Saturday 4th February 2012

11am -3pm

• Tours of the walled garden
• Bring and share food in the courtyard
• Competition : “most unusual use of your veg share?”
• Sims Hill in pictures – the story so far – what’s next?
• Seed stories – from the seed to your plate
• Co-operative games – for bigs and little ones …
• Music – bring instruments
• Good company, good food, lots of fun and opportunities to have your say in what happens up at Sims Hill! See you there!

Getting there:
Bus number 36, also buses 6, 7, 40, 43, 44 & 45 stop at Lawrence Hill, a few minutes walk away

Please don’t park on Barton Hill Rd, we have to keep the neighbours sweet!

More information from Tim 07973 256572

Please click here for a map to the site.

Photo credit: flickr/freefromkatia

There will be a few more difficult months to come in the new year but we are excited about 2012. We should see a polytunnel, mains water and a pond being put in the field in the first quarter, which should give production a boost. We will be growing for 60 harvest shares from next month, so there will be more shares available in 2012, the harvest increasing in July. Ten of these shares will be workshares. We are also planning to run more community veg growing trainings, after this years’ successful pilot.

A combination of four community celebration days and weekend workdays will also make us more accessible to our members and the wider community.

Thanks to all of our members and volunteers for helping us through our first successful year on the plot. We couldn’t have done it without you!

Picture credit: the Eden Project

After our last members’ meeting we have confirmed several dates for the Sims Hill Shared Harvest diary, including Board meeting dates, Members meeting dates, and dates for our 2012 Community Celebrations.

Hopefully a very sophisticated calendar type widget will be appearing on the site soon, but in the meantime, please take note of the following dates (should any dates need to change, members will be notified by email and this will also be noted on the blog):

Board meetings are the 2nd Tuesday of every month:

• January 10
• February 14
• March 13
• April 10
• May 8
• June 12
• July 10
• August 14
• September 11
• October 9
• November 13
• December 11

Board meetings are hosted in turn by members of the Board and start at 7:30 pm. Members are always welcome at Board meetings also. Should you wish to come to a Board meeting please email us at simshillsharedharvest@googlemail.com so we can make extra tea!

Members meetings will be held on the 4th Tuesday of February, April, June, September, and November.

• February 28: Annual General Meeting
• April 24
• June 26
• September 25
• November 27: Adoption of 2013 budget

Please note that February 28 is the AGM when the Board will be elected and that November 27 is when the 2013 budget will be adopted. Members’ Meetings will be at Horfield Meeting House, 300 Gloucester Road, Horfield, Bristol, BS7 8PD and start at 7:30 pm.

and last but by no means least, the 2012 Sims Hill Shared Harvest Saturday Community Celebrations! (names subject to change):

• February 4: Sap rising/hedge planting
• March 24: Spring celebration
• June 30: First Fruits
• October 13: Apple Juicing and Harvest celebration

Details for the celebrations will be published on the blog nearer the time.

Photo credit: Annie Mole

I bought some caraway seeds yesterday for a herbal tea mixture I’m experimenting with (mint, fennel seeds, chamomile & caraway seeds – good after dinner drink) so when I saw Hugh Fearlessly’s recipe for cabbage and caraway seed soup in Saturday’s grauniad I thought I’d have a go.

I’ve omitted the bacon and the butter, and added turmeric, so the ingredients are:

1 half cabbage (not muddy is best)
1 large onion
2 large potatoes
3 cloves of garlic (or less if you don’t like it as much as I do)
teaspoon of turmeric
quite a few grinds of black pepper
generous pinch of sea salt
olive oil

1. Chop the onions fairly small and cook on a low heat in the olive oil until transparent (a pinch of salt will stop them burning)
2. smash up the garlic cloves, turmeric, salt & black pepper (I use a pestle and mortar, but however you do it it’s important to smash the garlic cloves, not just slice them) & add to the pan
3. while this is all gently sizzling, wash and shred the cabbage and peel the potatoes & chop into 1cm (eg small) cubes and add to the pan
4. Stir it all together then add vegetable (or chicken) stock to cover.
5. Simmer until the potatoes are soft
6. Take about a cupful and blend and add back to the pan, which makes it a more creamy soup
7. You could make some croutons (chop some fairly solid bread into cubes & fry on a hot heat for a few minutes then drain and sprinkle on top) or you could serve with crusty bread.

