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https://reasonstobecheerful.world/iconic-tiptree-jam-rainwater-harvesting/>
"Andrey Ivanov remembers 2011 and 2012 all too clearly. A drought had been
declared across much of England. The spring of 2011 was named the driest in the
country since 1893, followed by the region’s driest autumn since 1985.
This put a brief end to the usual complaints about the stereotypically rainy
English weather. But for Ivanov, general manager of Wilkin & Sons, the farming
operation known for producing the country’s most iconic fruit, this was bad
news.
Ivanov had a tough decision to make. With the farm’s reservoirs running low and
no rain in sight, he decided to use the remaining water supply to irrigate half
the farm’s signature strawberry and raspberry crops. The other half would be
sacrificed, to give the irrigated crop the best chance of being fully
harvestable. The alternative would be unthinkable: continue to irrigate all
crops equally, then run out of water and lose everything.
Then, on April 12, 2012, “the heavens opened,” Ivanov recalls, the date clearly
imprinted in his memory. The driest season on record turned into the wettest,
saving all of the crop. But Ivanov didn’t want the farm to reach such a crisis
point again, so he began looking for solutions — and realized the answer had
been above his head, and on the farm, all along.
Rainwater harvesting had been introduced at Wilkin & Sons on a small scale in
the 1980s, by diverting rainwater traveling through the gutters from the farm’s
buildings into newly built reservoirs to store it. Ivanov then expanded the
process to include the roof space of all the farm’s greenhouses and polytunnels
(smaller greenhouse-like structures) and built more reservoirs to increase the
amount of rainwater the farm could store. Now, pipes are attached to all the
gutters within the farm’s 50 acres of covered structures, so rainwater can
travel to seven reservoirs across the 650 acre property, rather than being lost
to the sea."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
