Sneinton Showcase and Christmas Market

A big thank you to all who supported us at the Transitions Market in Sneinton Square last Saturday! It was a really good day and we are looking forward to the next one in February.
The farm will be having another stall in Sneinton Square at the "Sneinton Showcase and Christmas Market" on Saturday 19th December between 10am and 4pm. Once again there will be lots of delicious food and drink, fresh fruit and vegetables for sale, local artists work, activities and entertainment and the chance to buy some unique Christmas gifts.This is also your chance to have a say on the future of Sneinton Square!
Look forward to seeing you there.
Audrey

Local Market in Sneinton Square

Jo and I will be at the Transition Nottingham Market in Sneinton Square this Saturday (12 December) from 11-3. We've got a stall where we will be selling farm produce like honey, jam, vegetables and plants. There'll be lots happening with locally produced food and arts and crafts and entertainment, so should be good and look forward to seeing some of you there!
Audrey

Green Street Volunteers Group

Hi everybody
Just a quick reminder that the Green Street Volunteers Group will be meeting again this Sunday between 12 and 3 pm. This week we'll be planting peas, beans and garlic as well as starting pea shoots which I've never grown before but they're supposed to be really quick and easy to grow and delicious in salads and stir fries. Anybody is welcome to come along and join in.
Looking forward to seeing you there.
Audrey
Ps Karen has made some damson jam in the farm kitchen, smells gorgeous and will be in the farm shop tomorrow!

Bonfire Day Celebration

Our Bonfire Day celebration was a big success, especially the Kale and Chard soup created by Keith "Masterchef" Cosgrove to show just how delicious food made with fresh, seasonal ingredients can be. By frying together onion, garlic, chard and kale, adding veg stock and coconut milk and garnishing with fried pumpkin crisps, Keith created something that even sworn "greens haters" loved! There's still Kale and Chard left in the garden so come and get some if you want to give it a try yourself and haven't got any in your gardens this year.

Our Green Street volunteers who meet every second Sunday were busy this weekend, pricking out trays of winter lettuces, taking cuttings of herbs and collecting seeds from the garden to be dried. Thanks to you all for your great work!

Bulwell Hall Community Gardens

Yesterday, Patrick and Jackie from the fledgling Bulwell Hall Community Garden came to see us. I'd met Patrick on Friday as both our projects along with our friends at Arkwright Meadows were successful in winning our respective "Grab a grand" competitions.

Patrick and Jackie have just started to lay the foundations for a long term community project and we were only too pleased to help it along the way.

As part of our mission to increase the supply of fresh local food in Nottingham, Green Street was happy to supply fourteen plantlet grows/seed trays for the new venture including lettuce, chives, cauliflower and spring onions.

For more information on the Bulwell Hall Community Garden, drop me a line and I'll contact the gang with your query. I'll also try and get some public contact details posted on here.

All the plantlets were lovingly and naturally prepared by Green Street volunteers in the very same Stonebridge polytunnel you see to your left: Gorgeous, juicy, succulent plantlets, a mouthwatering prospect to grace any future Bulwellian Sunday dinner plate.

Bulwell Hall Community Gardens are having an open day on Saturday November 7th and everyone is welcome to attend. Loads of stuff will transpire, including a visit by Graham Allen MP.

We at Stonebridge wish Patrick and Jackie every success in establishing the gardens and we look forward to working with them in the future.

Mark

PS: Don't forget the Bonfire Day Winter Celebration next week!! 12pm at the Farm. Pumpkin soup awaits!!

Bonfire Day Celebration all invited!

At Stonebridge City Farm we are having a bonfire and certificate presentation on 5th of November, everybody id welcome to come along, starting at 1.30pm and finishing at 3.30pm. Refreshments available include pumpkin soup, fresh crusty bread and mushy peas with mint sauce and drinks. Come and celebrate the beginning of winter with us!
Audrey

New Green Street Garden Volunteers Group

For all those of you who want to learn about growing your own food, do a bit of volunteering on the farm and have fun while meeting other people who share your interests we are starting a new "Green Street Garden Volunteers Group"! During the winter we'll meet every second Sunday but from the spring we'll get together every Sunday. The first one will be this Sunday (25th October) from 1pm to 3pm.

Each session we'll do different seasonal activities- any ideas welcome! This weekend we'll be learning about making leaf mould and potting up strawberry runners. Stay for the whole two hours or just drop in for ten minutes if you need a bit of advice and support. Look forward to seeing you there!

