the present financial position

The funds raised for farming were 60 x £150. (the other £50 went towards organisation and set-up) = £9,000

• Farming expenses were £5,048 in 2017, leaving £3,952 in cash or £65.87 per member.
• In addition every member has a share of the crop, about 240 Kg. of un-hulled spelt each.

The payout for any withdrawing members now

Anyone who does not wish to remain in the OurField group for 2018 should let me know by 15th February 2018 either publicly on this forum if you wish to share your reasons, or privately to me by email.

Anyone leaving on 15th February 2018 would receive
* £65.87 in cash at once by bank transfer,

and also

• the eventual sale value of 200 Kg. of un-hulled 2017 Spelt less £10 administrative cost, within 21 day of the sale of the grain. It is not yet known how much this could be, nor when it would be paid as a sale has not been agreed, nor any indicative prices obtained.

The reason that withdrawing members would only receive the value of 200Kg. of Spelt (vs. the harvest of up to 250 Kg. per member) is that the actual weight in the shed is only a rough estimate; there may be some losses, and there will certainly be some handling, drying and transport costs.

I propose that any happy overage over 200 Kg. will accrue to the benefit of remaining members as a small recompense for their patience and persistence.

withdrawing members 2017

written February 15 2018

__ We are now at the end date for cashing in from the 2017 harvest and withdrawing from the group.__ Anyone who does not let me know very very soon will be assumed to be "in" for the 2018 year. No one has yet withdrawn, so it looks as if we have existing members going ahead..and are starting to open the group for 18 new members.

Of course people can withdraw at any time, but mid year withdrawals _ will mean they will have paid some of the current year running costs but would not receive a share of the eventual harvest._

anyone who wishes to withdraw can contact me privately by email on gnlh01@gmail.com

@alexandrasexton @alfredlawrie @andreadibiagio @annielandless @averilglencross @catherinearend @christinelewis @danielkindred @darren4 @edibleutopia @edna @ellemcall @emersoncsorba @carolingoethel1 @harryboglione @harrygreenfield1 @jamestickell @johnanthonyallan @johncherry @karlschneider @lucybradley1 @matteodv @matthewshribman @nikireynolds @nikitagulhane @romymiller @sadhbhmoore @seangifford @sebastianpowell @shyamdesai @sineadfenton @stevenjacobs @stinewilhelmsen @tamsynforsyth @tessatricks @tristramstuart @veronicalopesdasil1 @wendyalcock

The monthly accounting from January 2018

Each second month-end (so by 28th Feb, 30th April, 30th June etc) every member will receive a statement from me showing the cash balance per member brought forward, and below that the bi-monthly costs incurred, broken down into the following categories:-

• the ground rent net of Single Payment

• the farmer's cost

• farm admin overhead

• the agronomy charge

• seeds and sprays purchased

• machinery and manpower costs

• other handling costs (store, drying etc)

These categories make the Sub-total farming costs

Then follows

• Accounts & facilitation charge

• misc. organisational expenses

• VAT paid, not recoverable

All the above then make up Total Outgoings

With this information, I will then forecast the cash sufficiency for the members, so that everyone will have at least 90 days warning of an impending cash shortage, and there will in those circumstances be opportunity for the members to determine the best course of action.

Financial implications for 2018

I have put up a poll to farm the entire field. Without this larger area it is hard to correctly track inputs without asking the farmer to follow all our decisions for that part of the field which is not within the Ourfield area.

If we take on the expanded area, then we can also accept new members, part of whose money will replace John Cherry's 18 /60th stake in the initial project. If we continue to have 60 paid-in member-stakes, the costs of farming the larger area are entirely manageable at the current level of contributions (new members paying in £200, existing members leaving the rump of last year's stake in play.)

I have shown the costs based on a repeat of last years inputs, with additional costs that are known (Administration, VAT etc) and for the larger farmland-area here,

2018 projection

Thankyou for taking all this on Grahame - mapping out a fair direction for us to continue.

I dont appear to have got a notification about the vote, other than in the middle of one of the daily digest emails, which I tend not to read, rather checking the emails for each individual discussion posts - guess this is a habit I should change. I'm sure we used to get mails about votes. It might be a temporary hiccup with Loomio, I know they've recently been doing lots of work on the voting/polling part of the website.

