Tuesday, 24 January 2023

 A Community Growing Programme 

Just before Christmas the Highland Council released details of a potential fund that we could apply for and picking up on the community chat to grow local produce, inspiration from other communities and a long chat with Green Party Councillor Chris Balance at one of the Wildside Markets, we decided to put in for a matched fund for the brilliantly, ethical and robust Polycrubs.

For those of you that know about them this is old news, however for those that don’t they are, to quote “Storm Strength from Shetland, a Polytunnel/greenhouse hybrid designed in Shetland and built to withstand high wind speeds and the harshest of climates.” 

Here are some examples of what they look like 

Images from https://www.polycrub.co.uk/

So what do we want to do? 

We want to start a Community Growing Project, and we need help from the Community to get this started ready for Spring. Sustainability and food security is at the heart of this. We have secured funding from the Highland Council and with funds matched by the Trust we can provide a focus for community effort to increase the availability of fresh, locally-grown produce. 

As a remote community we know how hard it is to get to the major shopping areas and for those who have difficulty travelling regularly to shops, by establishing a year round resource to grow our own the community growing project will promote healthy, active lifestyles and reach beyond the theme of food security. This all helps our area in cutting carbon emissions, reducing food waste and food miles and we can grow it ourselves! 

So much better to have fresh and cheaper produce than heading out to the nearest town to buy fruit, veg and herbs and if it ends up anything like other communities we will end up with a glut we can pass onto others. 

The aim is to site the Polycrubs at 3 key sites across the Stratherrick and Foyers area ( it should be noted that owing to the current planning for the Riverside field it wouldn’t be possible to consider siting this here for 6 months) but we want to link the growing project across the Strath and interact with each other to build a robust food growing resource.  

We have funding for 3 Polycrubs and the sites will be Inverfarigaig, Whitebridge and Foyers to start. Like all things we can only do this with volunteer help, there will be a member of staff to coordinate and kick start the project and be there for the volunteers that want to get this thing growing! 

Growing our own veg is just the start, I am sure this can develop into so much more than a growing space. The light is great, they don’t need heating and they can withstand everything our weather has to offer! 

Please get in touch with sarah@sfctrust.org.uk if you can spare some time and make this happen ! 

Thank you all and we would love to hear from you 

Sarah 

2025

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