A year of Vegelantes

This time last year we were lucky enough to have been awarded some grant funding from the CDCF (now Point North) Health Improvement fund to improve our growing facilities and take day care service users, volunteers and staff through the seasonal cycles of sowing, growing, nurturing, harvesting, preparing, cooking and eating fruit and vegetable,

aSome of the grant was for wood so that we could knock down and rebuild our old and rotten compost bay. So now we have a lrge three bay system where there will be one bay in use (putting in all kitchen vegetable and horticultural floral matter), one rotting down and one ready to put on the beds and borders. This not only means we dont have to buy as much for the nursery, but also means that we are minimising the amount of waste that goes into our bins and landfill.

The fund also allowed us to buy and put up a small polytunnel that we have used for lengthening the growing season. Our strawberry patch on the top tier had become tired and wasnt producing anymore so that is where we sited the new tunnel. It was a squeeze and involved plenty of planning, head scratching and body contorsions but in the end fitted into the spot perfectly. We had a successful end of season growing courgettes, peas, turnips and salads in it.

The vegetable beds themselves, our terraces, were underwater for most of the year, having had almost continuous rain from the June right through till late this year. We took the opportunity to mulch them with local farmyard manure.

And whilst the rain and the worms were incorporationg it into the soil we got on with sowing and pricking out all the vegetables that we would be planting tinto the borders and growing in the tunnels and greenhouse this year,

We also continued with learning al about food hygiene and preparing healthy, nutritious meals, using as much home grown fruit and vegetables as possible.

We learnt how to make scrumptious two course meals as well as simple satifying lunches...​oh and lots of puddings (but they always contained fruit)

As the season went on, despite being late getting onto the veg beds for the poor weather, our produce began to swell and grow and ripen.

We even grew some of the more exotic stuff, such as watermelons, peaches, apricots, chilean guava which were fun to try.

We learnt how to use the fruit for making jams so that it lasted longer, and even turned the wild garlic from ou woods into a delicious wild garlic salt seasoning.

We have harvested nearly everything from the grounds now. there are some apples on the trees, and kale, garlic and leeks still in the veg beds, oh and of course the sprouts ready for our Christmas meal. We will have a little rest for a month or two now and then get ready to start it all again next year.