To the Hedgerows we go…Foraging Fridays!

Wild Flower and Leaf Salad

A Dandelion you weed out of your lawn. Nettles growing tall out of a crack in the paving. An Elder tree you always notice walking down the road…There’s too much growing wild for us not to explore and harvest!

Here in Sipson we have a whole backland which has exploded in a most beautiful spring green, over the coming seasons every week, we will be exploring, learning, gathering, cooking, preserving, drying, brewing, drinking, eating Celebrating natures wild abundance at our Foraging Friday sessions at or around the Grow Heathrow site.

• Gathering at 1pm fo lunch.
• 2pm we will head out to the hedgerows, fields and forests surrounding the Heathrow villages, from the beautiful Cranford Park to Harmondsworth Lake – bring your foraging bags, notebooks and wild food knowledge.
• Each week we will pick 1-2 plants to concentrate on learning where they grow, when to harvest, what to make with them, their medicinal properties, folklore and myth of these magical plants many people call weeds.
• Returning to the Grow Heathrow site in the later part of the afternoon we will create something with what we have foraged; maybe an evening meal, a herbal Tincture, a pickle or preserve, syrups, wines, beers, teas….anything we want. Finishing at 5:30pm we will all take away a wealth of knowledge and a jar of something delicious to share with community, family and friends.

The common Dandelion we will discover this Friday

Starting this Friday 11^th May at 10am we will start with a spring herbal tonic and a quick introduction to some ideas around wild food foraging.  At 2pm we will leave Grow Heathrow and discover the well know Dandelion with fresh eyes.

To the hedgerows we go! Spread the word!

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Remember to bring waterproofs and good shoes if raining. Also glass jars are always useful.

Gardening. Sundays. Be there

The time has come here at Grow Heathrow to leave the burners cold and drink our morning tea while peering about the site noticing the breaking through Buddleia and Elder, Nettles and Bramble which surrounds the site, stretch out into the coming spring.

Its time to leave meetings and dreams of fat yellow courgettes and crisp fresh peas for the winter months, get out in the meadow, build more raised beds, more cold frames, turn the (great) compost, get rain water collection sorted, make the growing plan, explore the rich and exciting Grow Heathrow heritage seed bank and get ourselves in action to grow food, with and for our whole community, Grow Heathrow and the Heathrow villages.

The PEDAL seed bank comes to Grow Heathrow

So we did that, more than a month ago. You’ll notice that’s why the blog’s a bit late, no time for computers when there’s plants to get to know! Now at Grow Heathrow it’s a buzz of activity – our seedlings are well on their way, soil firmly under our nails and a fresh new excitement in the air – this year we’re on it.

Gardening Club Sundays is the day here at Grow Heathrow to come and get growing. No way we could do this all by our selves, and by no means do we want to, that’s why the gates are always open for anyone to join in. A local resident, a passer by, a Londoner who needs a break from the concrete and smog, kids, parents, old, young, all abilities, experienced allotment growers, those who don’t know a thing about it at all, anyone – really anyone who wants to learn or share their own skills and experiences.

The idea of these Sundays is to get everyone together working on jobs around site to do with the food aspect of the Transition Heathrow project. From week to week that will differ, always an array of jobs to be done for different ages and abilities, from seeding to shifting wheelbarrows of compost. Planting out to harvesting produce. With snacks and hot drinks always available.

Drop a beet

And the best thing about it is, we learn by actually doing it, we will all learn together as we go – a crop might not grow so well, might get a disease or pest – but at the end of the day we’ll learn how to organically deal with it next time.

No, i was wrong, that isn’t the best thing about it, the best thing is we grow it together then we get to eat it, no TESCO in-between. You grow it, you eat it. You defiantly enjoy it. Anyone who has ever tried food they have grown with their own hands that’s fresh from the soil and plant knows it cant be beaten in taste and satisfaction.

With the new TESCO opening up around the corner in West Drayton, all we can really say to them is ‘get out of town’ we’re doing it ourselves. With the produce over the coming seasons, we will be distributing locally in our Sipson post office, and maybe a stall at local Farmers Markets, giving plants and produce away free to residents in the local community to grow in their own gardens, holding peoples kitchens, delivering our veggies to social centres and other squats in london, preserving, pickling, jamming any glut and generally getting to know what its like not to depend on veg imported from half way across the world.

