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The ever popular Good For Ewe Open Day will be on the 14th August this year. There will be a workday for members on the 7th August to get things ready for the big day.

The first GFE Produce Stall for 2010 will be at the GALE Market in the Poolewe Village Hall on Tuesday 4th May

It will be selling a range of fresh spring vegetable and other produce that has been grown and prepared by GFE and its members.

The GFE AGM will be held on Wednesday 26th May 2010 at the Inverasdale School. It will be followed by the normal monthly meeting.

AGM Agenda

1. Election of Chairperson
2. Apologies
3. Minutes of Last General Meeting
4. Adoption of Accounts for year to 28th February 2010
5. Election/Re-election of Directors
6. Election/Re-election of Company Secretary
7. Election of Accountants
8. Proposal to change Financial Year End to 31 December
9. AOB

Monthly Meeting Agenda

1. Apologies
2. Minutes of last meeting
3. Sub Committee updates
4. Action list
5. Any Other Business

All are welcome and a good turnout is encouraged.

There will be a marketing meeting on Tuesday April 20th at 11 am at June's, to discuss rotas, produce, and anything else relevant. First market on May 4th.

Everyone welcome.

Some new (and old!) pictures have been added to the Kedder House, Site Viewes and Archive Galleries, along with some images of Club Root!

Another busy day at the site. The forecast rain held off until the afternoon, giving us a pleasant morning outdoors with a big effort to get the Adopt-A-Plot areas ready for the new season.

Following an enjoyable lunch, the afternoon was spent planting out salad and bean seedlings in the market tunnel and more general maintenance around the site.

The Good For Ewe site in Inverasdale can now be seen on Google Streetview!

13th March 2010 a lovely warm March day almost felt like spring had arrived! A good turn out from GFE members meant many hands made light work of lots of needy jobs and we were able to tackle-

Tree planting
Shrub planting
Compost turning
Manure moving
Compost & Manure application
Strawberry bed preparation
Shieling horticultural therapy raised beds replenished and tidied
As well as cleaning and many other general on site tasks.

Our work days are always well attended and a fantastic amount of work and a great sense of camaraderie always makes for a great day and our lunch time soiree’s are a must. If you have not been to one of our work days please come along, all are welcome.

Simply bring yourself and if you are able you could bring a little something along for lunch to share with the group, it can be anything at all – something simple or a speciality you like to prepare. It is very informal and always good fun. The day’s tasks often include light and heavy duties, enabling people of all abilities and fitness to take part.
 

The Renewables sub-committee meeting scheduled for 11 March 2010 has been postponed. A new date will be agreed at the Workday on Saturday.

Saturday 13th February was the first GFE Site Work Day for 2010 and a good turnout of volunteers allowed us to tackle some large tasks.

A major job was giving the willow windbreak its annual prune - a task that gets bigger and bigger every year! Some of the off-cuts were replanted to fill in the thinner areas further down the site, but we will have to decide what to do with the large pile of willow cuttings that are left.

The site for the proposed fruit orchard was prepared. The layout for the trees was agreed and planting holes dug - the ground turned out to be significantly better than expected and we are now ready to plant the trees.

A number of other jobs were tackled - tunnel wall washing, general tiding up - and as usual there was a great spread of food for lunch.

A grand day out in the fresh air!

The cropping plans for the communal growing areas were agreed at the Seed meeting on 9th Feb 2010. A new section has been added to the website showing the plans for the the Market Tunnel and Adopt-A-Plot areas.

Sue has reviewed the GFE seed stocks and sneds the following message:

Here is a spreadsheet showing all the seeds in the prop room with a "sow by" date of 2009 or later.

I have left these seeds in two containers in the prop room (right hand side), with the "sow by" 2009 ones all together.

Also in the prop room I have left a plastic bag of seed packets with a "sow by" date of 2008 or earlier - some may be viable, I suppose. Also in this bag are packets with no dates on them and a few empty packets which I kept in case someone wanted them as a reminder of varieties used in the past.

Many thanks to Sue for this work.

Seed Meeting: 9 February 2010 from 7pm at Connor's house

This is our annual seed meeting to discuss requirements for 2010 seed purchases and seed potato orders – all welcome. This is also an opportunity for members who wish to place orders for individual requirements; these can be added to the GFE annual order saving on any small order levies and expensive delivery charges.

Poolewe Christmas Market

The Christmas market went very well and the day saw a good crowd and plenty of sales, value added products from members made up the majority of produce on sale, home baking jams and some winter veg made for a good day with numerous members sharing the manning of the stall throughout the day.

A rather spectacular cabbage even made it into the raffle prize line up!

Good for ewe!
 

The November (Non)Work Day on 14th November 2009, 10am to 3pm, will be a Members' Site Meeting to discuss our thoughts and plans for the future rather than a physical work day. If you have any ideas on this subject please come along on the 14th and air your thoughts and ideas.

Possible subjects for the day...

Adopt-a- plots
Plot numbering
Short term – long term plans
Gardeners
Any other general ideas you may have

As usual please bring something to eat. This will be a no work day, just chatting and discussing GFE and eating good food.

See you there!
 

We have received a large delivery of fresh manure at the GFE site - just in time for spreading on the plots before winter. It is on the black plastic sheeting at the gate as before, and can be used by members for their own plots or for the communal growing areas.

Many thanks to Donar for delivering the manure to the site.

GFE needs large amounts of manure every year so if you know of any or are able to source good manure please let us know.
 

The 3rd October Work Day saw a major clear out of the tunnels, an inventory of the tools and turning of the soil within the tunnels. As ever a good turn out and many other tasks tackled too. Good food
and good company – what more could you ask for on an autumn morning.
 

3 October 2009 from 10am to 3pm at the GFE Site

Time to tackle some general maintenance around the site.

There is a mix of non-manual and manual activities, both indoor and out, so there should be something for everyone to tackle.

As usual please bring along some food to share at lunchtime.

As we aproach the end of the growing season, there is no longer sufficient produce to stock the weekly Poolewe Market.

The courgettes, squashes, and tomatoes in the Market Tunnel are still ripening so they will be available for sale either from the shed as they are harvested or you can pick-your-own from the tunnel.