Food Partnership news liM


Melanie Rees, the Green Centre Local Food. Good for the economy. Good


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for the environment. Good for our health. As we face climate change, diminishing energy resources and a soaring global population we can no longer be complacent about our ability to feed ourselves. We are capable of producing more of our own food. Most recently it was the Women's Land Army (WLA) who acheived this in response to the Second World War. The Women's Land Army became


active in 1939 and by 1942, 70% of food was home-produced and there were bumper harvests to follow. Locally we have strong ties to the Land Army. Balcombe Place in Haywards Heath, the home of Lady Denman, became headquarters to the WLA, following her appointment as their Honorary Director. A 1945 illustrated map, produced for


Thanks to funding from


Brighton & Hove City Council, the Food Partnership are able to do Love Food: Hate Waste


cookery demos and/or provide sessions on home and


community composting. So if you would like us to come to


Melanie Rees from the Green Centre and Izzy Cabble from the Craven Vale Children’s Allotment


the WLA, documented Sussex at war and included information about local food production including, “One Mile of Potatoes” in Brighton. Can we follow in the footsteps of our land girls and recreate “One Mile of


Potatoes” in Brighton? The Green Centre and Craven Vale Children’s allotment are going to try starting this spring. With one potato plant representing 1ft, 5,280 plants are needed. To include your potatoes in the mile please e-mail spuds@thegreencentre.co.uk for more details. For more information about the work of the Green Centre www.thegreencentre.co.uk and to find out more about the Women’s Land Army www.womenslandarmy.co.uk


Wish Park Orchard planting


Thanks to support from the Brighton Permaculture Trust (BPT) a small orchard including plums and apples has been planted in Wish Park. It will be looked after by the Wish Park Community Garden who already have a small food growing area in the park. The planting day in January attracted lots of local


people who helped dig holes, put in stakes and plant the trees. Comments from local people on the day included ‘What an improvement, three years ago this was just a space with a problem with dog mess, now we have vegetables and fruit trees’. Gerald, the gardener from the park who has been


4 city food news


instrumental in helping the local residents get the growing project going said ‘The best thing is watching all of these different people come together – it’s created a better community.’ Bryn from BPT says ‘It’s great to be able to plant some


fruit trees in the park. Besides the obvious benefit of lots of lovely fresh local fruit, orchards bring communities together for harvesting and juicing events; provide a lovely space for people to relax in the shade of trees; attract wildlife and combat climate change by absorbing carbon in the trees and soil.’


your community event or you have a good idea for a venue for a demo, get in touch with Vera on Vera@bhfood.org.uk 01273 431700


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