FORTY HALL VINEYARD
NEWSLETTER – ISSUE 1
JULY 2010
Cheers! Vineyard celebrates Lottery win
Forty Hall Vineyard has just been awarded grant funding of £132,000 under the National Lottery’s Local Food Programme. This will pay for a part time project manager post for four years and for the establishment of up to seven more acres of vineyard in 2011. A huge THANK YOU to all our volunteers, supporters, partners and sponsors without whom we never would have been successful. We still have a considerable amount of match funding to secure and we are continuing our fund-raising activities apace. We will keep you updated.
Second acre planted
A second acre of Bacchus grapes was planted this spring thanks to sponsorship from the Shoreditch Trust, an east London regeneration project. Trainees from the Trusts' two sustainable London restaurants Acorn House and Water House, helped plant the vines and enjoyed a special English Wine tasting session up at the farm. The grapes from this plot will be used to produce a light, aromatic, still white wine, some of which will be sold in the two restaurants.
Orange RockCorps
The Orange RockCorps programme inspires young people to volunteer within their local community by producing concerts for which you can’t buy a ticket. Rather, you must do 4 hours of volunteer work in a RockCorps volunteer project to earn a ticket to the gig. Orange RockCorps will be working with Forty Hall Vineyard on the 8th September. The photo and this video show young people working filmed at Somerville Adventure Playground. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC2nre0P2EM. For more information about Orange RockCorps go to www.orangerockcorps.co.uk
Forty Hall Winemaker strikes gold – again
Will Davenport of Davenport Vineyards, who will be making our wine, has been awarded a gold medal for his Limney Estate Sparkling Wine 2006 in this year’s English and Welsh Wine of the Year Awards 2010. Will builds on his gold medal success last year, making him the first and only wine maker to win gold medals in the UK for wine made from organic grapes. Will runs his own organic vineyard in Kent.
Vineyard Voices
A Graper London by Daniel Crock.
It all started last summer when I heard about the Vineyard Project at Forty Hall in Enfield. I was interested in getting involved with planting a vineyard in my local borough and it was time to get out, meet new people and lose some weight!
A small group of us from Enfield Clubhouse joined the voluntary project last year. We helped to plant the first acre of organic vines and this year another acre has been planted by contractors.
The vines need continual pruning and weeding to encourage strong roots for a mature crop which won’t be harvested for another year or two. Using organic bio-dynamic methods we mix our own treatment by hand and spray the vines to enhance the growing crop. Most of the hard work is done using hand-tools; very similar to the way it used to be done before machines.
The winemaking process is complicated and requires a lot of expensive equipment so we aim to grow the grapes and get the wine made by an experienced winemaker.
We will have to work hard and wait and see what our eventual crop is like, but in the meantime we will remain patient and hardworking to prove the project to be a success.
Waste Not
We are pleased to be working closely with London Waste who have been donating compost made from organic waste from north London gardens for us to use as a weed suppressing mulch under the vines. London Waste process mixed food and green waste material from London homes in their 45,000 tonne compost facility at the EcoPark centre in Edmonton. The compost is heat treated so as to ensure its quality. Using compost is a fantastic, low cost and sustainable way for us to manage weed growth on our organic vineyard where the use of chemical herbicide is prohibited.
Autumn sponsorship drive
Forty Hall Vineyard is planning to launch a high profile sponsorship drive in the autumn with the aim of recruiting more individual supporters and corporate sponsors. If you have any ideas of companies to approach or corporate contacts who you think might be interested in working with us, do please contact us.
The perfect gift
Only 170 shopping days to Christmas! Stuck for an original idea for a present? What about buying a gift of vine sponsorship? Vine sponsorship costs £40 and recipients will get a free bottle of wine from our first vintage. The perfect gift for the wine lover in your life. Funds raised will help us to expand the vineyard and develop our services to the local community.
Volunteering opportunities
We are now holding weekly volunteer sessions every Wednesday 9-1pm, as well as our monthly Sunday volunteer sessions. We always need new volunteers to work in the vineyard, but we are keen to recruit volunteers with other skills including fundraising, IT, administration, newsletter production, etc. If you are interested in joining us as a volunteer, please contact us. Come and be part of a “growing” team!
Taste of Autumn – local food event
Saturday 2nd & Sunday 3rd October 2010 10am-4pm at Capel Manor Gardens
Local and Capel grown fruit and vegetables for sale; a chance to sample local produce including fresh apple juice, edible berries and Capel chilies. Forty Hall Vineyard will have a promotional stall at the event, along with a range of other food growing projects. If you would like to help run the stall, please contact us. For more information about this and other events at Capel Manor Gardens go to www.capelmanorgardens.co.uk
Special thanks to:
Chillington Tools for their generous donation of tools. Chillington Tools is a British company with over 100 years experience in the forging of traditional garden tools www.chillingtontoolsonline.co.uk
Julia Trustam Eve from English Wine Producers who kindly gave her time and expertise to give a talk on the history of English Wine to trainees from Acorn House and Water House restaurants www.englishwineproducers.com
Mehmet Saldiray, Elvis and the whole London Waste team for their help with the compost deliveries.
Dan Crock and all the staff and members at Enfield Clubhouse for the very generous donation of a computer & keyboard.