There was a more informal meeting than normal with curry themed food to start the proceedings.

Apologies were received from Mark and Ali.

In the absence of an Agenda a resume of the Bank position was given and thanks to donations and fundraising it is in a position to cover all debts to date. Fundraising has raised £1095 from the 3 events held so far and there is a need to think about regular social events to help this continue.

The barn is in the process of being built but it needs one good working party to finish it off. The main goal for the start of the new year is to finish the fencing for animals and get the animals where they are intended. All of the fencing needs to be in place by early March (hopefully) and it was confirmed that the land will mainly be worked by horse team.

Pigs

There are still 5x1/2 pigs still available for February time, a %30 deposit is required with the final cost expected to be about £125 for the ½. There will be 2 pigs kept back from sale as it is intended that these are destined for cured products – bacon, hams etc. There are still some Salami's still available – see Merryn.

AOB

There is the possibility of a second hand rotavator from Gressenhall (1950 vintage)

Next Meeting – 13th January 8:00pm at the Railway.

There were 20 members present at the meeting and apologies were received from Eileen Bent, Pete, Eileen Dover, Debbie, Chris and Vicky.

Ali Gibson was in the chair in the absence of Colin Smith.

General Update/Business

The Co Op have now (eventually) agreed to open our Bank Account and details should be available on Tuesday 8th November.

Insurance is now in place with NFU and the next premium is due on 17th November (the first premium was paid by Ali personally due to the Banking problems) – hopefully the next premium can be paid from the bank account and arrangements made for future monthly debiting.

There was a suggestion that we affiliate to the West Norfolk Bee Keepers in order to get insurance cover for the bee group (as NFU are unwilling to cover this), this was thought to be a good idea and will be investigated further by Clive.

Pig Group 3

All the pigs are doing fine and looking good – this seems a much better batch of pigs than the previous one (no obvious health issues either). The pigs are now being fed with a different food designed for rare breeds, which should result in a less fatty animal at slaughter. It would be worth talking to the other groups to see if their feedstuffs could be supplied by the same supplier and take advantage of discounts etc.

Cattle Group 1

The bullocks are all doing fine, however it is getting towards time to get them indoors for the winter and barn construction at the allotment must become a priority. The group does have a Stock Person advising them on the management of the animals.

Chicken Group 2

The current batch of chickens will be going for slaughter next week.

Bee Training Group 1

The 2 hives on the Orchard are now locked down for the winter and mouse guards have been fitted (there will still be bee activity until it gets colder).

Clive did not want to leave the 2 hives on the meadow over the winter and suggested that they are moved when it is cooler and activity quieter – they will have to be moved to at least 3 miles away to avoid problems, Clive will sort this out.

Orchard and Allotment days debrief

They were 2 very good and successful days although the Orchard should be done more often in order to keep the unwanted growth down. A good collection of apples was made which were sent to the Gressenhall Apple Day. It is hoped that we will be able to have our own press and juice at next year's event when all the formalities have been gone through.

The Allotments

There is a lot to do! – There is about 1400m of fencing and gateways to erect and we hope to get the loan of a tractor and post thumper from Gressenhall to help in the task. The priorities and initial timetable are as follows:

Sunday 6th November 12:00 – Gate the field and training session in fencing, barn post holes if there is time.

Sunday 27th November, 10:30 – Barn erection – a 6x12m needs to be built to house the bullocks over the winter (6x6m of it will be covered) – This is essential and all help will be appreciated.

Sunday 4th December, 10:30 – Fencing of the first paddock and erection of electric lines to keep the pigs in – again as many people as possible please, it is a good opportunity to learn and there is a lot to do.

The rest of the allotment needs either cultivation or spraying to keep down the weeds and best approach will be reported next month.

It was suggested that the original idea of a communal compost heap for the village was probably not a good idea as we would have little control as to what was dumped and it would also raise the issue of Waste Licenses – if it is kept solely to the community it should work well.

Next Steps

Mark had had a meeting with the new School Head and reported that the School was excited at the prospect of involving children in the project. There is a need to think about appointing a child protection officer although initial work would be under teacher supervision. A suggested project was stone picking which apparently can be a very enjoyable and competitive children's sport!

AOB

The Pancetta is now available although the garlic sausage is sold out – contact Merryn to purchase. The Group have had an offer from the charcutiere to teach the group how to make salamis and the other products – the meeting thought that this was best organized toward the end of February when the next batch of pork was ready, further details when available.

