A CO-OPERATIVE has won permission to sell fresh produce from its community garden project on a central Oxford street.

Cultivate Oxford applied for a 12-month licence to set up shop in Little Clarendon Street, after trialling it for three months.

The group already runs a “VegVan” mobile shop that stops in Summertown, East Oxford, Oxford Rail Station and South Oxford Farmers’ Market.

It said the new venture was to help it make the business financially viable.

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Director Dan Betterton said: “Our street trading licence has led to great success in Summertown. Residents are very happy to see us there.

“We add diversity to the area and we generate income to further the goals of our social enterprise. We do need to expand our trading, though, to reach financial sustainability – which is where the new trading spot in Little Clarendon Street comes in.”

The licence was approved in a meeting on Monday night by a panel of four councillors.

It extends the temporary three-month licence issued to them previously to a 12-month licence.

The produce on sale is grown on 10 acres of land at the Earth Trust, in Little Wittenham, and – although it is not a certified organic farm – the group claims it is grown to “organic-approved” standards.

The garden at Little Wittenham, near Abingdon, is maintained by volunteers of the co-operative, which has more than 400 members, mostly from Oxford and its surrounding area. Also on sale at the stall is produce grown by some 20 other nearby farms that work to at least the same standards as Cultivate Oxford.

Director Joe Hasell said Cultivate Oxford’s main purpose was to promote locally-grown fresh produce in Oxfordshire. At the community gardens in Little Wittenham, produce is harvested on Wednesdays and Fridays, in preparation for when it is taken round in the VegVan.

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  • Farmworker Made Setiawan prepares the ground for planting at the Earth Trust

The co-operative is even planning to roll out an online ordering system soon, Mr Hasell added, so people can buy vegetables and fruit on the Internet.

He said: “We want sustainably produced food to become part of the supply network in Oxford.

“There is a lot of demand for it and we have had a lot of encouragement from our customers.

“It is a hard business to make work, because what you make on the products isn’t very much, but it is well supported.”

Made Setiawan, 45, used to be a university lecturer at his home in Bali, Indonesia.

Now he farms for Cultivate Oxford at Little Wittenham. The father-of-two said: “I came here a few years ago and had trouble finding work, but now I work here and I have to say I really enjoy it.

“It’s a far cry from what I used to do but I feel like I am reinventing myself and could really make a career out of farming.”

 

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