Flintshire residents encouraged to grow own produce through Community Supported Agriculture project

Aug 30 2012 by Kathryn Quayle, Flintshire Chronicle

FLINTSHIRE residents are being encouraged to grow their own food and enjoy a bit of the good life.

As part of its Better Organic Business Links project Organic Centre Wales is urging growers to find out more about community supported agriculture at a meeting which will take place in Caffi Florence, Loggerheads, on Monday, September 24, from 5-7.30pm.

Tony Little from Organic Centre Wales told the Chronicle the basic concept is people make some sort of commitment to local producers in return for a share of the harvest each week, therefore sharing the rewards and risks of food production.

The commitment can be to pay a certain amount into the scheme each week, but in many cases the community members get actively involved in the production process, whether that is working in the field or helping with the administration and marketing.

He said: “We have been supporting CSA projects in Wales for many years, because we think it’s a great way of giving people access to local and organic food at affordable prices while providing a secure income, fairer prices and closer involvement with their local communities and customers for producers.”

Flintshire’s CSA project, Flintshare (www.flintshare.co.uk), now has about 45 members and runs a network of small community growing sites. The group relies entirely on voluntary work but wants to find a professional grower to work with.

Nikki Giles, who founded Flintshare said: “I feel passionately that local, organically produced food should be there for people. FlintShare is the beginning of an amazing journey into securing ‘future food’ for our community. People are at the centre of everything – they deserve good, local food.”

The event will feature cooking demonstrations including Flintshare’s crop.

The event is free, but booking is essential. Contact Tony Little on jll@aber.ac.uk or 01970 621632.