Grow Greener with Garthdee Field Allotments Association

Tag: TAMS

TAMS Success Story

I am delighted to report that the Allotment Market Stall Project has had a very successful season. The project seeks to sell surplus allotment site produce to the public, so spreading the benefits of good, local food growing to the wider community. This year TAMS sold almost £1000 of veggies over the summer weeks – a magnificent effort.

Picture 565

Here is an extract from the thank you letter we received from the TAMS team:

Dear Garthdee Field Allotment Gardeners
Thank you for participating in the Allotment Market Stall in 2014. It has been an excellent season and the stall in Duthie Park was very successful. It would not have been possible without your input in preparing the produce for collection and in volunteering on the stall. We would very much appreciate feedback on how we can improve operations for next season.
Thanks to a small Lottery grant to cover running costs and the partnerships with ACC, the unpaid work scheme and CFINE we are able to redistribute all the proceeds from sales of produce.
In terms of total weights, over the 10 weeks we collected 1005kg of produce, sold 816kg, donated 146kg and composted 43kg. An excellent achievement for all those concerned as it represents an improvement in access to locally grown fruit and vegetables, a reduction in waste, a reduction in food miles and contributes to an improvement in healthy eating.
 
We are in the process of writing up a full report on the operations in 2014 in preparation for the 2015 season and will make it available as soon as we can.

The return from TAMS to GFAA this season has totalled to over £140. I want to offer my congratulations and thanks to all who contributed to this magnificent community effort and to the TAMS team for making this possible.

IYN Assessment Report

iynJim Henderson, our It’s Your Neighbourhood Assessor has passed on his assessor report. It makes very good reading. Jim visited our site in early August and was clearly impressed with many of our activities: he awarded us a second to top-level grading and considered us to be ‘thriving’.

DSC_1904It is clear that all our allotment holders have contributed to this success for GFAA as Jim  remarked on the big number of well looked after plots he saw as well as the well maintained communal areas of our site.

Here are some highlights from the report:

We scored 32/40 points for community participation with special mention made of help for novice plotters; our community orchard; support for TAMS; the RGU connection; social and communal activities to maintain the site; and our occasional training courses.  

IMAG0218We scored 25/30 points on evidence of environmental responsibility, getting a special mention for our promotion of composting; waste management; encouragement of educational projects from primary to university level; use of natural materials and approaches to deal with problem areas; encouragement of wildlife with bird feeders and insect boxes around the site.

Gardening achievement scored 25/30 with praise given for the variety of fruit, veg and flowers grown across the site; the sharing of advice and plants; development of wild flower areas; and the use of small plots to help new plotters.

Picture 606Jim indicated he looks forward to seeing more of the exciting new project with Broomhill Primary School and the raised bed plots planned for development with RGU in the Community access area. His score of 82/100 leaves us within striking distance of the ‘outstanding’ level on our very first attempt, so we have a clear target for the coming season.

A big thank you to all who contributed to this success on their own plots and on communal areas and to our principal partners, including the City Council and RGU. It is very pleasing to see our combined efforts recognised within the IYN scheme and we hope this success will encourage even wider participation and more new projects in the coming year.

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