Gleaning near Sandwich this week

📣 GLEANING CALL OUT! Please share far and wide! We’ve just discovered a huge crop of cherries going to waste on a farm near Sandwich in Kent. This fruit is perfectly delicious but the farm are unable to harvest all of the crop and those wonderful cherries are too good to waste. So we're setting out to save as many as possible – and we NEED YOUR HELP. The more volunteers we have, the more food we can save!

On Wednesday 17th July from 3pm and on Friday 19th July 11am-3pm, we'll be gleaning at a beautiful farm near Sandwich. The fruits will then be donated to charities and other orgs feeding vulnerable people throughout our region. We warmly invite you help us get Kent's finest cherries to those who need them most. We can cover some travel expenses from surrounding towns –just check with us first. To join us on the glean, sign up here:


https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSepc_2RUNhtEuNgOjcoPvfOFe8wslY0feeCLkaoi12V9CcFoA/viewform You will then be sent more info about the gleaning day including travel coordination. We are also keen to hear from community groups, churches and other orgs that may be interested in running gleans of their own, helping distribute produce in local communities or making use of gleaned produce within their existing activities. If you'd like to discuss any of these please join us on a glean or send an email to carrie@feedbackglobal.org. Hope to see you in the orchards soon!

Deal With It July 2019 Diary

DWI July 2019


Saturday 6th July – Open Day at the Captain’s Garden @ Deal Castle
Supporting National Meadows Day – open 11am to 3pm

Sunday 7th July – Deal Beach Clean 9:30am meeting at Sandown Castle Community Garden

Monday 8th July – DEMAIN (Tomorrow) At Deal Film Club Astor Theatre £8??
Adrian Sullivan from Deal With It and East Kent Climate Action Introducing Film 7pm

Tuesday 9th July – Captain’s Garden Volunteer Session 10am to Noon

Thursday 11th July – Captain’s Garden Volunteer Session 10am to Noon

Thursday 11th July – Deal Station Clean Up Crew 4:30pm to 5:30pm

Monday 15th July – Dover Repair Café, Biggin Hall Dover

Tuesday 16th July – Captain’s Garden Volunteer Session 10am to Noon

Thursday 18th July – Captain’s Garden Volunteer Session 10am to Noon

Thursday 18th July – Deal Station Clean Up Crew 4:30pm to 5:30pm (then every two weeks)

Thursday 18th July – Deal Hop Farm Monthly meetup
Smugglers Café Sandwich 6:30pm

Tuesday 23rd July – Captain’s Garden Volunteer Session 10am to Noon (then every week)

Thursday 25th July – Captain’s Garden Volunteer Session 10am to Noon (then every week)

Sunday 28th July – Sandwich Bay Beach Clean Cuddle Earth/DWI 10am
No Charge for access for beach cleaners.

Wednesday – 7th August – Plastic Free Deal meet up – Landmark Bar 6:30pm

Monday 12th August - Dover Repair Café, Biggin Hall Dover

Saturday 24th August – BEEFEST + Seedy Saturday at the Landmark Garden 10:30am to 12:30

Dover Beekeepers + Bee products + Plant Swap 

Sunday 25th August – Walmer Beach Clean 9:30am meet at Sea Café

Thursday 29th August – Deal Hop Farm – Harvest Briefing Meeting at Landmark 7pm

Sunday 22nd September – Great British Beach Clean meet at Deal Pier 9:30am
National Marine Conservation Society recording clean

Sunday 22nd September – Open day at the Captain’s Garden 12-4pm
National Heritage Day in Deal

Sandown Castle Beach Clean 7th July 2019

Thank you to our 40 volunteers on today's Beach Clean at the Sandown Castle end of Deal Beach. About 20kgs collected today with about 4kgs of cans and spent Barbeques.

We also found 6 inflated ballons which can do a lot of damage. 

Special beach clean  at Sandwich Bay on 28/7 at 10am + next after that Walmer 25/8 

we also found some keys on todays clean

Sandown Castle Beach Clean Sunday 7th July 9:30am

Captain's Garden Open Day 6th July 2019 - #NationalMeadowsDay

Deal Beach Clean 23rd June 2019

Thank you to our 45+ volunteers on today's Community Beach Clean at Deal Pier.

We collected some 31kilos of rubbish with 6kilos of stuff that can be recycled. This is a great total given that DDC had done thorough job early this morning. 

Our next clean is two weeks time 7th July at 9:30am meeting at Sandown Castle end of the beach to support the work of the community garden there.

