SHARING FOOD, SEED AND SPACE
Waltham Forest’s very first urban food growing festival, will be kicking off on Friday March 21 with Grow Waltham Forest, a one-day conference at Leytonstone Library.
The event will support and promote sustainable food growing in the borough. The conference is especially for those who are already growing food, or want to start, as well as those who want to source locally grown produce. We will have an information stall downstairs where we’ll be raffling the Soil Association cookbook Grown in Britain in support of our Community Garden.
This extremely popular event is free to Waltham Forest residents, but £15 for those from outside the borough. So, if you’ve only just decided that you really want to come, do not delay and book your ticket now!
Saturday March 22 – Celebrate the Power of the Seed
Our Big Dig event. Come along to mark the Spring Equinox by joining in some seed sowing and seed swapping. Bring along saved seed from your favourite crops and have fun exchanging it for something you’ve never grown! We’re also holding a potluck feast and barbecue, so bring some food to share and enjoy. (We have 2 barbecues, one for veggies and the other for carnivores) When you’ve sown, swapped and eaten to your heart’s content, we’ll be holding an interactive ideas bank for future Garden workshops.
Venue: Church Lane Community Garden, Harold Road, Leytonstone E11 4QX (just past the footbridge over the Central Line)
Time: 12pm–3pm
A FREE event
Tuesday March 25 – Finding Space to Grow
A discussion on creative ways of growing including joining a gardenshare as well as a practical session on container growing. Our Gardenshare team will be there to help with your queries and signing up to the scheme.
Venue: Leytonstone Library, 6 Church Lane, E11 1HG
Time: 7pm-9pm
A FREE event
Sunday March 30th – Film: The Power of Community
A story of local food growing and survival.
With rising energy prices affecting the costs of production and transport of the food we eat, it’s time to consider ways in which we can localise a greater proportion of it. Fortunately, a historical example of this exists, and was recorded in this very timely documentary on Cuba.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Cuba’s economy went into a tailspin. Imports of oil were suddenly cut by more than half – and food by 80 percent. In this film the Cuban people share how they transitioned from a highly mechanized, industrial agricultural system to one using organic methods of farming and local, urban gardens. Cuba, the only country that has faced such a crisis, is an example of options and hope.
The film will be followed by a discussion to answer the question:
“How can we grow more in Leytonstone?”
We will also be holding the raffle draw for the Soil Association cookbook Grown in Britain – in support of our Community Garden.
Venue: Leytonstone Library, 6 Church Lane, E11 1HG
Time: 1.30pm-3.30pm
A FREE event