Today I finished giving the ‘Grow your own Future’ course for Clár I.R.D. in association with the Local Community Development Programme administered by South West Mayo Development Company Ltd. As well as training in Business Planning for Small Rural Enterprises, I gave a one day introductory course on Opportunities in the Small Food Sector- they all said they enjoyed it, hope they meant it!
The thing with setting up any new food business is to make sure you’ve really throught it through – what you’re going to produce, is there a market? can you get shops to sell it for you? who is going to do the deliveries? can you do the work and manage the business all a the same time? how much will everything cost? how much should you charge?….the list of things to think about seems endless…but as with all things, knowledge is power! So, hopefully my veg growers are feeling pretty powerful this evening, at least a bit more than they did a couple of weeks ago before we started!
This was all part of the Growing Locally project based at Mayfield, Claremorris, Co.Mayo. This project was set up supported by The Arthur Guinness Fund & Clár IRD in 2010. Its a community owned horticultural project established as a Social Enterprise and strives to meet social objectives by trading commercially.

For more information about Growing Locally, call 094-9371830