OPEN MEETINGS, 2nd Thursday of every month, see Meetings & Events for details click here

WHAT IS TRANSITION ABOUT?  Transition Ashtead is a non political group of local people who got together to meet the potential challenges of peak oil, carbon emissions,  climate change and the many serious issues facing our environment. We are united by a belief that we can make a real difference for the future, that by taking small steps to change our life styles, and by all of us being actively involved in local projects and issues we can make Ashtead resilient. One of our aims is to raise awareness of the issues so we can all learn about the global problems and how we can help locally. The five key areas are:

Energy, Food, Transport, Biodiversity and Waste & Recycling.

The enthusiasm and input from residents, business and local organisations makes a huge difference to what we can achieve.  Please join us and see what we can do if we all work together. The idea is that we ‘transition’ gradually towards making Ashtead a greener and more sustainable village. We can have fun, and strengthen the community on the way!

Transition Ashtead is just one of over 300 groups across the world. For more about the Transition Network http://www.transitionnetwork.org/

We have regular Open Meetings with films, speakers, and discussions on the 2nd Thursday of the month (except August), 7.30pm at the Ashtead Peace Memorial Hall. See Events for more details and reports of previous meetings.

Do you want to help shape the future of Ashtead? Click here to visit  ASHTEAD COMMUNITY VISION www.ashteadcommunityvision.org.uk

We had a fantastic response to the Apple Day. Within the first hour we had filled one builders bag, and we rushed off to get a second one! By the end of the day we had filled two, our estimate was we had about half a ton. Everyone was amazingly generous donating their extra apples and paying in advance for the bottled juice, this has enabled us to be able to pay for the juicing and bottling of about 300 litres. We also had the demonstration press, kindly loaned by Epsom Apples, which was great fun and showed the process of chopping, crushing and pressing – the resulting juice was yummy. David Gillott, Four Gables Fine Dining, had a delicious selection of their produce and hampers, I was very impressed that as well as keeping ducks and using the eggs, they grow mushrooms here in Ashtead. Thank you to everyone who helped make the day such a great success.

Today I drove the van rather slowly to Ringden Farm in Kent. We chose to take them there as it was closer than Moor Organic Juicers as they do not need a minimum of a ton. Ringden Farm have their own orchards, they say it has been an amazing year for apples and they have never been so busy. The heavy builders bags were forked lifted out of the van and tipped into 2 big wooden crates. The juice will be ready to collect  and buy (£2.50/Ltr) in about 4 weeks. I am really looking forward to sampling our juice, and having such a local produce to give away as presents. Ringden Farm also make cider, so next year we could have Ashtead Apple Cider!

 

         

Ashtead Apple Day

15th October 2011

 

APMH, 10am – 4pm

Due to the huge popularity of the Apple pressing event last year when we were completely over whelmed with apples, we are changing the format of our apple event this time. We will have Demonstration Apple crushing & pressing and sample juice tasting using the apple press, kindly loaned by George from Epsom Apples, but we will be collecting apples to be taken for commercial pressing at Ringden Farm in Hurst Green, East Sussex to be pressed, pasteurised & bottled into yummy apple juice - a great product that will still taste great, will still be Ashtead Apple juice but will keep better ( for at least 2 years), and allow us to process far more apples than we could last year.   

So please bring your apples - we are aiming to collect a TON of apples this year!

We weigh your apples (1.5kgs = 1 Ltr juice)

You pay in advance(£2.50 per 1 Ltr bottle)

Collection/delivery end October

If you have surplus apples please donate them, all profits will go to the Village Vegetables project.

Bottled juice will be available to buy at local shops in Ashtead

 We will also have other apple-related food for sale and tasting.

David Gillott, chef at Four Gables Fine Dining, will have a selection of apple related food products to taste and buy. He will share his recipes, hints and tips for successful apple cooking.

Bring & share your favourite apple recipes

Looking forward to seeing you on the 15th October!

 

Transition Ashtead hosted another successful event on Monday – this time at St George’s Parish Room – it raised the issues of Food Miles and Packaging. It started with a role play between Caroline Cardew-Smith, (the organiser of the evening), and Flip Gargill (from Transition Bookham), comparing the origin and packaging of the food in their shopping baskets of “Local” and “Yonder” produce. Angus Pike narrated with some technical information about how much CO2 each produced and how choosing locally produced food can dramatically cut food miles. There were two guest speakers – Graham Love and Tyrone Patterson.

Graham Love runs “Greenways” Fruit Farm in Herstmancoux in East Sussex. He talked about the value of locally grown produce and how moving to buying local produce would help cut carbon emissions. He believes that genetically-modified crops will be crucial in meeting the challenge of feeding the growing world population in the future. He is passionate about the Transition movement and the move to a lower carbon economy – he belongs to the Lewes Transition group. He was also selling his Sussex-grown English cherries – absolutely luscious!

Tyrone Patterson runs “Greenwise” fruit and veg shop in The Street. He explained how he liked to provide local produce when possible but if you are running a business means meeting his customers needs, which includes selling produce from overseas. It’s hard to get locally grown bananas for example! The evening developed into a lively debate, which covered many issues about sustainability and the use of new technology, particularly relating to food production, and the fact that no-one wants to return to the old days of life without modern conveniences. A consensus was reached that using technology responsibly was the way forward. The evening was rounded of by refreshments, thanks to Angus and Maureen.

