Other Growing Groups and Courses

September 2021

Open day at Old Allangrange and Black Isle Brewery Market Garden

Saturday 4 September    

On Saturday 4 September JJ Gladwin's garden at Old Allangrange was open under the Scotland's Gardens Scheme which opens beautiful private gardens in Scotland to raise money for charity, in this case  Black Isle Bee Gardens, Allangrange's own charitable society which creates gardens to benefit people and bees. 

For more information email office@blackislebeegardendesign.com

Scotland's Gardens Scheme Allangrange information and pictures

Also open to visitors was the Black Isle Brewery's market garden, which supplies vegetables to the Brewery's bars in Inverness and Fort William  and IV10 in Fortrose, and has been transformed to a more sustainable and regenerative model by redesigning the main garden using agroecological design and growing principles.

https://www.blackislebrewery.com/

Brewery Head Gardener Alex Davies writes about the market garden

We grow our organic vegetables and fruit using agroecological, no-dig and permaculture methods to increase biodiversity and support local flora and fauna.  A good example of this is how we use the spent grain from the brewery – as well as feeding it to our Hebridean sheep, we combine it with green waste from the garden and wood chippings from local tree surgeons to produce the compost in which we grow all our veg - this ‘closed loop’ system acts in a regenerative way, allowing us to give back more than we take from the land.

Read more

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July 2021

Update from Appletreeman

Andrew Lear emails

What a strange year it has been since Covid hit. Though all workshops and courses have paused, I have continued to be very busy in the field, and both 2020 and 2021 have been very hot summers. This has restricted my hours working in the open under the midday sun so I have genuinely become more European in my habits!

Blackhaugh Farm (where our nursery is located) is about to host the Scottish Scything Festival after taking a year out. The weather was perfect for a good turnout of scything enthusiasts last year and promises to be again.
  
Families of Whitethroats, Greenfinches and Yellowhammers bred and fledged around me this year and were a delight to see. It always amazes me how many birds enjoy having wee apple trees to firk about in! 

Read the full update

https://plantsandapples.com/

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Dunbar and District Local Good Food Alliance

MOO Food   Muir of Ord

September 2020   news update       Emma Whitham writes

MOO Food's edible village is really taking shape with the community orchard now in its third year and flourishing, the school garden now has its own orchard, growing boxes, jelly hedge row and poly tunnel, the village hall garden is bursting with life too with a herb garden and 5 growing boxes; throughout the village there are a further two pocket orchards and in total 25 grow boxes all containing seasonal vegetables and herbs for the whole community to enjoy.

The MOO Community fridge continues to be the main platform for sharing all surplus produce in the village, whether that be from local retailers, MOO Food growing spaces or community members.  Currently, monthly donations are ten times that of 2 years ago, which is resulting in significant carbon savings.

The MOO Food staff recently launched a new project - Scran Not Scraps.  This project is about reducing food waste and increasing carbon literacy.  The plan for the coming months is to launch a Zero Waste Kitchen campaign and a Casserole Club.  To keep up to date with all MOO Food activities please visit www.moofood.org
 

(Earlier information from Facebook,  October 2017)
https://www.facebook.com/MOOFood/

Story
MOO Food is a social enterprise based in Muir of Ord with a vision to create an inclusive hub for producing environmentally conscious food that sustains a healthy, empowered, low carbon community.

Mission
To inspire healthy, environmentally friendly living and give the Muir of Ord community opportunity to reduce carbon footprint and contribute to the production of affordable, chemical free food. Whilst providing hands-on learning opportunities and increasing social capital.

MOO Food Aims

• to improve access to affordable, local, seasonal, chemical free fruit and vegetables.
• to inspire healthy, sustainable, green living
• to provide opportunities for the community to be active
• to empower the community by increasing knowledge and confidence through delivering a suite of courses on growing fruit and veg, food preparation, nutrition, waste reduction and composting, and ongoing support
• to increase social capital by bringing people together and facilitating sharing of knowledge and skills within the community and to prepare the younger generation for the future
• to facilitate an organic waste collection service and community composting
• to be inclusive

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July 2020

The Scottish Food Coalition

The Scottish Food Coalition is a diverse alliance of civil society organisations working for food ​justice.  We believe there is strength in working collectively - though the individual organisations involved have different priorities, as a Coalition we believe no issue is more important than the others: from workers' right to wildlife loss, diet-related ill-health to food poverty, all of these challenges are urgent and can be solved more effectively by looking at the whole system.

We are campaigning for a new law on food, a Good Food Nation Bill, that takes a whole system approach. We want this bill to be a coherent framework that ensures the food system  contributes to everyone's health and wellbeing, values the work to put food on our plates, supports high animal welfare, sustains our wildlife, natural resources and environment for generations to come.

