This is the blog for www.incredible-edible-north-hampshire.co.uk

Welcome to the Incredible Edible North Hampshire Blog!

Incredible Edible North Hampshire (IE-NH) is a group of local volunteers who are sharing responsibility to create more resilient, vibrant and cohesive communities in North Hampshire through encouraging the production and sourcing of local food.

You can find out more at our site at: www.incredible-edible-north-hampshire.co.uk

Tuesday 3 December 2013

Incredible Edible North Hampshire holds it's meetings on the third Tuesday of every month.

We take a break in December as everyone gears up for the Christmas break

Have a really enjoyable Christmas and New Year!  


The next monthly meeting will be held on Tuesday 21st January at 7.30pm 

at the Community House. 

Agenda:

TBC

The meetings are open to all who have an any kind of interest in food!

Meeting Location:

The Community House
32 Branton Close
Basingstoke
RG22 6UN 

Map: http://goo.gl/maps/bkvCb 

Parking is easiest next to the shops at the end of Burnaby Close.

Further details contact bob on 07909 541145

Kind Regards

Monday 11 November 2013

Next Monthly Meeting - Tuesday 19th November at 7.30pm

Incredible Edible North Hampshire holds it's meetings on the third Tuesday of every month.

The next monthly meeting will be held on Tuesday 19th November at 7.30pm 

at the Community House. This will be the last meeting of 2013, so it must be Mince Pie time!

Agenda:

07:30  Arrivals.

     Introductions

     Site Updates

·         Orchard-War Memorial Park
·         Roman House.
·         YMCA
·         Stagg Hill/Malmsbury Fields.
·         Labour Club.

    Information Board Design Competition.

    Grants/Funding – Update


    AOB.

The meetings are open to all who have an any kind of interest in food!

Meeting Location:

The Community House
32 Branton Close
Basingstoke
RG22 6UN 

Map: http://goo.gl/maps/bkvCb 

Parking is easiest next to the shops at the end of Burnaby Close.

Further details contact bob on 07909 541145

Kind Regards

Sunday 29 September 2013

Next Monthly Meeting - Tuesday 15th October at 7.30pm

Incredible Edible North Hampshire holds it's meetings on the third Tuesday of every month.

The next monthly meeting will be held on Tuesday 15th October at 7.30pm 

at the Community House.

Agenda:

TBC

The meetings are open to all who have an any kind of interest in food!

Meeting Location:

The Community House
32 Branton Close
Basingstoke
RG22 6UN 

Map: http://goo.gl/maps/bkvCb 

Parking is easiest next to the shops at the end of Burnaby Close.

Further details contact bob on 07909 541145

Kind Regards

Sunday 25 August 2013

Next Monthly Meeting - Tuesday 17th September at 7.30pm

Incredible Edible North Hampshire holds it's meetings on the third Tuesday of every month.

The next monthly meeting will be held on Tuesday 17th September at 7.30pm 

at the Community House.


Agenda:

TBC

The meetings are open to all who have an any kind of interest in food!

Meeting Location:

The Community House
32 Branton Close
Basingstoke
RG22 6UN 

Map: http://goo.gl/maps/bkvCb 

Parking is easiest next to the shops at the end of Burnaby Close.

Further details contact bob on 07909 541145

Kind Regards


Monday 27 May 2013

Next Monthly Meeting - Tuesday 18th June @ 7.30pm

The next monthly meeting will be held on Tuesday 18th June at 7.30pm.

Scope, Roman House, Winklebury Way,

Basingstoke, Hampshire RG23 8BJ


·  7.30 pm Arrivals 
·  Introductions
·  Scope
    • Introduction to Scope
    • View grounds
    • Open discussion on ideas for food growing
·  Orchard – War Memorial Park
    • Paul Bushell, Testbourne Community School / Information Boards
    • Grants: Update from Steve
    • Maintenance update – Colin/Steve
·  Overton – First Incredible Edible Planting
·  Malmesbury Fields - update
·  Events
    • Volunteer Day – Wednesday 5th June
    • Basingstoke Green Week 14th – 21st September
    • Octoberfest – 12th & 13th October
    • YMCA -
·  Review actions arising from our last meeting
·  AOB
·  Close

Next meeting:

Tuesday 16th July @ 7.30pm – Community House, 32 Branton Close, South Ham, RG22 6UN.

