The Round Hill Society

Brighton and Hove Food Partnership

Click here for latest courses

Training courses for growers
19 May and 2 June 6:00pm - 9:00pm, Hove - Container Gardening

Thursday, 10 June 2010 6:30pm - 8:30pm - Summer Seasonal Cookery, 6 week course

Thursday, 17 June 2010 - Work Placement Scheme starts

Friday, 18 June 2010 10:00am - 2:00pm
Pick and Cook Day

Saturday, 03 July 2010 10:00am - 2:00pm - Dealing with Pests & Diseases Organically

Saturday, 24 July 2010 10:00am - 2:00pm - Seed Saving

Thursday, 09 September 2010 6:00pm - 8:00pm - The Winter Salad Box

More courses
Find out more about the courses available here with more to be announced soon.

Harvest training programme – various dates. Come on a course led by one of our very knowledgeable trainers and learn more about food growing! Upcoming courses include 'planning the productive plot', 'sowing and growing' and 'how to grow fruit'. Book your place on the Harvest website, where you can also find out about lots of other courses and events.

Get involved: The Adult Learning Festival in Brighton & Hove is going on from January – March with lots of opportunities to get involved and learn something new about science, digital techonology, culture, art, health, nature, food growing and much more. Read the programme of events to find out what’s going on.

Funding & project support: Are you involved in a community or school food growing project that could do with a bit of advice and support about what to grow, when, and how? The Harvest Mentoring programme can help by providing up to 6 hours of mentoring time with an experienced grower. Read more…

Growing tips
100 new allotment plots were launched in Whitehawk last Sunday. Well done to all those who braved the weather to start digging their new plots. If you're still brave enough to head out to the garden in this weather, check out our growing tips for December here:

December growing tips (pdf, 147Kb)
How to grow garlic (pdf, 217Kb)
Growing in a small space (pdf, 338Kb)
Windowbox Allotment website
by Food Partnership board member Nick Fry
Harvest Training courses

Other community initiatives
Places are still available on our 2010 MEND programmes to help children and families to manage their weight. We've also just acquired an old apple press which we can lend out, just get in touch at info@bhfood.org.uk to find out more.

Beat the Copenhagen blues

Brighton & Hove Peace and Environment Centre are looking for ten local residents to share their stories about how they are helping to tackle climate change. Find out more about it and how to get involved at: http://www.bpec.org/node/768.

In other news...

Brighton's own Lewes Road Community Garden appears in the current issue of the Big Issue magazine, make sure to check it out. Many of you will know the garden has sadly been forced to close, the 'Say no to Tesco on Lewes Road' campaign is just getting going though! You can find the group on Facebook.

Are you an architect or designer?

A local community group need someone to do some quick but professional drawings of a shed for them so they can apply for planning permission. Please let us know if you'd be interested to volunteer a bit of time to help out - harvest@bhfood.org.uk.


Community recipe swop

Slow Food Brighton and Lewes, SpectatorScoff, and Hove Food Partnership, City College Brighton and Due South have set up a community recipe swap. It is aimed at saving our local food traditions by sharing ideas and recipes on local food. Share your favorite recipes at www.sussexrecipes.co.uk.

More on training...The Friends Centre is running a 5-week course called ‘Grow your own year-round veg’, starting 24 February 2010.

composting and improving soil fertility
The first course in the Harvest Training programme will take place in December. This course, run by the Whitehawk Community Food Project, will cover all you need to know about composting and improving soil fertility with things like leaf mould. The cost is £25 waged and £10 unwaged. To register your interest please email harvest@bhfood.org.uk.

We will soon be launching a mentoring programme for new growing projects or those who need a bit of help to increase their productivity. We will match you up with an experienced grower to answer some of your questions and point you in the right direction. More information to follow in the next newsletter...

The Harvest team is looking for volunteers to help us with graphic design and a research project. Please contact Jess for more information on 01273 431714 or email jess@bhfood.org.uk.

Funding opportunity
The 2010-11 round of the Food Partnership’s Good Food Grants and the Community Kitchen Equipment Grants opens today! Funding of up to £1000 is available for projects that promote healthy eating and / or sustainable food (including food growing). Funding is also available for equipment to enhance kitchens across the city where people can increase their cookery skills, including equipment for outdoor cookery. Click here for more information and to download guidance notes and application forms for both programmes.

Job opportunity
Are you passionate about cooking and want to inspire Brighton & Hove residents to increase their cooking skills? The Food Partnership is recruiting a Cookery Development Worker to deliver cookery training, support the development of new cookery groups across the city, and work with people of all ages to increase cookery skills and improve knowledge on healthy eating and food hygiene in the community. Please click here for more information and to download an application pack.

Eat local
Farm, a new shop and cafe where you can buy and eat local produce, has just opened at 99 North Road in the North Laine. Why not stop in and check it out?

To find out more and keep in touch with Harvest, you can find us at www.harvest-bh.org.uk or become a fan of Harvest on Facebook.

Harvest is a city-wide project, delivered by a wide range of partners and led by Brighton & Hove Food Partnership and Food Matters. The Food Partnership is a membership organisation, and membership is free to anyone who lives or works in Brighton & Hove. For benefits of membership and to join go to: www.bhfood.org.uk.

Related link
"Can we eat well and save the planet?" - report on the debate in Brighton, chaired by Caroline Lucas MEP, and information on the work of Brighton & Hove Food Partnership.

Are you involved in a food growing project that is struggling to get going? Maybe you have a particular problem area that you need some help with, or you could use some advice about what to plant when? Harvest can help! We will be running a mentoring programme where experienced growers will be matched up with new food projects to provide advice and support. Read more about the

mentoring programme on our website.

There are still some places left on Successful Composting, the first course in the Harvest Training programme.

More training on food growing will begin in the new year - details of all courses are on the Harvest website.

Learning Revolutionaries

Could you help people in your local area learn a new skill? The Worker’s Education Association (WEA) has funding to help volunteers to set up Learning Circles to bring people together to share knowledge and learn new skills. Harvest is working with WEA to establish Learning Circles on food growing and composting.

If you’re a keen home gardener (no matter how large or small your garden) or a bit of a composting whiz and you’d like to help others get started then please contact the Harvest team on 01273 431718 or email harvestbhfood.org.uk.

A ten-hour training course and on-going support will be provided to Learning Circle leaders.

Funding opportunity

The 2010-11 round of the Food Partnership’s Good Food Grants and the Community Kitchen Equipment Grants is open to applications for projects in Brighton & Hove working on food growing, cooking, and healthy eating projects. Funding is also available to purchase cookery equipment or to help refurbish community kitchens.

To find out more and keep in touch with Harvest, you can find us at www.harvest-bh.org.uk or become a fan of Harvest on Facebook

This page was last updated by Ted on 01-Jun-2010