Transition Ashtead

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’!

Planting the 'Village Vegetables' on Derby Day

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.

Lots of watering

I forgot my gloves!

Armed with marigolds...

 On 9th May Transition Ashtead had a very buzzy evening at the Ashtead Village Club. Andrew Barnett and Liz Knee from the Epsom Bee Keeping Association explained all about the fascinating life of honey bees and the hive. We also learnt about honey bee research that is being done at the moment funded by DEFRA and other organisations, and how important they are to the economy as well as to the environment.

Andrew bought along a ‘frame’ from one of his hives it was fascinating to see the amazing wax comb the bees make, it was full of honey and smelt delicious, but we had to resist tasting and making a sticky mess!  He also bought his most useful new bit of safety kit – a small metal dustbin with a lid to keep his ‘smoker’ in when he has it in the car, in fact it was still smouldering so his point was well made!  The reason for useing a smoker is that the bees think the hive is on fire and fill themselves with honey making them rather heavy and sleepy rather than stinging the bee keeper.

Andrew keeps a hive in my front garden here in Ashtead. Because April has been so warm and dry, he has already taken over 60 lbs of honey, a month earlier than usual. He has never had such a productive hive in all his many years of bee keeping.  A common question is ‘How many bees are in the hive?’.  The answer is up to 60,000 in the height of summer, and the follow up question is  ‘What’s it like having that many in the garden?’. In fact we get very few because, unlike solitary bees which flit from flower to flower, honey bees feed on massed planting. They travel up to three miles to find their food. Trees are particularly important – apple blossom, horse chestnut, lime trees, fields of rape flowers, lavender hedges, ivy and so on throughout the year.

Andrew, who keeps bees in a variety of sites, says that his Ashtead hives always do better than sites in the countryside, possibly because there are plenty of trees and a good variety of massed plants.  Honey bees have declined by about 50% in the last twenty years. Sites for “hive hosting” are always needed by bee keepers - all you do is provide a space in your garden and in return get a supply of yummy very local honey!

If you would like to find out more information about having a hive in your garden, please contact the Epsom Beekeepers Association http://epsombeekeepers.co.uk

If you would like to visit our garden, see the  the hive in action and find out more about ‘hosting a hive’ from the garden owners point of view please contact me at info@transitionashtead.org.uk

Bee on clover

 Transition Ashtead’s next Open Meeting is a talk by a local bee keeper. Andrew Barnett will come and share his passion for honey bees, explain all about keeping bees, and their importance for pollination and the environment. Andrew has been keeping bees for over 8 years and is a member of the Epsom Bee Keepers Association. He has lots of stories to tell, many very funny, about his experience as a bee keeper.

I will be there to answer any questions you may have about being a ‘bee host, as we have had one of Andrew’s bee hives in our garden for the last two years. There will also be local ‘Barnett Wood Lane’ Honey for sale!

The Ashtead Village Club in the Street (opposite the bus stop) have kindly given us the upstairs area for our meeting, please get yourself a drink at the bar downstairs and join us at 8pm on Monday 9th May.

On 26/26^th March there was the Surrey Ecohomes open weekend when 30 houses across Surrey opened their doors to help demonstrate practical applications of eco-technology ranging from solar electric and wood stoves to energy efficient insulation and rainwater harvesting. Three of the open homes were here in Ashtead and a range of local and not-so-local visitors came through on pre-arranged tours of the individual houses to see what was on offer.

In Ashtead, one of the homes was showing  three different types of solar technologies    –  solar electricity,  solar hot water, and a passive solar garden room. The latter of course is nothing new – a well-insulated room that has lots of south facing windows – but it is certainly able to provide warmth into the rest of house on a sunny winter’s day.   The solar room replaced an earlier conservatory that was too hot in summer and too cold in winter. The room is now usable at least ten months of the year with minimal additional heat input.

Elsewhere around the county the 175 or so visitors went to homes showing solar technologies, upgraded loft insulation, double and secondary glazing, wood-burning stoves and air and ground source heat pumps.

Whatever else catched your imagination,  the important advice before you start thinking about installing any of the renewable energy technologies is to get the insulation and energy efficiency of you home up to standard first –it’s the best investment.

On Saturday 26^th and Sunday 27^th March, 28 homeowners throughout Surrey, including 4 in Ashtead, will open their doors to the public to share their knowledge and experience about making their own homes more energy efficient and ecologically sustainable.

On show will be solar heating and hot water systems, secondary glazing, wood burners and many other energy saving ideas. Homeowners will be able to report on how these changes have affected their fuel bills, and the comfort of their homes. Colin Butfield, Head of Campaigns at the global environment charity WWF said “WWF is pleased to see so many green homes opening their doors to inspire others”. This event has been organised by Action Surrey in partnership with local environmental volunteer groups across the County. 

To find out more and to book free tickets please visit:

 http://www.surreygreenhomes.org

Come for drinks at the Brewery, Monday 14th March, 8pm. The theme will be ‘Solar Energy and the Feed In Tariff Scheme’. If you missed the recent event at the APMH, why not come along and ask the questions you meant to ask at the meeting! Two home owners who have already installed solar panels will be there to talk about their experience. You can also find out more about The (Solar Panels) Buyers Club and add your name to the list.

We look forward to seeing you!

Compost Works are having an open day, 2-5.30pm March 19th, 8 The Drive, Fetcham, KT22 9EN.
Admission free.

Learn all about composting, making bins, what works etc. They are also giving advice on growing a wide variety of fruit, and how to preserve it.

Composting

Compost Works volunteers will be on hand to explain how to get started, advise on the compost container best for you, answer your compost queries, and demonstrate ways of speeding up your compost using a mower and a shredder. And with our shredder, which you can borrow, you can see how to dramatically reduce the bulk of your woody prunings, and provide an ideal mix in the compost heap with your kitchen waste and grass cuttings.

We have working examples of all sorts of compost containers, including numerous low cost DIY examples, and how to make them. If you want to get even quicker and better compost, we can show you an insulated pallet composter, made from free materials. Also a home made wormery.

Self-sufficiency

Find out how you could eat your own fruit all the year round, helped of course by lots of good compost!

See how to grow soft fruit – Rhubarb, gooseberries, blackcurrants, boysenberries, jostaberries, blackberries, strawberries, and raspberries, as well as fruit trees – apples, quince, damsons.

And most importantly, how to preserve the fruit by bottling, freezing, storing properly, making jams and chutney. All these methods will be on show.

You can also find out how easy it is to propagate so you never need to buy new plants.

For more information visit  www.compostworks.org.uk/news.htm