The meetings are open to all who have an any kind of interest in food!

Further details contact bob on 07909 541145
Kind Regards

Tuesday 23 April 2013

Monthly Meeting - Tuesday 21st May at 7.30pm


Tuesday 21st May @ 7.30pm – Community House, 32 Branton Close, South Ham,RG22 6UN.


7.30 pm Arrivals 
  • Introductions
  • Orchard – War Memorial Park

               - Maintenance Schedule
               - Signage: / grants: Update
               - Information Board Competition
  • Events

                - BCOT - Eco-Basingstoke Conference - Tuesday 14th May
                - Volunteer Day - Wednesday 5th June
                - Basingstoke Green Week 14th - 21st September
                - Octoberfest - 12th & 13th October


  • YMCA: 

               - Introduction with Sherrie Morgan
               - Open Discussion on ideas
  • Work Parties

  • Review actions arising from our last meeting
  • AOB


Further details contact bob on 07909 541145

Wednesday 3 April 2013

Monthly Meeting - Tuesday 16th April at 7.30pm


The next monthly meeting will be held on Tuesday 16th April at 7.30pm at the Community House.


Agenda:



·  7.30 pm Arrivals 
·  Introductions
·  Orchard – War Memorial Park
                    Review of planting
                    Signage / grants: Sainsbury’s / Four Lanes Trust……..
                    Information/ Learning projects
·  Octoberfest 
·  Volunteer Day
·  Malmesbury Fields
·  Scope
·  Top Of The Town Update – “if we could have a share in a retail unit, 
                                                                           what would we do with it?”
·  Review actions arising from our last meeting
·  AOB
·  Close

The meetings are open to all who have an any kind of interest in food!

Next meeting:
Tuesday 21st May @ 7.30pm – Community House, 32 Branton Close, South Ham, RG22 6UN.

Further details contact bob on 07909 541145
Kind Regards



Community Orchard - War Memorial Park - Planting Completed!


A big "THANK YOU" to all the volunteers who helped complete the planting of the trees in the Community Orchard in the War Memorial Park through last week and finishing with the big push on Saturday which saw the last 23 trees planted making 49 in all. 






More pictures here: http://ienorthhampshire.zapto.org/html/community_orchard_photos.html

The weather was finally kind enough after two false starts with the torrential rain at the first attempt and the freezing cold winds at the second. Roughly 50 people came forward with their help and support - which was great!

We have a little tidying up to do and need to get some more compost to site and around the trees.

Colin is kindly drawing up the maintenance schedule, so if you would like to be involved with this going forward be it mulching, watering, pruning, inspecting for pests, disease etc please let us know. It is a Community Orchard and as such is for everyone to enjoy.

Some next steps if you are interested:

1) Incredible Edible North Hampshire is a not-for-profit voluntary organisation focused on the local sourcing of food through Community, Learning and Local Business. We hold meetings once a month, the next meeting is on Tuesday 16th April at The Community House, 32 Branton Close, South Ham, Basingstoke RG22 6UN if you would like to come along and celebrate the planting of the Community Orchard. Our thanks to Sovereign Kingfisher for letting us use the Community House.

2) To-date we have been focusing on the Community thread and would like to now use the Orchard to get the Learning thread going. The first stage will be to raise the funds needed to get the signage and information boards in place at the Community Orchard. We plan to include QR codes which can be read by smartphones both on the notice boards and on each tree which can be linked back to websites with lots more information. 


With growing, cooking and nutrition going back onto the national curriculum these QR codes will open up opportunities for schools to conduct projects which can be designed to support the national curriculum. For example subject areas which could be covered include: IT - web design; Soil Science, Genetics explaining the diversity of trees, Horticulture - planting and maintaining trees; harvesting: preserving and processing fruit; cookery, nutrition.

So if you know of any organisations that might be willing to provide funds towards to information boards or schools which might be interested in running projects linked to the Community Orchard please put us in touch with the appropriate people!

