REAL@Inverness High School

2010-09-09T07:18:00.002+01:00

REAL Food

Operating Statement

9th September 2010

REAL Food, the trading and social enterprise arm of the REAL operation at Inverness High School has decided to stop operating it’s range of town centre, workplace, village market shops and deliveries as from end of day on Saturday 11^th September.

Despite the consistent levels of demand for REAL’s range of local food products it has not been possible to build up sufficient sales levels, in the current format, to ensure overhead costs are fully covered each month. This is especially so in the light of reduced base funding availability for social enterprises in the coming years.

REAL Food’s retail activities were designed as a means to provide pupils with a range of experiences of how businesses work, what good customer focus looks like and how to build a brand. REAL activity at the High School will now continue with horticulture production activities, working with pupils in a series of climate change projects, both of which will provide further training that builds confidence and enhances workplace and other life-skills. Our wholesale business supplying local restaurants and shops with produce direct from the farm will continue to operate as normal.

REAL would like to thank all of the local farmers, growers and producers who have supported the retail project. As our suppliers, we would appreciate up to date statements for settlement in October.

We would also like to thank those of you who have been consistent retail customers over the years, and also those of you who have very recently began purchasing from us. Your custom has been very much appreciated. For those of you paying through standing order and the like, all accounts will be settled in the next couple of weeks.

Finally, we would also like to thank the many educational, social and business organisations and associated individuals from across the Inner Moray Firth and beyond who have been immensely supportive of REAL Food over our time of operation.

Scottish Green List 2010

2010-06-25T11:25:00.002+01:00

Iain Clyne and REAL Food @IHS successfully made it onto the Scottish Green List 2010! The List, compiled by the Scottish Sustainable Development Forum, celebrates individuals and projects across such diverse issues as travel planning in the NHS, greening traditional businesses, inspiring school children and bringing communities together. For more information please see http://www.ssdforum.org.uk/pages/scottish_green_list.html .

REAL Foods website

2010-06-11T14:34:00.002+01:00

REAL Foods is now on Facebook, Twitter and also has it's own website (which is still currently under construction). Feel free to follow our Facebook and Twitter page and visit our website at http://www.realfoodsihs.com

The Highland Council Event

2010-06-05T13:44:00.006+01:00

REAL Foods took part in a Highland Council Event on Friday the 4th of June. We would like to thank everyone who helped with the organisation of the event and who bought our veg!

2009-05-19T17:22:00.005+01:00

A training visit to Easter Balmungie

Ever since REAL got going, we have had a really good working relationship with Easter Balmungie, a farm near Rosemarkie. Anne, the farmer, and her team rear a whole range of animals, but we were there to find out more about poultry and ducks; the cuddly bits, the gory bits and the nice oval bits that we have for breakfast. Look on....

2009-05-19T17:15:00.001+01:00

2009-05-19T17:09:00.003+01:00

LifeScan

New shop at both the LifeScan plants in town.....

2009-05-19T16:57:00.003+01:00

A visit from Lochardil Primary

Finding out what we grow and how things grow

Thinking about where our food comes from and why local food is so important

And growing their own!

2009-05-19T16:45:00.002+01:00

Mixing it with the suits!

REAL young people at the HISEZ Conference in the Aviemore Resort

2009-05-19T16:34:00.002+01:00

Getting a pond installed

We are hoping to have a pond in place soon to encourage wild life onto the farm with the aim of a little amphibian pest control. The S3 Rural Skills class get to grips with the project.

2009-05-19T16:23:00.004+01:00

How do we sell? Training for the REAL team

Thanks to Brian Weaver at HISEZ for his wisdom!

2009-05-19T16:02:00.007+01:00

New crops for a new summer

The poly tunnels are ready to go; the LifeScan team put new doors to complete the job.

Thousands of seeds have been planted; all we need now is lots of sunshine and just the right amount of rain!

2009-05-19T15:47:00.004+01:00

Winter rebuilding.....

Over the winter we have been working very hard to redesign our growing area into more accessible 3 metre wide beds with paths to suite. We beds are now much higher and therefore deeper, with the paths in between being filled in with woodchip supplied by local tree surgeons.

We have also been greatly helped by various work parties. We have had one crew from LifeScan (in the pics below) and also from Green Gym. David from Green Gym has been back to help us a lot since his first visit

2008-10-10T18:19:00.002+01:00

The Highlands Food & Drink Awards

We won the Innovation Award... well done team!

Reporting Scotland

2008-07-16T12:17:00.005+01:00

We have also been featured on Reporting Scotland recently.... have a look at this link. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/scotland_video_and_audio/7427950.stm

Smoothies for sale

2008-07-16T12:00:00.004+01:00

Ali Sloggie and Tyler MacKenzie...IHS's very own celebrity chefs!

