The Howden Show Committee has awarded a grant from its newly-established Charitable Fund to help two Howden mums to set up a gardening club for children attending the town’s Infant and Junior Schools.
Sally Blee and Josie Twiddle came up with the idea for their ‘Grow’ project as a way of providing outdoor learning and play opportunities for local children, and, at the same time, developing their knowledge of traditional, rural activities by helping them to learn horticulture skills and encouraging them to immerse themselves in nature.
Sally explained: “We both live locally and have school age children. I recently attended some courses on outdoor learning and outdoor play, and wanted to bring what I’d learned back to my local schools by establishing a gardening club.”
Howden Junior School has allocated some outdoor space for the Grow project to turn into a vegetable plot, and parents will be invited to volunteer at gardening club sessions. The grant of £438.88 provided by the Howden Show Charitable Fund will be used to buy the tools and equipment needed to get the project off the ground. One of the club’s first activities will involve encouraging the children to grow tubs of potatoes, which they will then be able to enter in the junior horticultural classes at this year’s Howden Show.
Josie who has her own vegetable garden and enjoys growing her own produce, added: “Potatoes are easy to grow in tubs, and each tub produces lots of potatoes so more children can benefit. This idea is also very much in keeping with a national ‘grow your own potatoes’ project being run by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (ADHB). Even better, potatoes can be grown quickly, so results are seen sooner and they’ll be ready in time for Howden Show!
Howden Show Chairman Sean Welsh said: “The Howden Show Committee was delighted to support this project because we felt it was a great way of getting children involved in horticulture from a young age. It’s important that children understand where our food comes from, and that we pass on horticultural knowledge and skills to the next generation. We also felt that there were lots of additional benefits, such as encouraging children to spend time outdoors and giving them a better understanding of the natural world. We can’t wait to see their potatoes on display at Howden Show this year!”
Grants from the Howden Show Charitable Fund can be used to pay for the start-up costs for new businesses, training requirements or research projects in the fields of agriculture and horticulture. To find out more, download an application form from the website: www.howdenshow.co.uk.
Monday 19 March 2018
The owner of a fledgling market gardening business is the first person to receive a grant from a new charitable fund set up by the Howden Show Committee to help groups, businesses and individuals within the local community to develop their skills in the agricultural and horticultural sectors.
Edward Winlow (30) of Seaton Old Hall Farm at Seaton Ross made an application to the Howden Show Charitable Fund, which was launched last summer, requesting funds to buy the tools and equipment he needed to develop his new business growing chemical-free salad and vegetables. He already supplies his produce to a café in Pocklington called The Bean, and is hoping to increase production in 2018 so that he can supply other cafés and restaurants in the area.
Edward explained: “The farm’s purpose is to grow edibles in the most natural way, and to provide the local community with the freshest and most nutritious raw food available. Each week, The Bean places two orders and the crops are harvested, bagged and delivered within the space of a few hours to ensure maximum freshness.”
Although he’s not from an agricultural background, Edward admits to having a ‘lifelong preoccupation with farming’ and an urge to spend his time outdoors. He relishes the idea of Seaton Old Hall Farm, a former farmhouse that his family bought with ten acres of land, becoming a working farm again.
He said: “After traveling around Europe and the United States of America, I wanted to contribute to my local community with something wholesome and sustainable. Through research, I discovered a new wave of market gardening; a traditional, chemical-free and predominantly mechanisation-free method of growing vegetables. This is the farming model that my business is based on.”
Edward tested the market for his products with his first crop during the 2017 growing season, overseeing every aspect of the farming process himself, from preparing the ground for sowing seed to harvesting and bagging his produce. This is all done by hand to ensure that the finished product is as natural as it can be. Edward is currently working part-time, but aims to grow his business enough for it to become his full-time occupation during the next couple of years.
He said: “New potential customers have been identified, but my level of production was preventing me from supplying them with the volume of produce that they required last year. The grant from the Howden Show Charitable Fund has enabled me to invest in the tools and infrastructure that I need to grow the business. As we head into 2018, I want to increase production and expand the business.”
In the long-term, Edward hopes to develop a Community Supported Agriculture Scheme to enable local people to become directly involved with the farm and the growing process, explaining: “This could work in one of two ways; members can either pay a subscription for the season and receive a weekly vegetable box or take part in a ‘work-share’ scheme, where they do a couple of hours’ labour on the farm each week in return for their box.”
In another exciting development, Edward is also exploring the role that aquaponics could play in the future growth of his business. This is an innovative and sustainable form of aquaculture (where certain crops, such as salad leaves and herbs, are grown in water, rather than soil) that sees plants grown symbiotically alongside fish.
Chairman of the Howden Show Committee, Sean Welsh, said: “Edward is a very deserving first recipient of the grant scheme, which was set up as part of our commitment to supporting the long-term viability of the agricultural and horticultural sectors in the Howdenshire area. He was able to give us a full and detailed breakdown of the tools and equipment that he needed to be able to expand production during the 2018 growing season. We wish him every success with his new venture and are very excited to hear how it develops in the future.”
Grants from the Howden Show Charitable Fund can be used to pay for the start-up costs for new businesses, training requirements or research projects in the fields of agriculture and horticulture. To find out more, download an application form from the website: www.howdenshow.co.uk.
Edward Winlow will be showcasing his produce on a stand in the Food Festival marquee at Howden Show 2018, which will take place on Sunday 1 July at The Ashes playing field in Howden.
Media contact: For more information, please contact Lucy Oates at lucy@lucyoates.co.uk or telephone 01757 633833/07968 277218.
Howden Show is organised by a committee of local volunteers.
News from the 2016 show is available at : The 2016 News page.
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The next Howden Show will be on Sunday 3rd July 2022
