! At the bottom of this post, you will find a list of items considered by the current field management team volunteers at their informal get together, Sunday, June 6th. (in green) Please note that if you'd like to be involved on the proposed Field Management Sub-committee to contact Jan or Lyndsey at 3122!
Dear Spudsters,
First of all, please mark your calendar for 10:00 am June 19th for our first potato hilling of the year in the SPUDS patch! In the event of inclement weather, the following day will be a backup. in the event of extremely slow growth in the field, you will be notified of any necessary delay as soon as possible.
Members will receive a reminder next week about what to bring (hoes, etc), but if you are unable to participate on the date currently anticipated, please get in touch! It really helps to know how many hands are or aren't going to be available at a given time.
Gentle Reminder: We all know that in many respects our field dates are dictated by Mother Nature! Membership does involve representation in the field 4-5 times per year, however. There are a variety of ways you may be able to pitch in if making it out to the field, or finding someone to represent your membership on a group field day is problematic. So thanks for checking in with the Communications Team if you would be so kind.
Secondly, highlights from the minutes included in the previous post include an update on the progress of our cover cropping and potato planting (photos on the blogspot included with the previous post there!)
Also, please note that the proposal (below) announced in the last email outreach was carried by the membership present at our May 31st meeting and so has now been adopted in principle. Out of consideration for members who may have wished to attend the meeting but were unable, members present opted to extend the invitation a second time to any others interested in weighing in on the proposal before it is considered formally adopted.
Proposed: that the membership strike a SPUDS sub-committee mandated to oversee field management organization and keep the membership fully apprised with regular updates.
It was suggested that a deadline for any further input on the proposal be set as June 12th, so that a field management sub-committee could move forward knowing they have a clear mandate from the cooperative membership to proceed with field management planning on its behalf.
It was agreed that any member is welcome to join the field management sub-committee (FSC) at any time, but that with our Basis of Unity Statement now in place to guide us in our co-operative venture, and a four year crop rotation plan in place, subsequent deliberations should no longer necessitate alerting the entire membership.
This will significantly reduce the amount of emails SPUDS members have been receiving, and meeting invitations!
It was suggested that in order to keep members fully apprised however, that news from the FSC (field management sub-committee) would be regularly posted [here] on the blogspot for member access at any time. Scroll down for related info added in green at the bottom of this post. Hard copies will also be added to the library binder so the co-op maintains an uptodate record of all deliberations, expenditures, growing conditions, planting dates and observations, etc.
As per the attached minutes, four members volunteered for the FSC at the meeting. Anyone else interested is requested to get in touch with Lyndsey or Jan at 3122. An informal followup was held on the weekend to determine timing for the first potato hilling and assess other upcoming field management needs. Please scroll down for details, and refer here to the blog for additional updates from the current field management volunteers, and/or get in touch to be involved in this important aspect of the co-op!
NEWS FLASH: You won't find this update in the Meeting Minutes posted in the previous entry. The Regional District has awarded SPUDS a grant of $200, which will be available to us at the end of July!
The goal of regular updates is of course to keep everyone fully apprised, and engaged in both successful potato growing/care of the land and community building! Hope to see you all on June 19th. As mentioned, a little reminder will be coming your way next week, via phone and/or email. As always, thanks in advance for your RSVP!
Below, here are notes from the first (informal) meeting of the current field managment sub-committee (FSC) on June 6th, 2010
In attendance: Mike, Fireweed, Jan & Lyndsey Recorder: Lyndsey
In no particular order:
- Fireweed/Mike checked field today, June 6th, and found some potatoes already need hilling.
- Jan/LJ to perform above adhoc hilling this week. Less feet on the field will result in less compaction, since the long tubers needing attention are scattered throughout the field.
- Jan/LJ to obtain cardboard and place on rows nearer fence where no planting took place to suppress weeds.
- First field-wide hilling planned for June 19 --- or June 20 should it rain.
- Second (& final) field-wide hilling date TBD --- might include applying hay mulch (TBD - see below).
- Whether watering system is put in place after second hilling or after hay mulch is applied TBD.
- Advice on watering system to be sought from Derek - Fireweed/Mike to contact.
- Jan/LJ to be contact for FSC - should other members wish to join the sub-committee.
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