recipes

Beans Means … Texture and Flavour

Following on from the earlier post about lentils Patsy Hollingum turns her attention to beans. I am a fan of BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme and earlier in 2022 the topic was beans, a subject to which the team devoted two episodes: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/

nature

Creating a meadow area from neglected grassland

Advice from Dave Musson, based on many years' practical experience. Many UK public amenity areas have suffered over the years from cheap, fast grass cutting, which leaves all cuttings on the ground. These cuttings rot down to benefit existing fast growing grass species to the detriment of weaker grasses

meeting reports Featured

Meeting Notes from CA-WN AGM Oct 2022

Hi all Many thanks to those who were able to attend last week’s AGM - meeting minutes and recording here. These cover both the AGM and the short monthly meeting that followed it. Further details below on some points discussed at the meeting: Consultation on further development of Northampton

meeting reports

Constitution - Meetings - Minutes - Policies

CONSTITUTION CA-WN is constituted as an Unincorporated Association. You can see how we operate as an organisation in our Constitution: https://ca-wn.org/MemberDocs/CA-WN%20Constitution%202024%20.pdf MEETINGS We have monthly online General Meetings, usually on the third Thursday of every month. These are open to anyone, and

bookshelf

Supercharge Me by Eric Lonergan and Corinne Sawers

The October addition to the CA-WN Bookshelf is a refreshingly readable book by fund manager Eric Lonergan and sustainability adviser Corinne Sawers who advocate augmenting traditional solutions, such as carbon pricing, with EPICs: Extreme, Positive Incentives for Change to ‘supercharge’ behavioural change. Follow the link below to the book’s

opinion

What about level up, level down?

The Government’s Levelling Up Agenda has gained a lot of attention. However, Peter Nalder ponders on the need to look to Levelling Down on the issue of climate change. What do I mean by that? Actually ‘levelling up’ is not just politician’s ’speak’. And actually ‘levelling down’ is

council

Council Watch October 2022

CA-WN watching West Northamptonshire Council for us all It’s been good to see the WNC Sustainability team (@SustainableWN) out and about at public events in the last few weeks – including the Grow Green Together Conference where Leader of the Council Jonathon Nunn also spoke (see page 3 for our

housing

CA-WN’s Building Resilience Project

With energy costs a hot topic this winter CA-WN is helping households stay warm and save money. Burning gas or oil or wood for warmth creates harmful greenhouse gasses and now the cost-of-living crisis adds energy conservation at home to the urgency for action. For nearly 50 years, since the

transport

Bus Back Better

With few exceptions, bus services outside London have never recovered from the precipitous drop in usage that followed deregulation in 1986. In West Northamptonshire the reality of piecemeal routes, precarious funding and unreliable timetables. Peter Doveston does not believe councils are to blame.

opinion

My View: Helen Hodgkinson

CA-WN gives a Councillor the space to speak about climate action

individual impact

My Three Things for Climate Change

by Martin Wilson, Sustainability Manager, West Northamptonshire Council I wasn’t sure whether to include becoming a vegan as one of my choices because it can look like quite a daunting change to make, especially if your diet includes a lot of meat-based meals. The best advice I could give

recipes

Patsy Hollingum is taking the pulse ...

In my store cupboard at the moment I have no fewer than 10 different types of pulse, plus one on my current shopping list. Some of you will be familiar with the word, without knowing exactly what it covers, so here’s a little rule of thumb: a pulse is

food & farming

Amazing Maize Maze

In early September 2022, I visited the Pick Your Own farm at Harpole for a chat with the owner, Teresa Drage. I wanted to find out how her enterprise had been affected by the hot, dry summer. Manor Farm has been in the family for many years. It is a

food & farming

Apples and Orchards, wild and domesticated

By Clare Robertson-Marriott To understand current human dependency on globalisation it might be useful to consider the provenance or origin of the things we buy: food items, textiles, cars and so on, and to accelerate the development of endeavours with a local or circular economic focus. We could begin with

bookshelf

Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty

This addition to the CA-WN Book Shelf is a multi-award winner! Written as a diary, this is a wonderful portrayal of the beauty of the natural world. As an autistic teenager suffering from anxiety, McAnulty shows us a child’s eye view of our delicate and changing biosphere. Through the

housing

CA-WN talks to Paul Tucker, Northampton Partnership Homes Sustainability Manager

Northampton Partnership Homes (NPH) was set up by Northampton Borough Council in 2015 to manage the council’s housing stock, and some other assets. NPH is now owned by WNC but has its own management team and Board of Directors. NPH is responsible for allocations and lettings, repairs and maintenance,

nature

Gardening for Butterflies

David James, County Butterfly Recorder, looks at what to plant to attract butterflies and moths into our gardens A lot is quite rightly made of our fantastic butterfly sites here in Northamptonshire, and many people come from all over the country to visit our localised butterflies in places such as

council

Council Watch July 2022

CA-WN watching West Northants Council for us all Since the last issue of this newsletter there have been two meetings of the full council. The ‘annual meeting’ (similar to an AGM) in May was a largely procedural affair which set roles for the next 12 months.  The ‘normal’ bi-monthly meeting

recipes

Hard Times Bread Pudding

By Patsy Hollingum This is a recipe for old fashioned bread pudding using stale white bread. It’s a good way to use up really stale bread, including the crusts. As it is a recipe for using up “left-overs” I have not given exact quantities, however, don’t go over

council

My View: Louisa Fowler

CA-WN gives a Councillor the space to speak about climate action.

individual impact

My Three Things for Climate Change

by Ken Ritchie, former Daventry District Councillor About 40 years ago I was persuaded to join SERA, the environmental campaign within the Labour Party. I paid my money, but was a fairly passive supporter until about 10 years ago when the world started to wake up to the speed of

food & farming

Farmers and bees are buzzing!!!

Show time. The barley is turning gold and the combines will shortly be busy in the fields. The magical months of May and June are over. July is a relatively slack time of year when farmers visit the shows. In 2022 I visited two: Cereals 2022 near Duxford in Cambridgeshire

bookshelf

Green Living Made Easy by Nancy Birtwhistle

The latest addition to the CA-WN Book Shelf is another gem from Nancy Birtwhistle to follow on from ‘Clean & Green – 101 hints and tips for a more eco-friendly home,’ which was recommended by Harlene Griffiths in March. ‘Green Living Made Easy’ is a practical book from the Sunday Times

local matters

Local Matters - Boddington

by Mark Thompson, Boddington Sustainability Group Boddington: Pop: 720 (2010)  196 Households (2010) Boddington Parish is made up of two villages - Upper and Lower Boddington - located in West Northamptonshire and has a population of around 700.  In July 2021, three newly elected parish councillors formed a new working

council

Council Watch April 2022

CA-WN watching West Northants Council for us all Reflections on WNC, one year in At CA-WN we see ourselves as a ‘critical friend’ to the council; we support WNC’s commitment to achieving Net Zero, whilst retaining our right as a climate action group representing local residents to call them