I’m very excited, I hope you are too. Come and join us to understand what food autonomy really means.

The Grow Heathrow gardening club runs every Sunday from 2 – 6pm.

CFGN Gathering Sunday 26th February

The London-based ‘Community Food Growers Network’ has been organising seasonal gatherings for information and skill-sharing, network business discussion, and to take part in practical tasks and visits to different community growing project sites.

If you want to get more involved in the network come along to the next gathering on Sunday the 26th Feb or check out the website for future dates, details of the network’s manifesto, and how groups can become members.

connect // cooperate // support // defend // celebrate

When: Sunday 26th February 2012

Time: Meeting 1-5.30pm (Practical work starting at 11am)

Where: Grow Heathrow, Vineries Close, Sipson, West Drayton, UB7 0JG

Directions: From Central London: Travel to West Drayton in TfL zone 6 in 20 minutes by train from Paddington. From West Drayton either take the 222 bus towards Hounslow and get off in Sipson Village or follow the cycle path towards Sipson. Our site is a 1 minute walk from the King William Pub which is in the middle of town.

Contact: info@transitionheathrow.com, 07890751568

Timetable

11-12.30: Practical tasks on the Grow Heathrow site: Mulching, preparing compost and seeding area

12.30-1.30: Lunch

1.30-4.30: Tour of Grow Heathrow & Meeting (see draft agenda below)

4.45-5.30: Seed swap

Draft Agenda:  e-mail additional points to info@transitionheathrow.com or bring to the Gathering

1. Project Updates

2. Via Campesina

3. International Day of Peasant Struggles 17 April 2012

4. CFGN Annual Gathering -  at the last gathering we resolved to make the quarterly meetings smaller ones for members only, and put our organising energy instead into organising an exciting annual gathering, to which we encourage loads of other CFPs to come to. Lets get a date, venue, and a bit of a plan for how the day will be run and publicised.

5. GM Crops in Hertfordshire – the GM trial in Herts is a focus for the GM campaign. How can London growers best support this campaign and organise against the trials? Would be good to have someone who went to the recent GM gathering report back on the latest

6. Allotment in Acton under threat

7. Stories of Food Sovereignty evening with Reclaim the Fields & PEDAL

Greeks reclaim Athens Airport for growing food

A group of community-minded gardeners have turned a former Athens airport into a blooming vegetable plot, showing how Greece’s eroded soil holds the keys to a revival in farming and a way to buck the jobless trend.

‘If we want to survive on this land we must first help to heal the earth,’ said Nicola Netién, agro-ecologist, teacher and co-creator of the NGO Permaculture Research Institute Hellas. He was talking to a group of some fifty people of all ages who had gathered for two days of workshops on self-sufficiency, how to self-organize, agro-ecology and composting. This small gathering was taking place on a beautifully sunny autumn day at the former Athens airport, Ellinikon.

When the airport moved to another location 10 years ago in preparation for Athens hosting the 2004 Olympic Games, there was the hope and the State’s promise that this now available land would become a park. Then the ‘crisis’ landed and rumors began spreading that the site had been sold to an international developer who would pour yet more concrete on the chaotic sprawl that is Athens. This is when a small group of local residents, bearing seeds and armed with shovels, moved in. Their mission: to create a communal and productive agricultural space that will encourage an exploration into antidotes for the ecological-economic-educational and cultural crisis.

‘Thirty percent of Greece’s arable land has salinized and every year Greece looses 750,000 cubic meters of topsoil as a result of erosion and poor land management,’ Nicola continued as his demonstration compost pile grew. Just a few kilometers west and the political drama of a failing government and national bankruptcy was unfolding. The world watched the theatrics of politicians scrambling for self-preservation, while the contagious and desperate fear of being ejected from the Euro spread and the markets turbulently responded.

Natasha, one of the first to start working this small plot at the Ellinikon, told me that since the beginning of the current crisis, more and more people are visiting this small edible garden. She understands why. A year ago she was anxious that her future and her basic needs were dependent on the State that employs her. She had no survival skills. Now, she says, she feels empowered by being proactive in forming her community and learning how to grow food.