Deal Community Beach Clean - Sunday 23rd June

Our next beach clean is Sunday 23rd June at 9:30am meeting at Deal Pier. All welcome

Wildlife Open Garden - Hacklinge

Sue and Adrian Sullivan have another of their popular open garden/studios sessions in June. A lovely garden designed on wildlife friendly and permaculture principals plus art, a bit of music and lashings of cake. Well worth a visit - Profits goes towards local environmental initiatives and trees for life

Deal With It receives the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service

 

Deal With iT – Transition Deal, Deal’s local green community group, has been honoured with the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the highest award a voluntary group can receive in the UK.

Deal With It, which celebrated its 12th birthday earlier in the year organises the regular community beach cleans, supports the community gardens at Deal Railway Station, The Landmark Centre and Captain’s Garden at Deal Castle, Seed Swaps, green energy events, Bee festivals, tree planting, town litter picks, and has initiated a number of campaigns such as Plastic Free Deal and projects such as the Deal Hop Farm (a patchwork farm of 250 gardens & allotments in and around the town growing hops and producing beer with local brewers).


It is also the local partner for a number of national/regional charities such as Surfers Against Sewage, Marine Conservation Society, Kent Wildlife Trust’s Guardians of the Deep and English Heritage.

Deal With iT – Transition Deal is one of 281 charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups to receive the prestigious award this year, which is the equivalent to an MBE for a organisation.

The number of nominations and awards has increased year on year since the awards were introduced in 2002, showing that the voluntary sector is thriving and full of innovative ideas to make life better for those around them.

The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service aims to recognise outstanding work by volunteer groups to benefit their local communities. It was created in 2002 to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. Winners are announced each year on 2nd June – the anniversary of the Queen’s Coronation.

Representatives of Deal With iT will receive the award from the Viscount De L'Isle, Lord Lieutenant of Kent later this summer.

Victoria Nicholls, Deal With iT’s Secretary and one of the founding members of the group said “We are very fortunate to live in a town which is fuelled by the energy, commitment and creativity of so many voluntary organisations and people who want to make a difference to our community.

We are delighted that our small contribution to local environment and community has been recognised by this award; we see it as a tribute to all those have played a role in our various projects, events and campaigns over the last twelve years and especially the hundreds of people who have volunteered their time on beach cleans, community gardens, green energy events, making the town plastic free, seed swaps and even growing beer in the town!

Last year our various projects and events produced some 5,368 volunteer hours with some 1,902 volunteers involved – its great to think that all those local people can lay claim to small part of a shared MBE.

We would like to thank Dover District Council for nominating us for the award and the great support from Linda Ford at Sandown Castle Community Garden & Mark Brent from English Heritage at Walmer Castle in supporting the nomination.

Given the linked challenges of the mounting climate crisis, the tide of plastic in our seas and endangerment of so much of our animal and plant life, it’s so important that we take urgent action at every level, especially here in our local community.”


The next Deal With It event is the community beach clean on Sunday 23rd June at 9.30am meeting at Deal Pier.

Goodwin Sands become next Marine Conservation Zone

After a long campaign by many environmental organisations including our local Goodwin Sands SOS and the Kent Wildlife Trust the government has announced today that the Sands will become the next Marine Conservation Zone .

This does not immediately stop the dredging of the sands by the Dover Harbour Board and Goodwin Sands SOS have a judicial review of the decision to allow dredging under way. They need more funds for the case, please see their most email below:

Dear Goodwin Sands SOS supporter,

We appreciate that we have only just written to you but we thought you would like to know that the Goodwin Sands have been included in the third and final tranche of Marine Conservation Zones, announced today by DEFRA.

This is excellent news for the Sands in general and a very positive step forward for the campaign, coming as it does just days before the Judicial Review on 5th June. However, unfortunately it does not mean that we have won our case to prevent Dover Harbour Board from dredging.

What it should mean is that the Judge will review all evidence with extra care and attention before arriving at a decision about quashing the licence. This is now a national test case about the robustness of the Blue Belt initiative and its effectiveness in face of the Government’s economic Blue Growth agenda.

Our fund raising appeal stands at just over £2,000 short of our £20,000 target. Please give generously; we need to ensure the Marine Conservation Zone programme is worth the paper it is written on! Donations can be made easily at http://www.goodwinsandssos.org or if you would like us to claim Gift Aid on your donation please email us directly at goodwinsandssos@gmail.com. Please note we cannot claim Gift Aid on CrowdJustice donations.

