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Fun on the lay down weeder

Weeding small carrots on the lay down weeder  Another Cropshare workday, another piece of farm equipment that somehow resembles a fairground ride. This time our volunteers got to have a go at the lay down weeder- a tractor-pulled rig where 6 people can lay side by side and are able to hand weed small crops efficiently. Today we weeded the carrot crop. Check out the great video by our volunteer Axel to see the action, firstly from...
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Very successful launch of Cropshare 2012 season

We enjoyed brilliant sunshine as we kicked off work with over 20 volunteers for the first session of Cropshare 2012. Everyone was raring to go and weeded around an acre of broad beans, celery and lettuces in no time.  Hoeing broad beans, planted by Cropshare volunteers last autumn. We even had the chance to investigate weed-based hair replacement structures… 101 ways with chickweed Nice barnet! We put mesh covers in place, to protect this lettuce crop from wind and...
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Project Polytunnel…and some lamb pics

Cropsharers had fun putting the covers on a new polytunnel at Willow Farm. We’ll use this to grow crops that like it hot this summer such as peppers and tomatoes. Yum. Step one: unroll plastic… Thinking creatively we were able to reach up to the roof to pull the covers over…  A lot of team work needed to get the tension right on the cover before fastening it into place… Very pleased with our result! And we couldn’t go...
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Onions donated to Winter Comfort Cafe: Food 4 Food

Winston at Food 4 Food  When we heard about the fantastic Food4Food cafe run by local Cambridge charity Winter Comfort, we knew they’d be a perfect place to donate some onions! With their base at  St Andrews Hall, Chesterton , they serve lunch form Mon – Fri, and also do catering. From their website: “WinterComfort supports those who are homeless or at risk of losing their homes by offering basic amenities, opportunities for educational development and recreation, and a range...
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Onions donated to local Cambridge charity Emmaus

We’re busy these days donating our onions to local charities. Having had a great time at Foodcycle last weekend, I dropped off 20 kg of lovely onions at Emmaus today. Sure the chefs there will cook up a treat for everyone in the Emmaus Landbeach community! Mel at Emmaus posing with onions! Enjoy them! As well as being a fab second hand shop, Emmaus does great work providing jobs for previously homeless people. Check out their website and...
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Lambing time, planning time

We had a quick visit to the farm this Saturday, and ended up feeding a young lamb. Lovely! There are more ewes sheltering in the polytunnel that are waiting to give birth.We need to use the onions left in the store as quickly as possible now, so we bagged up some more to distribute to local charities this week.Then we sat down to plan this year’s Cropshare- I’ll give you more details as soon...
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Great onion feast at Cambridge Foodcycle

Busy lunchtime- serving up the pea and onion omelette So what did Foodcycle create with our onions?  I joined in the brilliant Foodcycle team this Saturday to cook up about 15kg of our lovely onions, harvested Sept 2011 by our hardworking volunteers. With piles of donated food from local businesses, and our onions, the head chef Sam had lots to play with. Check out Sam being interviewed on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire here (starts at 1 hour 50...
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Cropshare onions in a Foodcycle feast

 Saturday 4th Feb 12:30pm  The Centre at St Paul’s, Hills Road, Cambridge., CB2 1JP Cambridge, United Kingdom In 2011, Cropshare volunteers had loads of fun and grew a bumper onion harvest in partnership with a local organic farm. Now our Cropshare onion harvest is being put to good use: we’ve donated plenty to local foodwaste-fighting charity Foodcycle. We love their work- check them out here. Foodcycle use reclaimed food surplus from local Cambridge businesses to...
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Tea and Rabbits – Fencing in the Fen

Thanks to Cropshare volunteer Ivan for this great write-up! A bright sunny winter Saturday, what to do?  With just 14 shopping days before Christmas does one “shop till one drops” Grand Arcade stylee or……..?   Nope…….let’s go fencing.  So with a bunch of other “Onion Cropsharers” we popped up to Lode on the edge of the Cambridgeshire Fen.  There we planned the day with Paul and Doreen– our organic farmers – and drank some tea.  The plan...
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