Yes, I know. It's new year. You have a million things on your mind. But I’d like to plant a thought. It begins with good news: £50 million of National Lottery money has gone into a project called Local Food, run by the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (www.rswt.org).

It is giving grants (£2,000-£500,000) to non-profit organisations promoting the “growing, processing, marketing and distributing of local food”, and “composting and raising awareness of the benefits of such activities”.

What does this have to do with you? That’s what I’d like you to think about, even if you just want to learn an easier way to peel chestnuts. You and like-minded friends and neighbours can probably devise a small-scale scheme worthy of funding.

Local Food spokesman Kelvin DeSena says the criteria have been made deliberately very broad. “We want people to be as creative as possible.”

Among case studies of the sort of thing that would be considered for funding are a community composting scheme in Brighton; an allotment-based vegetable-growing scheme in Burnley; and a sustainable wildlife centre at a primary school in Derbyshire which supplies vegetables for the school kitchen.

Think creatively. If there’s an allotment that needs sprucing up, your community could grow vegetables to feed dozens of families with no CO2 emissions. Would a local school welcome the chance to teach students that potatoes grow in soil, not a plastic bag?

If your rubbish is collected fortnightly, could you banish the odour of rotting food waste – and do away with carrier-bag bin-liners – by getting someone local to turn waste into compost? Please think about it. The opening date for applications is early February (www.localfoodgrants.org ).

And a practical tip, in the meantime. Steaming chestnuts in a pressure cooker for 5-6 minutes uses little energy and water. And makes peeling easier.

greenkitchen@thetimes.co.uk

For the best local produce in your area visit the Times Real Food Directory

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