Rats and Feed bins

We are lucky to have been given a donation that has been used to buy water troughs etc. to provide both water for stock and also some to be converted to make rat proof feed bins (an absolute necessity)– with the discount available on the day it enabled us to buy £660 worth of essential equipment. An appreciation of this support will be placed in the next Elmham News.

December Meeting to be combined with Xmas get together, this will be at the Railway (Tracks) on 9th December – Merryn will coordinate

19th May – 16th June is next years Dereham Festival, if we are to organize something to tie in then it must be thought about and discussed at the next meeting as the closing date for Festival event submissions is mid December.

Communication

It was agreed that the meeting minutes would be emailed to all members no later than 2 weeks after the meeting to allow anyone who was not there to find out what happened and also allow time to suggest any items for the next meeting, also that a less detailed version be placed on the web site at the same time so that potential new members can see what we are about. More prominent contact details were also requested (these are on the web site), members also need to let a member of the Steering Group know about any agenda points they'd like to raise, before the Steering Group meet each month. Anything that arises in between a Steering Group meeting and an open meeting can be dealt with in AOB

Next Meeting 9th December in Tracks 8:00pm

Introduction

Colin Smith gave thanks for everything especially the Sausage Fest and said that there had been criticism and skepticism in the past but that now appeared to be behind the Group and we must look forward to the 12th October when we take over the land.

Apologies were received from Tony Langford, Eileen and Mrs. Tasker.

General Update/Business

We still do not have the Bank Account finalized. The problem is Mark and the lack of utility bills at 59a and apparently changing address is not an answer either.

Pig Group 2 and 3

The accounts were presented for PG2 and it was confirmed that both PG1 and PG2 made a profit and it was hoped that PG3 would be self funded by the Community rather than relying on individuals self financing first.

The charcuterie when paid for would cost approximately 50% of retail and there has been an offer made to train the group in the arts necessary for us to do it ourselves.

When produce is available it could do with collection from a central point rather than relying on delivery, which is very time consuming.

As regards prepared meats it may be best to take to Dave at Swanton Morley to prepare and vacuum pack.

Cattle Group 1

All 3 animals are well and growing nicely.

Chicken Group 2

The new batch turned up yesterday and it was calculated that the cost would be slightly more this time in order as the last batch was an at cost trial.

Bee Training Group

No report

Operation Sausage Fest debrief

Thanks were offered to all who helped with the leaflet distribution. The auction made £169 and about 105 sausages were sold.

Orchard Day and Allotment

Meet at 10:00 at Brisley Road. The first job will be to line out plot in order to set up fence lines etc. It was suggested that the plants to be grown are heritage varieties in order to increase diversity ( a suggestion was made to possibly approach Highgrove).

PM. Move up to Orchard to clear nettles etc and harvest what apples are there. The following week is Gressenhall Apple Day and it was proposed that we offer the apples to them as it is too short a notice to get all that is required for ourselves and it would be better to aim to be there in person next year.

When the Allotment land is fenced we can put the pigs straight on the appropriate area.

We do need more names on allotment forms even though the current appropriation is full, as more land will be coming up in the future and it is in our interest to keep the Parish Council updated as to the level of interest – Merryn has the forms.

AOB

It was anounced that Warren was interested in sheep which drew the expected comments unsurprisingly, It was left for Warren to progress the investigation.

There was mention of the local Master Gardeners Scheme (of which Kay is the local representative) which sounded interesting and could provide us with some help.

There is a need for rat proof storage for feed – about 1.5 tons worth, this will be investigated.

20 bales of straw have been ordered 50/50 wheat/barley to last the stock through the winter.

Next meeting 4th November 2011 at the Railway 8:00pm

Introduction

Colin Smith introduced the meeting and said that it would be the last Open Meeting to be held; in future it would be members and would be members only. A vote of thanks was offered to all who participated at the Flower Festival.

Apology for last Friday

Apologies to anyone who turned up last week, the delay was to ensure that the meeting fell after the Parish Council Meeting in case there were urgent issues to discuss. The meeting will be the 1st Friday of the month in future.

Company Matters including membership

The Co Op is extremely slow opening the account and we should now have the account number and sort code by Tuesday.

Merryn has provisional membership interest forms available if people need them.

