By Rhian Williams
Despite the winter, things continue to be busy at Kirkstall Valley Farm. As a team of staff growers and many volunteers, we’re about to begin our fourth year of growing enough veg for around 100 veg boxes a week. Here’s an update on what we’ve been doing recently and how you can get involved.
We currently have spaces on our Community Supported Agriculture scheme. This means that you pay a regular contribution to support the farm – people who can afford to, pay a bit more, and people with lower incomes pay a bit less, creating solidarity across everyone.
Every week you come to the farm and collect your “share” of what we’ve harvested from the fields that day – it will be fresh, delicious and changes with the seasons. Your support means we can run lots of volunteer sessions, look after the land and wildlife in environmentally friendly ways, and develop a powerful, caring community in Kirkstall.
Last year we welcomed our first trainee, Selina, who worked with us through the season to learn about field scale veg growing.
She says: “I have really enjoyed my time at KVF, the team have been great to work with. Training on the farm has given me an insight into how food is grown on a commercial scale, but there is still a lot to learn. I am very happy that I got the chance to learn to drive a tractor and gain my tractor license, this is something that would have been unimaginable before working at KVF.”
We hope to be able to employ Selina in the future, and in the meantime you can catch her on YouTube’s My Family Garden, for great videos about growing at home with your kids.
We also put up a second polytunnel, which will mean we can grow more salads and greens in the winter, and more delicious tomatoes, aubergines and peppers during the summer. Polytunnels are an amazing way of creating the right climate for foods that otherwise have to travel a very long way. With a grant from Wades Charity, we are also developing our seed sowing systems to make them better for plants and volunteers!
Volunteers organised a fantastic party to celebrate another growing season on the farm – many thanks to all the musicians, organisations and artists who supported that. We’ll be running another later this year, keep your eyes peeled for the date!
Our active volunteer community keeps on growing! Volunteers are involved in every aspect of the farm, whether growing veg, building packing and storage facilities, welcoming customers and organising open mornings. Everyone is welcome, whether you want to come every week, or pop in now and then when you can. There’s always a mixture of jobs and we always show you what to do – you don’t need to be an expert gardener or builder!
For more info about veg boxes or volunteering, email Jen (kvf.admin@kvdt.org.uk) or visit our website.
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