Grow Greener with Garthdee Field Allotments Association

Category: News Page 60 of 82

Enhancing Food Security Research

Karolina Gombert, a research assistant with the, “Enhancing Food Security” Project has been on-site interviewing plotters this week.

The project is funded by Scottish Government and run by the Rowett Institute, University of Aberdeen and The James Hutton Institute.

 

 

The project is investigating:

  • perspectives on the values, motivations and commitments of people who grow food for personal consumption
  • the extent to which locally grown food can contribute to food security at community and household levels
  • cooperation between food producers and consumers
  • barriers to and facilitators of local food growing.

The researchers hope that their findings will lead to policy recommendations on community-led interventions and programmes to encourage local food growing and greater food security for our communities.

Karolina and her colleagues will provide information on their findings when the project reaches its conclusion and welcome contacts from interested parties.

Exciting times!

Great to see work continuing on our new Outdoor Classroom today.  We’ll be able to host barn dances!

Outdoor Classroom Work Begins

Following the tremendous support from our plotters and the wider public at the end of last year, helping us obtain a grant of £12000 from Tesco Bags of Help, work has now begun on site to build our Outdoor Classroom/Shelter. The octagonal larch clad wooden building will be fully enclosed and suitable for wheel-chair access and is for all our plotters to use as well as the primary school children and visiting groups from from Robert Gordon University (RGU).

The building has been sited in the Community Garden such that it sits above the highest historic flood line. As most of our plotters will be aware, the site has a tendency to flood after heavy and continuous rainfall and this is made worse by an underground stream from up near the old railway line which feeds into the low-lying area at the bottom of the site.

Once the building is complete, work will begin shortly thereafter, using funds from RGU, to establish the necessary paths for all users of the community garden. If anyone would like to lend a hand or spend an hour here and there helping out with our Community Garden activities that would be much appreciated. It is the community aspect of our activities that attract the funding and your support will contribute to making our site just that little bit more special and successful.

Black Earth Abounds

With the promise of a new season just a few weeks away now a wee wander round our site today showed just how well on the winter digging was going on many of our plots.

It was nice to see so many of these plots were, ‘under new management’ this year and that things were off to a flying start for the year ahead.  It’s very encouraging to see such keen new starters join our association.  With apologies to those others who were not featured above.

Parsnip Seed Offer

I hope all our plotters have been enjoying the festive season.  Here’s wishing you a very happy and successful growing season in 2017.

David Penman – plot 55 has saved a large quantity of his own parsnip seed and is happy to share it with other plotters. The variety is Gladiator. Anyone interested in some seed should contact David.

Stuart

Randall MacLennan

Some sad news.

We’re sorry to announce the passing on 31 October of another long-serving plotter. Randall (Plot 94B) took on plot 94 in 1989 but for several years before that he helped his father-in law Norman McLeod who held the plot. Randall was kind-hearted, loved the outdoors and had a soft spot for all birds and animals many of whom he rescued when they were hurt or in distress.

randypic

He grew some fine produce in his time and when I had just started plotting I would occasionally come across a bag of quality carrots and the like hanging on the handle of our front door. Perhaps it made me a little jealous but it inspired me to emulate his example. He was 77 and latterly suffered from a very aggressive form of Alzheimer’s.

Stuart

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