On Saturday 19 September we held a public meeting at the Quaker Meeting House on Queens Road. It was well attended, and thank you to everyone who came.

Gavin Fletcher coordinates Good Food Leicestershire at Leicestershire County Council, and spoke about the county's food work. The county holds a Silver Sustainable Food Places award, the first two-tier county to win one, and is working towards Gold. When Leicestershire's growers met to talk about what's missing locally, one of the things on their list was connection to retail. That's the gap SPRoUT is being built to fill. You can downloaded Gavin's slides here: Good Food Leicestershire PDF

Tom and Debra Willoughby farm at Grange Farm, Normanton-on-Soar. They were dairy farmers and converted to organic. Between them they took us on a whistle-stop tour of two centuries of crop farming. They explained how the rise of fertilisers and pesticides led Lady Eve Balfour to found the Soil Association in 1946, to study what intensive farming was doing to the soil.

Grange Farm now grows apples, pears, hazelnuts, walnuts, oats, barley, wheat and spelt, and they've started on vegetables. They've planted 24,000 fruit and nut trees recently, along with more peas and beans, including carlin peas.

Miriam Stoate came from Halstead Hill Farm near Tilton on the Hill with her son James, and handed round their own apples. She talked about how many apple varieties there are, hundreds, against the handful the supermarkets stock, and about orchards disappearing because they no longer pay. It's been a hard summer. For the first time they've bought irrigation equipment, and with the weather this unpredictable they don't know what to plant. They've put in 120 new trees: apples, plums, figs, quince and pears.

Miriam photograph


She asked us two things back. What fruit would we like them to grow? And does it matter that a farm is certified organic, or is growing to organic standards enough, given what certification costs a small farm? They're good questions, and we're still working on the answers.

Andy Cooke and Chris Williams both plan to lend to SPRoUT through loan stock, and both were on the programme.

Andy said he trusts Rajiv, and talked about his focus and determination. He sees a big need for a shop like this in Leicester's large and changing population. He's worked in food shops himself, and says customers are always asking for organic food. He described the organic co-op shops he's seen in France as bright and happy places where the staff talk to the customers. He thinks this area is ready for that.

Chris couldn't be there on the day, so he sent a video, which we played at the meeting. This time last year he was thinking of putting some spare money into Radical Routes, which funds radical co-ops across the country. Then he heard about SPRoUT and decided to lend to it instead. He likes the idea of worker co-ops, and he thinks Leicester needs a shop like this and can make one work. Getting to know the team over the past few months has convinced him we know what we're doing.

Sandra Woodward, a Green Party councillor who used to run a refill business, talked about networks. Her point was that this happens through the people we each already know. So if SPRoUT interests you, tell the people you know about it.

Sandra photograph


We'll hold another meeting. The newsletter is the first place we'll announce it.