Zero Carbon Castle

On Saturday 6th March ZCC and our Bedford in Bloom friends (BTCV, Kempston in Bloom, Taste Real Food, Transition Bedford) will be holding the first food growing event planned for 2010 – Seed Sharing Saturday. The event will be held at the Bunyan Free Meeting Church on Mill Street Bedford in the main hall and will start at 9.30am and finish about 12.30pm. Some simple free refreshments will be available on the day.

The idea is that anyone wishing to donate seeds (all types) either send them to: BTCV (FAO: Jill Ferry), Taylor House, 99 Ashburnham Rd, Bedford MK40 1EA prior to the event so they can be packaged up and made available at the start of the day or bring them along on the day. After the event, seed swapping can continue via this website for those growers who want to continue to widen their planting varieties. Details of how this will work will be posted shortly. In the meantime, you can begin to sort your seeds out and put them into envelopes clearly marked with the plant/vegetable type, the variety, any specific details (like expiry date or heritage or organic) and your name and any contact details if you wish to provide them.

So come and join us on the 6th for a warm cup of something and a biscuit and pick up some free seeds!

If you would like to display a poster (pdf) in your community or organisation, please click the link below.

seedexchangeposter rev1 jan10

We’ve been talking about mapping these things for a while now and I thought we should get this organised so that we have a record of what could potentially be used for community use together with locations of trees  identifying unwanted fruit.

Stephen from Abundance Sheffield www.growsheffield.com who recently visited us on our food day said that they started with about 20 trees in the first year…not so many I thought! Lots of fruit off them though. There are lots of  trees in Goldington/Putnoe as well as the Saints/Kimbolton Road and Poets/off Shakespeare Road. I think with a bit of planning 20 aiming for access to 20 trees is definately feasible and likely. Oakley Environmental Group were looking at acquiring a fruit press with some other communities.

I am happy to help with mapping and knocking on doors. We need a plan/strategy and someone to lead this. Any takers? Also,  is there anyone that has the IT skills to help organise an online map where we could map specific locations (private and public) where (1) there are fruit trees and open spaces (2) the owner of the land is willing to let us harvest the fruit or use the land.

Bedfordshire’s – Introduction to permaculture design

Permaculture ethical and design flower

A weekend course to introduce the basics of permaculture and show how this approach can be applied.

Date
Saturday 4th July; 9:30 start – Sunday 5th July 4pm finish.

Venue
Yelnow Organic Farm, Church Lane, Odell, MK43 7AD, North Bedfordshire.
Surrounded by Odell Great Wood             10 miles from Bedford & Northampton

Course tutor:
Hannah Thorogood

Who is the course for?
The course is open to anyone. No prior knowledge of permaculture is needed.

Find out all the details about the course here.

Planting seeds for our common future

Take a look at some of the snaps from the vibrant local food day. A beautiful day and a beautiful crowd, where the herb garden stole the show, with the “Angelica” twins providing the staring performance. This event provided us with a glimpse of a future scenario, the non- apocalyptic one, with environment lead, social regeneration. In this new scenario, not only are people directly in contact with the source of their food but they’re directly in contact with their neighbours.

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Herb planting at Rothsay roundabout in 2008

Saturday 9th May 2009
1pm start at the Herb Garden on the Rothsay
Road and Castle Road roundabout

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