Thank you once again for your help and support,

Kind Regards

Incredible Edible North Hampshire

Monday 18 March 2013

Basingstoke Community Orchard Planting Day


It with great frustration that we shall need to cancel the Community Orchard Planting Session we have planned for tomorrow (Sunday 24th) due to the weather conditions:

1) If the snow does not melt we will not be able to see the red markings for the tree locations, more light snow is expected in the early hours of Sunday.
2) Whether it melts or not the ground will be sodden
3) Temperatures forecast at a high of 0C, but with a stiff wind of 17 - 18 mph it will feel like -5C

May I ask that you forward this as appropriate?

Going forward this coming week temperatures are forecast to stay low through Wednesday, rising Thursday through the Easter weekend.


1) This coming week: we plan to organise some smaller sessions at short notice to get a few trees in. Short notice will mean if it looks good that day we will inform volunteers in the morning for a session the same afternoon. If you wish to participate in any of the sessions please let me have a mobile number I can notify you by as we shall confirm by TXT message.


2) Many people will have holidays and family commitments over the holiday weekend. But we have decided to canvass everyone to determine which might be the best day over the holiday weekend to schedule a larger planting session. Which days (Friday 29th through Monday 1st) could you be available?


We have had great interest and support for which we thank you.


Hoping you can join us to get the rest of the trees planted,



Sunday 17 March 2013


First of all a big thank-you to all the people who turned out today despite the torrential rain and who were still keen to get planting.

I am really sorry we had to take the decision to postpone the planting to another day, but as the morning progressed the conditions on site were getting steadily worse and the Met Office Radar showed a steady succession of further bad weather lining up to hit us.

We will confirm the new planting day shortly.


The site plan, tree list and latest photos are up on the web site at www.ienh.co.uk


Kind Regards


Bob & Steve


Tuesday 26 February 2013


Volunteers Needed!

Help To Plant A Community Orchard!


Incredible Edible North Hampshire is planting a Community Orchard in the Basingstoke War Memorial Park at 12 midday on Sunday 17th March 2013.

You would be most welcome to join in and help!

Once established the fruit produced will be available to the whole community to share. The layout below will give you an idea of how it will look, there are 49 trees in total.



Whether it is digging holes, driving stakes, holding the tree, filling the hole, watering in, spreading the mulch or just giving encouraging support – come along and lend a hand!

For more details email Bob on 07909 541145

Organisations supporting the project include Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council, Shaw Trust, Inspero, Laverstoke Park Farm and Sainsbury's together with Basingstoke Gazette who are running articles on the project 

Friday 22 February 2013

Monthly Meeting - Tuesday 19th March at 7.30pm

The next monthly meeting will be held on Tuesday 19th March at 7.30pm at the Community House.

This is right after our planting day for the Community Orchard in the Basingstoke War Memorial Park on Sunday 17th March and so should be a good opportunity to share experiences and celebrate before looking to the next project.

The agenda will be posted closer to the time.

For details contact bob on 07909 541145

Kind Regards

Thursday 31 January 2013

Brooklyn Goes Big – Urban Farm Online

Now wouldn't it be great to have one of these in North Hampshire?

Potential buildings anyone?

Brooklyn Goes Big – Urban Farm Online:

'via Blog this'

House of Commons - Sustainable Food - Environmental Audit Committee

House of Commons - Sustainable Food - Environmental Audit Committee: "There should also be provisions in Local Plans to ensure that communities are provided with open spaces to grow their own produce, including for example options for communities or co-operatives to buy land for these purposes. To help develop such guidance, the Government should also identify best practice from leading local authorities in this field and quantify the benefits of developing local food strategies."

So maybe things are travelling in the right direction on this?

'via Blog this'

Saturday 26 January 2013

Next meeting is on Tuesday 19th February @ 7.30pm.



The next Incredible Edible North Hampshire meeting will be held on the evening of Tuesday 19th February 2013.

The agenda will include:

Update on Community Orchard for the War Memorial Park

Update on Malmesbury Fields

Latest on Overton

If you would like to attend call Steve or Bob, contact details at:


www.Incredible-Edible-North-Hampshire.co.uk