Grapes Hill Community Garden Update

The recent rain has done a lot of good at Grapes Hill Community Garden and areas of the garden which where the soil was baked hard are now bursting with plant life.

The woodland flowers have been lovely: primroses, wood spurge, Anemone blanda and sweet woodruff. As summer approaches the mixed planting of ornamental and kitchen herbs will bring a wider range of colours as well as more pollinators such as bees, hoverflies and butterflies.The raised beds are filling up with vegetable seedlings, starting with radishes, spring onions, lettuces and peas, to be followed with summer crops such as dwarf French beans and outdoor cucumbers.

We have two big events scheduled for the summer:

On Sunday 8th July, the day of the Norwich Lanes Fair, we will be celebrating the garden's first birthday with food, a licensed bar, music and plant sales, from 3pm until 9pm.

On Sunday 12th August (2pm - 6pm) there will be an afternoon of poetry in the garden, with wildlife poet Richard Bonfield and members of Norwich Poetry Group.

Admission to both events is free and the garden will continue to be open from 9am until 6pm throughout the summer.

We continue to have garden tasks on Sunday afternoons (2pm - 4pm). Our dates for the late spring and summer are: 6th & 20th May, 3rd & 17th June, 1st, 15th & 29th July and 5th & 19th August 2012.

For more information about the garden see our website and Facebook page.

Jeremy Bartlett.

Photo by Jo Rice - April Showers

FILM: Fahrenheit 9/11 - 18 May

Filmaker and political commentator, Michael Moore's view on what happened to the United States after September 11; and how the Bush Administration allegedly used the tragic event to push forward its agenda for unjust wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.The film takes a critical look at the War on Terror and its coverage in the news media and is the highest grossing documentary of all time.

We usually take a break to eat with Foodcycle, donations welcome for film and food. All welcome.

Time 6pm Venue: Friends’ Meeting House, Upper Goat Lane, Norwich

For further details contact Lesley Grahame lesley7railway@yahoo.co.uk

C is for Chickweed, Cookbooks and Community - I0 April

In Spring something wild starts happening in the kitchen. People start talking about nettle soup and looking into hedgerows and verges in a determined manner. It’s the time of the forager and all manner of sharp and peppery leaves are finding their way into Transition salad bowls everywhere. Old favourites like dandelions, cleavers and alexander flowers are mixed with new try-outs like violet leaves and rue.

At Sustainable Bungay’s Happy Mondays at the Community Kitchen (sit down supper for 50 people), bittercress leaves went into the cous cous, sea beet, sea purslane, chickweed and mallow leaves made a salty seashore salad, picked and shared with fellow Transitioner cooks and growers from London.

Being adventurous and resourceful are the hallmarks of the Cookbook. Our ancestors ate a huge variety of wild plants and one of the best ways to get back in synch with living systems is to eat as locally and directly as possible – and with these spring flower and leaf salads you are doing do just that. At our Low Carbon meeting we discussed how to proceed with the project over the last of the winter roots, Norwich Field Bean hummus and Erik’s new garden leaves, including zingy sorrel and land cress. Happy picking! Charlotte Du Cann

Low Carbon Cookbook are meeting on 8 May. For further info contact Charlotte on theseakaleproject@hotmail.co.uk