Potato Day and the most pro-gm government yet!

Well Caroline Spelman has said our government will be the most pro-gm yet. See blog here with details of the two trials re GM potatoes. It seems astonishing the government are still pushing ahead with all the evidence against GM....

And talking of potatoes last week I had a meeting to plan next years Stroud Potato Day. This year we raised over £760 from potato sales and our recipe book for Transition Stroud. I had a meeting with the Down to Earth Cooperative about a partnership to help celebrate Stroud Potato Day. Working in partnership I believe can help us all....our provisional date is Saturday 4th February and things are looking good....we certainly will be GM-free!


So who are Down to Earth?

Well the Co-operative was set up in late 2009, to support households in the Stroud area wanting to grow organic vegetables and fruit in their own gardens. The group provides a range of services from 1:1 training and/or advice (planning, trouble shooting etc), running gardening courses, preparation of growing areas including installing raised beds or removing turf or recovering overgrown areas, through to planting and sowing, weeding and feeding, protection from pests, harvesting and holiday cover. In addition to these services, Down to Earth has a 'Growing Communities Project', the aim of which is to take volunteers through nationally accredited training in growing food organically, and then supporting them in encouraging others to start growing.

They hope to start a new project later on this year, called 'The Fruit and Nut Tree Guardianship Scheme'.  Other plans in the pipeline include crop share schemes, which they are currently researching to find the most suitable option for those with spare growing areas.  If anyone would like to find out more about the co-operative, go to www.downtoearth.coop, email info(at)downtoearth.coop, or call 01453 700011.