Colchester Urban Permaculture

"I'm so happy that I think I might puke!!" ~  was how I described my feelings after the first Colchester Urban Permaculture meeting, held this evening at The Waiting Room. I have been brainstorming ideas for an Urban Permaculture Garden for the past month, reading books; studying the site; mulling over the possibilities and the challenges. I have been immersing myself in organic farming, gardening and permaculture for the past 18 months ~ sparked off after an Introduction to Permaculture day course at The Big Garden (Highwoods, Colchester) early in 2012, Ben Lambert and Bob Mehew opened the door to a whole new direction in life. I left Colchester, with my bike and backpack looking for more ~  WWOOFing on smallholdings in the beautiful South-West.
 Since then I have been learning about permaculture and the possibilities, earlier this year I found myself on a Permaculture Design Course in Sweden and after that, was lucky enough to gain a funded place on a 4 week Organic Farm Management Placement in the The Czech Republic. Landing back in Colchester, I decided it was time to harness all my new knowledge into planting some seeds and grow some stuff!

An Allotment? A garden? A smallholding? Any piece of land to nurture myself? I realised I had access to none of these! I have a work share on a local C.S.AFarm (Bennison Farm) and volunteer at the Big Garden so get to work outside plenty but have never have the opportunity to grow things myself and it dawned on me that the majority of people face the same situation ~ concrete jungles filled with plastic wrapped vegetables from supermarkets.
There are many positive organic growing projects around, it took me a while to discover them ~ so how would everyone else  find out about what can be done to become more sustainable? This is where I decided I wanted to set up an Urban Permaculture Garden in Colchester Town Centre ~ and was graced with the opportunity after the opening of St. Botolphs Waiting ~ they wanted to have a gardening project as part of the new community ~ they needed someone with some knowledge ~ perfect!
I set up a meeting a week ago, sending an invitation out to anyone interested in my idea, to come along, share and see what happened. I spent a week agonising over the meeting ~ wondering who would turn up and how I could persuade them on board. Ten lovely faces turned up, a few familiar faces amongst strangers ~ I preceded the meeting, explaining my ideas, hopes, plans and asked "What do you think?". Nothing could of prepared me for the enthusiasm and positive reactions, everyone was so fervent!
We left the meeting all with allocated jobs and new friends, while I am writing this blog entry I got invited to a new group on Facebook ~ Colchester Urban Permaculture ~ smiling as I realised I had met a group of like-minded individuals with the a get up and go attitude!

The aim of this project, is to create a productive urban garden ~ demonstrating permaculture principles, providing inspiration and education for all the community, as well as a beautiful space for all to share. We are going to defeat the concrete and create a resilient container-style garden, using recycled pallets, local resources and the hands of many to share our enthusiasm and demonstrate that you can provide organic food in any environment.

In the forthcoming weeks, keep an ear out for the first workshops and volunteer opportunities ~ an Introduction to Permaculture course and a chance to hack apart pallets and make raised beds and benches for the urban Garden.
 Find us on Facebook ~ https://www.facebook.com/ColchesterUrbanPermaculture and feel free to contact us on our brand spanking new email permaculture@stbotolphs.org

Compost Making made easy

Experience Permaculture

This is a fantastic opportunity to immerse yourself deeper into permaculture. A 9-month, 12 session course on all the basic aspects of permaculture such as agriculture, architecture, water, economy, the transition movement, zone 00 and much more. The course leads through the whole design process in a gradual and in-depth way. In addition the Apricot Centre is a great place to see permaculture in action first hand and the length of the course gives you the opportunity to observe the site throughout the seasons.

I’ve attended the course last year and I can only highly recommend it. 

Apple Day

Apple Day at the BIG Garden, High Woods Country Park.

We crushed and pressed apples and drank delicious juice; tasted lots of local apple varieties with names like Chelmsford Wonder, Pearl, Edith Hopwood and Sturmer Pippin; did apple printing; tried making the longest apple peel and tasted scrumptious apple cakes and bakes!

Dig 4 Jaywick

This week I went to visit a lovely new community garden in Jaywick and met some of the people involved. 

The team had a great response to their recent Open Day with over 70 people visiting for the first time. 

Here's more information about the project and see the Gardens Page too.

We're looking forward to seeing the garden develop. The project can be contacted via the Neighbourhood Team.

Neighbourhood Team
Unit 1
Enterprise Centre
Lotus Way
Jaywick
CO15 2LU
Tel: 01255 428090

Jo

Cob Oven building at the Big Garden August 2013

From Plot to Pot V: Preserving ragout

Today I'm preparing a large portion of ragout for preserving. It's great to have some jars handy for days you don't have time for cooking or you don't feel like peeling and chopping and boiling and frying. Huge marrows and courgettes are perfect for this. Aubergines and pumpkins are great, too. 

I use: 
- 1 large marrow
- a few tomatoes (I picked them green some days ago and they ripened in a bowl at home)
- a handful of garlic cloves (needless to say that I love garlic...)
- some red and white onions
- 2 tins of chopped tomatoes (I wish I had more tomatoes from the allotment - next year!)
- chopped parsley and thyme (frozen - see earlier post)
- dried herbs de provence 
- salt and pepper

I prepare everything in a pressure cooker. For this I add oil and fry the garlic and onions until glassy.

 I then add the rest of the ingredients, marrows chopped into chunky bits. Here in the photo with the parsley and thyme on top. Mix everything well, close the lid and bring to pressure. It then takes no more than 5min until all ingredients are soft and tender. 

In the meantime sterilise some jars, I keep those from the shops, saves you buying new ones as well as resources. Fill them level while jars and ragout are still hot and close quickly. Take care to clean rims before closing. 

Another tip: If you want to make sure you create a vacuum in the jars you can add a thin layer of alcohol (40% upwards) on top of your preserves (this method only works with preserves of a firm consistency; great for jams, too). The amount of alcohol depends on how full you filled the glass. Light it with a match or lighter and quickly close the lid. The flame will use up the rest of the oxygen in the glass and then extinguish, thus creating the vaccuum. There needs to be enough alcohol to use up all the oxygen but at the same time there shouldn't be much more or the alcohol will remain in the jar. You will see, it's not too difficult to estimate the right amount. 


                                                          Voila!