June Newsletter 2009

I. CCF NEWS & EVENTS

‘Beyond the Comfort Zone’ Workshop

June 15^th, 7:30-9pm, Friends Meeting House Jesus Lane

Shilpa Shah will lead this workshop exploring how to communicate effectively with people outside your close circles – how to get in touch, listen to, understand and involve people with whom you are less familiar. Shilpa is currently a campaigner with Friends of the Earth Rights and Justice team. Please email Karin (karin@cambridgecarbonfootprint.org) if you plan to attend.

Volunteer at CCF’s summer events

Enjoy the sun while helping people to reduce their carbon footprints. CCF will have stalls at the following events:

Environment Festival Launch on Parker’s Piece June 13^th
Big Day Out on Parker’s Piece July 11^th

We need lots of volunteers to help, and hope that you will be able to join in the fun! Please contact Karin if you can help out in any way: karin@cambridgecarbonfootprint.org

Films!

The following films will be showing as a part of the Environment Festival:

‘Age of Stupid’ will be showing in the Winstanley Theatre at Trinity College, June 17th at 7:30pm.
‘Who Killed the Electric the Car’ along with the short film ‘Cheat Neutral’ will be shown June 18th, 6-8:30pm at the Arts Picturehouse on Regent Street. It will be followed by a discussion with Rosemary Randall (CCF) and Alex Randall of Cheat Neutral.

Tour of Donarbon Waste Facility

Thursday June 25^th

Getting rid of waste accounts for about 3%of your CO2, and we have a rare opportunity to learn about this firsthand at Donarbon. As a part of environment week, Cambridge Sustainable City and the Donarbon Waste Facility are offering a tour to CCF members beginning 10am on June 25^th. It should prove very enlightening. Places are very limited, so please email Lindsey O’Donnell (linzod@googlemail.com) to book. If you are able to drive and can offer a lift to four others, please let us know as well.

Cycle Picnic to South City

Saturday June 27^th

Come along on this social bicycle ride, which aims to visit the Great Shelford Farmer’s Market. Those who would like to join the picnic (without the cycling) are welcome too! Email or phone Mary Geddes for more information: m.geddes40@ntlworld.com, 01223 563127.

Facilitator Training Session

July 4^th, 2-5:30pm, Ross Street Community Centre

Have you ever entertained the idea of facilitating a ‘Carbon Conversations’ group? Has it been awhile since you’ve done a group? This training will be especially helpful for those who have completed a group, but who are new to facilitating or needing a refresher. Participants will be well-equipped for facilitating a Carbon Conversations course in the autumn or beyond. Please email Karin if you’d like to attend.

Next Grow Your Own Session

July 6^th, 7pm, Ross Street Community Centre

Learn how to best manage your summer veg crop and prepare for the autumn with master gardener Keith Jordan. This session will include a special visit to a working allotment, weather permitting. Please email Karin (karin@cambridgecarbonfootprint.org) to book.

Donations Made Easy

We have joined the CharityChoice (http://www.charitychoice.co.uk/aboutus.htm) online donation service provided in conjunction with the Co-operative Bank (http://www.co-operativebank.co.uk). CharityChoice is an established publisher of a charity reference book and online database. The Co-op Bank provides the secure payment system, including GiftAid, which enables us to claim back the income tax paid by donors. There is no charge for the service, so all the donation and GiftAid comes to us. We will be adding a button (below) to our website shortly, but if you would like to help fund our activities today, just use the following link:
https://www.charitychoice.co.uk/donation.asp?ref=158639

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II. LOCAL NEWS & EVENTS

“The Global and the Local: Sustainability in Food and Shopping” A talk by Dr. Rosie Cox

Friday, 26 June 7-9pm

Friends Meeting House, Jesus Lane

Dr Rosie Cox senior lecturer at Birkbeck College, London talks about the implications of what is in our shopping basket and on our plate. Held in conjunction with Transition Cambridge Food Group.

Rosie has been involved in examining novel ways in which people access food or retail food outside the main system of supermarkets or established shops. She is interested in why people are now using networks such as box schemes, allotment clubs and adoption projects to provide food and what this means for producers and the food system more widely. Between 2004 and 2007 the project in which she was involve looked in detail at six case study schemes and worked with both producers and consumers to understand their motivations and what they get from establishing these new relationships in food networks.

