Welcome to Homegrown Hornsea- Let's Grow our own!

HOME GROWN HORNSEA wants to see Hornsea become more self sufficient in food.  Hornsea is a small town on the East Coast of Yorkshire in England.  We follow in the footsteps of Incredible Edibles and other such eco-food groups.  We recognise the need to be locally self-sufficient in food and other natural resources due to the changing nature of the world today and the not too distant future of peak oil and climate change.  Contact us with ideas or to get involved.  Email: homegrownhornsea@gmail.com

Orchard Work Days

Orchard days are at 10pm on Sundays from April to October.  All equipment is provided.  All welcome.The orchard is located between the rail trail and Tescos. 

The main tasks are to keep the orchard accessible and attractive to the public by ensuring that pathways are regularly scythed/ strimmed through the spring and summer, whilst maintaining as far as possible the areas designated for wildlife, scything and mulching around the trees and bushes and pruning in late summer/ autumn. We would like to convert sections of the Orchard  to Forest Garden and add information boards and more wildlife habitats. Any ideas for more activities and help in the Orchard would be particularly welcome.

 

PICNIC TIME AT THE ORCHARD (Article published in the June 2022edition of Hornsea Community News)

Hornsea Community Orchard received a special gift for its 10th birthday, in the form of a beautiful wooden bench and table built by Northorpe Joinery of Routh. The funds for the bench were kindly donated by the Withernwick Wind Farm Community Fund. After some favourable Spring weather, the orchard is looking particularly resplendent in its 10th year with trees and bushes radiating health and laden with fruit. It is hoped that the bench will encourage more people to come and enjoy the beautiful surroundings as well as providing somewhere for volunteers to have a break.

The orchard is between the rail trail and Tescos and is open to anyone. It now has over 100 Northern varieties of apples (including 4 of the town's very own 'Hornsea Herrings'), pears, plums, damsons, cherries, a medlar and a quince, as well as 30 fruit bushes with red currants, white currants, blackcurrants, gooseberries and jostaberries. There is also an edible hedgerow of hazels, rose, elders, crab apples, hawthorns and blackthorns, a willow circle and a mini nut forest with walnuts, sweet chestnuts, oaks, and hazels.

The charity 'Home Grown Hornsea' created and maintains the orchard on land rented from East Riding Council, with two main objectives. Firstly, as part of a strategy to encourage production and consumption of our own food. As a community, self reliance in food would signify a much smaller environmental footprint, a stronger local economy, greater food security, fresher and more naturally produced food, leading to improved health. Secondly, as the importance of contact with nature for our mental and physical health is now beyond doubt and at a time when most of our few remaining green spaces are being sold off to build more houses, the orchard provides a place where people of all ages can interact with trees and the earth, as well as helping to provide and preserve habitats for wildlife.

On both counts HGH believes that far more needs to be done. Although the orchard is very popular with dog walkers and fruit pickers, it has so much more to offer. Traditional orchards are a priority habitat in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan and Hornsea Community Orchard is listed as a priority habitat by the North and East Yorkshire Ecological Data Centre. So far hedgehog and bat boxes have been installed but many more wildlife friendly measures could be taken. Signage of the trees with information about the different varieties and when to pick them, is another item on the wish list. It could be a perfect venue for a 'Green Gym', for therapeutic or educational activities, work experience or even festivals. Further afield, many more local food projects would need to be created as part of a Local Food Strategy in order for the town to enjoy a degree of autonomy and food security.

Unfortunately all of these possibilities are on hold due to a lack of resources, particularly human ones. Home Grown Hornsea would love to hear from anyone who feels they have something to contribute; be it helping with maintenance of the orchard, providing wildlife habitats, leading groups with educational activities, developing ideas to take the orchard forward or meeting the wider aims of the charity, or even IT work to help with awareness raising, publicity, attracting volunteers and fundraising. If you are one of those people please get in touch at homegrownhornsea@gmail.com.

Some people who have enjoyed the fruit from the orchard have asked how they might contribute financially. Any donations would help to pay for the rent of the land, tools and other materials. Please send to: Home Grown Hornsea, Coop bank, 089299 65839054

HORNSEA LOCAL PRODUCE MARKET

A regular local produce market is still taking place in Hornsea, HGH, The Living Well Project and FLAG fisheries, along with other local traders helped to get it up and running 10 years ago and it continues today although struggling to attract both stallholders and customers.  See the Local  Market page for more information about the next local produce market.  The local market takes place at Cinema Street, off Newbegin, Hornsea on the last Saturday of the month.

 SAVE OUR HEDGEHOGS

Hornsea Civic Society conducted a survey of hedgehogs during the summer months of 2016.  As we know, hedgehogs are in serious decline (50 years ago there were 30 million. Today there are less than 1 million).  A survey of our local hedgehogs will give us an idea of how they are faring, and help us to think of ways we can ensure their survival.  Any thoughts on fundraising to enable this survey to happen, are welcome.  If you see a sick or injured hedgehog contact the Hedgehog Preservation Society on 01584 980801 for advice.  

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 HOME GROWN THOUGHTS

"Commonplace nature, everyday landscapes, ordinary wildlife, are as vital to nature's overall wellbeing as the special, the endangered and the rare". Sue Clifford (Common Ground).

