Other Growing Groups and Courses


Gardening course / workshops at Black Isle Brewery market garden, Allangrange


2023 WORKSHOP TIMETABLE AND INFORMATION

Vegetables for All Seasons – Join our Head Gardener Alexander who has over 20 years’ experience of Organic growing as he teaches you all you need to know to produce your own fresh vegetables, fruit and herbs.  Learn how to plan your garden to suit your needs, how to care for your crops, right through to the best way to harvest and preserve your produce to provide yourself with the best quality food all year round, all while increasing local biodiversity.

Workshops are 10am – 2.30pm, meet in the lecture room, organic tea, coffee, cake provided, and a basket of fresh produce when available. Please bring weatherproof clothing and a packed lunch if required.

£350 for the whole course.  In order to make our courses accessible to as many people as possible we are implementing a sliding scale pricing structure of £35, £45 and £55 for those who wish to pay for individual workshops.  We are grateful to those who choose to pay the higher charge to help make this possible.

  4 May           Pricking out, potting on and planting out 
Details and booking    

18 May          Perfect tomatoes, indoor growing, companion planting    
  8 June          Watering, weeding, pest control     
  6 July           Harvesting, successional sowing, maintaining summer crops    
10 August      Second season - plan and sow for autumn/winter     
 7 September Harvest festival - storing and preserving your produce 
 9 November  Laying the ground for next year - no-dig 

(dates are all Thursdays)

In addition to the series Alexander is also running:

12 October – Introduction to Biodynamics, working with the rhythms of nature

 This year we are also offering workshops by visiting master craftsmen and craftswomen to teach sustainable rural skills.

  • 21 September   Seed saving with Finley and Hayley of Seeds of Scotland £TBC
  • 19-20 October  TBC - Basket making with Tim Palmer - TBC
  • 30 November    Wreath making with JJ Gladwin - £45

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March 2023

Incredible Edible  Inverness

We want to share the joys of growing and eating together.  You might have seen some of our beds around the city.  Come and join our community and get digging with us and growing food to share.  It doesn't matter if you don't know your onions from your leeks - we are all learners in the growing game!  There could be a site somewhere near you, so get in touch and find out more.

National website   General Incredible Edible information

Inverness contacts             info@incredibleedibleinverness.co.uk
                                        07960 301763

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March 2023

Seeds of Scotland

Growing open pollinated vegetable, herb and flower seeds in Scotland

At Seeds of Scotland we are growing vegetable, herb and flower seeds in Scotland using agroecological farming practices.  We are particularly interested in growing Scottish heritage varieties as well as varieties that will grow well in the Scottish climate.  We strive to pay respect to the historical and cultural significance of each seed we sow and the stories they tell.

Contact us at: info@seedsofscotland.com  for more information.

Hayley and Finaly of Seeds of Scotland ran the Seed swap stall at TBI's Potato Day.

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January 2023

Knocknagael Community Growing Project

We are a community not-for-profit organisation established to take over the "Smiddy Field" - one of the fields at the Scottish Government-owned Knocknagael Farm on Essich Road in the south of Inverness - by an Asset Transfer Request

The aim of the Knocknagael Community Growing Project is to create, maintain and manage food growing activities, including allotments, for the benefit of the community.

Plans under consideration include a community garden, allotments, a community orchard, food growing areas, and outdoor walking paths.  We are in discussions with potential stakeholders including Education and Mental Wellbeing organisations.

With new housing going up all around Inverness, our aim is to create a Green Hub to get more people growing and enjoying local produce, while benefitting from a rural oasis in an increasingly urban landscape.  We recently submitted comments to the Highland Council's Inner Moray Firth Development Plan, which is currently under review.

​We have joined Community Land Scotland, the Community Woodlands Association, and been awarded a Stage 1 Grant by the Scottish Land Fund

Knocknagael website

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July 2022

Old Allangrange and Black Isle Brewery Market Garden

Allangrange garden design  office@blackislebeegardendesign.com

Also at Allangrange is 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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Highland Seedlings / Fearn Free Food Garden

Mairi MacPherson 

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Highland Wholefoods February newsletter 

2023 is already a month old, and the light is starting to creep back into the sky.  Here at Highland Wholefoods we are getting ready for another busy year.

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'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 since 2018.  

Pocket Orchards update 2022 - by John Wood

A ‘pocket orchard’ is a small group of community fruit trees which are accessible, where possible, to local residents with no, or minimum driving. The inspiration came from the community orchard in the garden of Cromarty Courthouse Museum, the wonderful gardens at Inverewe, and noticing some neglected apple trees in an overgrown corner of Poolewe.
.   .   .   .   

Full article

To find out more or get involved with the project, visit the group’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pocketorchards 

Or get in touch with them via email:  pocketorchards@gmail.com

Article link (HGFP)

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Elphin Green Bowl  online food market

The Green Bowl  is a group of crofters and non-crofters in Elphin and Knockan (NW Sutherland), led by Helen O'Keefe and Tessa Dorrian, working together to market, sell and distribute locally grown food to our community.  Seven producers sell a range of meat (beef, pork and mutton), eggs, honey, vegetables, fruit, herbs, bread and other baking.  Most sales are online, with weekly home deliveries to customers around Ullapool or pickups from Elphin.  In the summer, we also have a small farmshop, selling to tourists as well as residents.
 

Appletreeman

Andrew Lear,   Perthshire     https://plantsandapples.com/
 

Dunbar and District Local Good Food Alliance


MOO Food   Muir of Ord

(not up to date)

Background   October 2017


The Scottish Food Coalition

 

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.
 

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.
 

The Seed Co-operative        

 

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