HI i'm Audrey

Hi i'm Audrey, the new Outreach Worker for the Green Street project at Stonebridge here to help you get growing your own fruit and vegetables at home, whether you've got an allottment, a garden or even just a couple of containers! It's a great time of year to get started, to prepare and plan and there is still plenty that can be planted at this time of year to keep you going through the winter. This week we've been potting up strawberry runners so we have new plants for next year and sowing seeds of winter salads, rocket and spring cabbages. At Stonebridge we've harvested lots of beautiful chard with red and yellow stems. So if you want a home visit to see what you can grow at home and how we can help, just email or phone me at Stonebridge and I'll arrange to pop around.

The Farm Open's It's Doors Once More...

...to three major events sponsored by Boots' Charitable Trust, Transitions St Ann's and Local Food strand of the Big Lottery Fund.

Sunday 6th of September.

Boot's Charitable Trust: "Roots and Reconnections 4"

Thanks to Boots Charitable Trust, we delivered our fourth Roots and Reconnections open day at the farm.

Over 350 people visited the farm to take part in free activities including eating a free healthy meal of courgette soup and fruit cobbler with yoghurt - made with ingredients cultivated and produced here at the farm.

Recipe cards were provided and staff were on hand to discuss issues of health and wellbeing with residents.

Visitors were able to talk to staff about the benefits of locally produced food, to purchase plants and plantlets, and talk about planting and methods of maintaining a great food garden.

The easily made courgette soup went down particularly well, showing that you don't have to be a Michelin five star chef to produce top quality food for your dining table. And using local ingredients.

On your left is the delicious wild fruit cobbler with natural yoghurt instead of custard. Again, easy to make and a dessert you will remember eating rather than something you forget after five minutes.

Nottingham's own "academy of wellbeing" since the turn of the century, Boots, have been a magnificent supporter of the farm's drive to improve awareness of healthy living in St Ann's and we hope they continue to do so in the future.

Our Roots and Reconnections programme of healthy living open days have attracted around 1500 people to the farm and we estimate half of those have visited for the first time. The support of people visiting us was essential in downloading funds from the Big Lottery "Local Food" strand for the Green Street project.

Transition St Ann's

The day was shared with new group Transition St Ann's who are also interested in promoting healthy living in the community with a focus on local food. To wit, they supplied activities including smoothie making (using the energy generated from an old racing bike) and communal soup making using pesticide free vegetables. Volunteers showed a series of films about modern food production which, I'm told, may be available for loan - they are certainly fascinating to watch.

Green Street Formal Launch

Finally, on a very busy day, we launched Green Street, our new Lottery-funded programme.

Audrey introduced herself to the public and offered her first "Open Forum" session to several eager food growers! If you couldn't make it, come down in the week and join us. We've already reached 40% of target for enrolments this year and if you do want advice, support, a training DVD, a password for the Green Talk message board, a visit from Audrey to get you started/move you on and loads and loads of education about food growing then you need to get in touch with us and fill in the enrolment form. It's simple and once you're in, you're in for three years!

And don't forget the Harvest Festival next year where you can display the food you've grown to your community.

Anyway, that's enough from me, more photos tomorrow.

Cheers and Healthy Living to you all!!

Mark

Cheers

Mark

Green Street Project Launch!!!!!

Great news!!!!!

The good ship Green Street will be fully launched and ready for business on Sunday 6th September at Stonebridge City Farm, as part of the Roots and Reconnections and Transition St Ann's Open Days.

The farm is open to the public from 11am-3pm.

Those people interested in enrolling on the Green Street Local Food programme can come in and speak to the Green Street staff.

Audrey Leech - our new Horticultural Outreach Worker
Keith Cosgrove - our Green Street worker/Beekeeper
Jo Swann - Green Street Supervisor
Mark Barry - general Green Street Information Person!!

If you join formally, this entitles you to -

• Outreach support with your home growing



• Access to expert local food growing advice



• Preferential access to a Beekeeping Course



• Free local food "plantlets" to start your own patch



• A free growing DVD



• Password for our new message board and cyber community of local food growers



• Display your produce on our annual Harvest Festival of Local Food.



• Experience of volunteering in food growing at your local community farm!!

...and loads more!! And all this is FREE!! Come and join us and make Nottingham an oasis of Local Food. We'll have forms available and all the information you need.

More details are available further down the page!!!

The Roots and Reconnections/Transitions St Ann's Open Day itself will offer-

• Free healthy, nutritional lunch (first come, first served), supported by Boots (including a crumble made entirely from farm produce!!)



• Recipe cards for the above, supported by Boots



• Smoothie making - bursting with vitamins



• Nature trail and accompanied tour of the gardens



• Free growing and cooking workshops



• Craft activities for all ages



• Films and displays



• Green Street launch



• Animal feeding, Trading Post, animal handling and all the usual Stonebridge activities you know so well.

All this is ABSOLUTELY FREE and everyone is welcome as usual.

We look forward to seeing you!!!