On a somewhat unrelated side note - I've been in contact with two separate places where we can probably get some of our spelt dehulled. One may be able to do it all, thinks the hagburg number isnt an issue for baking and even says, that if it bakes a good loaf, they could probably find us a buyer for it all. I should have more details very soon.

Loomio

There have been continuing issues with Loomio. I have no especial loyalty to it and it has some particular defects, although perhaps some of these are remedied in the paid version..
I would like to suggest

• a little pop-up group of 3 current members including at least one person with very limited technological savvy should look at the options - eg forums, paid Loomio, etc and suggest how we want to communicate in the year ahead if we do not wish to stay with Loomio

• that the members can then vote to switch or not and the vote will be binding on all

• that each of the group be remunerated £20 from general funds (so £60 total, £1 per member stake) for undertaking this research which is sure to take them several hours..

_ If not more that 5 people object to this, and if at least 3 persons nominate themselves then they can start_

For true randomness, if there are more than 3 applicants, I will select them by rolling a dice. The group of 3 will then communicate amongst themselves however they like and set their own terms of reference!

Happy to nominate myself to the small group to help look over options for working as a virtual group. If I remember someone else on this forum did a post about Loomio and options a while ago as well. Will try and dig that out as a starting point.

great Christine..you are the pop up committee head. Now we need 2 more and you are off!

I'm up for being involved.

I've started a pad with some of my initial thoughts on this, where anyone else can add suggestions/thoughts if they have any, especially if they don't necessarily want the commitment of being in the pop up group.
I started it with a section on potential requirements for any tool(s) we use - interested if anyones got any to add?
Just click in the text and type (possibly may not work well on some phones - but you should be able to read it)

Thanks Darren and the pad works well for me - I will continue to add in some thoughts

thanks Darren, I have added a comment in your Pad..not sure how to see who is each colour..I am red.

Bank Account

We now have a bank account in the name of Our Field. Because this is a public forum, I will not give the a/c name and details here. The account holds the cash funds of the members.

ideas for a cooperative structure from Darren et al

Darren @darren4 has done some valuable work on how the group may organise themselves going forward. I have not ignored this; but my suggestion for now, is that we should first determine who is leaving, who is staying and who are the new Our Field members - and then the reformed and enlarged group of 60 members can determine what they want to do.

Thank you Grahame for seeking comment on next steps.

Loomio - works for me
Bank Account - good news
New members - I propose to invite about five friends. Have we a couple of paragraphs summarising the purpose, organisation, note on Lannock Farm Weston, etc.
Does it matter that those whom I would invite would all be male and elderly? One of the features that attracted me to OurField was that the leadership was young and not male.

@darren4 Thanks Darren - so with you and Christine that makes 2 for the Loomio investigation.._can one more person any age gender or tech level put themselves forward to review Loomio in a group of 3 with Darren and Christine? As before a small £20 honorarium for the time and involvement. _

John, thanks for those comments. Certainly I cannot imagine an objection to members on gender and age grounds; more on who is going to take an active interest and contribute to the discussions.
You have asked specifically
"Have we a couple of paragraphs summarising the purpose, organisation, note on Lannock Farm Weston, etc."

So, I am now in this post commissioning Annie Landless and Abby Schlagterer to do this, perhaps in collaboration with Carolin Goethel, as they were instrumental in setting up the group originally, and must have blocks of text / web links ready.

@annielandless @abbyrose Can you decide and put together an information pack / web link / data file of whatever information you want to provide and think is appropriate, to inform 18 new members, who will contribute £200 and joint the group?

The new members will not have any stake in last year's crop, and the difference in their cash contribution to the residual stakes of existing members will be accounted in the usual way (ie separately) as if it were in a share premium account (so they do not lose the extra they pay in, nor does it get co-mingled with everyone else's money on a pari passu basis..)

New members will NOT vote about last years crop, and will share equally in all new decisions going forward. Carolin Goethel suggested a payment of £60 for doing this - so that sounds like £120 in total to the 2 of you, equivalent to £2 per member (all the members including the new ones sharing this cost.).

Any members objecting to this cost should write to me, and as usual if there are more than 5 of you I will take some notice of the objection otherwise it is assumed agreed..

