Come along to Edible Erdingtons Potato Day festival

Saturday 26th February 11am-3pm

Erdington High Street, outside the Swan pub, near the fountain

Free, all welcome

Over the last 12 months Eleanor Hoad and a group of volunteers have been growing vegetables on Erdington High street. Come and see the vegetable plots and join in a celebration of the humble potato.

* Display of some of the 150 varieties of potato available in the UK

* Free seed potato giveaways- grow your own spuds at home

* Enter the “Great Erdington Potato Self Portrait Competition”- decorate a potato as yourself! Prizes to be won

* Seed Bomb Making

* Vegetable Growing Advice

* Morris Dancers

* Potato Planting Demonstration

* Seed Swap- bring along seeds to swap

* Free Food

Funded by Be Birmingham and Birmingham City Council Arts Team

In partnership with Erdington Town Centre Partnership and Court Lane Allotments

Free fun for all the family at this years Apple Day.

Drawing on centuries of tradition surrounding the humble apple, ‘Apple Day’ will include:

* Live apple pressing, see and taste local apples turned into delicious juice with our amazing home made apple press- why not bring along your apples to turn into juice
* Apple expert Julian Brandram, with a display of apple varieties and fruit growing advice (www.appletrees.org.uk)
* Apple trees, pickles, preserves and produce for sale
* Fun apple games including Apple bobbing, Longest Apple Peel competition and Apple and Spoon race
* Morris dancing from 1st Sedgley Morris group
* Make a mini scarecrow to take away
* Live music from Jim Mehan
* Food
The event is brought to you by ‘PREPARE’ a project to harvest and distribute unwanted fruit in the Erdington area run by Artist in Residence Eleanor Hoad based at Twickenham Primary School supported by Birmingham City Councils Community Arts Team.

For more information contact Eleanor Hoad on 07974 934 917 or eleanorhoad@hotmail.com

A traditional Mummers play was performed, which was great fun and enjoyed, with musical accompaniment, by all.

I made some portraits of the performers afterwards, which you can see below. I couldn’t stay for the ceilidh, but the play itself, and the day as a whole, gave a rooted sense of location, and a connection with folk history that is seldom seen in the city.

Eleanor Hoad Erdington Artist in Residence is looking for entrants for an exciting new competition. The Urban Orchard Competition is inviting local people to enter for their chance to have a fruit tree dedicated to a person they think is important. It could be a relative, a loved one, a local hero, someone inspirational or even a favourite character from a book or film, it’s totally open. Two new small community orchards will then be planted at Kingstanding Leisure Centre and in Erdington Central Square on Saturday 5^th December as part of the BBC’s Breathing Places, Tree O’clock attempt to break the world record for the most trees planted in one hour. The fruit trees will each have a plaque installed with the winning names. A panel of judges will decide the winners, with points given for creativity.

A launch and planting ceremony will take place on both sites between 11am and 12pm on Saturday 5^th December. Winners will be able to help plant their trees, see their winning names and receive a certificate. Winners will be informed by 30^th November.

Entries need to be emailed or text to Eleanor Hoad at eleanorhoad@hotmail.com or 07974 934 917 or by filling in an entry form available by clicking the link below. Paper froms can also be collected from Kingstanding Leisure Centre reception, Dulwich Road, Kingstanding. Entries must include the entrants name and contact details, who the tree should be named after and a reason why. The competition closes at midnight on Sunday 29^th November.

The Urban Orchard is part of the ‘Prepare’ project run by Artist in Residence Eleanor Hoad and her volunteers. Eleanor has set up the scheme to make use of fruit growing in the city that would otherwise go to waste. Traveling by bike, spotting fruit trees overhanging walls and fences Eleanor has harvested hundreds of apples, pears and damsons from the Erdington and Kingstanding area. The second stage of the project is to plant more fruit trees and celebrate them.

Eleanor Hoad Artist in Residence said…

“The Urban Orchard Competition is about rethinking how unused patches of land in our city can be utilised and used to produce food. Even the smallest patch can become an abundant source of fresh organic fruit and vegetables with a little thought. The competition gives local people a chance to get involved and own these fruit trees in the hope that they will be cared for and will produce fruit for many years to come”

entry-form

Birmingham artist in search of forgotten apple orchards
Oct 23 2009 by William Oliphant, Birmingham Post

Birmingham’s own version of Johnny Appleseed – artist Eleanor Hoad – has been touring our city’s streets in search of forgotten apple orchards.

The 30-year-old artist in residence at Kingstanding Leisure Centre has been on her bike around the city uncovering Birmingham’s surprising vast wealth of fruit.

As part of this year’s Apple Day celebrations in Kingstanding she decided to see how many fruit trees which are lying unused or forgotten in the city, which she could locate to aid the celebrations.

“Fruit growing is obviously seen as a rural tradition, but there’s loads of it all over the city,” she said.

“I’ve found apple trees in industrial areas growing in forgotten corners. There was one area which had obviously been put aside for building work and I found apple and plum trees and even a grape vine growing in the corner.

“In another area there was an allotment which was no longer being used which had lots of apple and plum trees in it.”

Eleanor has also been peering into gardens all over the city to try and find people who have fruit going spare.

“For a lot of people it’s a big hassle having to deal with the fruit or maybe it’s too high for them to reach so I’ve been offering to harvest it for them in exchange for a share of the apples,” she added.

