Let's Fill This Valley With Veg!

A wind turbine spins above us despite the light snow 

On an exceptionally wet Sunday afternoon we gathered in the Bowling Club hall. This is our go-to place for gatherings. It's where we had our fundraising dinner for a shed for Edible Mach. It's also where we do the packing for the weekly vegbox scheme. But this time it was for something a bit different - it was the Mach Maethlon AGM!

Mach Maethlon is the not-for-profit company that oversees the vegbox scheme and the other two food-growing projects based in Machynlleth - Edible Mach and Dyfi Landshare. It's the company I recently became a director of, joining a team of six. And although I've been involved for three years now, it's the first time I've made it to an AGM (usually I'm still down at Pilsdon Community so I miss it.)

Before the AGM kicked off there was a Seed Swap. I doubt many companies' AGM's start with a Seed Swap. Anybody could bring along surplus veg seeds they might have and take some others in return. Some of these seeds people have saved themselves from veg they grew last year, thus promoting a healthy local self-reliance for veg production (reducing the amount of new seed bought from corporations each year) and encouraging strains of veg that adapt to the local climatic conditions. Other donated seeds were unused commercial packets from previous years. I ended up taking a few packets including some locally-saved seed: parsnip, sugar snap peas, garlic chives and New Zealand spinach, from three different growers.

My seed potatoes are still merrily chitting away. I'll plant them later this month

The meeting was public and so there were several other faces there apart from the usual crew which was fantastic. We sat in a circle. Katie, the Chair of the directors, led it but various people presented the different projects - what's been achieved in the last 12 months, what shape are the finances in, and a recent SWOT analysis done by each project's committee. It was great to be reminded of all the stuff that's happened in just one year (e.g more customers in the veg box scheme, a beautiful new Show Allotment by the Town Hall, people leading veg growing sessions in local primary schools) and look forward to achieving even more in the year to come.

Funding was raised as an issue for Edible Mach and Dyfi Landshare, as it's getting harder to find funding from organisations to pay for the part-time staff who coordinate these projects, as well as for the materials. A lot of time goes into preparing funding applications which may end up being unsuccessful. Crowdfunding is another route that has been employed already but this also takes up loads of time.

Sadly the onions I sowed in February have not done well.
Maybe I let them grow too quickly at first and they got "leggy". Also the compost was not fresh.

We then had some break-out sessions to brainstorm various ideas such as field-scale crops, revitalising the local council allotments, working smarter with other local organisations, and running cooking workshops, and then fed back all the ideas to the main group. What struck me is how much enthusiasm there is here in Mach for local food, even on a miserable soggy Sunday!

So I've sown some more!