Basic Salary: £14,560 p.a. Pro rata plus generous commission

Do you Love Yorkshire, Love wildlife? Are you a passionate and tenacious advocate for local conservation? Do you have what it takes to engage the general public and softly convey that love and passion to turn their interest into support for Yorkshire Wildlife Trust? Do you have a target driven sales background and the inner competitive drive to exceed targets? Do you need to fit your work around your lifestyle? Would you be proud of yourself being the face of Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, as we are of all our Wildlife Supporter Officers?

We need a Wildlife Supporter Officer to find new members to add to the 32,000 people who are members of the Trust. You will engage potential new long-term supporters primarily through a soft face to face approach at Stirley Farm, and local events, venues and in your local area, by a soft door to door approach.

This gratifying post will make a vital contribution to the long-term membership development plans of Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and will secure essential funds for the protection of local habitats and wildlife.

See www.ywt.org.uk for more details or ring the office for an application pack: 01904 659570 or e-mail info@ywt.org.uk Please quote the reference number SF01. Please note we do not accept CVs. The organisation’s application form must be completed.

Application closing date: 9am on Monday 20th February 2012.
First interview: Thursday 8th March 2012.
Second interview: Monday 12th March 2012.

The Skills for Climate Change Supervisor will manage, support and supervise a small team of eight trainees who will all be previously not in employment, education or training (NEET). The supervisor will support and manage the trainee team to deliver a programme of practical tasks at Stirley Farm and other sites across South and West Yorkshire.

More details and job application form:

Skills for Climate Change Supervisor – covering letter (pdf)

Skills for Climate Change Supervisor – Job specification (pdf)

Skills for Climate Change Supervisor – Application form (Word)

Skills for Climate Change Supervisor – Equal opportunities form (Word)

Our friends at MASTT (Marsden and Slaithwaite Transition Towns) are excited to announce their premier screening of the new film ‘In Transition 2.0′ – the 2nd Transition Town film. This film features Slaithwaite’s very own The Handmade Bakery and Green Valley Grocer as two of the success stories that have grown from the Transition Town movement, created in 2007 by Rob Hopkins.

This is a free film screening with light refreshments. It will be followed by a live link-up with Rob Hopkins who will be in Totnes answering people’s questions on the film. MASTT will also be recording your responses to the film, which will be used to promote the film when it is released to the public.

Please show your support and join MASTT on 2nd February. Here’s a sneak preview of the film…

A day of events for growing and eating local food. Everyone welcome.

Saturday 3rd March 2012

Seed Swap and Potato Day
10am to 3pm
Newsome Scout Hall
Newsome Road HD4 6JJ 

Our first Huddersfield Potato Day – Choose from 24 different types of seed potato, including popular easy-to-grow varieties and some more unusual types. All potatoes are 10p each – pick and mix. We’ll be sharing the full list of varieties here nearer the day (please contact us if you’d like to request a particular variety).

Seed Swap – lots of vegetable seeds to swap or buy.

Seed planting activities.

Get a fruit tree (with instructions, tie and stake) in exchange for a £5 donation to the 1,000 fruit trees project.

Children’s craft activities with Newsome Out To Play.

Locally produced jam and other produce on sale.

Reading Circle book stall with all sorts of books.

Plant protection materials on sale (mesh and fleece).

Tea, coffee and home made cakes available all day.

Plant pot and jam jar amnesty – please bring along your spare pots and jars.
 

Local food lunch:
served from 12 noon to 1pm

Enjoy a locally grown, healthy, cooked lunch at Newsome Scout Hall.

Fruit Tree Planting:
10am to 12 noon at Stirley Farm

Join in a tree planting session with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust at Stirley Farm, then walk down to the Scout Hall to share a delicious lunch and get some fruit & veg to plant at home.

Seed Swap and Potato Day leaflet (pdf)

Practical sessions to learn the basics of vegetable growing.
Visits to local farms.
Involvement in school growing events.

