Wizard's Garden: an Instant Allotment!
The Wizard's Garden, schemed by VREN with Vale Royal Organic and Wildlife Gardeners, was held in Northwich covered market for a week in summer 2008. We talked to many people, most of whom were already doing some food growing, encouraging them to diversify. We also answered many of their queries and problems, and had fun tutoring them on making compost via the cut-away composter and ex-fruit machine. For pictures, see our Gallery (button on left).
Interested in having an allotment? Contact your parish council. There's a map of Cheshire allotments here. For details of how to contact your parish clerk - see the Cheshire West and Chester website. Cheshire East has a page listing their allotments.
If living in Halton, see contact details on their website. We suggest Warrington people contact their parish council, details on Warrington's website.
The Wizard's Garden, schemed by VREN with Vale Royal Organic and Wildlife Gardeners, was held in Northwich covered market for a week in summer 2008. We talked to many people, most of whom were already doing some food growing, encouraging them to diversify. We also answered many of their queries and problems, and had fun tutoring them on making compost via the cut-away composter and ex-fruit machine. For pictures, see our Gallery (button on left).
Interested in having an allotment? Contact your parish council. There's a map of Cheshire allotments here. For details of how to contact your parish clerk - see the Cheshire West and Chester website. Cheshire East has a page listing their allotments.
If living in Halton, see contact details on their website. We suggest Warrington people contact their parish council, details on Warrington's website.
A rare breed cow belonging to a Chester farmer has died after eating a flying Chinese lantern. Huw Rowlands, of Grange Farm, Mickle Trafford, found his Red Poll cow unwell; she died a painful death 2 days later, the wire of the lantern having penetrated her oesophagus and punctured her windpipe.
Flying Chinese lanterns are inexpensive and used at celebrations: when their candles are lit, they can float off into the sky for maybe 20 miles. Being made externally of bamboo, cattle mistake them for food, and with their chewing of the cud, the wire has plenty of opportunity for causing damage. Huw said another farmer, on the Wirral, had similarly lost a cow. The lanterns also pose a fire risk to crops in summer.
Full story at http://www.chesterfirst.co.uk/news/82856/chester-farmer-s-dismay-as-chinese-lantern-kills-prize-cow.aspx
Flying Chinese lanterns are inexpensive and used at celebrations: when their candles are lit, they can float off into the sky for maybe 20 miles. Being made externally of bamboo, cattle mistake them for food, and with their chewing of the cud, the wire has plenty of opportunity for causing damage. Huw said another farmer, on the Wirral, had similarly lost a cow. The lanterns also pose a fire risk to crops in summer.
Full story at http://www.chesterfirst.co.uk/news/82856/chester-farmer-s-dismay-as-chinese-lantern-kills-prize-cow.aspx
Veg boxes and Community Supported Agriculture: Bridgemere, S Cheshire
They’re growing for quality rather than quantity – superior favourites and exotic tastes. Their veg box offering starts around April/May 2017, and you’re welcome to join in the growing. Northwich is outside their area, but Nantwich is fine. See http://www.flavourfarm.co.uk, also on facebook.
Transition Northwich aims to encourage more local food; they're currently tending mobile planters at Waitrose Northwich, having planted a range of herb and food plants. Photos on their website: http://transitionnorthwich.weebly.com/growing-talk.html
Frodsham's Vegmen are no more. They refer you to Bridge Community Farms, https://bwgardens.co.uk/. They do veg, salad and fruit boxes from their base in Ellesmere Port. They currently deliver to The Wirral, Ellesmere Port, Chester, Frodsham, Tarporley, Malpas, Farndon and anywhere in between. Collection from Ellesmere Port or The Cheese Shop in Chester. Their Wellness Gardens provide a therapeutic and caring environment for those with lifelong learning disabilities and mental health issues. Their Wellness Shop is an outlet for handmade items. Vegmen also refer you to their 9 Meals From Anarchy veg stock, for your kitchen, which you can order online from them here, or buy from certain retailers.
Groobarb is another veg box scheme, based in High Legh and supplying to Cheshire, Liverpool and Manchester. They supply veg and/or fruit boxes, breads, eggs, Cheshire apple juice, honey, squashes and some other seasonal solo veg. See https://groobox.co.uk.
