By Polly Daw
The Grove at Bedminster has been running for 25 years, by the Almighty and highly respected Gor (above) she works along side her devoted daughter – Lisa who is a former member of the club.
A.W.Daw Ltd transformed the garden in February 2015 with Lee Billet taking charge and giving direction to our helpful volunteers from Nation Wide who were working along side young Bristol.
The results were definite – just see the before and after pictures below. It is safe to say that Gor and her team were happy with the results and it left us to start planning and carrying out our Seed to Celebration Workshops……
We use each workshop to gear up any budding gardeners or keen cooks to plan and prepare for our BIG celebration party at the end of the 14 weeks.
This includes:
The Seeds….Learning what produce has been planted by Lee and Arthur and what they will be growing throughout the future weeks. This is when we put the team to work and make sure they keep up with the weeding and the watering every week! A new plant is either potted or put in one of the raised beds.
The Cooking…. Follow us and see what creations we will produce throughout the 12 weeks we have left. So far we have made a creative Apple Coleslaw (with lots of honey and apples…believe us, it works!) and Apple and Rosemary turnovers, when it was (you guessed it) Apple week!!. Root vegetable week brought carrot cake and wedges to The Grove, where they took them back to there parents to finish off by popping them in the oven and letting the adults enjoy it with a lovely cup of tea….A very healthy Courgette dip and pumpkin bread was developed and given the stamp of approval last week (we convinced them to eat a scary healthy green dip…. Champions!!), this was incorporated for Squash week.
When cooking, we ensure that our Seed to Celebration enthusiasts have as much input as they want, telling myself and Sarin what they believe it needs more of, what it might need a sprinkle off, or if they would like it at the Seed to Celebration party..
The Groves new Friends: We have provided The Grove with there very own wormary. So far the club has shown love and dedication to there new friends, ensuring that they are well looked after and keeping the check list up together, which Sarin provided…..Sarin is a lover of the worms and a very good teacher! – see below.
Sarin and I are excited about the future Seed to Celebration workshops we have left at The Grove, always encouraging more members so we can try to educate and encourage, while always have fun on a Friday after a long week of school.
The Celebration Party is going to be HUGE, making money and fundraising to ensure the youth club keeps running, so Gor can keep The Grove Bedminster member’s in check and continue the wonderful work she does. We hope they can continue to use the produce from the garden for future fundraising events making sure the garden is sustainable……KEEP CELEBRATING!!!
