Autumn Walks

Don’t you just love scrunching through piles of fallen leaves, kicking them up into the air? 
 



Now is the time to get out and enjoy those autumn colours – yellow, gold, red and all shades of brown.  It is easy to get distracted when out walking now, trying to find the perfect leaf – but how to preserve its ephemeral beauty? 

Of course you can take photographs (yours are probably better than mine!), but there are some other techniques that might be worth trying out, such as Japanese hapa-zome leaf printing and anthotypes.

I found out about these techniques on our recent Walk Leader Training organised by Walking for Health – from some of the others taking part during our practice walk. 

One of the best things about walking with a group is the social aspect – having a relaxed chat as you go along.  There’s always someone who notices something, or knows some interesting history, or has a story to tell about the places we pass.

The Bedminster LinkAge group already runs regular short walks around Victoria Park (for over 55’s) from the Windmill Hill City Farm

 

Watch this space for more Fruitfulness walks …

Apple Day 21st October

Our first Apple Day celebration at the Windmill Hill City Farm was a great success.  Over 500 people came to join in a range of fun appley activities, and enjoyed delicious, freshly-pressed apple juice.  There are some great photos on our Facebook page.

A dozen people helped to pick (mainly Bramley) apples from the Farm, staff and visitors brought in fruit from their own garden, and we had some emergency supplies just in case …

Altogether 7 or 8 green trugs full of apples were processed to a fine mixture which started to produce juice as soon as it was loaded into the hydropress.  The juice was intense in flavor, so we were able to do some ‘second pressings’ of the pulp mixed with water and still get a tasty juice.  The final dry pulp was added to the Farm's compost heap.

As people were drinking the apple juice almost as quickly as we were making it, we didn’t get an exact measure of the total volume produced.  Our best estimate is 80 litres.  It was so popular we ran out of cups.  Some lucky people got to take a whole bottle home at the end.

We are now discussing how best to make the fruit pressing equipment available for hire to other City Farms, community orchards and local people with lots of fruit trees.

In the children’s area they had a go at peeling, slicing and coring apples in one go using an ingenious hand-driven gadget.  They also bobbed for apples – not as easy as it looks!  A beautiful Wish Tree was created with hopes for the day and for the future, this is now in the Farm’s Reception area.

Preparing for Apple Day

Staff and volunteers at the farm are gearing up for our first Apple Day on Sunday 21^st October 12-6pm.  Simone has organised a wide range of fun family activities, all to the sound of Country and Western music

(see http://www.windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk/events/appleday.html). 

The Fruitfulness Project will be trying out the Centrifugal Mill (scratter) and Hydropress for the first time.  We were ambitious and procured large volume equipment – so we can process lots of apples and pears (even grapes).  It’s unfortunate that this first year of the project has been such a poor year for apples – it was so cold and wet when the trees were blossoming that the bees weren’t about to fertilise them.  Many people are reporting that they have no, or very few, fruits on their trees. 

We will be harvesting a variety of apples from the Farm itself this week.  If you have lots of apples and pears in your garden and you’d like to turn some of them into fruit juice, do bring them along to Apple Day.  No rotten fruit or windfalls please! 

 
Fruit pressing equipment from Vigo Presses in Devon

Apple Peeler Slicer Corer from Lakeland

Also bring some clean plastic containers (such as milk cartons or pop bottles) to take away the juice. Be aware that freshly pressed fruit juice contains natural yeasts and these will start to ferment after about a week, producing CO₂ gas.  This could cause glass bottles to explode.  The juice can be pasteurized at 70^oC to prevent this, and juice can also be frozen for longer term storage.

We have a small press that children can try out, and some apple peeler, slicer, corers that are fun to use and speed up processing fruit for cooking. Some of the apple slices will be dried out in a dehumidifier, to make tasty and healthy fruity snacks.  

Poisonous Berries

On a recent foraging walk with young children that retraced the route taken in June (see post below) it seemed a good idea to point out those fruits and berries that are NOT good to eat.  When trying any new fruit, even when it is generally considered to be edible, it is sensible to try only a little bit first, in case you react badly.  Some fruits (haws from hathorns for example) are used in herbal medicine and may have undesirable effects on you, or you may find you are allergic.

Always refer to a reliable guidebook when foraging and only take things which you can identify confidently.  Some good sources of information on toxic berries can be found on the Internet - see The Wild Food School www.countrylovers.co.uk/wfs/wfsberries.htm which has some good photographs and advice for foragers.  The Royal Horticultural Society www.rhs.org.uk has a list of plants that are potentially harmful to humans.

Always wash your harvest before eating! As well as the general dirt and pollution found in the urban environment, some trees may have been sprayed with chemicals. Anything growing low down may have been contaminated by dogs or foxes, and there could be insects (juicy maggots!) on the fruits that you don't want to eat.

