St Martin's Food Festival 2021

On a sunny Sunday in late September, St Martin's put on a show of the best food and drink the island has to offer, in the second St Martin's Food and Drink Festival.

The Food Festival on Pool Green

Set on Pool Green, hundreds of people enjoyed eating, drinking, listening to music and soaking up the atmosphere. It was a great success with lots of positive feedback. But above all the event celebrated the great food and drinks we produce on this small island, just two miles long with about 150 residents. 

Polreath curry featuring local vegetables

Mitch cooking up local pollack and serving up crab

Apple pressing popular with all the local children!

Local musicians playing some great music - thanks to Hayley Boland and Arthur Godden

St Martin's vineyard selling wine and apple juice

SC Dogs rum and SC Salt

 

So many cakes from local bakers, as well as the cake and preserves competition

Fruit and veg from Scilly Organics

St Martin's School soup from local carrots and bakery bread rolls

Little Arthur cafe's pizzas and quiches

The bar, selling Ales of Scilly beer, SC Dogs rum and Westward Farm Gin

The Vineyard apple pressing session was really popular!

All photo credits to Bruce Frank. St Martin's Stores also were selling Troytown Farm ice creams from St Agnes.

We raised lots of money, about £2,500 - all the profits from the bar, cakes and curries, plus stall fees all went to charity. This is how it looked in the end:

The Island Hall and Cricket Club depend on events like this to keep going and cover their essential costs. But also supporting people to grow their own food in places like Malawi so that people can eat and grow crops sustainably feels like a great link between food in different countries. Super Seeds feeding families by Practical Action is a great project making a practical difference to people https://practicalaction.org/our-work/projects/super-seeds-feeding-families/

Last but not least,many thanks to many people who helped make it happen: Mandy & Holly, Jackie and her team on teas and cakes, Neil and his team on the bar, Mark for running around, Terry for technical stuff, all the stall holders, Arthur and Hayley for music, Jason and his team for curry (all money going straight in the pot), all the cake bakers, and lots of other people I've probably forgotten (sorry). 

We hope to be back in 2022!

Switching to a renewable electricity tariff - 2020 update

This year has seen enormous changes and challenges in society. But the Climate Crisis is still the biggest one facing the world. With declarations of Climate Emergencies seemingly everywhere, it can be easy to think "well what can I do?"
 
Everyone needs to play their part - individuals, businesses, cities, countries. So what are the easy options? One that should be quite quick, easy and cheap is:

changing your electricity supply to 100% renewable. All you need to do is select one of the UK suppliers who currently offer an entirely renewable tariff.


Cutting carbon
On Scilly the average house uses about 6700 kWh (units) of electricity per year (Reference). To translate this to carbon emitted, this depends on the amount of renewable electricity in your tariff. The UK average is 45% renewables, some offer more, some less:
 
100% renewable  0.48 tonnes CO2e/year
45% renewable    1.64 tonnes CO2e/year
22% renewable    2.12 tonnes CO2e/year
(Ref: Farm Carbon Calculator)

The average UK carbon footprint per person is 9.1 tonnes CO2/person/year (Reference), so changing a standard electricity supply (based on an average of 2.1 people per house) will mean a roughly 10% reduction in carbon emissions - immediately.

 
How much will it cost?
The simple answer is - not much; in fact you may be saving money! It all depends on the tariff, but it may not be as much as you think.

 

What are my options?

The table below is from Which? and is a good summary of options. The market is changing all the time and this was done last year, but it should broadly be right. As you can see there are a lot of options, so choosing can be difficult. The webpage is really helpful in navigating through the different credentials of each provider https://www.which.co.uk/news/2019/09/how-green-is-your-energy-tariff/ 

Ethics

It's worth noting that, whilst all the above companies supply 100% renewable electricity, there is a difference in ethics between them. This is explored well in this Ethical Consumer article https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/energy/shopping-guide/gas-electricity. 

It really centres around how much the company is investing in its own renewables, and what the companies' core ethics are. 

In summary, changing to a renewable electricity supply is the quickest way to cutting 10% off your carbon emissions, often with very little - if any extra cost. So what are you waiting for?!

Apple Day 2019

Electricity suppliers

Given all the news recently about a Climate Emergency - that our planet is warming up more rapidly than thought, due to all the activities of humans, there is an urgent need to cut the greenhouse gases (carbon) we emit. Within the next 30 years - preferably sooner, we need to cut our 'carbon footprint' (the amount of carbon we all emit) by 80%.
 
That represents a massive change in the way we live and think. What's more, we need to start as soon as possible. So, where to start? What are the easy wins?

In this blog we look at the easiest option by far - changing your electricity supply to 100% renewable. All you need to do is select one of the suppliers below, who are the 14 UK suppliers who currently offer an entirely renewable tariff.



