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Me and my friend Cies-jan are looking to set up an aquaponics project in Sheffield. In case you are not familiar with aquaponics, here is a brief description courtesy of Wikipedia:

“Aquaponics is a food production system that combines conventional aquaculture, (raising aquatic animals such as snails, fish, crayfish or prawns in tanks), with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. In normal aquaculture, excretions from the animals being raised can accumulate in the water, increasing toxicity. In an aquaponic system, water from an aquaculture system is fed to a hydroponic system where the by-products are broken down by nitrogen-fixing bacteria into nitrates and nitrites, which are utilized by the plants as nutrients. The water is then recirculated back to the aquaculture system.”I have a background in permaculture, sustainable technology, growing veggies and working with adults with learning disabilities. Cies-jan has 10 years experience working with fish and has trained in animal care. And we’re generally pleasant people.

Finding a suitable site is our first challenge. Would you be able to help us find a spot to stick up a 20ft x 36ft polytunnel to start a pilot project?

Common Ground Community Garden is in Nether Edge (where St Peter’s church used to be on Machon Bank) and has been going for just over a year now. Morwenna from the group gave us this report on progress and latest news:

The draft Sheffield Food Strategy has been published. (Download it here). Here’s Sheffield City Council’s introduction to the strategy and the consultation:

“This draft Food Strategy builds upon Sheffield’s Food Plan published July 2011 responding to the changing circumstances that the people of Sheffield are living within as well as local and national policy developments. The new Food Strategy sets out our vision for food in Sheffield and a number of priorities that will help us to achieve this.

A range of consultation activities have informed the development of this strategy to date. We would now like to take stakeholder views on board in shaping the final version. Please let us have your comments by completing the online consultation.

The survey will be open from Friday 6th December through to 4pm Friday 3rd January.”

The Sheffield Food Network map of sources of independent, local and fair food has been up and running for a while now, but we’re pretty sure we haven’t got anywhere near finding all of the places across the city doing great things with local and fair food.

So, we are looking for your help in finding food businesses or food organisations that might meet the Sheffield Food Network criteria and submitting details to the website. These microvolunteering tasks should take less than 15 minutes.

1. Find a food business or organisation, either one you know of from your neighbourhood, or one you’ve found out about through a leaflet, or from a friend, or from the internet.

2. Check whether they are already on the Sheffield Food Network map.

3. If not, please try to gather enough information to be able to fill in the details on this form. We are looking for contact details, opening times, and some information on what the organisation/business does and how they meet the Sheffield Food Network criteria (independent organisation producing or selling food that is local or fair, or both). Don’t worry if you can’t find all the information, even a few details would be really helpful.

4. If the organisation is already on the map, is the information correct and up-to-date? If not, please submit corrections or updates on the form.

And that’s it.

If you are interested in this type of bite-sized and online volunteering, we’ve also just started a new map of disused land and vacant plots which we’d love your help in developing.

Or if you’re interested in getting involved with community gardens and growing projects or other volunteering opportunities with Grow Sheffield, please see our volunteers page for details.

Work has begun to re-start the stalled Sheffield Food Strategy. We attended a consultation workshop on Wednesday 6 November to find out about the work and discussions that had been done within the local authority recently and plans for continued developments. The event was opened by Graham Moore, the Chair of the new Food and Physical Activity Board, followed by a presentation from Cllr Jack Scott, outlining their thinking to date around proposed priorities within the Food Strategy over the next 2 years. (A copy of the presentation slides available here). There were then two rounds of discussions in groups, one on the proposed vision and strategic priorities, and one for further discussion on the priority areas.

Notes from the session (written up from the flipcharts) can be downloaded here. A summary of the key messages from the notes has been emailed around to attendees. It said:

“The big message for the vision was to emphasise the culture change needed and the importance of learning and food literacy.

Food Poverty seems to be reinforced as a priority but people were concerned that we need our politicians to lobby on our behalf to reverse the trends. Food waste was very important to many people, as were healthy eating and food growing but above all when we discussed the priorities for our future work this was about the processes and levers we can affect to make change, policy, procurement, regulation, communication and education for example.”

Grow Sheffield aim to stay involved with these discussions as they progress. If you are interested in getting involved too, you can email Jill Lancaster to be added to the email list.

We like to keep you up to date with the latest training available around Sheffield. Please see below for details about a food culture course, due to start in September:

Food Culture Course

A Guide to Edible-culture, Organics and Permaculture for Health,

Nutrition and Security.

A Course of Eight weekly Evening Classes

– DATE- Monday Evenings 7 – 9pm

Starting: September 16th, 2013

VENUE – Regather Trading Co-operative –

57-59 Club Garden Road,

Sheffield,

S118BU

Tutor: Stephen Watts

To book a place or for more information  07507578885

e-mail: [email protected]

Also go to weblink –   http://www.regather.net/product-category/education

To view a copy of Stephens C.V click here

COST OF COURSE

£100, concessions £50,

These courses are primarily designed for new growers.

There aim is to make the science and practice of food growing more accessible, both theoretically and practically.

This course will focus on these key subject areas –

–  Wild food – Theory and practice

–  organic horticulture – fertility- soil and soil improvement

–  Site design – permaculture design principles

–  Seasonal awareness – time and timing, planning and preparation.

–  Nutrition – food preparation and cooking what you grow

–  Herbs – how to grow and use herbs.

–  Community food growing- working with others.

•    Students receive a copy of the course book (providing essential information about each topic, as well as access to a wealth of essential on-line information)

•    The course includes access to an extensive seed bank of local heritage varieties of edible crops and also a wide selection of culinary and medicinal herbs, as well as borrow from a large library of relevant books and archive material.

•    You also get the chance to taste samples of fresh produce each week, including dozens of types of Apples and Pears.

•    The course also provides a social opportunity to meet and get to  know other people with an interest in local growing and eating.