There are other examples of Athenians taking matters into their own hands to reclaim small plots of land so as to create communal green spaces; sometimes quietly and peacefully and other times after long drawn out battles with riot police. An example of the latter is Navarino Park in the centre of Athens. This again involved a broken promise by the State. One of the most densely populated areas of Athens was hoping for a park, so when the plans changed to build a parking lot, the local residents organized and resisted. Despite the violence and threats by police, residents stood their ground and cultivated this small plot that is now a budding potential of urban agriculture.

All these examples are neighborhood initiatives. It would be wrong to suggest this is a single coordinated movement. Often confused by the scale of change that is needed and starved for stories of hope, there is a tendency to inadvertently prescribe meaning to and inflate such examples so as to enthuse optimism in ourselves and in others that we are well on our way to dismantling ‘business as usual’. But this would be doing these small groups of activists a disservice. This is not their story, at least not for now. They are in the process of finding their way.

Life in Greece has gotten harder and people are quite literally going hungry. The cultural and the economic reality on the ground and the systemic rot that is so pervasive demand an exploration into context relevant ways of organizing, empowering, sharing knowledge, and redefining our values and our identities.

Riots in Athens have become common; albeit an expression of discontent, the dynamic that has developed between rioter and State seems to maintain the status quo. As I understand it, these local activists are not interested in head on combat against the ‘business and politics as usual’ that is largely to blame for the erosion of land and values, but rather they undermine the status quo by actively participating and investing in their own communities’ potential.

Within each small neighborhood group there is a collective evolving, sharing knowledge, learning, building and growing together. Perhaps these small groups and their gardens will be catalysts for change-maybe they will become nodes in an emergent network of urban farmers-maybe not. Regardless, this is an account of people proactively engaging the challenges and opportunities they are faced with. When Greece’s dominant narrative, particularly of late, has been of bankruptcy, corruption, nepotism, inefficiency and violence, it is important to recognize that this is not the whole story. With respect for others’ work, as well as our own, and as a defense against the infectious cynicism of such depressing dominant narratives, we must conserve and in fact cultivate the space for hope to articulate itself.

‘We can compost anything that was once living. Soon we will be able to add our Euros to the pile,’ Nicola said with half a smile. For a brief moment the group became uneasy and nervously laughed. This unease though quickly dissipated. ‘A healthy compost pile should never smell bad…’

This blog was taken from The Ecologist website

Resistance is fertile

Food growers and friends; it’s been another amazing year here at Grow Heathrow of eating salads fresh from the greenhouses, roasting yellow, red, and black peppers and tasty tomatoes in the clay oven and seasoning our food with home-grown herbs – and now it’s time to brave the winter winds, get the wellies and wheelbarrows out and prepare for our 3rd food growing season down in Sipson.

This coming year we will be expanding out to the AIRPLOT site in Sipson where we will grow directly into the fertile ground and plan to cultivate the whole lot!

Transition Heathrow hopes to use this new growing site as a opportunity for different groups in the area to be part of the process of learning how to grow fruit and veg for their community, from scratch, with skills sharing and fun – and at the end of it lots of fresh organic produce to cook together and share, enjoy and sustain us!

But we will need help, and now is the time to prepare the ground for the spring. Its a bit later than usual but by the first week of January we plan to have done a cardboard and compost mulch all over the grass field – getting it ready to directly plant into when spring arrives.

We’re reclaiming fields and taking back control of our food production! Come help make the first stage happen and we reckon you’ll be back picking juicy tomatoes with us again this summer!

We have lots of cardboard to lay and 13 tonnes of conditioner top soil to barrow on and rake out – the more people the better and lighter the work! Starting at 9:30am sharp till dark both Thursday 5th and Friday 6th January – Big winter soups and fires in the evenings for those that stay.

Where: We will gather with tools and tea at Grow Heathrow (look HERE for directions) to then walk together to the Airplot site. Call our site phone 07890751568 if you arrive later to be directed to the airplot.