Lauren, Eyah and Tyler selling our smoothies at Dalneigh Community Centre

Shop in the Victorian Market

2008-07-16T11:56:00.002+01:00

Early June saw us starting our shop in the Victorian Market in the middle of Inverness

TRH Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall visit our farm

2008-07-16T11:05:00.005+01:00

The REAL social enterprise received a very real boost to its profile with the visit of TRH Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall in early June. The weather forecast was the rain, rain and more rain; but things dried off for the whole visit. Fantastic!

Their Royal Highness' spent 35 minutes inspecting the farm site, talking to pupils at various locations as they progressed around.

Cara and Emma before the event looking relaxed!

Cara and Emma explaining aspects of the polytunnel!

Prince Charles having received a hamper of local produce

The Duchess of Cornwall loved the smoothies and came back for a second sample!

Prince Charles just before he left for his next engagement

2008-05-23T08:35:00.004+01:00

Eilidh and Jennifer working away at preparing a bed for planting.

2008-05-23T08:35:00.003+01:00

Central Primary School P7 class getting involved in planting and growing their own potatoes

New shops; new workers

2008-05-23T08:31:00.002+01:00

May was really hectic for us with us starting up shops in Raigmore Hospital and new village markets at Strathpeffer, Culbokie and Evanton.

2008-05-23T08:29:00.001+01:00

We have been running a grow school over the summer with Doug Patterson and Sue Mullins from Highland Liliums taking a number a number of people through the basics of how to grow your own vegetables.

2008-05-23T08:27:00.002+01:00

New growth in the new season

2008-04-07T20:28:00.003+01:00

The team pic...

Exploring the properties of water at close quarters

Our team of valiant workers have a training day....

2008-04-07T20:16:00.004+01:00

Laura going over the top

Yogi rolling along...

Lauren excelling at Apehanger

Jimmy concentrating

Jennifer casually hanging above a 20m drop!!

More building....

2008-04-07T19:09:00.001+01:00

Polytunnel No3 is up and running, with a built in teaching area as well. Spot the gardeners!

We also had the REAL Board around viewing the progress. Iain is explaining carefully how things are developing in the polytunnel.

New shoots of spring...

2008-04-07T19:05:00.004+01:00

Speaking at the start of April, we are experiencing northerly winds and a rapidly changing dose of showery snow flurries.... but safe within the polytunnel, things are beginning to turn.... endives, mustard greens and in the propagation beds we are seeing peas, broad beans and tomatoes coming through.

Progress over the last few months

2008-02-29T05:37:00.004Z

And he asked for time off for a honeymoon!

Eric, one of our key workers got married in February..... he keeps muttering 'my wife and I' all the time. Alison is her name by the way!

Team REAL

Also since January, we have been training up a group of youngsters to work on our shops.... they have been meeting after school on Thursdays and looking at areas of work such as how the shop works, product history, displaying goods, dealing with money, working with customers, health and hygiene and understanding the ethos of REAL. There are also some going through their cycle proficiency so that they can work for us delivering orders on bikes to houses immediately around the school.

2008-02-29T05:12:00.005Z

VILLAGE MARKETS

Since September, the marketing side of REAL Organics has really developed and pupils are learning all about the retail side of things. Under the banner of REAL Food we have been working with a primary school-based ‘village market’, setting up for a couple of hours on a Saturday morning. We have piloted this at Kirkhill, but are presently looking to replicate the idea in four other locations across the area. And we seem to be pushing at open doors; local people really want a real alternative when it comes to buying their food.

The scale of this is developing all the time, and pupils are also buying in other products to sell alongside the farm goods to offer a good choice of fresh local food. During the winter, when our farm is not producing so much, we take in wholesale vegetables from other producers, striking a balance between market regularity, choice and customer satisfaction. Other local businesses are encouraged to join us and we regularly have Les Bates and David Hendry selling their garden and gift based produce as well as Mary Croak with her tablet.

The market is very much to the advantage of the school and is enthusiastically supported by the headteacher at Kirkhill, Cris Ford. It allows the school pupils to develop their enterprise and eco-school credentials as well as offering a platform for relaxed interaction with parents and with the community in general. The workforce would be drawn from local adults, local volunteer primary aged pupils and IHS pupils.

CHRISTMAS

Here is the team enjoying our Christmas lunch together

SELLING IN DALNEIGH

Just after Christmas, we have been running a wee stall at the James Cameron Community Centre in Dalneigh. Jennifer, who is with us through Project Scotland, runs the stall ably assisted by Kitty, a local volunteer. It has turned out to be a real hit...with the Cromarty bread and free range eggs disappearing like snow off a dyke!

Autumnal progress

2007-10-25T07:35:00.000+01:00

We are getting the land into shape for next year... paths and beds in place

The winter salads are coming on in the polytunnel

Eric doing some transplanting

At the top end of the polytunnel we have dug a service trench for electricity and water... hope it gets filled in soon!

