By Isabelle Low Come spring, the winter crops of cabbage and kale and leeks have bolted and the stores of potatoes, onions and roots are running out. Spring vegetables have only just been sown and won’t be ready to harvest until May and June. Eating in the hungry months in medieval times was both hard and uninspiring – a diet dominated by old potatoes, cabbage and wormy apples. PresRead More…
Today we heard from Climate Change Commission that UK must cut land use emissions by two thirds to meet our goal of zero carbon by 2050. There has been much talk about planting trees to achieve this, but low carbon farming and taking care of our soils is expected to account for as much as 23% of those savings. You can probably imagine what planting more trees would look like, but low carbRead More…
Are you
doing Veganuary? Good for you! A few
suggestions. On a vegan diet, it’s
really important to make sure that you eat a balance of 50% vegetables and
fruit, 25% protein (beans or nuts) and 25% good carbohydrates (wholemeal rice or
wholemeal pasta) plus a bit of oils (olive is best). Please
consider carefully before you buy out of season or exotic plants which have
beRead More…
By Isabelle Low Whether your
centrepiece is a turkey (hopefully organic and free range) or like me a stuffed
portobello mushroom, there needs to be a lot of traditional vegetables as
supporting cast. Let’s first
think of a huge tray of roasted root vegetables. Parsnips: so good
chopped length wise and roasted. Beetroot: ideally
multiple varieties, quartered and roasted
Read More…
By Isabelle Low Lots of
potatoes being lifted this month in our Edible Campus gardens. To keep
them fresh for as long as possible,
clean off as much soil as you can, and let them dry off completely. Then store somewhere dry and dark and cold. Potatoes
come in 3 groups: first earlies (small and tasty and ready by June or July);
second earlies (a bit bigger and ready over the Read More…
by Isabell Low, photo by Angela Saunders This summer,
I grew just for fun a row of Cosmic Purple carrots at the Edible Campus garden
at St Gregory’s. The raised bed at St
Greg’s is particularly good for growing carrots as it is too high for pests to
reach. I had a great crop: all
completely clean though a couple had forked due to lack of depth. Cosmic
Purple carrots tasRead More…
learn more about food production. There are regualar sessions everyweek and courses thoughout the year. Veg Growing Month by Month – Come along to this informal discussion on what you can do in your garden this month. This will include a detailed list of what crops to sow, harvest, specific things to look out for and certain tasks that can be done. If you have any lingering questions orRead More…
The gardens are
beginning to buzz as they slowly are bursting with new life. Signs of
springs such as frog spawn, bumble bees and yellow daffodils is a sure sign that
it is time to start sowing those seeds. While out in the Edible
Campus gardens, we have now cleared out the last of the leeks, dug up the final
jerusalem artichoke and have done a final push of weeding anRead More…
St Mary’s Garden in the winter Isabelle Low Edible
Campus volunteer As I write
this (at the end of January), there is still much to pick and enjoy in the 15
Edible Campus sites around St Andrews.
The sheltered (mostly stone-walled) central gardens still have lettuce
and rocket and spinach growing well despite the recent cold weather. A surprise bonus yesterday was to piRead More…
Edible campus volunteers have been busy planning their garden plots for the spring with the help of our favourite online planning tool, GrowVeg. Mapping out our crops is not only easy and fun but optimists the space we have, and helps to plan out times for sowing and planting out. Meanwhile, the garden sessions are continuing either weekly or biweekly at most of the sites wherRead More…
Don’t hesitate, come and try out what we have in our Tool Library! Harvest time is here and folk are busy booking out items like the Dehydrator to make dried fruit and the maslin pan to make jam. We also have a Kenwood Chefette to loan if you would like to make your own Christmas cake. Check out our Tool Share Inventory and see what we have to loan out, you may be pleasantly surprised! RemembeRead More…
Join the Edible Campus team this summer! We are looking for enthusiastic food growers to take on a lead role with our support at one of our many Community Gardens including John Burnett Hall, the Careers Centre, ABH, St Regs, Gannochy Quad and the Kernel. Do you love food? Are you interested in learning more about food growing? Do you like spending time in an outdoor social setting? Read More…