Transition Culture has moved
I no longer blog on this site. You can now find me, my general blogs, and the work I am doing researching my forthcoming book on imagination, on my new blog.
Come find me at robhopkins.net
Monthly archive for July 2009
Showing results 21 - 25 of 29 for the month of July, 2009.
8 Jul 2009
The farmers who surrounded Totnes were much more directly engaged with the town than they are now, as the town provided the key markets for their produce. DM farmed 250 acres (which had grown to 300 by the time of his retirement in 1989). When he started work on the farm, it was still run by working horses. The farm had around 30 cows, 40 acres of cereals and about 50 breeding ewes, but by the time he had retired, it had been turned into a purely dairy farm, with nearly 80 cows.
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8 Jul 2009
Totnes featured 3 commercial market gardens within the town itself, Heaths, Gills and Phillips/Victoria Nursery. The largest, at least initially, was Heath’s, started in 1920 by George Heath senior (see left), and then run by his son, also called George, until its closure in 1981. Much of the south-facing area of the town has been dedicated to food production back through history, and the gardens serve as a powerful reminder of the potential of urban market gardening.
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7 Jul 2009
Over the next few days I will be sharing some of the output from the oral histories I have been doing in Totnes and its surroundings, as which will make up part of the introduction to the EDAP and also part of my research. I did about 15 interviews, and have condensed the outputs from them into subject areas such as food, skills, energy, transport and so on. The period covered is from the 1930s until the early 1960s. Interviews were recorded and transcribed. Images are courtesy of the Totnes Image Bank, to whom I am very grateful.
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6 Jul 2009
Just been digging up my new potatoes with my kids, very enjoyable. I didn’t grow that many, and it wasn’t the most prolific year’s harvest I ever grew… all I can say is thank heavens we aren’t relying on this year’s crop to last us through until this time next year! I don’t tend to grow many potatoes, as there are good local organic growers who grow them better, cheaper and have more space to do so than I have. I do like to grow a few though, as there are few things nicer than digging up your own potatoes on a fine early July afternoon.
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6 Jul 2009
Many of you I’m sure still recall the 2009 Transition Network conference with a warm fuzzy glowing feeling, but whether you attended the actual event or not, here are a couple of links you will find useful. Firstly, there is a short film about the conference made by Positive TV which is rather good fun, filmed on the first day and including Ed Milliband, lots of people Open Spacing, and me arriving late. Also, thanks to Ben burning the midnight oil, we are delighted to present writeups of most of the workshop sessions (with huge thanks to all the scribes) and also photos of the notes taken during the Open Space sessions.
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