Scottish Food Coalition website

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May 2020

Stirling Community Fridge

Stirling Community Fridge - Transition Stirling working in partnership with The Kitchen

From the SCCAN April 2020 newsletter

Together we can reduce food waste through the Community Fridge, by diverting the large volumes of good food which supermarkets would otherwise throw in the bin, and offering it to everyone in the community for free!
 
This project was part-funded by Stirling Council, with a focus on tackling food waste, but due to the consequences of coronavirus we have more work to do than expected: supermarkets have fewer outlets for the surplus food and, meantime, we've had over 100 people come to pick up food in a single day! We have 25 volunteers who are helping to pick up, set out, and help people coming in to pick up the food.  All physically distanced of course and using hand sanitiser supplied by Stirling Gin.
 

January 2020

Stirling Online Market

This was originally set up as Stirling Food Hub in 2016 by Forth Environment Link, who in January 2020 transferred the market to The Kitchen at 44, who now run it under the auspices of the national NeighbourFood network.  From the Stirling NeighbourFood website

Welcome to Stirling NeighbourFood hosted by The Kitchen at 44. Here you will find a variety of great products direct from quality farms and producers. Vegetables, fruit, meat, eggs, dairy, real bread, preserves, cakes, small batch hand roasted coffee and lots more. Come and meet the producers and and enjoy a new way to eat well while supporting local agriculture and food producers.

Forth Environment Link founded Stirling's online market in 2016 because they believe this kind of food shopping connects community, local seasonal produce and the environment in a fun fair and sustainable way, thus giving a renewed appreciation of the real value of food to all aspects of life! In January 2020 Forth Environment handed over the running of the market to The Kitchen at 44 a community interest company with similar principals and ambitions. We hope you will enjoy your food more, and that connecting with its source will help prevent food waste and save food miles.

Stirling online market
     https://www.neighbourfood.co.uk/markets/stirling/8

Forth Environment Link website
     http://www.forthenvironmentlink.org 

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November 2019

Transition Town Forres'  Community Garden

TTF have a page on their main website about their Community Garden, and the garden also has its own website, mainly intended for garden members and users.

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Highland Seedlings,  Fearn

February 2021

Mairi MacPherson from Highland Seedlings offered a short talk and Q&A session about veg growing in the Scottish Highlands, on 13 February, but this online event is now fully booked.

https://highlandseedlings.com/

August 2019

TBI recently received an email from Mairi MacPherson, explaining that she was formerly an academic at UHI but had to give up full-time work because of illness and now runs a small growing business in Fearn.  She writes

"I have 1/3 acre garden at home in Fearn and grow many veg, and we're trying to be as sustainable and self-sufficient as possible, but because of my health limitations there is only so much I can do.  I really want to help more folks grow their own and turn their unused grass spaces into food (in a no dig/permaculture way), and I've started to run workshops ever so often.  I also sell veg seedlings which folks can pick up either in person or order online and I ship them to them. There's more about this on my website, www.highlandseedlings.com.  I'd love to start a community garden here in Fearn or do stuff with the primary school, or work with community groups of some sort."

Mairi is interested in joining TBI as an Associate Member, and hopes that we might be able to to come up with ideas for projects, workshops or volunteering opportunities which would benefit both her enterprise and TBI members.  She adds that visitors to the garden are always welcome (location information on the website).  Her contact information is

Mairi MacPherson
Highland Seedlings
Oak Cottage, Hill of Fearn
Tain     IV20 1TJ

highlandseedlings@gmail.com

Main website              https://highlandseedlings.com/
Online shop               https://www.vegseedlings.co.uk/
(nothing available at the moment)

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November 2018

'Pocket Orchards' in Wester Ross

Former TBI director John Wood and friends have been planting fruit trees in public spaces around the wester Ross villages.  Read more .

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The Seed Co-operative        

Website         https://www.seedcooperative.org.uk/

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GROW  Observatory

Toni has drawn attention to this European organisation.    From their website:

The GROW Observatory (GROW) is a European-wide project engaging thousands of growers, scientists and others passionate about the land. We will discover together, using simple tools to better manage soil and grow food, while contributing to vital scientific environmental monitoring.

Our vision is to support the emergence of a movement of citizens generating, sharing and using information on growing and the land.

This can lead to more sustainable land use practices, better soil and land governance and policy, and a unique data repository for science. Through this, people gain a voice on local issues and tailored advice on which new crops to plant, when to water, sow and harvest. In turn, their insight will underpin better-informed decision­-making and policy objectives, while improving soil, land use, climate change adaptation and our overall sustainability.

Visit the GROW  website .