Environment Festival

The Environment Festival is running from 12^th to 27^thJune this year. There are dozens of fun and educational activities, including:

a launch on June 13^th on Parker’s Piece (including a CCF stall)
wildlife walks and rambles (including some by Keith Jordan and Iain Webb)
films (see CCF Events) and a pub quiz at Cambridge Blue
the Low Carbon Living For All event (June 23^rd, 6-8pm at the Guildhall) which offers a chance talk to local heating, insulation, and renewable energy installers and view the different products and technologies that could make your home more energy efficient. CCF will have a DIY advisor and footprinting table at this event.

For more information on the festival or to download a programme of events, visit http://www.cambridge.gov.uk/ccm/content/environment-and-recycling/sustainable-city/environment-festival.en

‘The Work that Reconnects’ – a day workshop

Sunday 14th June

Are you concerned about the condition of our world?

Would you like to strengthen your ability to respond?

“The Work That Reconnects” is a form of group work developed by Joanna Macy (www.joannamacy.net). It uses experiential exercises to explore how to use the energy of our emotional responses, reconnect with our passion to act for life and transform concern for the world into creative engagement.

11am to 5pm, 14th June, Newnham Croft Primary School, Chedworth Street, Cambridge, CB3 9JF

This 1-day workshop will be led by Anna McIvor, Bev Sedley, Julian Briggs and Mark Skipper. Suggested contribution £10 (£5 concessions). Please bring: a packed lunch, warm socks, a cushion if you like to sit on the floor, outdoor clothes and a beautiful object from nature to brighten up the room.

To book, please e-mail CambridgeWorkthatReconnects@googlemail.com .

http://www.ourearth.co.uk/theworkthatreconnects/

Offered in collaboration with Cambridge Carbon Footprint and Transition Cambridge.

Individual help for your garden – a new Cambridge company is born

The Kitchen Gardener is an innovative gardening company, recently started by the Cambridge-based Lindsey O’Donnell, that helps people to grow their own food.

Lindsey’s infectious passion for her allotments, as well as the whole process of growing her own fruit and vegetables, will inspire you – whether you want someone to do the work for you or get involved in the growing process yourself.

Whatever your gardening needs, The Kitchen Gardener can help: call Lindsey on 07884 313243 for further details or visit www.thekitchengardener.co.uk (from mid-June).

New online resource for renewable energy

YouGen is a new, user-friendly website has been introduced to help people choose renewable energy. The website assess the latest research, offers tips from energy experts, and provides a space to share your experience, recommend your supplier, or find someone who has already installed the technology you are interested in. Visit the site at www.yougen.co.uk.

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III. POLITICS & CAMPAIGNING: News from the roving reporter by Tom Bragg

Your roving reporter is currently sea-kayaking up the West Coast of Scotland where 4°C warmer seas are badly affecting marine birds, because sand eels near the bottom of the food chain have moved north.

We drove up past the new windfarm south of Glasgow, the largest onshore in Europe, put in context on TV by Cambridge’s David Mackay – see his excellent book (free download) on our options for de-carbonising UK energy: www.withouthotair.com

Up here there’s plenty of wind and tidal energy (as we’re experiencing!) and some Island communities like Eigg are already energy self-reliant www.isleofeigg.org/trust/eigg_electric.htm But scaling-up will need more electricity lines to England. These could be big undersea DC cables down the East coast, like we already have under the channel.

Please keep up the political pressure. Several options are listed here: www.stopclimatechaos.org/action

IV. RO’S REVIEW: ‘The Spirit Level’ and ‘Prosperity Without Growth’

Here are two excellent publications that place well-being and psychological health in the wider context.

The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett (Penguin Books) draws together numerous pieces of research to show that the common factor in many of the social problems that afflict Western developed societies is the extent of each country’s inequality. In short, the more unequal the society, the worse the outcomes, not just for those at the bottom of the social scale, but for people all the way up. Whether it is obesity, teenage pregnancy, mental health, violence or life expectancy, the key factor is equality or the lack of it. For example, the unequal UK has over 2 ½ times more mental illness than more equal Japan and over twice as much obesity as more equal Sweden. With regard to climate change, this suggests that our hopes for a more satisfying, rewarding life in a post-oil world will only be met if we also campaign for greater equality.

Professor Tim Jackson of Surrey University is one of the few people since Herman Daly’s ‘Steady State Economy’ to address the shibboleth of economic growth and analyse the processes that might be involved in shrinking the economy to an ecologically viable state. His new report ‘Prosperity without Growth’, written in his role as Economics Commissioner for the Sustainable Development Commission, is a masterly analysis not just of the macro-economics but of the complex interdependency of consumerism, personal identity and economic growth in a toxic, unsustainable system.

