Autumn is with us once again, and that means it is time for the annual pre-ordering ready for next January’s Potato Day. This is the 9th annual Potato Day event we’ve run, and once again we’re doing it in conjunction with our friends in Transition Chesterfield. We’re keeping the price per potato tuber the same as last year at just 15p, and there’s also a range of onion sets, shallots, garlic bulbs, bean and pea seeds and various veg growing sundries available to pre-order.
Potato Day itself will be Saturday 28th January 2023 when we will distributed all the goods to the people who ordered them in Loughborough town centre. So if you want to take advantage of this offer, you need to pre-order now. Once the pre-ordering period closes on 23rd November 2022 you won’t be able to access the range of cheap potatoes and seeds as the Chesterfield team need to place the order with suppliers by then. So please rush over to their Potato Day website which is:
As this site is being run by Transition Chesterfield, after placing your pre-order you’ll need to indicate to them that you want the order delivered to us in Loughborough in January (otherwise your potatoes and seeds will end up in Chesterfield!).
Please see our Potato Day 2023 page for more details about Potato Day 2023, include the terms and conditions and how to order offline (though we’d much prefer you to order online using the http://www.potatoday.org.uk website above as it makes organising the orders much simpler and more efficient).
Remember: you need to have made your pre-order by 23rd November this year to take advantage of this offer!
The Arc Community Hub at 22 Knox Road in Loughborough are holding a Sustainability Fair on Saturday September 24 between 11am and 4pm and we will be there. Our stall will be sharing info on local community initiatives, eco-friendly ideas and packets of seeds. All welcome!
Taking place from 24th September to 2nd October, Big Green Week is a nationwide celebration of action on climate change.
Transition Loughborough will be taking part with a stall at The Arc Sustainability Fair on 24th September from 11am to 4pm, sharing info on local community initiatives, eco-friendly ideas and packets of seeds.
There will also be a print workshop, climate change talks, and stalls from Leicestershire and Rutland Bat Group, B-Buddies cycle training CIC, and local retailers selling environmentally friendly products including handmade soap, bug hotels, bird boxes, recycled glass jewellery, fabric bags and hand spun yarn. Join us there to find out more about getting involved with Transition Loughborough, and invite your friends.
The next Repair Cafe will take place at Fearon Hall in Loughborough on Saturday 10th September 2022, from 9.30am until midday, and will include a toy hospital to fix broken toys and make new ones. There will also be light refreshments available to buy at the hall.
Bring items to be fixed and learn the skills to repair them in future. If we can’t repair it, we can direct you to local commercial repairers who may be able to make a fix, helping support the local commercial repair ecosystem.
The repairs made at the Repair Cafe are free and, as such, don’t come with any warranty or guarantee. However if you get something repaired and would like to make a donation to help cover the costs of running the event, we would appreciate that.
Ecosocial
The next Ecosocial will take place at The Boat Inn, Loughborough on 11th October from 7pm. This informal gathering is designed to help eco-minded people share ideas, promote sustainability activities and connect with likeminded people and organisations in the area. There’s no need to get a ticket – just turn up on the night: all are welcome (18+).
Allotment Update
The recent weather means the allotment has been less productive than usual but we’ve been busy putting up a new shed and planning a new polytunnel to help maximise growing opportunities for next year. Join us at the allotment from 5pm on Wednesday nights – the last weekly allotment meeting of the year will be at the end of October before it gets too dark to garden. However, you can still visit the allotment to help out with weeding, watering and overwintering produce, whenever best suits you.
Incredible Edible
The Loughborough Incredible Edible group is now up and running. Their aim is to create kinder and more resilient communities by promoting the idea of people growing their own food in local public spaces. Developing local food growing is a response to both the climate crisis and biodiversity crisis.
Their current projects include a community vegetable growing space at The Corner Garden, where Cambridge Street and Charles Street meet, and another in Rectory Road in front of Fearon Hall. Anyone can volunteer or join in and the food is free to be picked by anyone. New members always welcome – just write to the above email.