Home Grown in Holmes Chapel have productive beds around their town centre. See http://hghc.weebly.com/, and on facebook.
Mid Cheshire Community Fruit and Veg Sharing is a facebook group, with lots of people posting about fruit and veg surplusses. See https://www.facebook.com/groups/122402831739853/.
For outdoor reared on pasture beef:
Nantwich: https://www.facebook.com/JanesFarmShop, with more customers than beef!
Chester, Mickle Trafford: https://www.facebook.com/huw.rowlands.5283
They’re growing for quality rather than quantity – superior favourites and exotic tastes. Their veg box offering starts around April/May 2017, and you’re welcome to join in the growing. Northwich is outside their area, but Nantwich is fine. See http://www.flavourfarm.co.uk, also on facebook.
Transition Northwich aims to encourage more local food; they're currently tending mobile planters at Waitrose Northwich, having planted a range of herb and food plants. Photos on their website: http://transitionnorthwich.weebly.com/growing-talk.html
Frodsham's Vegmen are no more. They refer you to Bridge Community Farms, https://bwgardens.co.uk/. They do veg, salad and fruit boxes from their base in Ellesmere Port. They currently deliver to The Wirral, Ellesmere Port, Chester, Frodsham, Tarporley, Malpas, Farndon and anywhere in between. Collection from Ellesmere Port or The Cheese Shop in Chester. Their Wellness Gardens provide a therapeutic and caring environment for those with lifelong learning disabilities and mental health issues. Their Wellness Shop is an outlet for handmade items. Vegmen also refer you to their 9 Meals From Anarchy veg stock, for your kitchen, which you can order online from them here, or buy from certain retailers.
Groobarb is another veg box scheme, based in High Legh and supplying to Cheshire, Liverpool and Manchester. They supply veg and/or fruit boxes, breads, eggs, Cheshire apple juice, honey, squashes and some other seasonal solo veg. See https://groobox.co.uk.
Home Grown in Holmes Chapel have productive beds around their town centre. See http://hghc.weebly.com/, and on facebook.
Mid Cheshire Community Fruit and Veg Sharing is a facebook group, with lots of people posting about fruit and veg surplusses. See https://www.facebook.com/groups/122402831739853/.
For outdoor reared on pasture beef:
Nantwich: https://www.facebook.com/JanesFarmShop, with more customers than beef!
Chester, Mickle Trafford: https://www.facebook.com/huw.rowlands.5283
Local Food Film
This Local Food Consortium film demonstrates how local food projects support communities.
Click on the image to get the film, or click this: http://www.youtube.com/embed/Swfzdf9duYI
https://www.seedsovereignty.info/ - “We support Small-scale Commercial Growers, Community Groups and Home Gardeners & Allotmenteers with useful networks, resources and information to help protect and restore seed diversity across the UK & Ireland.”
Smoke & Mirrors: Exposing the PR tactics of the pesticide industry, recording of a one-hour webinar. Looking at the industry antics since Rachel Carson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cadu-hUBF2I
This Local Food Consortium film demonstrates how local food projects support communities.
Click on the image to get the film, or click this: http://www.youtube.com/embed/Swfzdf9duYI
https://www.seedsovereignty.info/ - “We support Small-scale Commercial Growers, Community Groups and Home Gardeners & Allotmenteers with useful networks, resources and information to help protect and restore seed diversity across the UK & Ireland.”
Smoke & Mirrors: Exposing the PR tactics of the pesticide industry, recording of a one-hour webinar. Looking at the industry antics since Rachel Carson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cadu-hUBF2I
Here’s to foraging!
There's a map of these trees and more, here; and feel free to add your own findings.
Foraging – guides to plants and mushrooms edible and toxic, courses and recipes. Sample mushroom: https://www.wildfooduk.com/mushroom-guide/chicken-of-the-woods/
Great foraging website - https://www.foragelondon.co.uk/.
Sam's our local foraging expert:. See Sam's website.
How bad is Chorleywood bread, the light fluffy stuff easiest machine-sliced: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2003622/Is-bread-making-ill-How-2011s-loaves-bad-you.html
An event from a while ago...