I think @annielandless and I can get this together. I will have to do it this week as I'm away for 2 weeks after that. @annielandless does that work for you? My suggestion would be to create a page on the ourfieldproject site that we can link new potential members to....we need to pull the text together and get it up there!

I have just invited @carolingoethel1 to also participate in this as I know she is keen

keep me informed..gnlh01@gmail.com. Also where we will send the money for you and Annie / Carolin 's time & expertise.

Dear Grahame
Very many thanks for: 1. commissioning a statement of scope and purpose of OurFile Weston, 2. clarifying what the new members could vote on what they will be asked to contribute.

Loomio small honorarium still up for grabs

As requested 6 days ago, we now need just ONE volunteer to join the group reviewing and recommending if we stay with Loomio, or alternate methods..

My post on this was

_ a little pop-up group of 3 current members including at least one person with very limited technological savvy should look at the options - eg forums, paid Loomio, etc and suggest how we want to communicate in the year ahead if we do not wish to stay with Loomio _

__ £20 is paid to each of these investigators for their time and effort.__ The recommendations will go to a vote, which will be binding while I remain facilitator.

Say here (click the reply symbol..) if you wish to do it... First name down secures it.

Dear Grahame
Three things
1 I volunteer to join the op-up group, And for any other tasks you may have.
2 I voted in the recent poll. I voted to continue. I was amongst the first three to vote but I see my name does not appear amongst the eleven. A very minor technical hitch.
3 I would like to approach some friends to 'invest'. I would like to share a version of the scope, goals and experience of OurField Weston that is 'official'. Has the draft you asked Abby et al to prepare come to hand? Would it be appropriate to share the minutes of our last meeting when inviting new members? Many thanks Tony

Hi,

First off my apologies for missing the vote. I failed to schedule it in. I want to express how I feel, and that is happy. I'm happy with the group and the decision.

I would like us to discuss farming in more detail whenever the group feels is appropriate.
I appreciate getting seed in the ground and grain to the mill is dynamic and interesting but if we can find time to also discuss farming methods and approaches even before a single clod of earth is tilled, or no-tilled as may be the case, I think that would help the farm system we appear to be stepping into.

My gratitude to all who are taking active roles in this group. Your work is tremendously helpful and despite my lack of action I do support you all and hope to more fully engage over time.

Cheers all,
Steven

@stevenjacobs good morning Steve..would you like me to start a new thread "farming methods and approaches"? Would you be willing to make at least a first post and get a conversation going in the direction you would be interested in following?

Good morning Grahame. Thank you, a thread on approaches to production would be good and yes I’d like contribute. I’m on a train just now and will be in meetings this morning but can have a go at writing something on the train home this afternoon/evening. Would that be OK?

perfect.

new members

@carolingoethel1 is putting together the philosophical background to why and what we are doing; I understand she and Annie (Landless) @annielandless will have this ready by the weekend.

I will then put up the financial information of

• how the money will be caretaken,
• where it goes, and
• how to pay. It will be £200 per new member.

I suggest that to get the impetus, __ the first 12 people who pay up will become members automatically,__ and for the remaining (6) places, there will be a deadline for applicants, and then according to a system which will forever remain mysterious yet always joyous, John and I will collaborate with others and choose the remaining 6 or 7 people.

_ The maximum shall be 19 new members, so 61 altogether._ The extra place is so that when one person does not pay, or another wishes to drop out, we still retain 60 committed supporters.

Good morning.

Here is a sort of rough intro to farming methodology. Its really just a way to introduce the topic, and the context. A starter for ten and then hopefully will help stimulate discussion.

We can approach food production as a way to get calories and nutrients or as a way to enhance and enrich our lives and the landscape we live within or a myriad of ways in between.

We can see food production as a part of the whole, the whole being, the whole existence, the entire life cycle. Things grow, they die, then the dead feeds new life and so it goes. This starts with microorganisms and as far as we know it never ends. Things eat things then die and are, in turn, eaten. Energy is cycled again, and again. Transformative processes cycling and evolving.

