Autumn has been really busy this year with lots of changes going on in the market garden and with the young people who work in them.
Young people
We have said goodbye to a number of young people over the past 2 months. Some, like Jennifer and Henry had been attending the Grow to Grow programme for the last two years and are now at college full time (studying floristry and horticulture respectively). Others have gone on to different college or educational programmes. A big thank you to everyone for all your hard work in the garden!
On Wednesdays and Thursdays the regular Grow to Grow attendees (currently 10 young people) have been working hard, collecting apples for bottling (the juice this year is cloudy, sweet and delicious!) and making a range of chutneys from the last of our summer harvests.
Our bottled apple juice and busy making chutney in the Bore Place kitchen
On Tuesdays we now welcome a new group, who'll come initially until Christmas, on our 12 week RORI programme. The group has been helping us with various tasks in the garden, from clearing beds to planting winter crops, as well as working together to create some great lunches using the produce from the garden.
The garden cabin gets an upgrade
The hub of Grow to Grow is definitely our cabin (above) in the market garden. It's a place to shelter from the weather, cook and prepare meals, process the garden produce and to socialise. Over the past few months we've been working hard to extend and upgrade the facilities to make the working space more comfortable and able to deal with more produce from the market garden, greater numbers of young people and hopefully less mud!
New kitchen inside the cabin
New boot room in garden cabin = less mud inside!
View from the recycled Crittall window
As far as possible we have used recycled materials for the work. Windows and kitchen fittings were sourced from colleagues' homes following their own renovations, and an outside patio was built using Bore Place bricks made on site when there was a brickworks here.
Welcome to...
New staff - Lisa, Tokio, Lydia and Terry who all started with us this autumn.
Lisa is one of the G2G therapeutic team and comes to us with a wealth of experience. She is our first qualified Social Worker on the team. Joining us to work on the exciting, new Post 16 Education Programme are Tokio (who has also been working hard in the garden for a number of years!) and tutors Lydia and Terry. Take a look here for more information about the programme which is a partnership undertaking with Canterbury Academy.
And sorry to see you go...
Andreas is moving on from the project to focus on his psychotherapy practice in Hastings. He has been a key person, along with founder Paula Conway, in the development of the Grow to Grow project from its initial inception. His gentle, cheerful and insightful presence will be missed by all the team and young people. As well as the legacy of the Grow to Grow project, he leaves behind him a number of bee colonies at Bore Place, which we're really pleased to say will continue being looked after by a new volunteer beekeeper from Tonbridge.
Grow to Grow summer harvest and sales...
Used by Bore Place chef Sparky and the various restaurants, pubs and shops that we supply...
2600 kilos of salad
100 kilos French beans
300 kilos of squash
300 kilos of potatoes
300 kilos of tomatoes
200 kilos of fruit
In addition we have produced for sale to Bore Place visitors, approximately...
210 litres of apple juice
149 jars of pickled gherkins
47 jars of strawberry jam
248 jars of chutney
grown...
packed...
sold!
