, spiritually like a community farm, with the grower and consumers providing mutual support and sharing the risks and benefits of food production. Typically, members of the CSA pledge in advance to cover the anticipated costs of the farm operation and farmer’s salary. In return, they receive shares in the farm’s bounty throughout the growing season, as well as satisfaction gained from reconnecting to the land and participating directly in food production. Members also share in the risks of farming, including poor harvests due to unfavorable weather or pests. By direct sales to community members, who have provided the farmer with working capital in advance, the growers receive much better prices for their crops, gain some financial security, and are relieved of much of the burden of marketing.
The members of the CSA greatly improve the quality of their food, reduce their food miles, improve their food resilience and also get closer to the land. It is a good solution to food resilience for someone who does not have the time, health or inclination to take on an allotment, but still wants the benefits of local fesh food.
The way it works is the CSA members pay a weekly subscription to the grower. In return they recieve a box of food once or twice a week, depending on the particular type of CSA. The food will be seasonal and will have been harvested that day. CSA’s range from straightforward vegetable box systems to CSA’s supplying milk, eggs and even meat, (chickens, pigs and beef). To give some idea of scale, the CSA in the Eco-Village in Cloughjordan has a total of 40 acres, with roughly 4 acres of land under vegetables with about 40 varieties of vegetable. They have 10 acres with cereal, the cereal is used to feed their livestock. Pigs, cattle, hens and goats. The growersupplies 55 members with two vegetable boxes per week. these boxes are delivered to a drop off point and are collected by the members. The grower also supplies eggs and milk. They occasionally supply meat from their farm by arrangement with a local craft butcher. This benefits the farmer, the local butcher and the CSA members who are supplied with excellent quality fesh organic meat at a very reasonable price.
If anyone is interested in getting involved in a CSA for Skerries, either as a Grower or a CSA Member contact us at sustskerries@yahoo.ie
At last, we are getting real action on the allotments. The contractor has been working on the field since Thursday 8th July. So far they have opened up the wall and have built a fence stepped back from the road to allow for safe access and egress. They have put down some hardcore stones for a limited amount of parking, we would really encourage folks to walk or bicycle to the fields when they can. They are also in the process of improving access to the second field to the east.
So thankfully we will be in a position to get a work party together to clear stones and litter from the fields before they are ploughed. We are informed that the official opening will happen in middle of August. We will get the word out to everyone who has completed an application form, via email and also through this website when we are ready to get the first of many workparties together.
Watch this space.
Saturday morning on the 26th June we held a meeting in the Café at the Skerries Mills (thanks to Ray for accomodating us) to give an update on the current status of the allotments in Skerries and to allow those interested to complete an application form for one of the allotments. We were also fortunate to have Tom Hussey, Parks Superintendant from Fingal Co Co in attendance. Many thanks to Tom for taking time out of his weekend to attend the meeting.
Mary Marsden from Sustainable Skerries gave an update on the current status of the project.
Currently we are still waiting for the new gateway to be opened in the boundary wall on to the public road, we are also waiting for a limited amount of parking to be provided. (We would encourage people to walk or cycle to the allotments). These measures are a minimum requirement for a safe access and egress from the site. The land also needs to be ploughed and rotavated before we can move in. We hope to be in a position to get in to the site in the second half of July.
Tom made it clear that there was virtually no budget for this project, however, we were assured of his commitment to the project. We also assured Tom that the people in the room were fully committed to the project and were more than willing to give up their time and energy to help. For example clearing stones from the fields before rotavating, or marking out the plots and pathways.
Tom answered several questions from the room. We discussed water supply, Organic and Non-Organic plots and the provision of toilets and bicycle racks. We also got an oppurtunity to see an aerial photo of the two fields concerned and a draft layout of the allotments. There will be an open area in the middle of each field to allow for picnics and small gatherings on a summers evening.
We hope to have another meeting in two or three weeks, with the possibility of going up to the site. Keep an eye out for email notifications and notices on this website.
We have had to delay “Walking the Land” at the allotments until Saturday 26th June, at 10am. This delay is due to the contractors employed by Fingal Co Co not being able to carry out essential work on time.
All going well on Sat 26th, we hope to assemble at the Skerries Mills car park to meet for a briefing in the Mills, then walk up to the allotments site on the Golf Links Road. The positive view to take here is that we are getting very close to the openning of our own allotments for Skerries. Keep the faith for a few more weeks, we will get there!
We will be to issuing hard copy applications to people who have applied already, just to confirm that you’re still happy with the allotment size and whether you want to stay with Organic/Non Organic. Also, we will need to know your level of growing experience. This will allow us to plan the locations of individual allotments. After the briefing we will form work party’s and walk up to the allotments to help clear stones and get familiar with the fields. Please bring some of your gardening tools. We will walk the land and give you an idea of the layout of the organic and Non-Organic areas.
We are now getting much more positive news from Fingal Co Co. they hope to rectify the access problem with the field and get it ploughed and harrowed before the 26th June. Fingal Co Co have also said that the Water issue will be sorted out.
So if you can, please come along on Saturday 26th June…… The more the merrier, so we can get in there quicker.
Sustainable Skerries have been working with Fingal County Council on the allotments project since January. If you are intersted in becoming a member of Sustainable Skerries, contact us at the email address below.
Saturday 26th June 10am. Keep the date free in your diary.
We will keep you updated on developments. You can email us on sustskerries@yahoo.ie if you have any further queries.
Our World Café evening went extremely well. Topics up for discussion ranged from Food Supply Resilience, Water security, Sustainable Transport, Trees and how we can plant more Nut and Fruit trees in our open spaces, Allotments, How will we be heating our homes in a Post Peak oil world and Reskilling.
The large crowd filled the Mills Café and really got into the whole World Café concept. Absolutly everyone got involved in every topic, with a lot of very valuable ideas and brainwaves. The facilitators did a great job of sumarising the findings from each table and were greeted with warm applause. Hopefully this will be the first of many such World Cafés.
Everyone who gave us their contact details on the night will recieve a summary of each Tables/Topics findings and brainwaves.
Our thanks to the Ray in the Skerries Mills for accomodating us on the night.
Deep discussions at the World Café
We will be having our next Sustainable Skerries Public Meeting on Thursday 20th May at 8pm in the Skerries Mills. All are welcome.
Sustainable Skerries 