There is space to sleep both nights and longer if you wish at Grow Heathrow site, do bring a good sleeping bag for extra warmth and a tent if you want. Bring warm layers, a hot flask, a pair of gardening gloves if you got them and your lovely faces,

With slightly cold soily fingers but warm glowing cheeks the Grow Heathrow Crew excitedly looks forward to seeing you in the field. Resistance is Fertile!

Harmondsworth Scout Group message of support

Heres a message of support which we especially like from the local Harmondsworth scout group co-ordinator.

Just wanted to drop you a note to say thank you for all of the help that you have given us over the past year.

The allotment has been harvested and we shared our produce with not only the children’s families but also the local community. Your expertise and enthusiasm was a god send. The wildlife pond is thriving and we now have all manner of creatures visiting, the children are so proud of it and they relay the story of it’s construction to any one who is willing to listen!

We are delighted to see that you have been awarded the right to stay for the near future at Grow Heathrow. The difference you have made to the community has been immeasurable and we only wish that there were more people like yourselves willing to protect the land, the vulnerable and the community.

As you know it has been a very difficult year for many of our children as they have had to watch their friends move away and the security blanket that the community threw around it’s children has been pulled away with so many residents, young and old, leaving the area.

There has however, been one friend, a new one, that we have grown to love and respect and it is Grow Heathrow whose volunteers have been able to look these children in the eye and say we won’t leave you. The confidence you have instilled in our children has meant that they can look to the future and they now understand that with the right guidance and commitment the Villages can still be their homes and provide the safe environment that every child is entitled to grow up in.

We all love visiting Grow Heathrow where the children have learnt so many things and we hope that we can build on this with you in the future. Some of our children live in flats with no gardens so the chance to come down to Grow Heathrow and dig in the dirt is like winning 1st prize for them. And then we have our young teenagers… who, in their sulky, difficult way think you are all cool and it is really refreshing to see them responding to your advise. We have all learnt so much from the centre and you guys have given the children so much, we only hope that things will work out and that you will be able to stay at Grow Heathrow and help further develop the Centre and continue to support the community.

Having grown up in Sipson I remember the Nurseries and all of the activity that surrounded them, to see them fall into disrepair and then be used as a personal dump was heart breaking but nobody had the knowledge of how to stop this happening and then you turned up. You showed us all that we can change things and we don’t have to allow the degeneration of the area to succeed.

If human beings are being abused the law will protect them, if animals are being abused the law will protect them, let us hope that the law will also start to protect our land and stop it from being abused.

Residents day @ Grow Heathrow

Come to Grow Heathrow for a fun, friendly lunchtime event that is all about the future of the Heathrow Villages. We’ll be laying on a summer banquet for the community, made using fresh, locally grown ingredients. This is a chance to get together with your neighbours, and catch up with the latest developments at our Sipson site.

But as the saying goes, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. We’re looking for your thoughts and ideas about how Transition Heathrow can move forward in the months and years ahead. If we’re going to build community resilience in the villages, we need to hear as many of your voices as we can. So please come along and help us develop a plan for the future. From Noon on Saturday 16th July.

Six new residents arrive in Sipson

A couple of weeks ago, Grow Heathrow welcomed six new feathered additions to the site. Via Fresh Start For Hens – an organisation of hard-working and dedicated volunteer battery hen rehomers – we were able to take delivery of six newly released hens.

The question that had kept the greatest minds in history puzzled could now be answered – the chickens came first. Although, as they were being unpacked from their travel boxes and introduced to their new home, we discovered that a couple of eggs had been laid en route. Grow Heathrow’s first freshly laid eggs (still warm to the touch) were passed round from hand to hand as if they were trophies or some precious jewel. These hens were obviously eager to get laying – hopefully a trend that will continue.

Making friends with the new arrivals

The hens’ first few days at the site were spent in their new coop, getting used to the strange smells and noises to be found around Heathrow. We had been warned to expect our chickens to be a little confused for the first few days, and that’s pretty much how it turned out, but it didn’t take them long to regain their natural chickeny instincts. Negotiating the ladder up to the roost proved a little tricky for some, but it only took a bit of coaxing before they were tucking themselves in at night, ready for us to shut the trapdoor to keep them safe from any prowling urban foxes.