First Green Street Crops Grown and Eaten!!!

Graham Orton and Jenny Anderson celebrate the first crop of Green Street potatoes grown on the volunteers' plots at Stonebridge City Farm

And we were so excited, we decided to cook some with a little mint...

and here they are!!!! All 100% pesticide free and grown using the best care and attention.

What is the Green Street Programme?

Fancy a job here at the farm?

Check tomorrow's Evening Post.

“Green Street”

What is “Green Street?” Stonebridge recently won funding from the Big Lottery Fund to deliver a project called “Green Street”. The project aims to improve access to fresh, locally grown and affordable produce including a diverse range of vegetables, fruit, herbs, spices, free-range eggs and honey. It also aims to increase supply of local produce in an area where healthy food is in short supply.

Plantlets: Residents of Stonebridge Park Estate, Sneinton, St Ann’s and Dales will be supplied with the semi-grown plants and encouraged to grow their own produce in around two hundred new home-based, supported, growing schemes.

Urban Growing Zones: Home growing will be encouraged by an Outreach worker who will help set up Urban Growing Zones in resident’s homes, even those with limited space. Food can be grown in tyre beds, raised beds, containers, buckets and window boxes: the Outreach worker will advise. We’ll also supply a support skills DVD to make sure growing is sustained and growing skills develop.

Volunteers: Additionally, new and existing volunteers will grow large quantities of produce “plantlets” in our polytunnels and on open farm space. Volunteers will receive a skills based Stonebridge Food Growing Certificate at the Harvest Festival.

“Beewise” Beekeeping: A parallel beekeeping and honey production programme called “Beewise”. This programme is unique in this area; demand is high in an era of Colony Collapse Disorder which may put local honey supplies at risk in the future.

“Green Talk” Message Board: The Outreach worker will help establish a virtual message board/community with a 24hour question and answer facility.

Harvest Festival: Each year, there will be a Harvest Festival of Local Food where enrolees can display their wares, locals can sample local food recipes and ancient rural skills will be demonstrated including Scarecrow making and Wicker rituals. Eastern European residents can bring their children to meet Krampus!

Beneficiaries: We hope to raise awareness with local groups such as lone parents, people with disabilities, low income families, incapacity benefit/ESA claimants and young people (groups who are excluded from healthy food, often by price barriers), and we expect they will benefit tremendously from the project.

Outreach Worker
Green Street’s Outreach Worker is tasked with engaging the local community. The role is primarily external and mobile: ensuring people are involved and enroled; that outcome targets are reached; making sure interested members of the local community are enthused about growing and eating self-grown local food. The worker will offer an advice service about all aspects of pesticide-free food growing. Around a hundred Urban Growing Zones will be established each year in the home and the worker will be helping to establish and embed them in person, at the farm, on the internet, or over the phone. Working alongside the Horticultural Supervisor and Green Street Horticulturalist in a three person team, the Outreach Worker will play a critical role in publicising local food growing to volunteers, farm visitors, partners (such as the Garden-To-Plate network) and stakeholders (such as local councillors), thus ensuring the successful culmination of the Green Street Project.

Stonebridge City Farm New Project

Hi everyone,

This is Mark Barry here at Stonebridge City Farm in Nottingham. We're one of the nation's oldest City farms and we're growing all the time. I'll put some photos and links up in future blog postings.

Why the blog?

Through the Big Lottery Fund and the Royal Wildlife Trust, we're about to deliver a three year project to encourage local people in St Ann's, Sneinton, Dales and throughout Nottingham to grow their own food. We're also going to be delivering beekeeping courses over the next three years. This blog is going to track progress throughout the project and encourage Nottingham people to get involved.

The project is called "Green Street", which we thought was a cool name for something delivered by an urban farm. It's green and the farm is on an urban street. Nuff said!

Until we get the project - and the blog - started properly, which will be over the next month, why not visit us or visit our website:

www.stonebridgecityfarm.com

We've got a specific e-mail address for more information on enrolment, which will be checked once per day. This is purely for Green Street business.

stonebridgegreenstreet@googlemail.com

which is something of a keyboardful, I know!

Our normal e-mail address is:

stonebridgefarm@myway.com

for any other business pertaining to the farm.

We're about to get our Twitter account started. Rather than being written by yours truly, we'll be delegating the Twitter responsibility to Custard the Goat who has been referred to on many occasions as the fourteenth member of staff! She's far more interesting than me anyway!!!

I'll update later on Twitter development (as I have no idea what to do about it)

We do have a sporadic Facebook presence for the farm and that will also be linked. Anyone who enrols on Green Street will be able to join a private message board called "Green Talk"; which will eventually become a virtual community of gardeners and home food producers in Nottingham.

More later and best of luck today.

Mark