Essex - Janet Thorogood

Schools day at Writtle College - May 2008

As part of the Year of Food and Farming, the Essex Agricultural Society and NFU organised a schools day at Writtle College near Chelmsford on Thursday 1st May. 3000 children attended from across the county. The Essex County Council were very supportive and several sponsors' generosity helped make the day a great success. There were 5 zones dealing with all aspects of food production and caring for the countryside.

6 members of the Essex and Dengie branches worked in the crop zone using The Cereal Story as their theme. The poster and seed collage resources were provided by the HGCA and our thanks go to them once again - the children really enjoyed it. Although the weather could not really have been wetter, it did not dampen the enthusiasm of the participants.

The exhibitors put their best foot (wellie!) forward and we have heard several reports of children saying it was the best day out EVER! It is very rewarding when on the WFU stand talking to children to hear them asking sensible questions and being intrigued by the link of grains to their morning breakfast foods. We only had a very limited time but still managed to get quite a lot across. A very rewarding day and our thanks to all those who helped on the stand; Gill Hodge, Janet Thorogood, Mary Hull, Brenda Proctor, Di Thorogood and Thelma Thorogood.

Update February 2008
Two members joined Dengie at the Countryside Live event in September 2007.
The meeting's speaker from Kelly's Bronze talked about rearing and serving turkeys.
In the November a last minute replacement for Michael Hughes was Sam Lonergan and Jo Partridge talking about their diversification projects-green burials and beef and lamb enterprise.
In December 2007 there was a joint meeting with Essex Agricultural Society listening to Germaine Greer.
The AGM was held in January followed by a meal at a new venue for meetings, The Green Man, Howe Street. Janet Thorogood was re-elected as chairman.

Newsletter November 2007

I hope you are all well. November marches on and it will soon be Christmas!! In fact our last meeting had a Christmasy feel to it when, Philip, from Kelly's Bronze spoke to us about rearing, marketing, cooking, carving and eating turkey. Very interesting and our congratulations to Paul Kelly for the award he received at the Farmers Weekly event in London. A report, with photo, was in the magazine this week.

Thelma is indisposed for a while - hope you are coping Thelma and that you make a quick recovery. I hope I am as efficient at sending out this letter as she would be.

I trust most of you have your tickets for the joint meeting with the Essex Agricultural Society. If you want to come to the meeting of the WFU with the Essex Ag Society on the 5th December to hear Germaine Greer, I need to know asap as I have a few tickets left- please give me a ring on 01621 772033.

F and M plus bluetongue continue to cause major problems but surprisingly there is little coverage in the national newspapers. The Dairy committee meeting was cancelled because of F&M. DEFRA is under fire from the Councils who have been told that they will not get as much money as promised to cover costs because DEFRA have miscalculated the amounts available but they are trying to blame the councils for not assessing accurately. Can you believe it? The Cheshire branch is running their campaign for a secure price for milk and we are collecting signatures. I was at Great Garnets farmers market this weekend and the people I spoke to were very willing to support this petition - a worthwhile morning.

A group has organised a day (1st May 2008) at Writtle for school children as it is the Year of Food and Farming and are seeking volunteers to talk to the children. They are looking for 150 people. You may have had a note through the post and if anyone can spare some time it would be good to support them. Many thanks also to Rosemary Padfield and Liz Towns for their sterling work at the Countryside Live event - a joint Essex and Dengie venture. Liz, the photos came out very well - flour everywhere!

Off to the national AGM next week and Country Living Christmas Fair Gala evening (FCN are the charity this year so if you are going quote them and part of the ticket money goes into the charity)

I have the annual reviews for you all and am trying to pass them out as I travel around.

Unfortunately we need to change our venue. Country Conferences was a super room and I would like to thank Jenny most sincerely for supporting us in our first year. I have been pub crawling and think I have found an easily accessible, suitable venue to meet. It is not as ideal as Hill Farm but I think it will meet our needs.
Our next meeting is on the Thursday 22nd November at 8:00pm when Michael Hughes will be our speaker. This meeting will be at The Green Man at Howe Street. If you want directions please give me a ring. (I now need to remember to ring the landlord!)

February 2007

The re-established WFU Essex branch held their second meeting at a new venue - the Conference Centre at Ford End near Chelmsford. Fifteen members and guests attended and we would like to thank Jenny and Claire Freeman for their hospitality. Our speaker was ADER's John Murphy who covered topics ranging from women's enterprises in the rural community to the effect of the Olympic Games on our area. There was time to discuss future activities and we look forward to our next meeting on 22nd March 2007.

Please see Dengie Hundreds branch for more information about Essex activities.

www.wfu.org.uk