Transition Culture

An Evolving Exploration into the Head, Heart and Hands of Energy Descent

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Archive for “Great Reskilling” category

Showing results 91 - 95 of 118 for the category: Great Reskilling.


26 May 2010

Transition Town West Kirby’s Allotments Study Makes the National Press

allotmentmirror2Ian and Margaret Campbell of Transition Town West Kirby recently researched and published, together with the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners (NSALG), a report called ‘Allotment Waiting Lists in England 2010’.  The report, which you can download in full here, is an up-to-date detailed look at what is happening in terms of allotment provision.  They found that waiting lists have grown 20% just in the last year, and that in some parts of the UK, some people will need to wait as much as 40 years for an allotment, but the average wait is 3 years.  They estimate that nationally, 180,000 people are waiting for allotments, and that while Councils have a statutory duty to provide allotments, most are failing to do so.  Publication of the report generated a lot of press coverage, including this piece in the Telegraph, and pieces in the Sun, Mirror (see top left) and the Express.  A fantastic piece of work, and great to see Transition initiatives getting this kind of coverage.

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6 May 2010

A May Round-up of What’s Happening out in the World of Transition

Transition West Kirby want new allotments.  When do they want them?  Now!  Whadda we want... etc. etc.

Transition West Kirby want new allotments. When do they want them? Now! Whadda we want... etc. etc.

April brought lots more lovely projects for you to enjoy and share…  From Australia, the West Hobart Environment Network (or WHEN), a member of Transition Tasmania, enjoyed a relaxed ‘produce swap’ under the shade of a very large tree, and they’ve also kindly shared with us Annie’s recipe for no-knead bread…perfect for the lazy ones like me!  TT Blackwood had a busy day giving out seeds and sharing knowledge on how to grow them in a forest setting, finding new skills to share, and raising awareness about Transition. And some ideas from Sonya on taking small steps to big lifestyle changes that will help us live more lightly on the Earth.

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26 Apr 2010

Is the Great Reskilling Already Underway? BBC Radio 4’s ‘Food Programme’

foodprogI spent yesterday afternoon in the village of Tuckenhay, a few miles from Totnes and on the Bow Creek, a spur that comes off the River Dart.  Beautiful place, now largely a mix of very expensive houses, second homes and holiday cottages.  There was a time when it was a vibrant working village, home to a papermill that made bank note quality paper, and a range of trades.  Walking past ‘The Old Bakehouse’, ‘The Maltings’ and several other housenames indicating the former role of the houses, I was reminded of an amazing programme on Radio 4 yesterday morning that suggested that the reskilling required to support a  more localised world on a meaningful scale may already have started. 

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25 Mar 2010

Martin Crawford and me speaking at the Launch of ‘Climate Friendly Food’

climatefriendlyA while ago, at Schumacher College, Climate Friendly Food was launched, an innovative approach to getting farmers measuring the carbon implications of their farming, definintely worth supporting and checking out.  There were some great speakers, including a particularly in-form Martin Crawford of the Agroforestry Research Trust.  Here is his talk, and below it, mine.  Regular readers will know that Martin is a great hero of mine, and his forthcoming book ‘Creating a Forest Garden’ is eagerly awaited at Hopkins Towers.

…and here’s mine….

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24 Mar 2010

The Great Reskilling: what to do with left-over Runner Beans

A firm brush and the fibres soon start to separate

A firm brush and the fibres soon start to separate

Here is a top tip I wrote which appears in the latest edition of Permaculture Magazine, out now.

“One of the key frustrations about the end of the summer months is stringy runner beans.  You nurture them, weed them, give them a frame to climb up, yet by the end of the season, many of them are tough, fibrous, and inedible.  Last summer, I sat with a large trug of large, stringy runners, thinking of a use for them other than the compost heap.  The solution came to me after reading John Paul Flintoff’s ‘Through the Eye of a Needle‘.  I have discovered a way of extracting those fibres that prove so hard to digest, in a way that they are actually useful.  Here’s how.

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Discussion: 20 Comments

Categories: Food, Great Reskilling