Food Frome

On Sunday 14th June members of Food Frome visited the Torganics Community Supported Agriculture project at Paddington Farm near Glastonbury. We were amazed to see how much Colum Pawson and the local volunteers have managed to achieve in just one season.

Wild StrawberriesThe hedgerows round our garden are full of wild strawberries at this time of year. You can never pick very many at one time but they make a nice gardener's perk!

Potatoes in BucketsPotatoes from a BucketThis year we grew some early new potatoes in buckets. This allowed us to get an earlier crop as we were able to protect them in early spring. The pictures show a couple of the buckets growing and the amount of potatoes we got from one bucket. As the potato variety is International Kidney (the same variety as Jersey Royals) we decided to call these Mendip Royals!

Protecting BroccoliProtecting young purple sprouting broccoli plants from aphids and larger ones from cabbage white butterfly caterpillars is hard work

The enclosed photo of a Frome allotment shows a raised bed protected by a large sheet of fleece, carefully anchored round the bed, to prevent the butterflies from laying the eggs that hatch into caterpillars, and a few French marigolds to make a nasty smell to keep the aphids away. We shall see what will happen.

Patrick Holden, director of the Soil Association, is giving a talk followed by a discussion on "A Sustainable Food Plan for Britain" at the BRLSI (Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution), 16-18 Queens Square, Bath on Wednesday 3rd June at 7.30pm. Entrance is £3.

Charles DowdingGardener's questions and answers.

Gardening questions answered by: Alison Shingler (Gants Mill and Garden) (Chair), Eric Bloodworth (Florabunda Nursery), Debbie Chard (Barters Plant Centre) and Charles Dowding (Grower and Writer). Plants and books on sale.

2pm, Thursday, 9th July at the Cheese and Grain, Frome

On Sunday members of Food Frome and Sustainable Frome, led by Des Harris, visited Simpson's Seeds (www.simpsonsseeds.co.uk) in the old walled garden at Longleat.

Simpson's Seeds are a small family-run nursery, they mainly grow vegetable seeds and plants and specialise in chillis and tomatoes.

Matt Simpson gave us a tour of the nursery and explained some of the history. The walled garden was built in 1756 and continued to produce fruit and vegetables for the Longleat estate until World War II when it was taken over by the Ministry of Food.

Des Harris is organising another series of Food and Land Visits this year.

SUNDAY 17th MAY:
Walled Garden at Horningsham (Longleat). Home of Simpson’s Seeds. A lovely quiet secluded place where a lot of interesting propagation is going on!

SUNDAY 14th JUNE:
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) project near Glastonbury. Run by organic grower Colum Pawson on behalf of local people who want to grow their own produce.

SUNDAY 19th JULY:
Roundhill Cottage, Leigh-on-Mendip. Smallholding run by Brenda Rogers and Julian Back.

SUNDAY 27th SEPTEMBER:

These pictures show an apple tree before and after pruning. An Apple-tree pruning day was organised Helen Johnstone of the Sustainable Frome Apple group and led by Peter Macfadyen. The tree concerned is in the orchard of local varieties at the Millennium Green in Frome. The Apple Group plans to celebrate Apple Day in October.

Before
After

Sustainable Frome are running some bread making workshops.

A series of 4 monthly Bread Workshops supported by Sustainable Frome

WHEN?

No. 1: Sunday 25th January (coming up)

No. 2: Sunday 22nd February

No. 3: Sunday 22nd March

No. 4: Sunday 26th April

WHAT TIME?

10.00 a.m till after lunch (no need to bring bread!)

WHERE?

26 High Street, Frome (opposite Sun Inn, off Catherine Street) for sessions 1, 3 & 4

85 Nunney Road (for session 2 in Feb)

WHO?

Stina Harris (for sessions 1, 3 & 4)

Peter MacFadyen (for session 2)

HOW MUCH?