2007-10-03T06:03:00.000+01:00

George cutting holes in cardboard before we plant some late lettuce. The cardboard is used to keep the weeds down.

The compost bins are starting to fill up. Harry does his stuff

Here are some of the raised beds that we have put up at he ends if some larger beds... we have filled them with a mixture of seaweed and soil and letting them mature before we plant anything

2007-10-03T05:58:00.000+01:00

Here we are doing a roaring trade at the Cawdor Castle Food Fair

We go up to the Scottish Natural Heritage headquarters every Friday and set up a stall for the staff at lunchtime.

The compost bins have been built...monsters!

Peter cutting slabs for the polytunnel paths

The paths in place...nice job!

August 2007: Organising the land

2007-08-10T21:55:00.000+01:00

August 2007: The second polytunnel goes up!

2007-08-10T08:02:00.000+01:00

July 2007: Piotr and Stuart

2007-08-07T20:50:00.000+01:00

July 2007: Courgettes and tomatoes

2007-08-07T20:45:00.000+01:00

July 2007: Weekly shop at Scottish Natural Heritage

2007-08-07T20:44:00.002+01:00

June 2007: Produce this year

2007-08-07T20:42:00.000+01:00

June 2007: Oh what a wonderful summer!

2007-08-07T20:41:00.000+01:00

May 2007: Rabbitings

2007-08-06T10:11:00.001+01:00

Things have been moving along apace since the last entry to this blog. We've had the warmest April ever recorded followed by what can best be described as a monsoon of a May. The ground was turning to dust before the rains arrived but is now too wet to work (if you work on wet soil you risk compacting it and reducing a plants chances of growing). We also lost all of our early pumpkins and courgettes to stem rot brought on by the large change in temperatures over the last 6 to 8 weeks. If this is the way the weather is going to shape up in a climate changes world then we had better learn to adapt. It's maybe a better idea to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and try and stop the process getting any worse, which brings me back to growing and selling locally produced food.
WE've been making the best use we can of our local fertility source...Clachnaharry Beach and all it's two foot thick layer of seaweed. WE've also been trying to develop a good mix to use for our soil blocks. Soil blocks are a method of propagating which removes the need to use plastic seed modules. It's more environmentally friendly, the plants grow well in them and they are super easy to transplant into the field. Hopefully the seaweed component of the blocking mix will help the young plants develop a strong root system.
Our onions are in the ground and seem to be thriving as does our crop of salad leaves. As soon as we get another warm, still day we'll get the polytunnel cover on and get the tomatoes in the ground. We've got quite a range sitting in pots and it'll be great to see them developing over the summer. Did you know that eating tomatoes helps protect your skin from sunburn?
WE've also harvested the comfrey from the second garden and have incorporated it into the compost heaps where it acts as an activator for the composting process. The next harvest we will use to make some comfrey liquid which is a good plant food but beware of getting any of it onto your clothes. It stinks for weeks and washing does not seem to help much. I still seem unable to get any photos onto the blog. perhaps the error message at the bottom of the page has something to do with it. Technology brings it's own problems. I'm going back to put up a rabbit fence in the rain.

March 2007: Hawthorne Drive

2007-08-06T10:10:00.001+01:00

We have taken over a new and rather large garden at Hawthorn Drive which is kind of under the control of the weeds. Never mind. Sometimes the right piece of machinery works wonders, in this case a strimmer. Although we are trying to grow organic food on a reasonable scale with minimum use of fossil fuels, it is sometimes the best option. We uncovered lots of raised beds from the gardens previous life and these will help us to organise future plantings. The beds will be covered with cardboard (from the school) and seaweed (from the Beauly Firth) which will suppress weeds and slowly build up the organic matter and fertlity of the soil. This is called "mulching" the soil, and the cardboard and weaweed are both "mulches". It's a lazy way to garden but that sounds like a better option than some others. There will be photos to go along with this as soon as we can figure out how to do it.

February 2007: The polytunnel

2007-08-06T10:04:00.000+01:00

Putting up the polytunnel is definitely a team game. Setting the posts in concrete to make sure the tunnel doesn't get blown over; wrestling with the hoops of the structure, putting in the ridge poles along the roof and making sure it all fits together. Not something you want to do alone if you can help it. There is still lots to do but once it is up and running we should be growing tomatoes, cucumbers, basil and also, hopefully, winter salad veg. It'll also give us somewhere to hide from the rain when it gets to heavy...
It's important that we increase the variety of produce we grow in order to make the project interesting and to give people the chance to learn about growing food locally. We must increase the amount of locally grown food if we are to reduce the damage we are doing to the environment through food miles (the distance food travels before it gets to our plates) and to increase the amount of healthy food we can offer to local people.