This was great - in 2011 we found 17 apple trees, sampled from most of them, and learnt of others. We spent more time scrumping than walking! Some of the trees may have been left from former gardens and orchards, others arisen from discarded pips. 2012 was also fruitful, although there was a smaller crop due to the poor pollinating season. Some apples were taken to a local school; one child said they were the best apples he'd ever tasted. They'd come from Baron's Quay in Northwich; I hope the developers don't touch that tree! (They did, but I hope to have a graft from it.)
Some of the apples had superb flavours, but each had their own character. There were nutty ones better than russets, sweet ones like Worcesters, large sweet bakers, but some a bit more commercial in quality. We noted the best – we’ve got plans on doing some grafting early next year.
Between us, we reckoned we knew of many more apple trees, and other fruits and nuts too, available for picking. Almonds, sweet chestnuts, hazels, cherry-plums, pears, and many more apples. If you add on the trees in people’s gardens that produce more fruit than their owners can deal with, there is a vast bounty available to anyone who can divert it to drinks, pickles and preserves, drying or plain cold storing, or to schools, the poor or old folks’ homes.
But meanwhile, we need to make sure that the trees we saw aren’t wrecked by schemes like the Baron’s Quay development, as some are close or within the apparent boundaries. It will be a while before any propagated trees are fruiting, so their parents need protecting for the public benefit. (They did get chopped, I hope I've rescued a useful graft.)
Transition Northwich has an Apple Press, available for loan and use at community events. See https://transitionnorthwich.weebly.com/book-our-apple-press.html.
We attended an Apple Day with Rudheath and Witton, near the orchard on Northwich Angler's site:
Apple Day Report
Lots of people, lots of music, lots of apples! Tastings of apples from gardens and wayside gave feedback for which varieties we want to propagate for the orchard. Also available - medlars - despite their appearance, they were much appreciated, so we'll have to have medlar tree. We discovered that they can get too soft - and alcoholic. Also learnt to crack nuts between molars, raw sweet chestnuts good...
Apple Day at the community orchard was well attended, great venue at Dane Valley Fisheries on Shipbrook Road, attended by the Mayor Alison Gerard and Northwich Guardian Reporter, had lots of apple and nut tasting (bush tucker trails eat your heart out!!!!!)
Of the local grown nuts, we managed to molar into the hazels, filberts and sweet chestnuts. We left the almonds as they need mole grips to get in - nut crackers not up to the job!
So where do the local apples come from? See Cheshire Wild and Free.
If you live further afield, go to http://www.fruitwildandfree.com/,
click on the map and zoom in to your area
There's an established community orchard in Old Trafford, with heritage varieties and they ran excellent annual apple days in the past. See http://otagsorchard.blogspot.co.uk/ (not maintained since 2018).
This was great - in 2011 we found 17 apple trees, sampled from most of them, and learnt of others. We spent more time scrumping than walking! Some of the trees may have been left from former gardens and orchards, others arisen from discarded pips. 2012 was also fruitful, although there was a smaller crop due to the poor pollinating season. Some apples were taken to a local school; one child said they were the best apples he'd ever tasted. They'd come from Baron's Quay in Northwich; I hope the developers don't touch that tree! (They did, but I hope to have a graft from it.)
Some of the apples had superb flavours, but each had their own character. There were nutty ones better than russets, sweet ones like Worcesters, large sweet bakers, but some a bit more commercial in quality. We noted the best – we’ve got plans on doing some grafting early next year.
Between us, we reckoned we knew of many more apple trees, and other fruits and nuts too, available for picking. Almonds, sweet chestnuts, hazels, cherry-plums, pears, and many more apples. If you add on the trees in people’s gardens that produce more fruit than their owners can deal with, there is a vast bounty available to anyone who can divert it to drinks, pickles and preserves, drying or plain cold storing, or to schools, the poor or old folks’ homes.
But meanwhile, we need to make sure that the trees we saw aren’t wrecked by schemes like the Baron’s Quay development, as some are close or within the apparent boundaries. It will be a while before any propagated trees are fruiting, so their parents need protecting for the public benefit. (They did get chopped, I hope I've rescued a useful graft.)
Transition Northwich has an Apple Press, available for loan and use at community events. See https://transitionnorthwich.weebly.com/book-our-apple-press.html.