“People often feel guilty because there’s a lot of fruit going to waste in their back garden, so they’ve often been quite keen to see it going to a good cause.

“We’ve often spotted fruit trees hanging over garden walls and we’ve just knocked on the doors and asked if it was okay to take some away.

Eleanor, who specialises in environmental art, keeps her own fruit trees in her back garden, as well as a productive allotment.

Since she started collecting last month, Eleanor has amassed hundreds of apples which are waiting for the celebrations due to be held on Sunday at Kingstanding Leisure Centre.

The group has also put together a map of the city featuring all the areas where they found apples, so that they can go back for more produce next year.

“It’s about looking at our city with fresh eyes, urban areas often conceal an orchard hidden from view in gardens, on waste ground or in communal areas, this source of forgotten food needs to be harvested, eaten and celebrated, particularly when we begin to consider how cities will sustain themselves into the future,” said Eleanor.

The event, which is free, will see many of the apples being pressed to create apple juice using Eleanor’s apple press which is home made from reclaimed materials.

It will also see the launch of the Urban Orchard Competition where people will have the chance to have a fruit tree dedicated to a special person.

The event will run from noon to 5pm. There will be a celidh from 6pm to 8pm and to book tickets all 0121 464 7890, or to help by volunteering with the project call Eleanor on 07974 934917.

Free Apple Day Event

Sunday 25^th October 12pm-8pm

Kingstanding Leisure Centre, Dulwich Road, Kingstanding, B44 0EW

Celebrate Apple Day with fun for all the family!

From 12-5pm

• Live apple pressing, see and taste local apples turned into delicious juice with our amazing apple presses- why not bring along your apples to turn into juice
• Apple trees, produce and plants for sale
• Apple expert available on the day, bring a sample of any apple you would like him to identify
• Display of over 50 varieties of apples
• Fun apple games including Apple bobbing, Apple peel competition and Apple and Spoon race
• Launch of ‘The Urban Orchard Competition’- enter for a chance to have a fruit tree dedicated to a special person of your choice

Ceilidh Dance Evening with amazing live Irish band ‘Cairde’

6-8pm

Come along and enjoy live music and traditional Ceilidh dancing.

Suitable for everyone from beginners to more experienced dancers!

Limited free tickets available in advance from Kingstanding Leisure Centre and on Apple Day, book early to avoid disappointment. Any remaining tickets will be available on the door.

For more information and Ceilidh tickets contact Kingstanding Leisure Centre on 0121 464 7890 or Eleanor Hoad on 07974 934 917 or eleanorhoad@hotmail.com

See www.cairde.co.uk  for more information

I also decided to try making apple, damson and plum juice and damson rum. Damson rum is very simple to make, just layer up washed damsons and brown sugar in a large clean jar and top up with rum until it is all covered. Put a lid on and leave for as long as you can resist it, 1-3 months is best, shake it occasionally when you remember. This recipe can be used for many fruits with different alcohols, its worth experimenting. My favourites are blackberries or raspberries layered with white sugar and topped up with vodka. Its delicious, ready in time for christmas and brings back all those flavours of summer!

My next plan is to make apple and ginger jam, watch this space for the recipe and to see how I get on!

I used my trusty fruit picker on a long stick, my new bike trailer and picking baskets to collect the fruit from the different sites. Shaking trees and collecting fruit in a large tarpaulin proved very successful for collecting fruit from larger trees, however many of the trees I found were very overgrown with brambles so picking with a stick was the only way to access fruit. I think some clearing of brambles to free them would be a good mission at a later date.

I met several interested people while picking one of whom was Quettie (I hope I have spelt that correctly!) she is a local allotment holder and was on her way to pick some plums so we shared our harvest with her. She had great plans to make a plum sauce recipe.

Sutton Coldfield News

David Henry Thoreau

Old allotment ground

I’m interested in urban Permaculture and finding solutions to the challenge of producing food in the city. I plan to find existing fruit trees in Erdington in gardens, on waste land or planted on common ground and to harvest, process and distribute the excess fruit which often goes to waste. I am also exploring the idea of planting new urban orchards on different sites in the area and reviving orchard traditions like wassailing, a celebration to promote a good apple harvest.

I have been exploring Erdington over the last couple of months, getting to know the area and the people who live and work here. I am based at Kingstanding Leisure Centre with a remit to work in the Erdington ward, over 90,000 people at the last count.

My investigations so far have included a guided tour of ‘Erdo’ as the locals call it, with the Arts Forum group. They led me to all kinds of interesting local beauty spots and I was able to harvest some Elderflowers to make my first batch of foraged urban free food- ‘Erdo Elderflower Cordial!’ I presented a talk about my work to the Arts Forum group and hope to be working with them more as the project develops.

'Erdo' elderflowers

I also took part in the Kingstanding Recycling Day and had fun apple bobbing with lots of local children. I began the process of mapping fruit trees by asking visitors to pinpoint locations of fruit trees in local gardens on a large pin board map.

On Sunday October 24th there will be an Apple Day taking place at Kingstanding Leisure Centre, watch this space for more details soon.

I will be looking for people to help care for the new orchards and to harvest, process and distribute local fruit as the project develops and for people with excess fruit growing in their gardens. Get in touch if you want to help by emailing: eleanorhoad@hotmail.com