Growing Communities' Open Day on Sunday - all three market gardens were open and looking beautiful and highly productive. The sun shone despite the previous evening's forecast of heavy rain all day which had created a slight feeling of gloom for those of us who were due to work! Visitors included joggers at Clissold - who ran in and round the polytunnel, box scheme members keen to see where their salad bags came from, farmers' market customers, people who came to see our eco-classroom at Allens Gardens as part of the Open House weekend and lots and lots of people passing by who wanted to find out more about urban organic growing.  It was really nice to have our Urban Apprentices on site - Shelagh and Jack at Springfield and Jo at Clissold as well as actual Patchwork farmers, Ximena at Clissold and Sophie at Allens who could tell people about the reality of running a micro-site.  Apart from the key role played by all the growers, including Sara and Pip obviously, it's possible the real star of the day was the yards and yards of green and white bunting which was drapped all over the Clissold site and virtually developed its own fan base...I know there should be a picture of the bunting but I didn't take one, (too in awe??) so here's a lovely picture of Allens Gardens instead with our eco building and its green roof tucked away at the end of the site.

Sara - our lovely grower is leaving us to go back to Zimbawe - Sara has written a goodbye blog for us:

I’ve known for a while that come the end of the growing season I’d be handing over my gardening belt and heading back to Zimbabwe. Yet despite some time to get used to the idea, it’s no easier to say good-bye, both to the sites I’ve been working these last five years and the rather amazing group of people I’ve worked with.

When I started in 2007, there was the grower, two of us apprentices, and a fairly flexible programme for volunteers. Now as I leave my post as grower, the volunteer programme is still going strong but as well as the grower there’s also an assistant, five Patchwork Farmers and four newly graduated apprentices. In addition to growing a serious amount of food, we’ve really managed to grow a fine team of growers!

With our Clissold site becoming more and more productive (we turned the butterfly tunnel into a polytunnel last year) and the Patchwork Farmers running four microsites as part of the Patchwork Farm, it’s become quite an operation. One which saw us harvesting and then packing over 80kg of mixed salad leaves at the height of the growing season: getting a bag of salad out to every member of the box scheme plus onto the plates of many more people through local restaurants – and we kept this up for 6 weeks running.  It’s been hard work to say the least, with the rather large dose of logistics that comes with growing at multiple sites. But the level of cheer and dedication from my fellow growers plus the honest appreciation for the delicious organic leaves we are growing right here in London has been more than enough to buoy me along.

I wish Paul well as he takes up the reins: may your secateurs be sharp, the compost rich, the robin friendly, the slug scarce and let the salad growing continue on.

Sara Davies, November 2011

Paul Bradbury is Growing Communities' new grower and we asked him to tell us about what's going on at the sites right now. Given that it's January you might be expecting him to say " not much" but as you'll see below, there's more happening at the Urban Market Gardens than you'd expect. Over to Paul:

"Well, our gardens are resting under their winter fleeces, which I’m happy to say have so far survived the bouts of lashing wind and rain that we have had over the last few days.  Storms aside though, the winter has been so mild that everything is still growing.  As a result, we are harvesting a few bags of rocket which will be on sale at our Urban Farm Shop at the Old Fire Station next Wednesday.  Also at the Farm Shop will be a rare chance to buy some Oca tubers.  Also known as New Zealand Yam, Oca actually hails from the Andes and has a lemony flavour reminiscent of wood sorrel to which it is related.  For that fresh crunchy taste, the tubers can be eaten raw but they can also be boiled, baked or fried like potatoes.  In Mexico, they are traditionally eaten raw with salt, lemon and hot pepper.  If all this wets your appetite, then be sure to pick up a bag at our Farm Shop – it may be the only time you see Oca on sale in London.
The downside of the mild temperatures is that aphids are still abroad.  They are currently having a bit of a party in the Allens Gardens greenhouse, which I’m doing my best to break it up with my trusty nettle and garlic sprays.   I think I’m making headway, although the greenhouse has taken on the aroma of an ancient piece of garlic bread! The gardens will be opening up again to volunteers at the beginning of February – an exciting time when we will begin planning and planting for the new season, so if you fancy coming along and getting involved, it would be great to see you."

Well it’s been a crazy old month. At the beginning of February it was deepest winter, with our hardiest volunteers helping to scrape snow off the salad beds, but by the end of the month, it already seemed like summer and we were reaching for our watering cans. It’s been a confusing time for the plants that we have overwintering, facing first death by frostbite and then death by drought. But one should never underestimate the staying power of the plant kingdom and I’m pleased to say that for the most part our salad leaves have come through this testing time with flying colours.

February is also the month when I order the seeds for spring planting. This year we have 88 varieties of salad leaf going in the ground. We will be planting with the true spirit of explorers charting new territories with exotic oriental greens, colourful beets and multifarious lettuce leaves. In theory our lucky box scheme members could be getting salad bags in which no leaf variety is repeated more than once!

We are very sad to be losing our Assistant Grower, Pip, at the end of March. Over the years that he has been with us, he has turned our Clissold Park site into a place of bountiful beauty. If anyone wants to see polytunnel cultivation at its very best, I recommend making a trip to our Clissold site, which is open on Thursdays. Pip will be leaving us to travel the country visiting various different communities and growing projects and we wish him well.

It’s been a hard job finding a replacement for Pip, but we are very happy to be welcoming Sophie to the job. Sophie began as a volunteer then became an apprentice grower. She co-founded our Castle microsite, which she and Ida have brought to fruition over the past couple of years. I’m sure Sophie is going to be a great addition to the Growing Communities team.