We were asked whether acorns were edible: the information found on this suggests that some types are edible, but only after extensive preparation.  You need to research what type of oak the acorns come from, white oaks tend to be more palatable than red oaks.  They all contain bitter tannins that need to be boiled out, with several changes of water.  It is quite a laborious process to make them into an acceptable substance which can be turned into flour, and the last time they were popular in Britain was when there was a famine!  They are a traditional part of the American Indian diet and are also used to make noodles in Korea.
 

Nominet Exhibition- Our Day Out

The Windmill Hill City Farm Community Development Team are on a day out today.  We are at the Nominet Exhibition in Broadmead.  We are here all day chatting to people and exploring ways to see how the internet can bring people, ideas, learning and communities together.

We met local resident Ron today, who went online for the first time only a few days ago. He had lots of stories to tell us about being sustainable, due to his thrifty lifestyle during the war years spent working on a farm.  He chatted to us about the benefits of being resourceful, how he keeps himself young and always open to learning new things.

Lots of inspiring people came into the Nominet exhibition who shared with us the ways they contribute to their local community and environment. We met Mohammed who works with children and adults with learning difficulties and supports them with numeracy and literacy skills.  He talked to Iwona our Fruitfulness volunteer worker about how is always finding ways to be an 'Active Citizen' in his community in Portishead.

Georgina, Jamela, Abby and Megan from a local school came along to the exhibition to find out what we were up to at the Nominet Exhibition.  Abby was interested in blogging and setting up her own blog about climbing and reading - the other girls said she is a brilliant writer.  We had a chat with her about how to set up a blog and we are looking forward to reading her new blog.

The girls were also interested in volunteering and Jules the Community Development Worker and Rosie our volunteer Sustainablity Engagement Worker talked to them about volunteering at the Farm.
We look forward to finding out what volunteering opportunities they may get involved in.

Today we have also been developing some new exciting projects for Active Citizens in 2013. We are developing a project which we hope will encourage people in the local community to find ways to be more sustainable in everyday life. Step Out for Sustainability (SOS) will explore ways to encourage households in the local community to make thoughtful decisions about how they travel, cook, shop, run their houses and deal with their waste.  Details coming soon...

Our Digital Planet Exhibition in Broadmead

The Active Citizens Project will be taking part in the Nominet Trust’s Our Digital Planet exhibition at Bristol Broadmead on Friday 21^st September.  Do come along and meet the project team, we’ll be there from 10.30a.m. to 4p.m.

The aim of the exhibition is highlight the broad and far-reaching impact the Internet is having on our lives and to help people understand more about its potential.  The exhibition includes images and information on projects that show how the Internet helps with:

• Democracy

• Community Engagement

• Support Networks

• Social Isolation

• Health and Well-being

• Economic Well-being

• Hobbies and Interests

There will be an Internet station for you to use yourself, to find out more, perhaps to get online for the first time?  Nominet Trust experts will be on hand to give help with any questions or issues you may have.

The Active Citizens project team look forward to meeting you and finding out about your ideas for how to use the Internet to get involved with – or start – a local initiative in your community.  We will have information on volunteering opportunities,  local environmental projects around Bristol, the Fruitfulness Project and how to create a blog.

August Fruits

Blackberry Picking

We’ve found several places within 5 minutes walk of the City Farm where blackberries can be found.  August is when they start ripening, and we have already seen some really large juicy ones! 

A small group of us walked into Victoria Park and turned right towards Bedminster station.  There are some really large bramble bushes thriving along the railway fence, with plenty of fruit in easy reach.  We used a long stick to hold back the prickly branches and nettles where necessary so we could pick the darkest fruits.

Past the station entrance and moving onto the start of the Malago Walkway we found so many bushes, we filled up our bags and containers really quickly! 

We have frozen some to use on the next Jam-making session on Wed 26^th September (book online at www.freewebstore.org/windmillhillcityfarm/index.aspx?pageid=1212375 ).  Blackberries are also great in pies and crumbles, especially mixed with apples.

We also found this unusual Umbrella Tree – a useful find given the wet summer we have been having!

Plums on the Bath Road

Some of you may have noticed the colourful mess of plums spreading across the pavement on the Bath Road near the Three Lamps junction.

Initial inspection suggests there is some type of purple plum and two less well known fruits – the Mirabelle plum (which has small, rounded yellow fruit that is popular in France for jam-making) and the cherry plum.   Cherry plums have small, round, red-coloured fruit which are the size of a large cherry but with a plum stone inside and the crease typical of a plum on the outside. 

This is a good example of why the Fruitfulness project was set up as we can’t bear to see this lovely fruit going to waste!  If you’d like to share in gathering this free harvest – before all the fruit falls and turns to mush – contact the City Farm to volunteer.  If you’d like to get involved with other fruit harvesting and  foraging walks in the Bedminster area, keep an eye on the Events page.