Hayfield Community Orchard 2020 – Apple Juice

This year’s apple crop has been very good and as we were unable to hold the Annual Apple Day at the Primary School, where we normally juice the apples to give away, this year we decided to try something different.

The apples that were collected by the village volunteers were taken to High Peak Cider Press in Birch Vale to be cleaned, pressed and turned into pasteurised juice. 87 litres of juice has been produced from this year’s crop. The 1 litre bottles can now be distributed to those in the village who would like one.

We will be setting up outside the Packhorse on Saturday 24th October at 9 am, with the bottles of juice to give away.

The processing and bottling of the juice has resulted in a cost to the Community Orchard of £1.60 a litre. The Parish Council and Sustainable Hayfield have offered to offset this cost this year but donations would be welcome to pay back both for their generosity and support.

Next year we are hoping to put the Community Orchard on to a more commercial basis for the benefit of the community. If you are interested in becoming involved in the Community Orchard Project please contact Councilor Cath Hughes or Derek Clarke.

If you missed the videos that we made to provide you with some of the other elements of Apple day, click here, sit back and enjoy!

Welcome to Apple Day 2020

For obvious reasons, we've not been able to hold our normal Apple Day this year. So we thought we'd bring you a virtual version, sharing with you some short videos from local people, displaying sustainable talents from bee keeping to preserving, and updating on how we've made best use of our community orchard apples this year. Despite disruption to our lives, the apple harvest has been as good in 2020 as any other year, and our intrepid pickers have been busy picking, sorting, bagging and boxing them...

Some of 2020's apples have gone to Glossop and New Mills Food Banks, and the rest will go to High Peak Cider Press, for juicing/bottling. We hope to share an anticipated 40 litres with the Hayfield community soon. Watch our notices and updates for more information! So, click here, sit back and enjoy! And, if you've a sustainable skill you'd like to share, get in contact with us at sustainablehayfielduk@gmail.com and we'll talk videoing you at work!

Thanks for all your support and interest.

New Mills Fashion Week

People's invention knows no bounds!

Please find below a poster for a series of 5 free online ‘zoom’ events, Mon 12th to Fri 16th October, celebrating New Mills Fashion Week, which brings an alternative look at clothes and fashion, designed to be informative, thought provoking & fun!

It's a delight that such a series of such events should be organised so close to home. It's bound to be stimulating! Hopefully, you can join in whichever of the events appeals to you.

Powering Our Homes with Renewable Energy - Survey Form

We advised some weeks ago our success in getting funding to explore the feasibility of developing a solar farm in the parish, to help supply clean energy to the locality. As part of that work, we’ve now produced a survey form to local households to get your views on renewable energy supply to Hayfield, with some focus on the possibility of a solar farm. You can complete the survey online here.

We’ll also be delivering this door to door.

If you live in Hayfield parish, we hope you’ll want to complete it. This will inform our continuing work. As you’ll see, you can return it hard copy or, preferably, electronically, by September 7th to shayfieldenergygroup@gmail.com. since electronic return makes analysis of responses somewhat easier. A good return rate from Sustainable Hayfield supporters will help our work considerably.

Summer Newsletter

Our summer newsletter is ready for download. We hope you find it of interest. Given 'lockdown', it's encouraging to see how much has been happening.

We'd draw your attention to local interest there is in having some regular 'litter picks' around the village (see page 5). If you'd be interested in joining in what might be, say, monthly activity, do email me at sustainablehayfielduk@gmail.com.

Forthcoming Talk - The Role of the Community in the Electrification of the UK

It’s Community Energy Fortnight 13th-28th June. And what better way of recognising it than by sharing details of the revolutionary changes which have occurred, are underway, and are yet to come, in how we source and use electricity, already dominant in the UK. You need to know!

Our Energy group Chair, Richard Noakes, who’s worked in the electricity market for the last 10 years, has kindly agreed to give a Zoom presentation and take questions, next Thursday, 25th June at 7.00p.m. on the subject of ‘The Role of The Community in the Electrification of the UK’. He’ll be charting some of the key changes in the market, past and future, and what it means for us.

Think how much we rely on continuing electricity supply, at home, at work, in our leisure activities. Extended – or repeated large-scale- outages would compromise almost all of what we do.

But there’s revolution afoot in the electricity market, which will affect almost all of us. It’s clear that coal as a UK power source has almost disappeared, and many questions are being asked of gas, all with government backing. Petrol and diesel cars will no longer be produced in just over 10 years’ time, and our homes will increasingly have EV charging points, and heat pumps in place of gas boilers.

But that’s not all. Already, there are trials charging us for electricity on tariffs changing by the half hour, using smart meters being installed. One supplier has recently been paying customers to use electricity, to secure continued operation of its renewable supply (the best deal was at 4.00a.m.!). And increasingly, we’ll be getting much of our supply from, and paying our bills to, a local energy provider, maybe one controlled by the local community. The world is changing...

Why not join us - from your lounge or kitchen - to hear of the revolution that’s under way? Content will be pitched at the non-scientists amongst us. The event will last about an hour. To register your interest, email Shayfieldenergygroup@gmail.com and shortly after, you’ll be sent a ‘Zoom link’ which you just need to click on shortly before 7.00p.m. on 25th June, to join the audience. As someone says, “simples!”

Good News - They're Back!

We're delighted to advise that, starting this Saturday, Village Greens will be resuming their 'pitch' outside The Pack Horse, from 10.00-12.00noon. Because market conditions are still problematic, they will have their usual pre-ordered boxes of their delicious fruit and veg for you to collect, but will not, for the first couple weeks, be bringing anything extra to sell, after which they hope to resume that service too, gradually, if all goes well.

Village Greens are contacting all their regular customers to advise of this, and will continue to deliver to self isolating and vulnerable customers on Saturday morning. But for others, it will be a question of turning up at The Pack Horse and collecting the orders you've placed. And, apparently, large numbers of those of us who've been contacted are looking forward to the social dimension of picking up our box, and 'having a chat' (but still with social distances observed and certainly no hugging!), as are Sharon and Rod. Or, if you wish, you can drive up alongside and they'll put your box in your car for you. Village Greens, of course, are on 01457 865256.

We're sure you're as pleased as we are with this news. Regrettably, Grains are not yet in a position to resume their service but we hope to keep you informed of developments there. See you Saturday?