How to grow food is one part of the story. And a complex one too. Then there’s harvesting, transport, storage, processing, preparing, packaging, retailing and all along the way is the grading and sorting and regrading. And there’s the cooking, baking, brewing, preserving, and of course there is the consumption and in time there is the decomposition and the composting.

Farming practices are intrinsically linked with all of this. And all of this is intrinsically linked to and from farming.
Before the turning of a single sod of earth, before a seed is purchased it can be helpful to properly consider the details of how the resulting crop is going to grow, be harvested and so on, then there’s market availability, market demand, logistics and so it goes.

Tillage refers to the preparation and maintenance of the ground. Tillage covers everything from deep mouldboard ploughing to light harrowing. All the tools have their specialist function, some are multifunctional. Ploughing is a way to reduce weed burden and by changing soil particle size and relationship to a more homogeneous state the aim is to improve the condition of the ground to aid food production.

Reducing tillage helps to ameliorate some of the negative effects that result from using the plough. Soil disturbance is not all bad, but there is, as always, a balance to be struck.

No tillage is a method with a number of different versions but in essence it involves sowing the seed directly into the ground through the layer of previous plant material that must now be dead. This approach has its challenges. How to ensure the plant matter of the preceding crop is dead and doesn’t regrow to compete with the new food crop and how to ensure seed is delivered carefully and successfully into the soil.

Also available for farmers are other tools and techniques.
Crop rotation is a topic all of its own.
Inputs such as manures, minerals, artificial and natural fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides. These range from animal waste to beetle banks to potash to soft soap, to ammonium nitrate to glyphosate and so on.
Then there’s mono-cropping, multi-cropping, inter-cropping.
Agroforestry is becoming better known now with people starting to look in increasing detail at ways to better work with crops and with trees.

It is fair to say that all approaches to food production have positives and negatives.

A big question also is how food production practices and the resulting food operates also within the wider food paradigm. Do we grow tomatoes under glass or import from southern Spain? Do we have the equipment and the knowledge to grow and roll our own oats, considering that oats need heat treatment to stabilise the natural enzyme or the fat in the oat will turn rancid very quickly once rolled. Can we de-hull the spelt, or do we have a de-huller within reach?

A lot of things to consider.

A good starting point, as we have done, is to find a friendly and experienced grower. John is on his own journey and we are a part of that and the of our journey.

I’ve not here yet gone into any detail on soils and soil borne organisms, plant soil and organism relationships, the benefits of encouraging biodiversity, permacultural techniques including edge design, zoning and multifunctional elements. And there is so much more. Lets discuss what we each of us has come across or are curious about.

I’m very happy to discuss all of the above. In great detail.

Cheers,
Steven

Dear Steven
Very many thanks for starting the discussion. You have very usefully identified the huge scope of the topic. The literature is (too ) rich. We are after all engaging with society's oldest industry and its oldest 'market' system. Unfortunately it turns out that there are some 'failed' markets because the political imperative is to provide under priced food for (some) under paid people.
Putting the food system in place has involved many experiments that worked spectacularly well and many that did not. We have a food system that has locked in many bad practices that are currently held in place by corporate interests that are hard to contend with. A number of them are on the farm but most are in the political economy of the food system and its supply chains.
A very important feature of the OurField Weston project is that it has become part of a global farmer led initiative that is bringing back practices that are consistent with sustainable ecosystems and human health. The other major virtue of the project is the link that has been created between a farmer and some food consumers.
I could provide a analytical structure that would help in the discussion of farming and food supply chain issues. And I could also suggest some key publications. However, as an author of chapters and articles on the subject I am very aware that people are too busy to read much.

Grahame, could we start a segment of our Loomio pages entitled something such as - Sustainable farming and the food system. Those who want to contribute on this topic could do so and those who don't, need not open the string.
Tony

please see new thread "Farming methods and the ethos of OurField Weston"

@stevenjacobs @johnanthonyallan I have copied your recent posts to the new thread "Farming methods and the ethos of OurField Weston". If you are happy with this, perhaps you can also delete your last post in the old thread "the way forward for OurField Weston"

Hi @grahamehunter Yes, am happy for that, though I can't see the original post, is that me being dim or ...?
Also, I've noticed a typo toward the end of my post, small matter but thought I’d point it out in case leads to confusion -

A good starting point, as we have done, is to find a friendly and experienced grower. John is on his own journey and we are a part of that and the of our journey.

