Potato Day Thanks!
The potato orders have all been delivered, and as we all set out our tubers to chit, we can look back over an amazing few weeks for NOGs. It doesn’t seem possible that it was only just over a month ago that the first sacks of potatoes were delivered to what was to become known as ‘Potato Central’.
We had a good idea of what we needed to do – just pack over 1000 potatoes in bags of 6, with the right name on, then just pick the right potatoes for what people ordered, then just deliver them to the right address. Before all this could start, though, we had already been hard at work.
Potato Day starts in the summer, when the Potato Day Committee start mooting which varieties to get – and this year with added complications. We negotiated potholes in the rocky road to Potato Day as we went from planning a distanced indoor event to a click-and-collect outdoor event to a deliveries-only event, as the Coronavirus situation went from bad to worse. NOG’s first online shop was set up, over 50 crates and 1000s of paper bags were sourced, and discussions were had about the best, and safest, way to run the event.
Throughout the month we had been sending out emails to members and friends telling them as much about our plans as we could. Richard Phipps published an article on Facebook about potatoes every day in January, including a description of each of our varieties. There seemed to be interest in the event, but we were still worried that people had already bought their potatoes from garden centres or a high street store…
As the packing progressed, the stacks of crates grew higher, topped by the Great Tower of Charlotte. We asked for volunteers to deliver, and had over 15 people offer. It was actually going to happen!
By a fluke, the best day to open the shop was the day Potato Day would have been ordinarily – Saturday 30th January. At 10am the password was removed – and at 2 minutes past the first order arrived. By 10 past 10 we had 47 orders and our jaws were dropping and our phones pinging as we WhatsApped the latest score. The varieties we’d bought in smaller amounts were soon out of stock, but a good variety of potatoes survived till 11:30. By 1:30 there were only a few bags of Pink Fir Apple left – we had ordered an extra bag by happy accident.
We were completely taken aback by the speed of the potato sales - then the work really began! We had 170 orders to pick and deliver – fewer but larger orders than expected, as people clubbed together. As the towers of potatoes had risen, so they went down again as orders were picked, and volunteers cycled and drove them all over Nottingham. In 5 days the majority of the deliveries were done, with just a few outlying orders to complete.
We thank all the potato buyers who emailed to thank us, and who appreciated what a huge job it had been. We’re sorry though, that some of our friends didn’t get to order on time. We are all hoping that Potato Day will return in much its old form in 2022 – it is far easier to get all you to do your own picking and taking home!
Who made it happen:
Potato Day planning team: Bethan, Rachel, Karen – and later on the whole committee plus Zoe!
Amazing work done to create the Potato Shop and coordinate deliveries: Kay and Zoe
Packers and Pickers: Rachel, Karen, Kate, Kay, Zoe, Bethan, Will and Vanessa
Delivery cyclists and drivers: Chris and Barbara, Graeme, Karen, Gemma, Anna, Judi, Andy, Cain, Kate, Sam, Perlin, Nat, Denise, Vesse and Sheldon
Special thanks to:
Sam for offering us his workshop for Potato Central! Without this we couldn’t have even started.
Richard Phipps for a fascinating Facebook post every day of January till Potato Day.
Nottingham Bikeworks for loan of an electric bicycle and huge trailer (big grin on Karen’s face!)
Ozgur at Pancho’s Fish Bar for huge numbers of crates
Shaun at Broxtowe Community Projects also for huge numbers of crates
Chris for cardboard boxes after we ran out of crates!
Karen Fry
Chair,
Nottingham Organic Gardeners