Cwm Harry offers allotments

Cwm Harry undertakes to buy produce from certain local producers – specifically, Richard Edwards of Llanmerewig and the Bennetts of Upper Hall, Meifod. This enables the growers to plant for the future growing season with confidence.

It is this produce which now makes up a substantial part of the weekly vegetables boxes. Food is also bought in from Pont Farm, Bettws Cedewain, and the Organic Fresh Food Company, based in Lampeter.

In the future Cwm Harry hopes to work closely with the Powys Growers’ Group – this is a group of independent, small-scale growers working in various parts of Powys who are keen to develop a local market for their produce.

Cwm Harry is developing the land at the back of its premises as a garden and has long had an allotment which produces much of the saladings for the vegetable bags.

The back field, on the Vastre in Newtown, is being turned into a productive garden, based on organic principles.

The first raised beds have been built and are already a source of spinach, French beans and mizuna. Planning permission has been obtained to erect two poly tunnels. This will extend the growing period by offering protection against inclement weather. In the longer term Cwm Harry is looking at the possibility of heating the polytunnels using the heat generated by the composting process.

The backfield is envisaged as a community resource where volunteers can get involved in growing and have the satisfaction of planting crops, tending them as they mature and acquiring new skills. It is also an educational resource: taken together with food waste collection and composting the Cwm Harry premises now provide a practical illustration of the fertility cycle.