We attended an Apple Day with Rudheath and Witton, near the orchard on Northwich Angler's site:
Apple Day Report
Lots of people, lots of music, lots of apples! Tastings of apples from gardens and wayside gave feedback for which varieties we want to propagate for the orchard. Also available - medlars - despite their appearance, they were much appreciated, so we'll have to have medlar tree. We discovered that they can get too soft - and alcoholic. Also learnt to crack nuts between molars, raw sweet chestnuts good...
Apple Day at the community orchard was well attended, great venue at Dane Valley Fisheries on Shipbrook Road, attended by the Mayor Alison Gerard and Northwich Guardian Reporter, had lots of apple and nut tasting (bush tucker trails eat your heart out!!!!!)
Of the local grown nuts, we managed to molar into the hazels, filberts and sweet chestnuts. We left the almonds as they need mole grips to get in - nut crackers not up to the job!
So where do the local apples come from? See Cheshire Wild and Free.
If you live further afield, go to http://www.fruitwildandfree.com/,
click on the map and zoom in to your area
There's an established community orchard in Old Trafford, with heritage varieties and they ran excellent annual apple days in the past. See http://otagsorchard.blogspot.co.uk/ (not maintained since 2018).
Register your birds
From October 2024, all keepers of birds, whether pets, egglayers, game or birds of prey, will have to register with DEFRA. Before then, it’s only for those with 50+ birds, while registration of smaller flocks is voluntary. This is so they can alert you of disease precautions. The forms are here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/poultry-including-game-birds-registration-rules-and-forms |
Advice on keeping rescue hens
https://www.thelittlefeedcompany.co.uk/blog-post/taking-on-rescue-hens-what-to-expect/ |
Your diet – 30 different plants a week, avoid iceberg lettuce – go for loose leaf lettuce, dark green preferred, red tinges great. Coffee, seeds, nuts and spices count. The Food Programme, 30 mins. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001fvnx
https://ourfuturehealth.org.uk/: Our Future Health will be the UK’s largest ever health research programme, bringing people together to develop new ways to prevent, detect and treat diseases.
Wildfarmed have local outlets in Chester (Jaunty Goat, Bear Bakery, Hawarden Estate), Neston (Real Food Bakery), Liverpool (Platsville Bakehouse, Hawksmoor, The Pen Factory, Urban Crust popup), Macclesfield (Honest Crust, Early Bird Bakes), Manchester (Honest Crust in Altrincham Market, Greens in Sale, Chorlton Cheesemakers, Libertine in Withington, Yellow Hammer in Stockport, Trove and Long Bols in Levenshulme, too many in the city centre!). Wildfarmed sows wheat direct into grass, allowing other species to grow, using grazing animals on the land and avoiding chemicals and soil disturbance. See https://www.wildfarmed.co.uk/
https://ourfuturehealth.org.uk/: Our Future Health will be the UK’s largest ever health research programme, bringing people together to develop new ways to prevent, detect and treat diseases.
Wildfarmed have local outlets in Chester (Jaunty Goat, Bear Bakery, Hawarden Estate), Neston (Real Food Bakery), Liverpool (Platsville Bakehouse, Hawksmoor, The Pen Factory, Urban Crust popup), Macclesfield (Honest Crust, Early Bird Bakes), Manchester (Honest Crust in Altrincham Market, Greens in Sale, Chorlton Cheesemakers, Libertine in Withington, Yellow Hammer in Stockport, Trove and Long Bols in Levenshulme, too many in the city centre!). Wildfarmed sows wheat direct into grass, allowing other species to grow, using grazing animals on the land and avoiding chemicals and soil disturbance. See https://www.wildfarmed.co.uk/
A Guide to Gardening without Pesticides, by Pesticides Action Network, helped by Garden Organic. Pests and diseases one-by-one, how to deal with them. https://www.pan-uk.org/gardening-without-pesticides/
Paraquat and Parkinsons: https://www.thenewlede.org/2022/10/secret-paraquat-papers-reveal-corporate-tactics-to-protect-weed-killer-linked-to-parkinsons-disease/
PAN newsletters: https://www.pan-uk.org/pesticide-news/
Paraquat and Parkinsons: https://www.thenewlede.org/2022/10/secret-paraquat-papers-reveal-corporate-tactics-to-protect-weed-killer-linked-to-parkinsons-disease/
PAN newsletters: https://www.pan-uk.org/pesticide-news/