Many thanks for your continued support.

Full Details at : https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/marine-conservation-zones-goodwin-sands

Walmer Castle Community Beach Clean

Thank you to our 40 volunteers on today's Walmer Castle Beach Clean. 

30kgs collected with over 13kgs of recyclable cans, bottles and plastic. 

Our next community clean is on Sunday 23rd June at Deal Pier at 9:30am

May Diary for Deal With It

DIARY

Wednesday 8th May Deal Climate Emergency meeting Dealability from 6pm

Saturday 11th May – Deal Climate Emergency Stall Deal High St from 10:30am

Tuesday 14th May – Captain’s Garden Community Garden Group Volunteer time 10-Noon (every week)

Wednesday 15th May Deal Climate Emergency meeting Dealability from 6pm TBC

Thursday 16th May – Captain’s Garden Community Garden Group Volunteer time 10-Noon (every week)

Monday 20th May – Dover Repair Café – Biggin Hall 6pm

Friday 24th May – Local Schools Climate Action (Deal Town Hall 11:30am)

Saturday 25th May – Spring Seedy Saturday 10:30 -12:30 Landmark Garden

Bank Holiday Monday 27th May – Walmer Castle Beach Clean, 9:30am Prom nr Car Parks

Tuesday 4th June – Plastic Free Deal meeting Landmark Bar 6pm

Thursday 6th June – Clean Up Crew Deal Station 4-6pm Deal Station

Wednesday 12th June – Deal Hop Farm meeting 6:30pm venue (TBA)

Monday 17th June – Dover Repair Café – Biggin Hall 18:30pm

Sunday 23rd June – Deal Beach Clean – 9:30am Deal Pier

Sunday 30th June – Landmark Garden National Garden Scheme (NGS) Open Gardens

Saturday 6th July – National Meadows Day – Open Day at Captain’s Garden

Sunday 7th July – Sandown Castle Beach Clean meet at 9:30am

Monday 15th July – Dover Repair Café – Biggin Hall 6:30pm

Wednesday 31st July – Get Buzzing at Betteshanger County Park 11am to 3pm

August (Date to be confirmed) – Walmer Beach Clean meet at Sea Café 9:30am

September 22nd – Great British Beach Clean (MCS) Deal Pier 9:30

Lots of visitors at the Captain's Garden on Easter Monday

Thank you all our visitors at today's Open Day at the Captain's Garden.

We owe a big thank you to Time & Tide Brewing for not only producing two excellent beers but organising the canning of the ESB today (it arrived at about 11:30 if you missed it) as well the casks tasters

A massive thank you also to all the volunteers from Deal With It, Deal Hop Farm , Eilnor's mini-café and Ben from English Heritage for making it all happen

We think at least 750 people came today and many thanks for £140 in donations for plants 

Volunteer times in the garden are Tuesday and Thursday 10am to Noonish - for more info in getting involved please email info@dealwithit.org.uk

Open Day at the Captain's Garden - Easter Monday 22nd April

Deal’s Secret Garden Open on Easter Monday

The community volunteers bringing back the Captain’s Garden at Deal Castle into use have an Open Day on Easter Monday, 22nd April from 10:30am to 2pm.

The historic walled garden is normally not open to the public and is an amazing 1.2 acres space in the centre of Deal.

Since December 2017 volunteers from Deal With It and Deal Hop Farm have been recovering a small part of the garden; with a hop garden, wild flower meadow, flower & herb beds, a veg & fruit area and two crop circles of barley.

The initiative is in partnership with English Heritage.

Also at the Open Day, local brewers Time and Tide (brewing partners to the community hop growers in the Deal Hop Farm) will have some the lastest beers using Deal Hop Farm Hops to sample.

Deal With It - April Events listing

APRIL DEAL WITH IT LISTING

Sunday 14th April – Deal Beach Clean (Sandown Castle end) 9:30am

Part of Surfers Against Sewage ‘Big Spring Beach Clean’

Tuesday 16th – Captains Garden Group 10am-12 in the Garden @Deal Castle (then every week)

Thursday 18th - Captains Garden Group 10am-12 in the Garden @Deal Castle (then every week)

