Round-Up: Bees, Apples, and the REAL Initiative

October 14th 2012

Apple Day

Sunday was Apple Day at the British Legion Hall, with a range of stalls promoting local products, and providing information about the different types of fruit you can grow. There were also apple trees on sale, to tempt those with green fingers.

The event was organised by the Somercotes Group of Women's Institutes, and they had a number of competitions for the best preserves, floral arrangements and baking, the results of which were on display. If reading this is making you hungry, check out my recipe for spicy apple cake.

Festival of the Bees

Apple Day had a couple of stalls about beekeeping and honey, because of course bees are significant pollinators of apple trees. There was information about helping out honey bees by planting the right kind of bee-friendly flowering plants. For example, if you keep unwashed honey jars outside they can infect hives with non-native bacteria and spores that are very harmful to native bees.

This was where I found out Louth will have its own Festival of the Bees in May 2013, organised by Transition Town Louth. This month-long festival will feature a conference day on the 23rd, with talks by campaigner Brigit Strawbridge, wildlife expert Mark Schofield and artist Val Littlewood. There will also be various exhibitions about wildflowers and pollinators at venues around the town, from 17th to 23rd May. The festival is still in its early planning stages, so more features may be added. If you're interested in getting involved there's much more on this on the Transition Town bee festival page, including a shedload of bee-related links and information.

Renewable Energy Around Louth

Big gas and electricity companies have recently hiked their prices around 6-8%, which is going to cost a lot of households dearly this winter. So the REAL initiative couldn't have come at a better time. This is a scheme to help home owners invest in renewable energy, provided jointly by Groundwork Lincolnshire and Transition Town Louth. It aims to provide grants towards things such as solar hot water, heat pumps or wood fuelled heating for local residents. Installations commissioned by the end of February 2013 could benefit from incentives of between £1000 and £2500. However this will only be possible if there are enough interested home owners.

If you are struggling to pay your energy bills or you think your home would be suitable, contact Vicky Dunn of Groundwork Lincolnshire at the Navigation Warehouse on Riverhead by email at vicky.dunn@groundwork.org.uk, or phone 01507 606710.