The response from the parish Council has been very good and they are willing to support us, any problems should, hopefully, be sorted by the hand over time. They have agreed to the keeping the animals on the land as well as the installation of roadways etc. If we have more people expressing an interest we need to keep a schedule so that the Parish Council know this when more lane becomes available. A suggestion was made to move the roadway to the left hand side to possibly link up with the original allotments and give everyone an access from Brisley Road (and alleviate some of the dander of the existing allotment access on Holt Rd). About another 17 applications would be required for an area the size of the parcel of land between the Smallholding and the existing allotments.

There is a company that would build a barn structure for free provided they could have the roof area for electricity generation – an interesting idea. There are a couple of points on the allotments forms that need clarification.

Data Protection Act

We need to know where data resides – internal, external or confidential – with this we can apply for license from Data Protection Commission, £35 for license needed.

There was some feed back from the Flower Festival that seemed to think that inclusion of sort code and account number were a security risk – if this was so then the BACS system could not function, if people examine most public company or utility invoices they will find this data, equally if you send someone a cheque you are also sending the same information.

Cattle Group 1

Mark will try to get figures for next month but it is expected that they will be about ½ of that reported last month. The work with the cattle will increase from November onwards when the animals are moved inside (timing depends upon the weather). Currently they are very healthy and in excellent condition. Straw has been ordered to last through the winter. The Group will join the Red Poll Society next week at a cost of £35 pa.

Chicken Group 1

All 15 birds have now been dispatched (and most of them eaten!). They averaged out to about £10/bird. The next batch will cost more, as they will be at cost plus. There was a discussion as to whether we were rearing the right breed and it was decided that for meat the answer was yes, as other breeds would work out more expensive. Some people were still slightly uncomfortable with the breed and it was suggested we expand the range of breeds in the future as more experience is gained.

The next batch will start on the same basis as the last ones as everyone involved enjoyed working with them and no one was intimidated by size in the way that cattle for instance can affect some people – the birds could be handled and would be a good introduction for children with School projects.

Pig Group 2

These will be slaughtered on 20th September – 7 x ½ are already claimed, 3 x ½ are up for grabs. A £50 down payment is required and cost is expected to average about £125 (about 10% cheaper than last batch). The produce should be ready on 27th and people need to decide what they want their butchering requirements to be.

Pig Group 3

7 animals have been looked at and marked pending agreement.

There was a discussion as to the future – we could if we keep to the same pure bred stock show at events like the Norfolk Show with all the publicity that it could bring, equally we could get a better ploughing pig if we cross bred with something like a Tamworth, or we could have a mix of breeds – it is a subject that needs thought over the next few months.

Bee Training Group

There was no report

Allotments

On the 11th October we will have 4,25 acres that we need to prepare for. The Group has to be comfortable with the arrangement of the area and it needs Team Leaders quickly so that planning can start as soon as possible. The suggestion was an onsite meeting to get an idea of the scale and then probably appoint 2 team leaders and a "Farm Manager". It was suggested that Directors take responsibility for the main areas with Mark acting as Farm Manager, with team leaders the individual areas under their control.

It is essential that all of the land is used (when it is divided up it will seem to be a lot less area than the initial impression).

There will be a meeting at the site on October 15th to lay out the main boundary and fence lines.

The volunteer for team leader was Merryn Walters for the Flower and Veg groups. There is a need for a small wooden shed to use as a base.

We still have a good relationship with Union Farm and hopefully we can loan a post thumper from them.

It was emphasized that the group should not order anything until we actually have the land.

An apple day is needed to tidy up the Bramleys, this will probably be on the same day as the boundary marking (15th Oct).

Expenses

Produce Group leaders can be reimbursed for costs that have been planned for (budgeted) – any other expenses must be agreed beforehand unless it is an emergency. In all cases receipts must be obtained.

Flower Festival

People were brilliant for 3 days solid. The event raised £705.55 for Community Funds plus the donation to the Festival. There has been a problem getting all of the prizes to people but attempts are still being made.

Communications

It needs a leaflet drop to advertise the Sausage Fest and Orchard Day, also giving joining info etc. The leaflet will be 4 colour plus printed monochrome in Elmham News and placed on the Village Website.

AOB

The Sausage Fest needs contributors of salads etc, we also need to know approximately how many sausages to thaw (150 was suggested) – the start will be about 2:00pm on 2nd October.

The water bill for the pigs was about £40