NEWS FLASH!

3 new Inspired to Grow dates for September and October 

Thursday 26th Sept 5 – 6.30pm: Harvest, tidy up and replant in the polytunnel

  • See & harvest produce that has grown over the summer including tomatoes, aubergine, cucumber, spinach, beetroot
  • Water and feed plants
  • Clear out old planters
  • Sow winter crops

To book your FREE place click here: www.trybooking.com/uk/DWRV

Thursday 24th October 5 – 6.30pm: Mushrooms & Herbs

  • Find out about fantastic fungi with our expert, Tyler (to be confirmed)
  • Plant up our  herb planter

To book your FREE place click here: www.trybooking.com/uk/DWSA

Monday  26th October 12.30 – 4pm: Picnic, Apple & Pumpkins

  • Join us for a BYO picnic in the orchard
  • Harvest windfall apples, taste different varieties, make apple juice, design apple juice labels & make apple donuts
  • Polytunnel jobs & pumpkin crafts
  • And meet our family of goats!

To book your FREE place click here: www.trybooking.com/uk/DWSB

A year of Inspired to Grow

Here is a quick update on what we’ve achieved over the last year of our Inspired to Grow project, copies of the downloadable resources that we have produced to support some of the sessions and some photos of the sessions in action!

Sunday 9th June – Inspired to Grow celebration at Open Farm Sunday, 12.30 – 4.30pm . See the fruits of our labour! Tomatoes, cucumber, broad beans, peas, marigolds, radish, potatoes and all sorts has been grown. Our festival was an opportunity for people to find out what we have been doing in our polytunnel through the Inspired to Grow project, meet some of our Inspired to Growers, pick up some tips about growing your own veg, and find out how your teenager can get involved in our projects in the future. We want to spread the word!
On Open Farm Sunday we opened the farm gates so that the local community could see our working farm in action, meet the farmer, listen to farm talks, join a guided farm walk, watch the sheep-dog demo and more.

Highlights of Inspired to Grow

  • 11 workshops to date covering composting, soil health, biodiversity and bugs, seasonal planting, exploring mushrooms, autumn orchards, harvesting, preparing and cooking ingredients, thrifty & seasonal recipes, cooking using plant based alternative protein sources, preserving and fermenting and lots more!
  • We’ve grown or started off tomatoes, peppers, garlic, spring cabbages, beetroot, lettuce, cucumbers, marigolds, nasturtium, potatoes, broad beans, climbing French beans, peas, button mushrooms, red onions, carrots, coriander, parsley, chives, basil and radish to name a few, phew!
  • We’ve tasted radish, spring greens, tomatoes of an array of colours and sizes, peppers, carrots, tofu, mushrooms, wild garlic, onions, courgette, spinach, cucumber, rainbow chard and more.
  • Our Inspired to Grow participants who have attended have taken home seeds to continue growing at home including basil, salad leaves, peppers, calendula, beans, courgette, micro-greens, seed potatoes, mushroom kits, and a tomato seedling to nurture at home, apples and ingredients to make a crumble, home made sriracha sauce and apple butter, home made stir fry and Mexican Three Bean Salad.

Tyler’s Veggie Fact Sheets

Tyler, one of the key Inspired to Grow team, has created the following handy info sheets about some of the plants we have been growing. You can download them here:

Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Courgette
Garlic
Potatoes
Radish

Inspired to Grow educational and information resources

If you would like to find out more about the importance of soil health, biodiversity, seasonal planting, looking after our environment and more, please check out some of our information and educational resources that we sourced from third parties or created for our Inspired to Grow workshop.

Biodiversity
Soil Health
Water
Seasonal growing chart
Creating a mini compost
Waste free lunch box challenge
Eat the rainbow challenge – foods by colour
Eat the rainbow/30 different foods in a week check list 
Pruning tips
Autumn fact sheet
Autumn colour in activity
Guide to Mushrooms
Fungus Detectives Poster
Fungi fact sheet
5 reasons why Fungi have shaped the world
Permaculture Info Sheet
Growing potatoes Info Sheet
Companion Planting Chart
Companion Planting Benefits
Flowers for your Veg patch infographic
Protein Sources Info
Plant based protein sources infographic
Gardening wellbeing benefits
CropRotation
Empower Half Hour Mental Health Poster
Nature fortune teller

Recipes

As part of our project we have provided thrifty, seasonal recipe cards for our Inspired to Grow participants so that they can continue to feel inspired to reduce food waste, diversify their own diet, make seasonal and sound environmental decisions around their food habits and try new things!

Flatbread pizza, Pesto Pasta, Rainbow Salad Bowl and Tomato Salad
Apple & Orchard recipes
Mushroom recipes
Potato recipes
Sriracha Sauce recipe
Ketchup recipe
Pepper sauce recipe
Apple butter recipe
Cabbage & Courgette recipes
Inspired to Grow beetroot take home recipes – final
Recipes using alternative protein sources – KFC inspired mushrooms, Mexican Three Bean Salad & Tofu and rainbow veg stir fry
Food essentials on a shoestring
Speedy biryani and eggy bread
Portioning a Chicken

Here are some pictures from some of our sessions:

 

 

We have so enjoyed working with a wonderful group of teenagers over the months of our Inspired to Grow project. We think they have enjoyed it too. Don’t take our word for it, here are some of their comments & their parents comments:

“She really enjoyed the experience and was made to feel very at ease, which is all thanks to yourself and the team”

“Thank you so much for yesterday, M had a wonderful time, which was partly due to the welcoming and supportive environment you’ve created. He is extremely excited about the cookery class”

“The boys absolutely loved it today! Thank you so, so much”

“Thank you, as ever for such a lovely session. C does so enjoy coming.”

“I loved tasting the potato wedges and our homemade tomato ketchup!”

“We loved the fermenting workshop. I’ve already brought the vinegar to preserve anything we make.”