Access to equipment to grow plants at home.
Personalised growing advice for your garden. For example, growing plants in pots for those with limited garden space.
Taking part in growing and selling plants at Honley Show.

The course starts on Wednesday 25th January 2012 and it will run every other Wednesday morning from 9am to 11am up to the summer term (excluding school holidays).

It will require a high level of commitment to attend the sessions and will involve attending Honely Show on Saturday 9th June 2012.

If you would like a place on this course please email laura.merriman@edukirklees.net or contact Laura at Hillside Primary on 226834.

Places are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

Photo: Yorkshire Wildlife Trust

We’re planning our first Potato Day, which will be held at Newsome Scout Hall on Saturday 3rd March 2012. So if you want to grow some potatoes next year, you’ll be able to come and choose your own at our event. There will be lots of different varieties of seed potato on offer, so you can try whatever you have the space for (instead of having to buy a whole bag of just one type).

We’ll be selling individual varieties for 10p each. If there’s a type of potato that you’d really like to grow, please let us know soon and we might be able to get you some for our Potato Day.

We’re very grateful to the West Yorkshire Organic Group for helping us to plan the event. We’ll be buying our seed potatoes from their own Potato Day, which is held in Saltaire each February. For those of you who were impressed with the Bonnie potatoes at Stirley Farm this year, you’ll be interested to know that they came from the same source.

We’d like lots of you to grow some potatoes next year – so that we can all share the experience of growing the same crop and see how we get on with the different varieties. We’ll look forward to hearing what grew well and what tasted good. We hope you’ll join in.

We have a special fondness for the humble potato. Potatoes were the first crop we planted at our community allotment in 2010, and the first crop that we planted at Stirley Farm in 2011. So what better for 2012 than our first Potato Day?

We’re taking part in the Paddock Christmas Fair again this year. We’ll have a good selection of jam, chutney and pickles on sale – all made with fruit and vegetables grown in Newsome.

We’ll also have some home made cake and vegetables from Stirley Farm.

The Christmas Fair includes a range of stalls selling gifts, cards, cakes and good quality books from the Reading Circle. Kids can take part in craft activities and visit Father Christmas. Admission is £1 (free for under 15s).

On the same day, Kirklees Council are holding a special meeting at which members of the public can hear about and comment upon the Local Development Framework (LDF), including plans to make more land available for building houses. Many people who would like to attend our Growing Communities event also want to attend the council’s LDF meeting. We understand that priority.

Growing Communities – Saturday 18th February 2012

We want to make sure that as many people as possible have the chance to participate, so Growing Communities will now be held on Saturday 18th February 2012 at Newsome Scout Hall, Newsome village. The event will start at 10am and will include a local food lunch and a visit to Stirley Farm.

For full details see:
Growing Communities – local food workshops

If you have already booked for the event, you will retain your place – if you can’t make it on 18th February, please contact sims31@btinternet.com to let us know.

The booking form will remain open for anyone else who would like to book:
Growing Communities – book your place here

Group visits to Stirley Farm

We have also made arrangements for those of you who would still like to see Stirley Farm in the meantime. If you were relying on seeing the food growing project at Stirley for bookings and activities for your group, please email Kim Warren at: kim.warren@ywt.org.uk by Monday 21st November and she will still provide a short tour and information on request.

David Browning – Kirklees Environment Partnership

Diane Sims – Growing Newsome

Kim Warren – Stirley Farm and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust

“What can I do with all those green tomatoes, other than make chutney or fry them?”

Even around just one table, there were many keen to offer suggestions, such as:

• Leave them on the vine, with the plant unwatered, to ripen.
• Put them in a biscuit tin with a banana.
• Put them between your pajamas (presumably, not whilst you’re wearing them).

So we decided to ask how everyone else has tackled their green tomato glut this year. Do you have any tips for ripening tomatoes, or do you have any favourite green tomato recipes to share?

Please put your ideas in the ‘Leave a Reply’ box on this page (then select ‘Post Comment’) or send us an email. All suggestions welcome.