Transition Ashtead are holding an event on Food Miles & Packaging, including information about the eye-catching Ashtead ‘Village Vegetables’ project. What is the project and why are they doing it? There will be a short film highlighting the issues around ‘food miles’, and afterwards a panel of guest speakers will discuss how we can all reduce food miles and use less packaging.

The date – Monday 11th July 2011

The time –  7.30pm

The place – Parish room, St Georges Church, Barnett Wood Lane, Ashtead KT21 2DA

Hope to see you there!

Last summer holidays, on a drizzly day in August, parents at St Giles school, guided by Ceri Morgan, gathered to plant a ‘mini-beast garden’ – a raised bed with plants to attract bees, bugs and butterflies. Transition Ashtead were among other participants who were delighted to help with the planting and supplied some of the plants. The garden is now well established and buzzing with insect life and on Tuesday had its official opening. All the helpers were invited back to see the fruits of their labours. St Giles Head Teacher, Judith Clawley, led the lively proceedings and the children of St Giles cheered to thank everyone involved.

 Katie from Ashtead Park Garden Centre cut the Opening Ribbon, which was held by 10 children, representing the parents who had been most involved with the project.

 Transition Ashtead would like to congratulate St Giles for encouraging the children to understand the importance of pollinators, which are such a vital link in the natural chain of food production. The school also has two large ‘bug houses’ where insects can over-winter and lay eggs. 

Creating areas of biodiversity like the mini-beast garden provides havens in which  pollinators can feed. Is there room in your garden for a ‘mini-beast patch’? Maybe you could leave an area of lawn un-mown or leave a grassy bank to go wild?  Scarce food for pollinators means fewer apples on your trees!

The long brick bed in front of the Tesco site has now been planted up. There is a line of runner beans along the back, and in front tomatoes, strawberries, dwarf beans, peas, peppers, chillies, and a variety of herbs. Chris and I prepared the bed with compost to give them a good start, and we have been repaid already as they are growing really well. We are delighted that already people are helping themselves to the herbs, the chives are popular! The traders who have shops nearby are going to water, when it stops raining, and feed the plants.  We will be putting labels so you can see what it what.

 We are delighted with the overwhelmingly positive response from the village, and are looking forward to a really good harvest in a couple of months. Please email us if you have any special recipes for runner beans, or tomatoes. And if you have a veg plants that you would like to have included in a planter let us know, there is always a space somewhere!

 Before and after photos:

And to give us something to aim for next year, these are photos I took at the Chelsea Flower show!

We had a very successful day on Saturday, we were blessed with a georgous sunny day!

The bike powered smoothie maker was very popular. We were demonstrating just how much energy is required to power a blender and how much we take for granted being able to flick a switch. The strawberry smoothies were delicious, even Chris Grayling got on the bike to have a go!

Jane brought along her four chickens, and talked to lots of people who are keen to keep them. We were selling local Ashtead honey, and anwered questions about why our local bee keepers need more suitable gardens for  ‘beehive hosting’   The low energy light bulb library was on show, which we loan out so you can try out all the various different types of bulbs in your fittings at home.

We had a display about the ‘Village Vegetables’ which have now expanded to include the long bed along the front of the Tesco’s site. There are already some ripe strawberries in some of the planters, if they haven’t been picked already get up to The Street quickly as its first come first served! Don’t forget to wash anything you pick before eating. We don’t use any chemicals but it is a main road.

We have been asked to plant up the four planters in Craddocks Parade, so keep an eye out for more ‘Village Veg’!

Caroline Cardew-Smith and Chris Ellis, leading members of Transition Ashtead, were so inspired by the ‘Incredible Edible’ project in Todmorton, that they decided they wanted to do the same for Ashtead’s community and plant ‘Village Vegetables’. They approached the MVDC and the Ashtead Street Traders association with their idea of planting vegetables instead of the usual bedding flowers in the raised planters in The Street. Both were keen to support the project, especially as Transition Ashtead provided all the plants for free, most of which they had grown from seed.

On Derby day instead of going to the races, volunteers armed with trowels, forks and watering cans planted out the vegetables, herbs and edible flowers. They included runner beans, tomatoes, sweetcorn, strawberries, leeks and a variety of herbs and companion flowers to provide colour and attract the bees and pollinating insects.

The idea is that when it’s ready to pick, residents can help themselves to the produce. On a lunch break? Just pop out and get a couple of fresh tomatoes to go with your sandwich; coming home late and shops closed? Pick a handful of runners and a few herbs to have with supper!

Transition Ashtead are hoping to inspire us to think about our food buying choices, particularly for fresh food. The ‘Where, When and How’ is it grown? To consider the real environmental costs of production, packaging and transport, and the importance of ‘growing your own’, and buying seasonal produce grown as locally as possible. With a little bit of imagination, some hard work and commitment, they hope to show we can change where we get our fresh food from, provide local jobs, help save energy and preserve the environment.

Transition Ashtead is very grateful for the practical help of the traders, particularly Emma at Sweet Lavender Flowers, The Brewery Pub and The Ashtead Village Club, who made the project possible by generously allowing the Team to fill their watering cans.