Reconnection, Community and the AGM

Around and around it goes

If you listen to the world around us, there's a constant message. Keep going. Stay productive. Stay competitive. Stay on top of everything. Always be planning, improving, achieving, succeeding.

It's a message many of us have heard our whole lives. Through family, school, work, and the countless systems we've passed through, we've often been taught that our value lies in what we produce and how much we can carry. There is always another task, another goal, another thing demanding our attention. We find ourselves worrying about tomorrow, revisiting yesterday, and rarely finding a place to simply be.

Around and around it goes. And it is something that I (Hannah) still struggle with personally. I have been tired and not feeling so great this week, but I'm still finding it hard to stop. 

But what if it doesn't have to be that way?

When people first join Community Harvest Whetstone, it's often for the vegetables. That's understandable. Fresh, delicious, organically grown food is a good reason to become a cropsharer.

Yet something interesting happens over time.

As the seasons pass, members begin to build a relationship. Not just with the food, but with the land that grows it and the people who grow alongside them. The weekly share becomes more than a transaction. The farm becomes more than a place where vegetables are produced.

It becomes a community.

A place where people can reconnect with the rhythms of nature, rather than the demands of productivity. A place where participation matters more than consumption. A place where we can remember that we are not simply observers of change, but active participants in creating it.

That may sound ambitious for a vegetable co-operative, but it is exactly what makes Community Harvest Whetstone special. Together, we have built something that operates differently. As members of a co-operative, we are not customers standing on the outside looking in. We are collectively responsible for shaping what this organisation becomes. We share resources, risks, rewards, knowledge, labour, and decision-making in ways that are increasingly rare in modern life.

And because of that, we have opportunities that many organisations simply do not have. It has also given me permission this week to slow down a bit, and do a couple of half days to listen to my body, and other people have shared the load. 

The Annual General Meeting

This message also feels particularly relevant this week as we are fast approaching our Annual General Meeting, where there will be the opportunity to continue shaping the future of CHW and opportunities to stand for the Committee. 

AGM – Saturday 14th June, 2pm, Whetstine Pastures Tearooms (Come at 1pm for shared lunch)

Please get your diaries out and join us.

If Community Harvest Whetstone is to be an antidote to the pressures of modern life, then it can only happen through the active participation of its members. The co-operative belongs to all of us, and the direction we take next depends on the ideas, energy and imagination we bring together.

Back to Earth!

Back to the earth  (literally) - we have salad on the menu again this week. Which reminded me of a lovely conversation I had with Jill Clayton at the end of last week. She shared a lovely idea for jazzing up salads - she adds nectarines and tops with feta (there are some great vegan fetas around these days too!) and walnuts. A delicious way to eat up your salad leaves.

Talking of salad (and more specifically salad bags), I have also been thinking a lot lately about the circular economy, and how CHW fits with that model. At the heart of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a simple but powerful idea: food should be grown, shared, and enjoyed in ways that strengthen our communities and care for the environment. When you become a cropsharer, you're doing much more than buying vegetables, you're helping to create a local food system that values people, soil, biodiversity, and sustainability.

This approach fits naturally with the principles of the circular economy. Rather than taking resources, using them once, and throwing them away, a circular economy keeps materials in use for as long as possible. It reduces waste, conserves resources, and encourages us all to think about the lifecycle of the things we use every day.

That's why we're asking for your help.

Many of the vegetables and herbs we harvest for shares (Like salad leaves! As well as herbs, stir-fry mixes, mangetout, and other delicate crops) are packed into plastic bags to keep them fresh and protected on their journey from field to kitchen. While these bags serve an important purpose, we'd like to extend their life for as long as possible.

If you have any of our produce bags at home, please bring them back to us when you collect your next share. Before returning them, we'd be grateful if you could give them a quick wash and allow them to dry thoroughly. Clean, dry bags can often be reused many times, reducing the number of new bags we need to purchase and helping to keep plastic out of the waste stream. Small actions, multiplied across our community, can make a real difference. Every bag returned helps us save resources, reduce waste, and move one step closer to a truly circular food system.

Thank you!

Thank you for being part of this journey and for helping us grow food in a way that nourishes both people and planet! Together, we can keep the cycle going :)

Hannah x