Neither is ‘on the beach’ reading but both are clearly written and accessible and will cheer the heart of anyone who hopes that out of the crisis of climate change we can build a better society.

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V. JUNE IN THE GARDEN: Slugs, snails and contaminated-manure tales by Keith Jordan

Dry weather during April and May meant that growth was restricted, but now that the rains have finally come, crops, weeds, slug and snails will proliferate! The breeding rate of slugs and snails, probably the number one pest of most gardeners, will rapidly increase so check any hiding places around your plot. The eggs of the molluscs (small white round balls) will be evident in damp places (under any piles of vegetation, wood, plastic sheeting and mulching materials where the edges are not secured down.

One of the few natural pest controllers of snails is the song thrush – one of the loveliest of garden birds. The bird repeats song phrases in contrast to blackbirds – you can hear their song and find more details on http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/s/songthrush/index.asp . The species has been in decline in recent years but is still numerous around Cambridge city. Snails are important (especially for raising young birds) in periods of dry weather when earthworms are scarce. To eat their prey, the thrushes break snail shells by smashing them against a stone with a flick of the head – a bit gruesome, but organic! (Coincidentally, as I write this, I can hear one bashing a shell against a pavement in the garden.) Ensure any netting used to protect strawberries and other soft fruits are secure so that thrushes can’t get trapped inside.

Keep sowing lettuce, beetroot, rocket and other fast growing crops and there’s still time to sow or plant tender crops outside now especially as the danger of frost has gone. It’s not too late to sow or plant sprouting broccoli for a tasty crop next spring. Beware: Problems have been reported at allotment sites in Cambridge from herbicide-contaminated manure – residues in batches of manure has damaged crops. See http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0708/Weedkiller-manure.asp and http://www.manurematters.co.uk/faqs.htm for more details. Double-check the source and quality of any manuare, straw or hay brought in from farms or stables.

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VI. MARTIN’S MEMO: Future of Lighting and DIY Log by Martin Roach

Future of Lighting

John Lewis are now stocking LED light bulbs that are replacement for normal incandescent bulbs – so you can switch from 40-60Watts right down to 3-5W. At the moment they are only for the smaller size screw and bayonet fittings and they cost around £20 each but this shows that LED’s will soon become the energy savings bulb of choice. Take a look in their lighting department to see what the future looks like.

DIY Log

If you have lived in your house for a while you have learned how to solve those persistent DIY issues as they arise. Things like, where the water stop cock is, how to clear a problem plug hole, or where to find the electric, gas and water metres. Why not write these useful facts on a sheet of paper pinned in an easily accessible place – like the back of the cupboard under the stairs. Such information will prove useful to you or the next owner of your house in the future and avoid having to pay someone to relearn the facts all over again. You can also add the phone numbers of trusted trades people in case the worst happens and you need to call one in.

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VII. THIS MONTH’S RECIPE: Broad bean dip by Jacky Sutton-Adam

Summer Abundance

The challenge to eat more local and seasonal food becomes a lot easier this month, as market stands and farm shops pile up their displays with the first of the summer produce. Broad beans, peas, tender new carrots, beetroot and young spinach are just a few of the highlights this month. There are also new potatoes (forget the Jersey Royals – a Fen-grown new potato easily beats them for fresh flavour, good value and low food miles any day) and of course, asparagus.

The wild food larder is similarly well stocked: baby leaves of fat hen, new season’s chickweed, and sow thistle seedlings make tasty vitamin and mineral-rich additions to the salad bowl. The elderflower season has started, recipes for elderflower cordial, champagne and fritters are everywhere it seems! Find out more at www.wildfoodie.com

This month’s recipe is a doddle to knock up quickly and serve with a plate of raw or lightly steamed seasonal vegetables:

Broad Bean Dip

Ingredients

500g broad beans, shelled
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp ground cumin
pinch of paprika
75ml extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Pepper
Chopped spring onions

Instructions

Boil the broad beans in lightly salted water for a minute or two then drain, keeping the cooking water. Mash the beans in a blender with the rest of the ingredients and blend with a little of the cooking water until you have a smooth, thick purée. Taste and season. Garnish with a sprinkle of paprika and cumin. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with finely chopped spring onions.

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