Barney’s Blog 3 – oot n aboot

Hello good Moravians, it’s been a wee while since my last installment.

A helper at Home FarmLast time I told you a little about our preparation for the Open Day at Home Farm, Pitgaveney. A cracker of a day was had! Sheepdog trials, sheep shearing, a farmers’ market and bicycle powered smoothies were just a few of the attractions. Our raised bed and (especially) our herb spiral drew countless admiring glances and tempted many folk into the marquee for a blether. They were most chuffed to hear how quick and easy these are to build. Free seeds and factsheets on the above as well as composting were particularly popular take-aways. We learnt lots ourselves, hearing some great tips and stories and a good number of people were keen to get involved and signed up for our mailing list.

Signing up folk at GreenfingersDorothy and I were ‘oot and aboot the previous day too. We were down at the Greenfingers project at Cooper Park nurseries, for a sale of lots of very healthy looking plants straight out of the polytunnels and cold frames. Not surprisingly, the folk from Elgin and beyond were there in their droves, picking up a bargain or ten. And so we got in on the action, spreading the word about how easy and tasty it could be to put aside even a wee part of your garden for growing your own grub, to accompany all those bedding plants…. Folks took away some seeds for germinate – of ideas as well as veggies.

Seed sowing at Greenwards PrimaryA few days after our weekend bonanza we headed down to Greenwards Primary School to spend the morning with Miss Taylor’s year P4/5 class. We went on a Where in the World? journey with them, tracing their supermarket food back to source and looking at the many contributions to its carbon footprint in getting from field to supermarket shelf. The kids showed great geography knowledge when looking at the labels, and were surprised that food was coming from as far afield as Vietnam, Chile and Kenya! After that we headed out with them to the Allarburn Farm Shop, where there was such a contrast; local butchers selling their products from Huntly, garlic from Nairn and local veg grown in farms just a few miles from the shop in Elgin’s Edgar Road.

There was a return to Action for Children last week; unfortunately I was laid low with the lurgy but Dorothy and Ann had a fine time by all accounts, filling pots with herbs, rocket and strawberries, transferring veg into the filled raised beds we made last time – so there’ll be plenty of lettuce, cabbage, leeks, onions and kale soon. Patrick and Kaden found a 1936 one penny in the soil, treasure, what a great find! Then the lashing rain put paid to our raised bed party at Pitgaveney last Sunday – please summer, come soon – but we’ll be heading back for the rearranged fixture shortly, as well as starting the first of our four Grow Your Own gardening courses at Elgin Gardenshare on Forteath Avenue this coming Saturday 13 June from 10am – 12noon. It’s called Sow and Grow and we’ll be on hand along with some other gardeners to give a gentle introduction to people doing it themselves. To book a place just contact the REAP office. This course will run every fortnight taking you through sowing to harvesting. See you there?