September is here - that means harvest time, spontaneous storms and changing colours in the natural world. I've caught my first glimpses of yellows and reds on the trees as I gather up a glut of delicious plums and put a jumper on to keep the crisp winds out. Green Hive continues to thrive thanks to the hard work of our volunteers, board and staff - here's just a couple of things we've been up to that you may have missed!
Community Food Growing
At the end of August we held an online webinar and discussion on a topic near and dear to many of you: community food growing - you can watch our extremely interesting and informative talk here:
Both Brian and Julian gave us an expert's insight into how to get started on community food growing and how to make a project sustainable in the long term, I've listed all the interesting links here for you to check out! As promised, please find the links to the various resources shared and talked about throughout the webinar:
Brian Gibb works with and for Cyrenians and Common Good Food - both of those organisations are exemplars in both fields of growing sustainable produce and engaging with local communities so definitely check them out!
Julian Thompson at Shared Assets co-ordinates and manages the Land Explorer project,, which aims to map out all the areas of common good land across the country, Julian is keen to hear from people willing to work with him on a plan for a mpa of Scotland!
Julian writes on subjects like How do we use Neighbourhood Planning to fight climate change? and our Digital Commons; how data on land ownership can drive change.
Julian also has some useful stuff on related topics:
Challenge existing via legal / direct action; in light of legally binding international agreements
Legal form(s) and governance structures for companies
Regional development coops
Non-public sources of finance (both community & we have open doors from pension funds, capital @ 4%, over 40 years); this is a People’s Green New Deal.
Exciting financial action is also being proposed from Money Rebellion (small business team) for legal loophole, to re-purpose corporation tax
Combining neighbourhood plan, local plan, economic development plan, & climate emergency plan
What’s really important here is as we #buildbackbetter, key infrastructure is community owned and democratically controlled (not traditional extractive private corps)
This dovetails with: community wealth building (procurement), which is now also being used to look at climate plans, climate emergency centres and #TrustThePeople work
Incorporating software for community organising and mapping
Relationship building with civil society groups and organisations: building community resilience, in the face of crises, by way of mutual aid (Climate Action Alliance).
The Highland Council's "Growing Our Future" draft strategy is shortly due to go into public consultation - keep your eyes peeled for an announcement here: https://www.highland.gov.uk/news/archive
It's so important that communities, neighbourhoods and organisations have their say on policies like this - with food poverty on the rise and an increased awareness and "shopper sense" around supply chains, there has never been a better time for communities to take up growing their own nourishing foods. Nairn has a brilliant climate and a wealth of expert growers in the town, we have high hopes for this policy launch and the opportunities it will bring!
The team at Moo Food based out at Muir of Ord have been amazingly helpful in providing information and guidance to Green Hive and they have recently received funding to start the Highland Good Food Conversation which is definitely worth taking a look at if you are considering joining or starting a food growing initiative, they are looking for input from Highland residents and have just released episode 2 of their new podcast series!
Thanks to HIE and the Supporting Communities Fund for funding this brilliant webinar talk!
Rambling along the River
We teamed up with Stephen Wiseman from N4H to host a special virtual tour of the Nairn Riverside on Friday the 11th September.
N4H have kept us all grounded and entertained with their fantastic virtual tour videos throughout lockdown and it was a genuine pleasure to work with Stephen on this special walk around the Riverside.
You can walk along with us here virtually -
We have the facility to do more live videos and tours and we love the idea of bringing local nature into people's homes and lives in this uncertain time.
Want to get involved? Fancy being a tour guide or showing off your favourite walk or cycling spot? Get in touch!
Apps that may interest you
Green Hive staff have been working hard to assess and reduce our carbon footprint at our Green Hive workshop, and in all of our activities.
Reducing your carbon footprint doesn't have to be a task - it can actually be quite fun!
We have been using two apps to help us track our progress to sustainability and we wanted to share them with you!
Treezilla - a citizen science project that is aiming to encourage members of the public, local authorities, business, local groups and other organisations to collaborate in mapping, measuring and monitoring trees across the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. Treezilla’s mission is to improve our understanding of trees and their benefits by bringing people and organisations together to work together mapping, measuring and monitoring our trees.
Treezilla is the UK's biggest open tree map with more than 1 million tree records!
You can download the app on a smartphone and start logging trees near you - help complete the national tree map .
Pawprint - "Pawprint will allow you to calculate and track your carbon footprint. ‘Great, what else?’ We hear you, and love the enthusiasm. Once we know your footprint (or pawprint, as we like to call it) we’ll offer you personalised challenges to help you get your number down. Plus, there’ll be information about all-things-eco in your neighbourhood." The Pawprint blog also has loads of tips and tricks to live more sustainably and will be launched shortly, you can register on the Pawprint waiting list here: https://www.pawprint.eco/try-pawprint
Plethora of Plums!
It's plum season again, and if you're like me, you won't want any of these delicious little fruits to go to waste!
Here's a couple of links to some delicious and easy plum recipes to get the most out of your September harvest - 19 delicious Plum recipes BBC's Good Food plum recipes
I'm going to attempt a plum wine this year, what's your favourite plum treat?
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