Fire and Feast at the Community Allotment. December 2016

We had a lovely time at our Fire and Feast event mid-December. It had been very wet the day before, but we were lucky that it was a sunny and beautiful day for this. The straw bales 'seats' were a little soggy and needed sheeting over them. We had two groups coming along. The St Nicholas Day Centre group in the morning, and Rural Pathways students from Plumpton College in the afternoon.

In the morning, the St Nicholas Day Centre group collected herbs for a bouquet as well as ivy to put on cards. Then we returned to the shelter to admire Sarah's fire, which had been tended by allotment member Maggie.

Once back at the shelter, with the herb bundles were tied and the ivy stuck to the cards, we stopped for refreshments. We drank apple juice pressed from Ringmer Community Orchard. Felicity Ann had brought some superb mince pies she'd made to share, and Sarah had cooked up delicious pumpkin soup for us all from an allotment pumpkin.

Then we toasted marshmallows on sticks on the fire.

Emma gave out allotment keyrings to all of the St Nicholas Day Centre members, because that's what they had asked for at the last Flourish user group meeting as a memento of the Community Allotment. The photos on it were of pumpkins, appropriately enough!

In the afternoon, the Rural Pathways students came along and also enjoyed a feast, inclduing toasting A LOT of marshmallows over the fire.

We all had fun. Many thanks to Sarah and Felicity Ann for all their hard work - and to all our allotment members and service users for their many contributions over the autumn.

Emma Chaplin

Day Two of our Apple Course with Plumpton - pressing the juice

Day two of our apple course with two groups of Plumpton College supported interns follows on, perhaps not surprisingly, from day one!

Both groups came along on consecutive days to the Stanmer Park Fruit Factory in early October. The Fruit Factory is part of Brighton Permaculture Trust (BPT). Stephan Gehrels ran the days for us. The interns brought along the apples they'd picked from Ringmer Community Orchard on Flourish's apple course day one to be pressed, bottled and pasteurised.

Here is a video we made about this process

We had unpredictable weather both days, with some rain, but the interns were well-equipped in terms of raincoats, and the Fruit Factory has a nice indoor area we could use as well. It smelled deliciously of ginger because Stephan was cooking a big pot of it to be blended with some of BPT's juice made from apples from their local orchards.

Stephan welcomed everyone, told us about Brighton Permaculture Trust and talked about the work he does as BPT's Eco Schools Project Manager. He said the favourite part of his job is "working with young people and helping them understand how to protect the planet". The thing he likes least is: "paperwork and heavy rain".

He talked about making apple juice and apple vinegar - and how healthy it is. He covered health and safety issues, such as asking if everyone was feeling well that day, explaining people with long hair had to tie it back (essential in all food prep) and the importance of hand-washing. He told us where the toilets were and suggested we be careful not to trip over things, such as the hose or buckets.

Stephan showed us how to use the water lock on the hose, how to wash the apples and cut them up safely with a sharp knife. We were to discard any rotten bits and put them in particular buckets, which he said go to local pigs as food. Interns split into different groups to do different tasks, and switched around, so everyone got the chance to try activities they were interested in. The chopped apple pieces went into the big yellow mill or macerator, to chop them into bits, ready for juicing. The buckets of this chopped apple were then tipped into the hydro-press until it was full.

Then (for me!) the most exciting part, we got the hydro-press going to squueze all the fresh juice out of the apple pulp. We screwed the metal lid on tightly, then turned the hose (attached to the press) on. The hydro-press uses water pressure via a big rubber balloon in the middle of the pulp to squeeze all the juice out. Gallons of it poured out of the bottom lip into the buckets we put underneath. We had to keep an eye on them and change bucket every time one was nearly full.

Some of the raw juice was bottled and sealed by the students into plastic cartons to take home. It has to be drunk within a couple of days.

The groups also drank some juice 'raw' - each day we used various types of apple we'd picked (Red Falstaff on Day One, Ashmead's Kernel on Day Two) in different combinations to see if they tasted different. The day two mix including bramley apples, which gave a lovely tartness. the group also tried cider, after Stephan checked that everyone was 18 or over. The comments were:

LUSH

zingy

super, fresh

sweet

I will never shop at Tesco again

highly addictive

light

feels like it's doing you good 

Then Stephan explained about how 'cooking' the juice in sterilised bottles will preserve it for up to a year, although it does change the taste. The groups poured juice from jugs into bottles, which then went (carefully) into the pasteurisers to be heated in hot water to the right temperature. So that's what we did with the rest of the juice.

Everyone worked hard and enjoyed themselves.

Then we broke for lunch, and in the afternoon, Peter May came along to show the groups around the Stanmer orchards.

Next stage: bottle label design and marketing - plus visits to a pub and a cider maker!

Emma Chaplin

Video of Brandon at Ringmer Community Orchard

Common Cause director Louise has made this video at Ringmer Community Orchard with Brandon, a Plumpton College Supported Intern who we worked with last autumn.

Fire & Feast video

Common Cause director Louise made a wonderful video of our recent Fire & Feast event at Lewes Community Allotment

Watercolour workshop with Ruth Baker

Nine regular Lewes Community Allotment clients attended a special plant and wildlife-themed art session that Flourish organised to take place on Wednesday 20 July. This was run by Ruth Baker, a local watercolour artist. The art class was held at the St Nicholas Day Centre instead of our allotment, because of the extremely hot weather. This was useful in terms of spreading out and being able to change water frequently.

Things we learnt

Some people had tried watercolours before, but not with a trained artist.

Ruth started by explaining about the three primary colours - red, blue and yellow. Participants painted a shape of their choice in each colour, using water to add tone.

We then put dots of two primary colours next to each other and merged them to make secondary colours. All results were different depending on how much water was used, but the lovely thing was that there was no wrong results!

We used a water dropper, and people developed skills and confidence using watercolour paints and brushes.

When people felt a bit more confident about mixing the colours, we went on to paint colour was boxes and flicked red dots onto one, then drew green lines down from the dots to make simple but effective flower pictures. On the other box we painted a darker wash in a hill shape - again, all were different, but all were right, which felt good for all.

This was a very good exercise in building people’s confidence of choice (shapes, amount of colour/water, sizes) and those who were hesitant to start were much happier to put the brush to paper by the end.

People helped each other with changing water, cleaning plates, squeezing paint etc.

We went outside at break and had a look at things that could be painted another time.

Ruth spoke about her painting, how long it takes, how she sells work, showed examples and postcards, to give an insight into life as a painter.

People showed a lot of interest and asked lots of questions. Everyone enjoyed the session.

Words and photos by Sarah Rideout, Lewes Community Allotment Coordinator