Community Round Up
Transition Loughborough is just one of the local sustainability related groups. Here are some of the others.
Let us know if there’s a group you think we should add to our list.To receive the Transition Loughborough newsletter in your inbox, just subscribe to our website and you’ll automatically receive it every two months. We’re posting it online so you can read it on the website if you prefer. You can join our email discussion group if you want to get more involved.
After a long hiatus over the last couple of years of the Covid-19 pandemic, we’re looking to bring Repair Cafe events back. We’ve got one planned to take place in Fearon Hall in Loughborough on Saturday 10th September 2022, running from 9.30am until midday.
If you’ve not been to one before, the idea behind a Repair Cafe is that people bring items that are broken and they are planning on throwing away, and our volunteer repairers will try to repair them instead. If they can make a repair the person bringing the item saves money and resources on buying a new one, and the repairer can explain the skills, techniques and tools they used in making the repair. If a repair isn’t possible it’s no great loss as the item was about to be thrown away anyway but it can show how we should buy products that are capable of repair.
Sometimes repairs are possible but would take more time, parts, equipment or skills than we have at the Repair Cafe, but we can then direct people to local commercial repairers who may well be able to make a fix. This can help support the local commercial repair “ecosystem” too.
The repairs made at the Repair Cafe are free and as such don’t come with any warranty or guarantee. However if you get something repaired and would like to make a donation to help cover the costs of running the event would we appreciate that.
There will be some light refreshments available in the hall, so you can get a drink if you have to wait for a repairer to become available. At this event we’ll also have a “toy hospital” fixing broken toys and upcycling waste material to make new soft toys, so there’s something for the kids too!
Location: Swan In The Rushes, Loughborough – all in person
Date: 21st July 2022
Time: 7pm
Present: Jason, Gemma, Janet, Martha, Pat, Jenny, Jerry
Apologies: Ken, Sarah, Emily, Sue, Julian
From the previous minutes:
Potato Day
Was a great success. Seed swap took place inside Fearon Hall and Potato Collection was outside. Orders were slightly lower than previous year. Everyone who pre-ordered got their potatoes in a cloth bag. Sold some on the day at Fearon Hall (not the charity market stall as previously). Financially on a par with previous years. This year collected from Chesterfield and made up orders in Fearon Hall on the Friday night.
Planter outside Fearon Hall
Planted up my Martha. Needs a sign. Action: Gemma to ask her neighbour about Pyrography. Janet to send Gemma picture of current sign.
Carbon Literacy Face to Face course and Celebration event
This was very successful and those who expressed an interest in Transition have been emailed.
Allotment
The allotment has been split so Transition is now responsible for 3 or the original 4 plots. More help is needed. People are there on a Wednesday evening.
Agenda Items
Treasure’s Report
There is currently £2770.05 in the main account. Some may have to transfer back to the LCC as it was for the Carbon Literacy courses but hopefully we can use for some energy related projects/campaigning.
Insurance has been purchased for repair cafes and public liability insurance. This allows for 6 cafes per year.
Communications
It was agreed an overhaul of the way Transition communicates was needed. Ideas could be moving to a Whats App group instead of the google groups email. Pat said that she used to receive an email once a month but hadn’t had any for a long time. This was an easier way to get information. General design of website/posters etc would be useful. Action: Jason to speak to Jon about mailing lists and the website. Gemma and Jason to discuss a new website with URL and email address. Martha to ask design students at Uni. Gemma to contact DMU students.
Shed
Jerry is donating a shed for the allotment. Janet is donating slabs to put it on.
Manual Water Pump
The meeting agreed to purchase a manual pump for the allotment at approximately £100. Action: Jason to double check the rights to extract water from the stream. Ken to be included in discussion on which pump to buy.