"An apple a day keeps the Doctor away". (Anon)

 HGH- A Brief History

Home Grown Hornsea was formed in 2010 by a small group of Hornsea residents in an attempt to provide a positive local response to the major environmental and social crises we face. Inspired by Transition Towns (www.transitiontowns.org) and Incredible Edibles (www.incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk) we aimed to encourage the whole town to work together towards making Hornsea a more resilient and sustainable community in all aspects of our lives,  with a major emphasis on food self reliance.

We began with a variety of activities, including seed swaps, a garden share scheme, reselling workshops (bicycle maintenance,IT,grafting workshops, etc.), Timebanking,handing out wooden planters to residents made by a local craftsman, running a craft group, coffee mornings and information stalls at local events. However, after a visit to Incredible Edibles in Todmorden we decided to follow their advice and take the major step of creating a community orchard.

After a year of negotiations with East Riding Council we finally managed to secure a lease on 1.1 acre of land which had been left untouched for many years and was populated mainly by tough grasses. In January of 2012 we held a launch event and 'Visioning Conference' at the Town Hall with the help of the Co-op who funded the provisiono of local foods. The event was well attended and resulted in around 50 volunteers turning out for the tree planting two weeks later. 100 trees for an edible hedgerow were provide for free by the Woodland Trust and over 100 northern varieties of fruit trees from Northern Fruit Growers were funded yb Hornsea Lions. We have since added a variety of fruit bushes, nut trees and some perennial vegetables.

Soon afterwards we formed a partnership with the charity 'Children and family Action' to provide raised beds for a children's allotment. This scheme ran for a couple of years before the funding for that charity ceased.

With the wind in our sails we grew more ambitious. We helped to set up Hornsea Local Produce Market at the Primary School (now running in Hall Garth Park - see opposite) and ran stalls there. A series of successful Pop Up restaurant evenings at the Floral Hall were organised with two excellent local chefs serving organic vegetarian meals using local produce. By 2015 we had grown from a small charity to a fully registered one, prompted by the donation of a grant from the Yorhub Community Fund to run a shop in the town centre, selling local organic produce as well as organic whole foods. The plan was to add a cafe and establish a hub similar to the one in Todmorden which acts as a meeting place for local groups and serves as a catalyst for new 'alternative' and community initiatives.

Unfortunately, the only affordable and available premises proved to be unsuitable as they were poorly located and insulated. We incorporated a room for alternative therapists to operate but this was too cold and we realised that the same would also apply to a cafe. Despite plenty of publicity (including the showing of the Transition film 'Tomorrow' at the Floral Hall), offering discussion groups and vegan parties, after a year of opening we had failed to attract sufficient customers to the shop for the project to be viable even with volunteer labour and we had to reluctantly close down.

In the meantime, the maintenance work at the orchard was taking up much of our energy. The support we had received for the tree planting soon evaporated and some of the founder members also fell by the wayside until there were only 2 or 3 of us active. Partly because we were unable to store machinery on the land and partly because of a desire to run the orchard in the most environmentally friendly way possible, all the maintenance work was done using hand tools. Scything the tough grasses is the main job which proved to be too hard for most people. Things got so bad that we even struggled to recruit enough trustees and we considered closing down the charity and handing the orchard over to the Civic Society.

However, in the end we decided to persevere, focusing our energy solely on the orchard. This has meant that we have managed to keep the orchard well maintained and have enjoyed seeing it flourish and mature, but without the resources to make full use of it nor to develop the wider aims of Home Grown Hornsea.

This year we decided to attempt to attract more people so that the community can make better use of the orchard and we can begin to pursue some of these aims once more. We appeal to the people of Hornsea and surrounding villages to get involved in positive change.

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Film – Tomorrow

In September 2016 we teamed up with the Floral Cinema Club to show the film ‘Tomorrow’. This is what Rob Hopkins says about it:

“Already viewed by over 1.5 million people in France alone, and winner of Best Documentary at the Cesar Awards (the French Oscars), ‘Tomorrow’ has been hugely impactful.  Produced by activist and writer Cyril Dion and actress/director Mélanie Laurent (see below), it tells the story of their search for solutions to the crisis humanity faces.

It is a hugely positive, affirming and inspirational film, exploring creative solutions in the fields of food, energy, transport, economics and education.  It visits permaculture farms, urban agriculture projects, community-owned renewable projects, local currencies, creative schools, ambitious recycling projects.  It has been a huge boost to community-led projects, and is currently on release in 29 other countries, regularly receiving standing ovations, and leading to the formation of many new community projects.  It is the perfect antidote to the current sense of global despondency.  It also has a great soundtrack!”

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We hope you are as excited as we are about this new phase for the charity and feel inspired to get involved with one or more of the above projects. We would also welcome people who can help with fundraising, liaison with other groups and bodies and other admin work. There is no pressure to commit to anything so feel free to send us your details to homegrownhornsea@gmail.com if you would like to receive updates. Alternatively, come along to an Orchard Day on Sunday mornings or Tel: 0795 8298365. You can find Home Grown Hornsea Community Orchard on facebook.

Hope to see you soon!

TIMEBANKING in HORNSEA

Meetings to set up a Time Bank in Hornsea have taken place. For more information about what a Time Bank is see www.timebank.org or if you want to be involved email homegrownhornsea@gmail.com