As fine a residence as the ark-style chicken coop we’d obtained for them was, we knew that a long term solution for happy chickens would involve a proper run to allow our flock to stretch their legs and scratch around in the ground. We set about with some salvaged wood, a few rolls of chicken wire, and a big box of screws, and in a couple of days had constructed a decent enclosure.

The new chicken run

From happy chickens come tasty eggs, and from the looks of things, the Heathrow hens are a happy bunch indeed. Having a regular supply of fresh eggs means that we can enjoy healthy, delicious meals every day without needing to deal with the many ethical dilemmas involved in buying eggs at the supermarket. Most of our leftovers can be added to their feed tray, which reduces our food waste, and the manure they produce can be turned into excellent fertilizer for our plants. Overall it is another step towards our ambitions of truly sustainable living.

Reclaim the fields

A call out to all community food growers, farmers, permaculturalists, land occupiers, seeds savers and swappers, those who want to RECLAIM FIELDS!

Its time to meet and share stories about all the exciting growing projects all over the UK, from those fresh and ready to sprout to projects already rooted in rural and urban communities.

Resistance is Fertile!

Reclaim the Fields is a constellation of people and collective projects willing to go back to the land and reassume the control over food production.

Determined to create alternatives to capitalism through cooperative, collective, autonomous, real needs oriented small scale production and initiatives, putting theory into practice and linking local practical action with global political struggles.

On Saturday 12th March 2011 Reclaim the Fields UK will launch itself into the unknown, beginning what they hope to be a fruitful collaboration of UK projects and people in solidarity over food sovereignty and common access to land. From fields far and wide, cities near and far, where muddy hands and feet are set on the ground, they are calling all those who are working the land for the common good.

Grow Heathrow is the host where everyone will spend the weekend getting to know each other and the various projects from across the country, take part in workshops and discussions (including access to land and land struggles) and share ideas to nurture a vision of what we can create here in the UK and Europe.

FRIDAY EVENING: from 5pm people arrive set up tents, dinner and fire

SAT FULLDAY: morning- presentations from various project. afternoon – discussions / workshops. evening – dinner, film, music, fire, talk

SUN MORNING: morning- optional practical session / more discussion / stay and help prepare the site for the european reclaim the fields assembly.

What to bring:

a tent (email if you need indoor sleeping space, this is available but limited)

Donations for food

seeds for a mass seed swap

Flyers, stories and info about growing projects in the UK.

It is essential that you book your place before the 6th March 2011 so that hey can get an idea of numbers to cater for.

There is no fee but donations will be asked for to cover food.

reclaimthefieldsuk@riseup.net

The reclaim the fields European assembly will begin on the Monday 14th at Grow Heathrow. Those who feel keen to be involved in organising for the RTF camp which will take place this summer are welcome to stay for the week, which will be working-group orientated, focusing largely on logistics for the RTF camp – a chance to get more involved in the reclaim the fields European network.

The following weekend all are welcome to join the P.E.D.A.L. weekend of workshops on storytelling, creative disobedience, legal, consensus decision making and the Occupation of Palestine. The event will be held on the 19th and 20th of March. P.E.D.A.L. starts their 100 day cycle to the West Bank on the 21st of March from Grow Heathrow.

For more information on Reclaim the Fields and the network visit www.reclaimthefields.org, for more information on Grow Heathrow check out the rest of our website and information on P.E.D.A.L can be found at http://sowestand.com/p-e-d-a-l-100-days-to-palestine/

We look forward to meeting you on the land

Grow Heathrow’s first birthday

The first of March marks the year anniversary of Grow Heathrow! On the 27th of February, the Sunday before, we cordially invite you to help us celebrate this achievement and keep the project growing.

From 1pm until 3.30pm there will be site tours, a photography exhibition, film screenings about the project and growing workshops. If you haven’t been to the site yet this is a great opportunity to see what it’s all about.

At 4pm there will be birthday tea, where we will hear from locals and others involved about how we have got this far. This is a chance to look back on the past year and feel inspired about where to go next. A donation meal will be available from 5.30 – 7pm and after this we will enjoy evening entertainment.

Happy Birthday Grow Heathrow!