Saturday 20th April – Deal Hop Farm Twiddling workshop sessions 11am & Noon

Easter Monday 22nd April – Open Garden at the Captain’s Garden @ Deal Castle

Wednesday 24th April – Deal Climate Emergency meeting Landmark Bar 6pm

Sunday 28th April – Special Deal Beach Clean for World Scouting day

Monday 29th April – Dover Repair Café Biggin Hall Dover 5:30

Wednesday 1st May – Deal Hop Farm meeting 6:30pm The Berry, Walmer

Thursday 2nd May – Clean Up Crew Deal Station 4-6pm Deal Station

Thursday 2nd May – Plastic Free Deal Meeting 6pm Landmark Bar

Monday 6th May – Deal Station Gardening Group 10am Deal Station

Saturday 25th May – Spring Seedy Saturday 10:30 -12:30 Landmark Garden

Bank Holiday Monday 27th May – Walmer Castle Beach Clean, 9:30am Prom nr Car Parks

Monday 3rd June – Deal Station Gardening Group 10am Deal Station

Thursday 6th June – Clean Up Crew Deal Station 4-6pm Deal Station

Sunday 23rd June – Deal Beach Clean – 9:30am Deal Pier

Sunday 23rd June – Deal With It Summer Garden Party @ Landmark Garden 2pm to 4pm (TBC)

Sunday 30th June – Landmark Garden National Garden Scheme (NGS)

Sunday 7th July – Sandown Castle Beach Clean meet at 9:30am

Wednesday 31st July – Get Buzzing at Betteshanger County Park 11am to 3pm

August (Date to be confirmed) – Walmer Beach Clean meet at Sea Café 9:30am

September 15th – Great British Beach Clean (MCS) Deal Pier 9:30

Deal #BigSpringBeachClean Sunday 14th April 2019

Massive thank you to our 103+ volunteers on today's Deal Beach Clean at Sandown. 

A fantastic turnout despite that cold wind from the east! 

This was part of the national #BigSpringBeachClean happening at over 300+ beaches around the UK this weekend - organised nationally by Surfers Against Sewage environmental charity 

We collected 118kilos of rubbish, only 4kilos which we can recycle but lots and lots of smaller pieces of plastic.  

We also found lot of random stuff - Golf balls, ghost fishing tackle, one slipper, discarded angling line and a small plastic mouse, 

Thanks as always to the organising team today; Vicky, Colin, Tony, Rose, Wendy, Nick, Paul and Graham. 

Next Clean is at Walmer Castle on 27/5

#BigSpringBeachClean Deal Beach Sunday 14th April 9:30

Deal Hop Farm: New Deal Beers are on the way...

Red Letter day today: We brewed our first new beer of 2019 with local brewers Time & Tide Brewing  . 

This is going to be Pale Ale (4.1%abv) with some our 2018 dried Prima Donna community produced hops as well as Citra & Cascade hops. 

This will be soon followed by a ESB (5%abv) next week just using our hops. 

Both beers will be in cask and can and in the town from Easter. 

Full list of pubs carrying the new beers will be posted in a few weeks

The Deal Hop Farm is very grateful to Sam, Paul, Kerry & Jamie at Time & Tide for moving so quickly to support us and put our hops to good use.

The project is now its 3rd Season and with over 40 new members covers about 250 sites in and around Deal in its patchwork farm comprised of people's gardens, allotments and community spaces.

The group has its last rhizome distribution at the Landmark Garden this Saturday 30th March (10:30 to 12:30)

info@dealhopfarm.org.uk

Kingsdown Beach Clean

Well done to our colleagues in Kingsdown ConservationGroup on Sunday's Beach Clean.

Kingsdown Beach Clean , organised by Kingsdown Conservation Group on 24 March 2019 – a few of the many people who came.

A lovely sunny day, and 58 people, including children, turned up to help.

We collected around 28 bags of rubbish, weighing a massive of 115.5 lbs.

Excellent effort. Lots of small and large plastic pieces, lots of fishing line, bits of net and rope, a couple of large metal pieces ( not weighed), socks, plastic cups, plastic teaspoons, bottle tops, cigarette ends.

Thank you to our 54 volunteers on today's Walmer Beach Clean. 36.7kilos collected most of it small stuff and about 1.5kilos of recyclables. 

We also had use our sharps box for the first time in 4years :( 

Next one on 14th April at Sandown Castle end of the beach.

This clean was part of #GreatBritishSpringClean #GBSpringClean with hundreds of events around the country cleaning parks, streets and localities … 

Thank you to the organising team Vicky, Paul, Wendy, Nick, John, Rose, Steve for making all happen

There is a Beach Clean on tomorrow at Kingsdown 10:30am if you need a fix or you join the Deal Station Clean Up Crew on Thursday from 3.30pm