Should read -
A good starting point, as we have done, is to find a friendly and experienced grower. John is on his own journey and we are a part of that and he of our journey.

future with Loomio

@darren4 @christinelewis @christinelewis1

do you want to invite comments in a Loomio thread, or some other way? I think first, perhaps youcan set out your intentions and how long you want to look at this so we can know when to have a vote on your recommendations.

As posted previously ..

__ Loomio small honorarium still up for grabs __
As requested 6 days ago, we now need just ONE volunteer to join the group reviewing and recommending if we stay with Loomio, or alternate methods..

My post on this was

a little pop-up group of 3 current members including at least one person with very limited technological savvy should look at the options - eg forums, paid Loomio, etc and suggest how we want to communicate in the year ahead if we do not wish to stay with Loomio

£20 is paid to each of these investigators for their time and effort. The recommendations will go to a vote, which will be binding while I remain facilitator.

Say here (click the reply symbol..) if you wish to do it... First name down secures it.

@grahamehunter thanks and I think a new thread for how we will communicate in 2018 may be helpful as it is hard to find things with no search facility. Darren's pad is working well but I don't know how to share the link here. If we have a short-term thread and set ourselves a time limit I am sure we can manage to make some recommendations on going forward before we are too far into the next growing season. PS I thought @johnanthonyallan had offered to help with the comms task in a different thread as the 3rd person - but I may be wrong, but I suggest Darren and I crack on with a review of options in the meantime.

The pad for anyone to add comments about what tools we use for communicating is at http://board.net/p/ourfieldcommunications. Just click anywhere in the text there and start typing - it gets saved automatically.

Dear Grahame

I shall try and advise.

Best. TonyA

Dear Christine
I sense you are suggesting that you, Darren and myself liaise by email rather than attempting to do it via Loomio. I have not been able to do what Grahame suggested I try to do - namely switch some material from one string to another. I am open to suggestions on how to liaise. Many thanks.

the Loomio pop-up group - email addresses

This is now up and running; anyone who wishes to add their ideas or comments should contact directly Christine Lewis, Darren or Tony Allen. This may be easier done off this thread, and we will await their conclusions. @christinelewis1 @darren4 @johnanthonyallan if you are content to receive comments about from others directly, can you post your emails here, by replying ..they will be publicly visible!

From Tony Allan My email is ta1@soas.ac.uk
Thank you Grahame for your useful clarification. I am willing to work with Darren and Christine. I would like Wendy to be associated as she has revealed that she has much expertise.

@wendyalcock Wendy, on Tony Allen's request, are you willing to join this small group looking at Loomio pros and cons. You would need to contact Tony Allen and Christine and Darren, and that then completes the quorum.

new members

Information about the basis for new members to join the project, and so help us finance farming the larger field, has now been sent to every member by email.

This same information is also available here for everybody on this web link to the information document: new members 2018

As before, existing members are not required to pay in money, to stay in the group for 2018. However, It is important we have a full complement of members, otherwise the higher costs of farming the larger area could exhaust the carried-forward cash resource of existing 2017 members before the harvest is reached.

So please help out by getting this information out to anyone interested in joining.

@abbyrose @alexandrasexton @alfredlawrie @andreadibiagio @annielandless @averilglencross @catherinearend @christinelewis @danielkindred @darren4 @edibleutopia @edna @ellemcall @emersoncsorba @carolingoethel1 @harryboglione @harryboglione @harrygreenfield1 @jamestickell @johnanthonyallan @abiaspen @karlschneider @lucybradley1 @matteodv @matthewshribman @nikireynolds @nikitagulhane @romymiller @sadhbhmoore @seangifford @sebastianpowell @shyamdesai @sineadfenton @stevenjacobs @stinewilhelmsen @tamsynforsyth @tessatricks @tristramstuart @veronicalopesdasil1 @wendyalcock @johncherry

Dear Grahame

Noted and thanks.

Tony

I am going to close this thread as we have now completed bringing on new OurField members to farm the whole field and have a clear way forward for 2018. If anyone thinks we should keep this thread open for longer then please do speak up here and I can re-open the thread!