Apple Pressing
Steve has the press and will be attending Sutton Bonnington Show on 4 September. Fruit will be ready around mid October. Gemma to ask Woodhouse Eaves group if they want to hire the press this year. The first Saturday in October could host an event at Fearon Hall. It could be offered for hire on the website but someone (usually Steve) normally goes with the press to work it. Action: Janet to speak to Steve to discover what he wants to do.
Repair Café
Café booked in for 10 September at Fearon Hall 9.30 – 12.30, last item taken at 12. Minimum number of repairers but more may come through as advertising takes place. Janet has previous posters that will work again. Also have right to repair posters. Fearon Hall will do coffee and cakes. At the café general Transition leaflets can be given out. Action: Gemma to contact B-Buddies to join. Janet to sort out publicity poster with Jon
Department of Transport
The department have emailed to ask if a member will speak to them for 1 hour regarding data. Jason will respond.
Next Meeting: At the Boat Inn.
Just to add to this report an apology for it’s lateness appearing. Holiday season and an email in a spam folder to blame. Many thanks to Gemma for taking notes on the evening.
Our local council are offering a chance to group-buy solar panels and battery storage: They do the hard work for you, even inviting several installers to bid for your business.
As the days pull out and the temperatures increase, we are once again back to our regular meets on a Wednesday. We are normally there from 4pm or so until darkness comes along and people come and go as their schedule allows. Anybody is welcome, from novice to expert, and we are pleased to report we have a no-dig (as much as possible), organic stance with our gardening. Growing season has started and it would be great to see you there. If you want any more details feel free to send us a message via our contact form and hopefully someone will be in contact with you. One or two previous messages may have been missed so resending a message now may be a good idea – apologies if that was you. A handful of small, personal plots should be available this year but we mostly use the space for communal growing. We’re a pretty friendly bunch and there’s room for a few more – we’d love to meet you.
The next event we have planned in Transition Loughborough is another of the popular “eco-social” evenings. This will take place on 25th April from 8pm at the Boat Inn, off Meadow Lane, LE11 1JN. The eco-socials are informal meet ups for local people to get together and discuss eco-friendly issues, climate change and share ideas for events and projects. They aren’t limited to Transition Loughborough volunteers – all are welcome to buy a drink (non-alcoholic available!), sit down with us and have a chat. In the past we’ve been joined by people from other local organisations, local politicians and even other Transition Towns members.
So pop along to the Boat Inn from 8pm on Monday April 25th 2022 and join us for some chat and eco-friendly inspiration!
We’re holding a showcase event on 26th March 2022 between 1.30pm and 3.30pm at Fearon Hall. This is a chance for people to come along and see what we’ve been doing, what we have planned and talk to people involved in various Transition Loughborough projects. Transition Loughborough has aimed to produce local, practical projects to help tackle the huge global issues surrounding the climate emergency. These have included:
The community allotment, Potato Day, apple pressing, seed & seedling swaps and gardening workshops where we aim to help local people grow more of their own food,
Repair Cafe events where we bring volunteer repairers together with people who have broken items destined for landfill to see if we can save them, and also transfer skills and knowledge about repair to a wider audience.
Energy projects, which in the past have included solar panel purchase schemes, workshops and talks on energy efficiency and demonstration “open homes” showcasing various renewable energy generation, insulation and energy efficiency techniques and technologies,
Bike workshops to help people keep their low carbon transport on the road,
Courses and training to explain the issues behind carbon footprints and provide hints, tips and information on how to live a more eco-friendly life.
So if you’ve been wanting to find out more about Transition Loughborough, get more involved, have a great idea for a new project you’d like to push forward on, or ask us questions about climate change or carbon footprints, this is what you’ve been waiting for. Pop along to Fearon Hall on the afternoon of Saturday March 26th 2022 and get up to speed on Transition!
RT @BarrowMember: The @TransitionLboro Ecosocial is an informal gathering for eco-minded people to share ideas, promote sustainability acti… 1 week ago
RT @BarrowMember: The @TransitionLboro Ecosocial is an informal gathering designed to help eco-minded people share ideas, promote sustaina… 1 week ago
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