Newsletter September 2008

Sustainable Ottery Food Group ’Ready, Steady, Eat!’ evening, Fri 26 Sept 7.00pm, The Institute

Too much sweetcorn, marrow or bean? Finding it hard to stretch the food budget?

…Come along to the ‘Ready, Steady, Eat’ event at The Institute on Friday 26th September at 7pm for an evening of ideas-sharing, eating, drinking and dancing.

Two teams led by local cooking experts will be having a cook-off, ‘Ready-Steady-Cook’ style, to give you lots of delicious ideas for using up the vegetables that are in your garden or on offer in the shops.

Bring a dish to add to the feast. Supper will be followed by live music from local band Good Question, playing a variety of old and new favourites… from rock to soul to reggae.

There will be a bar selling wine, beer and soft drinks… and local apple juice will be freshly pressed on the premises.

Tickets £4 (£3 concs) are available from Ottery Tourist Information Centre, Roberts DIY, or call Nicki on 01404 812552.

Proceeds will be split between LOAF Network and the fund for the proposed Ottery Skate Park.

Resources Group

If the damage to the environment caused by plastic bags and packaging something that gets you hot under the collar, then why not help us make Ottery a plastic-bag free town. Come along and meet some like-minded people at our next meeting at 28 Longdogs Lane on Thursday 11th September at 7 p.m. and get a free canvas bag into the bargain.

Sustainable Ottery Community Market, Saturday 27 Sept 9.30 – 12.30

Our monthly Community Market has now been running for five months and is proving extremely popular. More people than ever before passed through our August market in spite of school holidays etc….Stalls vary from locally grown plants, vegetables, flowers, jams, and pizzas to high fashion knitted handbags and bonsai trees. There will be a face painter for children plus a local author will be selling & signing copies of his new children's book, 'The Balaclava Boy’, plus tea, coffee and delicious home-made cakes from the W.I. So don’t miss our next Community Market on Saturday 27 September. If you would like to have your own stall (charge £3) or would be willing to help with the set-up or the clearing up, please phone Beatrix Godfrey on 01404 812 213 or Penny Hounslow on 01404 814632.

Tale Vale Food Project

Are you interested in participating in a project to re-skill local people in growing, storing and preparing food? Do you want to help develop community self-sufficiency in the face of rising oil and food prices and global warming? Phil Foggitt is developing a project to do just this. The plan is to develop courses for adults and sessions for children on plant cultivation, food preparation and preservation in the walled garden at Escot, using a demonstration site and small resource centre. Other plans for the project include autumn harvest celebrations and food audits of OSM residents. The intention is to apply for 3-year funding from the Lottery’s Food Fund and other foundations. Sustainable Ottery is supporting this initiative but the SO steering group is recommending that the management and finances of the project be kept separate from SO because of SO’s limited capacity at present.

So Phil is looking for interested individuals to get involved in the project in various ways and participate in a project Steering Committee.

All those interested should contact Phil Foggitt phil@foggitt.freeserve.co.uk Tel 01404 851048

Energy Group

Members of Sustainable Ottery’s Energy group recently paid a visit to Dalwood Hill House, the home of Peter Addie. You may recall he came to give a fascinating talk a few months about how we can reduce our energy bills. His home is wonderful, full of the latest gadgets and equipment (some home-made) to generate electricity or heat water – he evens manages to sell some of his electricity back to the Grid! With his chickens, fruit and vegetable gardens (strawberries 10 months a year!) and wonderful array of man-powered transportation, we couldn’t help but get inspired to do something in our own homes. If this sounds like the sort of thing you’d like to get into, then why not come along to our next meeting, Tuesday 16th September, at 35, Oak Close, O.S.M. (tel Jill on 811067).

Volunteers for Local Veggie-box Farm

Ruth Hancock, who runs “Fresh and Green” a pesticide-free vegetable-growing farm based at Fluxton and Venn Ottery, is looking for some volunteers to help with the veggie growing whilst construction of a new barn is happening this autumn. You will get some free veggies for your time and energy!

Please phone Ruth on 01404 814122 .

A Date for Next Year's Diary : `Ellingtonia’, Fri 13th Feb 2008

Sustainable Ottery has managed to book 'Ellingtonia', a stunning 9-piece band to play in the Parish Church next February - thereby promoting local entertainment without car journeys to Exeter or more distant towns. Ellingtonia specialise in playing Duke Ellington music and give a spectacular performance. If you would like to hear 'Mood Indigo' or 'Take the A Train' just one more time then come along! All proceeds will be shared between Sustainable Ottery and Churches Together in Ottery.

Next SO Steering Group meeting – 7.30pm, Thurs 18th Sept

The September Steering Group meeting will be back in the U.R.C. hall in Ottery (behind the U.R.C. church opposite the Co-op supermarket).

Sustainable Ottery welcomes new members. Anyone interested in finding out more or in joining one of the working groups (energy, resources, food, art and creativity, transport, factory future, communications and awareness raising) can e-mail: info@sustainableottery.org.uk. See www.sustainableottery.org.uk for future events.

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