First Fruits

This is the first courgette picked from the Open Heaven vegetable patch and more, and bigger, ones have followed. There have also been some small (but very tasty!) carrots and some kohl rabis (a bit like turnip).

We started the OH Vegetable Patch in Mel and Matt’s garden back in the spring, and applied for an allotment plot at the same time, for a number of reasons:

• It linked really well to our Justice and Food theme of the summer term. It’s a really practical way of becoming more linked to the food that we eat and more aware of where it comes from.
• Growing our own food is a good way to tackle climate change. A typical British household’s food is responsible for almost as much CO2 emissions as their house and car(s) put together; this is due to transportation (sometimes across the globe), packaging and processing. Food grown on an allotment doesn’t have to travel far from ‘field to plate’ and doesn’t need lots of packaging or processing to keep it fresh along the way.
• Food growing is something that we can all get stuck into together one way or another: from volunteering on a one-off basis at busy times of year to working on the plot on an ongoing basis – either in term time or all year round.
• Once we have an allotment it will link the church to a section of the local community we haven’t had much contact with before: an allotment society.
• It allows those involved to grow some of our own food without having to take on a whole allotment by ourselves.
• It’s good exercise in the fresh air and it’s cheaper than the gym!

We’ve already dreamt up lots of exciting ways to use some of the vegetables that we grow:

• At OH2 harvest festivals
• On weekends away and at leaders weekends
• To donate to Project 5000 and similar projects which feed the hungry in Loughborough
• As part of OH Christmas meals
• As part of welcome meals for new members.

The possibilities are limited only by our imaginations. Ideas for what we should grow and how to use the produce are welcome.

To make these dreams a reality we need your help. The courgette in this photo has grown despite being surrounded by a lot of weeds which we’ve struggled to keep on top of and our dwarf french beans succumbed to the weeds before they could grow any beans! A few more hands to work on the plot would make a big difference to what we can achieve.

If you’d like to help, just once or on a regular basis, then we’ll be working on the plot each Thursday evening from 7pm-8pm. We especially need help during the rest of August and in September to get the patch ready for winter and to sow some vegetables that we can hopefully eat over the winter. You can commit to come during August and September while we’re busy or you can commit to come every week for a longer period. If you’d like to volunteer but Thursday evenings aren’t such a good time let us know: we could always do with someone to visit the patch in-between Thursdays to water it.

As for those courgettes – a chocolate courgette cake will be coming to a gathering near you soon…! 

Posted by: Caroline Harmon on Monday Aug 23rd, 2010

Comments

Matt Page writes:

The other thing to add for food (and flowers) is the costs associated with warming greenhouses to grow them in. Sometimes food that travels from another country is less worse than something which was grown in the UK, but in a heated greenhouse. (Heated as in "in addition to the heat of the sun" obviously).

...left on Monday Aug 23rd, 2010

Caroline Harmon writes:

Good point. During the 'hungry grap' (usually April/May-ish time) we have harvested the last of anything we can grow over the winter in Britain, eaten all stuff we can store over winter, but haven't quite reached the point at which we can harvest the new season's crops. At this time (and somtimes all year round) some growers in Britian grow things in hot houses. This can produce more CO2 than transporting those items from Europe by truck and boat.

...left on Monday Aug 23rd, 2010

Lucy Purves writes:

The courgette chocolate cake was GOOOOOD thank you Caroline! I love this- 'OpenHeaven does the good life'

...left on Friday Aug 27th, 2010

Jonny Nott writes:

Any kind of cake suits me!

...left on Wednesday Sep 22nd, 2010

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