Enjoy!

Serves 5 on its own, or 8 with side dishes of mashed potato (skins on) and steamed kale.

Ingredients:
2 onions

6 cloves garlic

1½ – 2 cooking apples

1-2 potatoes

5-6 carrots

1-2 tins of butter beans

Dried thyme and sage (and other herbs if you like)

Vegetable stock powder

Yeast extract (Marmite or flakes) to taste

Salt and black pepper to taste

3 tablespoons cooking oil

500 ml cider (not too sweet)

Hot water to top up the liquid as necessary.

Cornflour or thickening granules if desired.

Method:
Chop vegetables and apples into rough cubes.

Heat oil in a large saucepan with lid.

Stir in onions, cook for 5 minutes or until beginning to soften.

Add garlic, carrots, potatoes and apples (gradually to avoid cooling the pan too much) and stir to distribute the oil evenly.

Let mixture cook for 5-10 minutes while adding generous amounts of herbs and stock powder.

Pour in cider, put lid on pan and simmer, check after about 15 minutes.

When vegetables are nearly ready, add butter beans and more hot water if necessary.

Heat through, season and add yeast extract to taste (depends on sweetness of cider).

Serve with buttered bread, or if you’re feeling fancy, dumplings cooked in the stew.

None of these quantities are important, so please experiment!

Please also bring bowls, cutlery, and mugs!

‘Nuff said! See you there!

Heres a link to a good recipe.

2kg of green tomatoes should make up to 10 jars of chutney and be ready around Christmas time. Please respond to the member’s email that we are sending out today if you don’t want the tomatoes in your share.

Photo credit: BBC Good Food.

Vegetarian Borscht
serves about 6

INGREDIENTS
1/2 large or 1 small yellow onion, sliced into half moons
2 cloves of garlic
1 pound beets, shredded with a food processor or peeled and cut into matchsticks
2 medium red potatoes, shredded with a food processor or cut into matchsticks
1/2 pound of carrots (about 2 large), shredded with a food processor or peeled and cut into matchsticks
2 T olive oil
1/2 head cabbage (red or white), sliced into small pieces
4 cups vegetable stock
juice of 1 and a half lemons
salt
coarsely ground black pepper
sour cream (use vegan sour cream for vegan soup)

PROCEDURE
1. Sauté onions and garlic in olive oil with a pinch of salt in a large soup pot for 1-2 minutes. Add beets, carrots, and potato, and another pinch of salt, and stir.
2. In the meantime, bring the vegetable stock to a boil. When the vegetables are soft (about 5 minutes), add the cabbage and the hot stock. Bring to a boil and then simmer, covered, for 20-30 minutes.
3. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and then add the lemon juice. Serve hot or cold with additional grated black pepper and a swirl of sour cream.

Photo credit: Foodologie

Our Harvest Share scheme has been running successfully since July, and we will still have space for more members for this year, so please continue to help spread the word!

All the veg is growing well, with the exception of those affected by the return of the wireworm! The weeds are also growing beautifully which means our hoes are busy and are we have our hands full. We are still waiting for Avon Wildlife Trust to get access to their site, so we can start preparing for sowing winter salads in one of their greenhouses.

Our big new is that we are currently running a pilot Community Veg Growing Training programme as part of our commitment to be a place for learning, and including people who are socially or economically marginalised.

The training is designed for people who have some gardening experience but want to learn more about community-based vegetable growing. At very short notice, we had nearly twenty applicants for only five spaces, so it looks like there is a demand for practical hands-on training.

Each week focuses on a different aspect of growing; a different vegetable family; and the relevant practical techniques and skills. So for example, one week, we discussed rotations and green manures and then proceeded to under sow squash with trefoil. Last week, we discussed weeds and the carrot family and then proceeded to hand weed and hoe (trialling three hoe types) a few hundred metres of carrot rows.

We have a diverse and enthusiatic pod of trainees, who have instituted their own bring and share lunches (including homebaked cake!), which makes the training a joy to run.

As you can see the team have been and will be working hard! Our particular thanks to the workshares: David, Cai, Ollie, Matt and Tristan.

Sims Hill was also part of the recent Reclaim the Fields southwest gathering held in Bristol on 6-7 August.

Our future plans include another Harvest party on the Hill on October 8, other community-building
events and much more, so please keep checking back here for details!