Cutting carbon
On Scilly the average house uses about 6700 kWh (units) of electricity per year (Reference). To translate this to carbon emitted, this depends on the amount of renewable electricity in your tariff:
 
100% renewable  0.63 tonnes CO2/year
21% renewable    2.49 tonnes CO2/year
12% renewable    2.70 tonnes CO2/year
(Ref: Farm Carbon Calculator)

The average UK carbon footprint per person is 9.1 tonnes CO2/person/year (Reference), so a standard electricity supply (based on an average of 2.1 people per house) will mean a roughly 10% reduction in carbon emissions - immediately.

 
How much will it cost?
The simple answer is - not much; in fact you may be saving money! 

The table below shows the costs (pence per kWh and annual standing charges) for different renewable tariffs. This can also be compared to the EDF and SSE standard (low renewable %) tariffs.

Switching energy suppliers should be a straightforward process.

Ethics

It's worth noting that, whilst all the above companies supply 100% renewable electricity, there is a difference in ethics between them. This is explored well in this Ethical Consumer article https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/energy/shopping-guide/gas-electricity. 

It really centres around how much the company is investing in its own renewables, and what the companies' core ethics are. 

However, in carbon terms, renewable is renewable!

In summary, changing to a renewable electricity supply is the quickest way to cutting 10% off your carbon emissions, often with very little - if any extra cost. So what are you waiting for?!

Apple day 2018

On Sunday 9th September we once again hold our annual Apple Day at
Trenoweth Community Orchard on St Mary's. Come and join us if you can to
see the orchard at one of the best times of the year - now with some
lovely new benches!

Getting involved in the Orchard

We are very keen for more people to get involved in the Community Orchard at Trenoweth. This is a description of what it is and how it works.

If you would like to get involved or find out more, please email Jonathan Smith jonathan@scillyorganics.com or find Transition Scilly on Facebook and leave a message.

Trenoweth Community Orchard Management Terms by Transition Scilly on Scribd

Projects for 2018

 Following input from the community at last week's meeting, Transition Scilly will concentrate on these projects in 2018:

Community Orchard

• Improving the management of the Orchard

• Increasing the number of people visiting

• Improve amenities for the Orchard

• Increase the reach of the orchard to include fruit trees in gardens that people need help pruning/planting/harvesting

• Celebrate key points in the orchard year

• Provide easily accessible advice on orchard management

Waste

• Support measures to reduce plastic waste

• Look at opportunities to turn waste in to resources, especially waste wood

Water

• Raise awareness of water issues on Scilly

• Look at the feasibility of water fountains in public places

Transport

• Encourage the creation of a car club for locals on St Mary's using electric vehicles run on low carbon electricity

Outreach and engagement

• Increase the number of articles in local magazines/papers and on websites

• Improve communication, including a redesigned and updated website

• Engage with and provide representation to key documents, such as the Local Plan

• Celebrate the achievements of all community groups and voluntary work

If you would like to get involved in some of these projects please get in touch on Facebook, send us an email enquiries@transitionscilly.org.uk or just look out for more news about upcoming projects and events.

Our thanks to those people that turned out last week and to the Scillonian Club for hosting us.

An orchard year

Here are lots of great photos of 2017 in the community orchard at
Trenoweth on St Mary's. It's been a very productive year and the whole
site has looked great. Here's to a great 2018!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=ms.c.eJxFj9sNwDAIxDaqOJ6X~%3BRerShrya1k~_gNMLxUJGSOBBA2o0gP2g6DRFqRzDrA2JAemLNBug28AAyNfI5Se6oqOybrSNwhh7FjIgO~_p6oz2bczqwgdw7OkrcX9pgvaoSM6I~-.bps.a.1484717598321745.1073741828.100003505587193&type=1&pnref=story
<https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=ms.c.eJxFj9sNwDAIxDaqOJ6X%7E%3BRerShrya1k%7E_gNMLxUJGSOBBA2o0gP2g6DRFqRzDrA2JAemLNBug28AAyNfI5Se6oqOybrSNwhh7FjIgO%7E_p6oz2bczqwgdw7OkrcX9pgvaoSM6I%7E-.bps.a.1484717598321745.1073741828.100003505587193&type=1&pnref=story>

Planning for 2018

We have got to the time of the year when it's time to take stock, celebrate what we've done and look forward to the next year. We've organised a get together at the Scillonian Club on Tuesday 12th December at 8pm.

We hope to see new and familiar faces, discuss what we've done and welcome new ideas and enthusiasm! If you can't make the meeting but would like to get involved, have questions or suggestion please email enquiries@transitionscilly.org.uk

Blossom Picnic at the Community Orchard

On Sunday 15th May we're holding a picnic at the Community Orchard at
Trenoweth to celebrate the apple blossom and the start of a new growing
season. Everyone is welcome to come and enjoy the orchard, sample some
of last year's apple juice and find out more about this wonderful orchard.

It runs between 12 and 2pm and is free of charge - just bring yourselves
and a picnic.

To get to the Orchard, go past the Wildlife Trust offices at Trenoweth,
towards Innisidgen. Go under the pines, then turn right on the track
that goes downhill. There's a field of vines on your left, then the next
one is the Orchard. Please try and walk or cycle up if possible.