February 2007: Various events

2007-08-06T09:52:00.000+01:00

It is also encouraging to know that REAL is coming to that attention of not only the local media, but also the national media as well. Along with hosting the Soil Association Organic Burns Supper (where we supplied the potatoes!), we have also had a write-up in the BBC Good Food Magazine along with a feature on the Radio 4 Farming Today programme (which never did get an airing due to a little local issue ...something about bird flu and and a chap called Matthews!). We also got a very good spread in the Glasgow Herald.

An MSP visit...

Charlies Angels... eat your heart out! Do you like our new boiler suits..... Kerry was off ill the day we took the pic!

February 2007: Our new manager

2007-08-06T09:48:00.001+01:00

Iain Findlay is the new REAL ORGANICS farm manager. He comes to us from a varied horticultural background via business management and a masters in Environmental Studies. No argument for him as to what are the most important issues facing us today… global warming and its relations!
He comes to us from Glasgow where he ran a local box scheme on a push bike. He is very much an ideas man.. in fact there is going to be one about every minute!
Iain’s primary role will be to mature the business, through the further development of the school site along with the disused training garden behind Hawthorn Drive. He sees great potential here with much of the garden infrastructure already in place. The compost heaps are still there from years ago, as are many fruit plants and green fertilisers. There is also a small area in King Street, tucked in at the back of the Methodist Church, where we have had it on good authority that judging by the size of the weeds, the soil must be amazingly fertile!
How can we sum up Iain then? Committed to environmental issues: YES! Keen for others to know about things green: YES! Has a natural enthusiasm to work with young people: YES! Wanting to work with the community: YES! Has got an email address that says it all: Its ‘Captain Organic’! ‘Nuff said!

Christmas 2006

2007-08-06T09:41:00.001+01:00

Happy Christmas!

The lead up to Christmas was really busy with selling, producing and training. In terms of selling, we have almost reached the £3000 mark. Over the months we have built up a solid customer base, with a lot of people very interested in what we are doing. Many love that fact that we are growing the crops ourselves. Others are happy in that the food is truly local. The older folk tell us of when they were taught farming skills when they were at school. The Christmas stall was really busy. We sold out of just about everything! Running up to Christmas, we also made and sold a range of holly wreaths.

October 2006: Balmungie Fram Training Trip

2007-08-06T09:29:00.000+01:00

Training in horticultural skills from Jo

Sieving for good germination...

Inspecting the eggs

...road skills

And a meal using produce from the farm...why are they so shy!

September 2006: More selling

2007-08-06T09:23:00.001+01:00

Setting up the stall, getting ready to sell at the Dalneigh gala. There was quite a lot of people interested in how we grew the veges so close to them

The girls are hard at work selling there home grown veges. In town it was hardly ever quiet there was again a lot of intrest about how we grew the crops. They were very surprised that we grew them without any chemicals and the pupils from Inverness High School were intrested in helping out in this project and the community

September 2006: we discovered tatties!

2007-08-06T09:10:00.000+01:00

The girls put a lot of effort and take a lot of care digging up the potatoes.... oh the damage to my fingernails!

The potatoes are ready! Beautiful, eh! These are the tatties the pupils at Inverness High School happily grew.... Looking lovely, almost ready to sell.

On yer knees and work!!! 3 folk hard at work sorting potatoes... 2 having a rest! The pupils at Inverness High School take care in sorting out the tatties so they are really good quality for selling.

August 2006: Back to the farm...more growing!

2007-08-06T08:57:00.000+01:00

Leila fully planted in the work!

Marianne & Nick hard at work

Mary and Leila planting lettuce in early August

August 2006: Market day!

2007-08-06T08:44:00.000+01:00

We arrived to harvest at 5 in the morning; at the stall by 8, selling by 9. Sold out by 12:30. And someone told us we had brought too much stock! The happy crew did all the selling! Market stall holders in London eat your heart out! Well done girls!

And this is all we had left over.....wow!!!

July 2006: Training visits

2007-08-06T08:21:00.000+01:00

Out to see Donnie at MacLeod Organics

Organising orders

Growing leeks from seed

Introduction to polytunnels

June 2006: The planting started right away

2007-08-06T08:03:00.000+01:00

The tatties went in first

In June we started planting salad vegetables; lettuces, rocket, dill, coriander and parsley. We got water from over the fence in Bruce Gardens. Thanks Mrs McKenzie!

And in all the sun things grew really quickly

May 2006: Beginnings

2007-08-06T07:43:00.000+01:00

It all started in May 2006 when Donnie MacLeod got a tractor in to plough up the field

Cutting into an area of grass that really been untouched for 40 years

Filmed for posterity by Liela, Lisa and Calum and Mr Sparham