Over the summer and early autumn this year, we worked with Rock Farm to host nearly 100 attendees from nine affordable food hubs across Brighton and Hove for fun and educational farm visits as part of the Soil in the City project.
We started each day with a locally roasted coffee or tea and getting to know one another. We then had a gentle guided tour by the Rock Farm hosts, where everyone had the opportunity to taste delicious, flavour-packed seasonal produce, and ask questions about farming techniques with a joint effort harvesting for lunch.
The Rock Farm team explained as we went on our group tour how they have adapted the 6-acre site from a straight-rowed pick your own berry site, to a wonderful winding route through a therapeutic growing site, with a mushroom corner, willow tree tunnel, several raised beds, two polytunnels and so many more amazing treasures. They explained how they are adopting techniques such as companion growing and ways to reduce the need of regular irrigation to make such a successful market garden.
“It’s great to come out and see in person what the word biodiversity means”
Many attendees at the visits rarely get the opportunity to leave the city or cook fresh, local produce – for several reasons, such as not having transport, access to available sources nearby, or being priced out of the options. Working at grassroot level, it became clear what the common limitations are and how we can start to break down the barriers for future farming and healthier diets.
Impact of the visits
Some of the people who have come on the visits are going on to grow seedlings at home to give to their local community garden, attending community cooking courses, or attending regular volunteer days at Rock Farm. Some attendees also now attend their local growing groups on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.
It has been really fulfilling being part of this project and working with the food hubs and their communities, to further develop their interest in nature, local growing and cooking local produce. A quote from one attendee in particular resonates for me:
“I was so isolated before, coming with my community made me feel safe, learning about biodiversity and what working with nature really means, not trying to control it…”
What next
The next phase of this project is called ‘Meet the grower’ – to go out to a range of local farms near to Brighton, such as Fork & Dig it, Ashurst Organics and Lovebrook Farm. These visits are showing a larger scale of farming and allowing the farmers to tell the stories from their years of experience.
The Soil in the City visits have provided the opportunity to pick and take home some of the produce with cooking tips. We are also looking at how we can develop more opportunities for picking produce to go out via the affordable food projects. The visits develop in response to what the participants have fed back to us. They told us so far that harvesting, growing, cooking and having the opportunity to be in an unfamiliar location with their families, neighbours and other users of the hubs is what feels most beneficial to them.
From this project so far, we have raised the awareness of the importance of being outside and have helped nurture the participants interest in nature, local food production and community friendships.
“Making local land and food more accessible for everyone”
Ben Szobody – garden host
