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
Apple Day 2010Apple Day Sunday 24th October 11am-3pm Court Lane Allotments, Erdington, Birmingham
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
Urban Orchard Competition Launched
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 5th 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 5th December. Winners will be able to help plant their trees, see their winning names and receive a certificate. Winners will be informed by 30th 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 29th 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”
Here’s what the Birmingham Post had to say about the Prepare project:
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.
Apple Day Sunday 25th October 12pm-8pm
Free Apple Day Event
Sunday 25th 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
Who will help to eat the harvest?After a successful harvest I had to decide what to do with all the fruit. I decided to set up a free fruit bowl on reception at Kingstanding Leisure Centre. The damsons soon got eaten followed by apples the next day.
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!
The fruits of Erdington- First fruit harvestA very successful days fruit harvesting took place on 18th September. Following a bike research tour of fruit trees recommended by local people on a lovely sunny day, I visited several of the most promising sites to try and harvest some fruit… Just look at the results! Russets, eating and cooking apples, damsons and plums!
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.
PREPARE is looking for unused fruit growing in the Erdington ward area to harvest and distribute to local people. There are many fruit trees in gardens and in public spaces with tonnes of fruit every year including plums, apples, pears and damsons that for many reasons do not get picked. The fruit will be harvested by volunteers and given away to local people as fresh fruit, juice, pickles and jams. The project is run by Erdington Artist in Residence Eleanor Hoad, currently based at Kingstanding Leisure Centre.
WANTED
Do you have a fruit tree in your garden? Why not donate some of your fruit for distribution to the local community. Picking and collection can be arranged to suit you. Also get in touch if you have spotted any unused fruit trees in public places that could be harvested.
WHO WILL HELP US EAT THE FRUIT?
Are you involved with a community group or project that could make use of locally sourced fruit? Get in touch if you would like a free share in the harvest.
GET INVOLVED
Why not volunteer to help with the harvest? Help is needed with spotting trees, harvesting, processing and distributing fruit. It’s great fun, good for you and you will get to eat fresh fruit for free! Suitable for all ages, no previous experience neccessary.
Call Eleanor Hoad on 07974 934 917 or email: eleanorhoad@hotmail.com
Click the link below to see what the Sutton Coldfield News had to say about the Erdington residency:
Eleanor Hoad: PREPARE‘All good things are wild and free’
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
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