Claver Hill

Garlic planted in autumn survived the Welsh winter

This weblog-posting comes not from the heart of Wales, as regular readers have come to expect, but from the northwest of England. Lancaster, to be precise. A small city on the banks of the river Lune as it approaches the Irish sea, it is the county town of Lancashire and indeed gave its name to the county (probably why some southerners have been known to get the two confused.) I come here every so often to visit my family. This time Jeremy Corbyn visited too - not actually to our door, but my mum passed him crossing a street.

Yesterday we made a trip over to the other side of the city, high up where we could get views of Morecambe Bay and the mountains of the Lake District beyond, then over the brow to visit a food-growing project on the lower reaches of Claver Hill.

As the cold wind whipped itself up into gale-force proportions and the light raindrops began to become more frequent, we climbed out of the car and hauled on our waterproofs and wellies. We'd chosen the nastiest day of the week to be shown round the six acre site by Paula*, one of the co-founders of the community project. They were soon to launch a nature trail that followed the perimeter of the grounds so we dutifully followed the laminated map, clinging onto our hoods to prevent them from being blown off, until we reached the sanctuary of the two polytunnels and recovered for a bit.

A jostaberry bud bursts into leaf

Claver Hill Field was formed as a community food growing project about three years ago, to give local people the opportunity to learn how to grow veg and fruit, and to benefit from the produce. It's had various grants to allow the purchase of the polytunnels, some drainage of the field, and the construction of a very decent compost toilet. Windbreaks had been formed by the planting of rows of willow and alder, although it has to be said that the gale was still managing to howl through it. There were plenty of growing beds all over the place, some planted up with salads and brassicas and leeks. A herb area made clever use of a series of baths laid like stepping stones, and even a small boat that will never see the waves again.

Paula, despite the weather, was bursting with enthusiasm and vigour and had an inexhaustible stream of information about the site, but even she agreed we should cut short the nature walk as the gusts grew fiercer. Nature clearly didn't want us to walk.

After our tour concluded we left shivering and wet but with big smiles. It was inspiring to see such a large community growing project that is bringing people closer to the source of their food. May this year fill their field with an abundance of veg!

Last year's kale is now bolting, should I let it go to seed?

* Name changed