Anyone have a contact for someone who runs one of the national potato days,
please? (preferably the Hampshire one, but anyone from one of the others
would do)

I'm toying with the idea of arranging one (on a rather smaller scale) next
year, as we don't have anything anywhere within about 2 hours drive, which
seems silly.

Some indication about where to start and just how much hard work it would
entail would be good.

--

wrote ...
Anyone have a contact for someone who runs one of the national potato
days,
please? (preferably the Hampshire one, but anyone from one of the others
would do)

I'm toying with the idea of arranging one (on a rather smaller scale) next
year, as we don't have anything anywhere within about 2 hours drive, which
seems silly.

Some indication about where to start and just how much hard work it would
entail would be good.

The Hampshire one is run by these people...
http://www.charlton-park.co.uk/

and you may find this link useful too...
http://www.jbaseedpotatoes.co.uk/

If the Hampshire one is anything to go by you will need a venue with a lot
of parking, some refreshments available, and most importantly, toilets. That
one started small and has snowballed, gets quite manic at times so choose a
venue that will allow you to grow, you don't want to have to move after a
couple of years. And don't forget the advertising, always key.
--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

Bob Hobden wrote:
The Hampshire one is run by these people...
http://www.charlton-park.co.uk/

and you may find this link useful too...
http://www.jbaseedpotatoes.co.uk/

If the Hampshire one is anything to go by you will need a venue with a lot
of parking, some refreshments available, and most importantly, toilets. That
one started small and has snowballed, gets quite manic at times so choose a
venue that will allow you to grow, you don't want to have to move after a
couple of years. And don't forget the advertising, always key.

Thank you, I'll take a look through.

Nick has mentioned that the lack of parking may be an issue. Our local
church hall has toilets and refreshment area, with a fairly decent sized
hall, but there is no side room where kids could be kept entertained,
unfortunately. Plus being a church hall, it would only be available for the
Saturday, not the Sunday.

But we shall see!

In message ,
wrote

but there is no side room where kids could be kept entertained,

Sometimes you just have to decide if you are running a gardening event
for adults only or a children's creche!

If you decide to do both you may find that you end up in so much red
tape and health and safety c**p that your enthusiasm for the gardening
bit of the event falls off significantly.

I've been there and done it with a committee that wanted a children's
room at a beer festival. Result : irresponsible parents who think they
can just dump their children for others to look after whilst they go and
have some fun.


--
Alan
news2009 {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

Alan wrote:
but there is no side room where kids could be kept entertained,
Sometimes you just have to decide if you are running a gardening event
for adults only or a children's creche!

As someone with small children, I am aware of how difficult it is to do
anything without somewhere to let them do something that /they/ find
interesting for a while, between (or as bribery/threat during) things
I want to do.

But your comments are noted.

Sacha wrote:
I wonder if you can set up arrangements with friends whereby you attend
for one half of the day while they look after your children and vice
versa. If you try to set up some kind of cr?che there, you're going to
need big insurance in place as well as any carers being vetted and so
forth.

I never mentioned a creche! I was thinking of a room with some colouring in
etc that was mostly unsupervised but where parents could go to take the kids
away from the crowd! (ie, exactly how the Hampshire one does)

On 20/09/2010 00:57, wrote:
Anyone have a contact for someone who runs one of the national potato days,
please? (preferably the Hampshire one, but anyone from one of the others
would do)

I'm toying with the idea of arranging one (on a rather smaller scale) next
year, as we don't have anything anywhere within about 2 hours drive, which
seems silly.

Some indication about where to start and just how much hard work it would
entail would be good.


What is a potato day anyway?

--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted
by a filter and not reach my inbox.

In message ,
wrote
Sacha wrote:
I wonder if you can set up arrangements with friends whereby you attend
for one half of the day while they look after your children and vice
versa. If you try to set up some kind of cr?che there, you're going to
need big insurance in place as well as any carers being vetted and so
forth.

I never mentioned a creche! I was thinking of a room with some colouring in
etc that was mostly unsupervised but where parents could go to take the kids
away from the crowd! (ie, exactly how the Hampshire one does)

Just because another venue does something (and has been doing it for
years) don't assume that they are obeying any regulations or are not in
breach of their public liability insurance terms and conditions.

99.999% of the time you will get away with a common sense approach -
until something goes wrong.

I think you would be wise to assume that all parents are not responsible
and some will dump their children unsupervised to use the facilities you
have provided.

You are better off not providing any facilities for children at all. If
you are not careful the organisation of minor peripheral activities
could take the majority of your time.
--
Alan
news2009 {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

Sacha wrote:
If the parents are going to be with them, it's probably relatively
trouble free for you but then, the parents mis out on at least some of
the activity. I misunderstood you because I thought that when you said
the children could be kept entertained, you were thinking of something
that would leave the parents free to attend the Potato Day while their
offspring were otherwise occupied. My mistake.

No, just somewhere for the parents to take the Little Darlings to blow off
steam without causing mayhem. It may not sound like an essential part, but
given the first time we took Daniel to Hampshire PD he overturned a box of
spuds all over the floor ...
:-(
Not my favourite moment.

David in Normandy wrote:
What is a potato day anyway?

It's an event held around the country at various places (typically the last
couple of weekends in January, iirc) where they get an awful lot of
different potatoes together for sale in one place (supplied by one or two
suppliers, presumably), plus a bunch of other peripheral activities.

I've only been to the Hampshire one so far (Nick has suggested we head for a
different one next year - Dulwich or the one near Coventry), which is why
the idea of organising one nearer home came up ... but their other interests
included a giant seed swap table (where my vova yellow tomato seeds came
from, which were one of my best tomatoes this year - and also my charbeneuse
noire tomato seeds, which are one of my worst tomatoes this year!), a few
heirloom seed suppliers, some new variety potato taste tests ... I think
someone was selling jam, too.

On 20/09/2010 23:08, wrote:
David in wrote:
What is a potato day anyway?

It's an event held around the country at various places (typically the last
couple of weekends in January, iirc) where they get an awful lot of
different potatoes together for sale in one place (supplied by one or two
suppliers, presumably), plus a bunch of other peripheral activities.

I've only been to the Hampshire one so far (Nick has suggested we head for a
different one next year - Dulwich or the one near Coventry), which is why
the idea of organising one nearer home came up ... but their other interests
included a giant seed swap table (where my vova yellow tomato seeds came
from, which were one of my best tomatoes this year - and also my charbeneuse
noire tomato seeds, which are one of my worst tomatoes this year!), a few
heirloom seed suppliers, some new variety potato taste tests ... I think
someone was selling jam, too.


Sounds like something well worth visiting. Especially for the seed swap.
One persons weeds are another persons prized plants. I only bought one
lambs ear plant and have hundreds now - they are coming up all over the
drive. Similarly bay trees - I keep pulling them up as weeds everywhere
but I'm sure someone would love 'em.

The black tomato seeds sound interesting, I tried some black toms from
the supermarket last year and they were quite tasty.

--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted
by a filter and not reach my inbox.

David in Normandy wrote:
The black tomato seeds sound interesting, I tried some black toms from
the supermarket last year and they were quite tasty.

Was very unimpressed with these. They are an unattractive brown colour, not
the purple that they tend to be advertised as, they go mushy very quickly
(possibly cos I don't know when to pick them!) and they are just a bit on
the bland side.