So we have started on a new piece of land. It is great to see what the folk there have already achieved and to feel we can help to make a difference to this.

Good work was done pruning, surveying the plot, deciding priorities, starting some ph metering and digging raspberry bed for anticipated plants, planting some onions and garlic.

The select crew on this occasion was Nick, Eleanor, Eddy, Dirk and Adelle with their girls and Claire.

A good Wednesday morning’s work was done with Paul, Angie, Eleanor, Glenda and Elaine. The focus was on digging trenches for raspberry canes, adding in manure and doing some ph measuring.

We also harvested some potatoes!

Some of us went to Blackbrook Farm where, as part of a Dry Stone Wall Building training weekend, Will had organised an Arch Building competition. With the help of one of the trainers and a trainee, the Crosspool Harvest team built the strongest arch!!!

We now have some practical skills to offer in this traditional art.

We have taken legal advice and decided that the best thing for the long-term future of Crosspool Harvest is to become incorporated as a Company Limited by Guarantee, but with Articles that make clear that all profits will be used to support the project and any assets that are left if/when Crosspool Harvest comes to an end will be passed to another organisation with similar aims.

This will provide some measure of protection for our members in the event of anything going badly wrong and also simplifies the process of entering into contracts such as leases for land.

This was agreed at a recent meeting of Members in July.

Claire’s incubator has worked wonders and over the weekend we have seen lots of chicks fight their way out of their eggs and come out to see the light of day. It is a fascinating process to watch and we have had quite a part of people round on Sunday afternoon to watch and greet the new arrivals.

We had a very hot time at the Hagg House Community Allotment on Saturday 22 May, seeing what has been going on there, weeding, planting and watering, as well as climbing onto tree platforms, making a solar powered oven and having a BBQ.

A good group of 17 gathered together with some surprise guests joining us – Clive, who is wanting to do a PhD in creating archives of community groups and wants to create a photographic archive of Crosspool Harvest from its first beginnings, and Mark and Christina, from the Crookes-Walkley Transition group.

As part of the afternoon, we walked up to the Bole Hill Road to view some ancient private allotments sites up there that are offer our current best prospect of providing us with land to set up on. We think these have real potential but there will be quite a bit of clearing needed.

We should go back with the plan, when we have it, to start to think about which plots would be best for our purposes.

An exciting end to a busy week!

We have set up 20 eggs in the fabulous new incubator Claire has bought and they are coming on well. We expect to see signs of chicks next week (we will be listening for cheeping on 28 May)!

We had a very encouraging and positive planning meeting with a great turn-out of people keen to see the project go forward. Here are some highlights.

Nick informed everyone that some land has been identified that might be suitable for the project and he is in discussions with the Council about securing the tenancy and whether planning permission would be needed.

Helen told the group about some greenhouses and sheds that have been offered to the project if we can arrange for them to be professionally dismantled and removed. We need to decide if we really want these (the greenhouse is enormous) and how we could proceed.

Nick reported on a positive meeting with the folk at the Council who deal with training and young people and their agreement that our project could provide good opportunities to offer learning and youth activities to others.

Claire showed the group the new incubator she has bought that will be stocked with a new batch of eggs with the aim of trying, again, to establish a Crosspool Harvest flock.

Nick talked through the vision and the elements that need to come together to make it happen. He also showed the Master Plan.

Nick talked the group through the draft constitution and the group agreed a number of changes to it. Nick will now revise the constitution and make it available to all who attended for final comments before it is finalised and we can all sign it to indicate our consent.

Nick will then create a Membership Form and write to all who have expressed interest in the project to invite them to become the first Members, including paying their membership fee. Once we have a group of Members, we should hold a first General Meeting where the Management Committee would be elected.

We are now able to offer people the chance to become a Founder Member of Crosspool Harvest!

If you would like to know more, contact us at info@crosspoolharvest.org.uk and we will send you the “pack”. You need to have joined by the end of June 2010 to have the distinctive title of “Founder Member”!

We are planning to offer an Educational Member package also, for schools and similar groups!

Thanks to Claire for a highly informative and fun afternoon learning about all things to do with chickens.

The afternoon was beautifully warm, enabling all 14 of us to enjoy Claire’s garden complete with pond, hens, ducks, rabbits and a reticent pheasant. We started with tea and cake, then moved on to the serious business of how to keep hens!

We saw the chicks that had been hatched from our first batch of eggs.

Claire has lots of her own chickens and the children saw all the different foods they love to eat, and some they hate (demonstrated beautifully by the hens), and looked at various sizes and colours of eggs, matching them to the hens. One hen was especially cuddly! We learned about hen diseases, houses and fox-proofing, seeing the aftermath of Mr Cunning Fox’s determination to rip the doors off a hen house (teethmarks).