IMAGINE a future when you have to grow your own food, generate your own electricity and sell your own produce to survive.
It sounds far-fetched, but a couple from rural Essex are making sure future generations are prepared.
In reality, the expertise passed on through Mark and Marina O’Connell’s project, called Reskilling the Valley, will benefit the growing number of people who want to produce their own fruit and veg and install wind turbines or solar panels.
Mr and Mrs O’Connell, partners at the Apricot Centre, in Lawford, came up with the idea of completing a guide of skills used in the Stour Valley and Dedham Vale area to teach future generations.
The pair moved to East Anglia from Devon 12 years ago to run a sustainability course at Otley College, near Framlingham, in Suffolk, and later set up their own project.
The Apricot Centre is an eco-venue, based on a four-acre organic market garden, which aims to give courses and experience on sustainable living.
They believe the way we live will change dramatically as a result of climate change, with people learning to become less dependant on oil and carbon as sources of energy.
Mr O’Connell, a psychologist, will cycle around towns and villages, trying to find people with unusual skills.
Skills, such as installing solar panels or running a water mill, are some of the things the centre hopes to hear about.
It also wants to speak to people with more traditional skills, including melon growing, thatching and charcoal making.
The 46-year-old visualises a future where people produce their own food and repair their own homes.
He said: “It might be necessary and it is good to have those skills, rather than rely on an outside body. We want to find people in an area with the skills that are available.
“There are some quite elderly people with some traditional skills and we want to do something to ensure people do appreciate these skills that are around.”
The project has been divided into three phases.
It begins with information gathering, which involves Mr O’Connell cycling to the places where these skills can be found.
He will then interview the individuals and then write stories and social history to be compiled into a booklet.
The centre will put the skills on a map on the internet, which will be readily updated as and when new skills are found.
Mr O’Connell added: “It will link people up and let them know what skills are going on and we want to get young people and older people together to inspire the younger generation with skills.”
Funding for the project, to the tune of £10,000, came from the Dedham Vale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Sustainable Development Fund.
The Apricot Centre will match it through use of its venue and staff time.
Mr O’Connell hopes to take the project to schools and seminars later this year and next.
If you have a skill that you think the centre would like to hear about, call 01206 230425 or e-mail info@apricotcentre.co.uk The project has started and will run to next April.
For a map of the Reskilling the Valley area and more information about the centre’s work, visit www.apricotcentre.co.uk
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