Urban Growing
By Alex Goodman
Head grower at Purple Patch, Alex Goodman, shares news from the half-acre market garden in St Werburghs – find out how you can get involved.
We’re all gearing up for the season at Purple Patch with new season salad available once again! To help us kick off the season, we need to generate some income to pay for compost and labour. Salad subscriptions at Purple Patch are now open.
You can subscribe to six months of salad to help us kick off the year, or you can sign up to pay on a week-by-week basis. Collection is on foot or by bicycle and delivery is available by bike between Purple Patch and the St Werburghs Tunnel. The collection window is from midday on Wednesday each week until Friday 6pm. Instructions will be sent when you have ordered.
We are very much looking forward to our Spring Fair in 10 days time, on 25th March, 2-7pm. Watch this space for more info about our Summer Fair (17th June), Harvest Festival (23rd September) and Cow Christmas (9th December) events.
And if that isn’t enough news, here’s some more…
I am in the process of training with the Landworkers Alliance to scale up the business (funded by Defra). I have been accepted onto a Business Scale Up Training Programme, which involves business mentorship, training and support in accessing funds and reaching out to possible investors. My aim is to change the structure of the business to be a CIC. As part of this, I hope to be able to scale up our growing also, and I have been offered the opportunity to take on the top field. I am hoping to grow an acre of heritage grain in this field, but at the moment this is still in discussion.
As part of this training, we are seeking someone to be a voluntary director of the project to support us in decision-making and building a resilient, abundant project that benefits the local community, the land workers stewarding the land, and the land itself. If this is of interest to you and you would like to receive the voluntary director role description when it is available please email us at purplepatchbristol@gmail.com.
So, what change do you want to see happen that will transform food in Bristol by 2030? Do you already have an idea for how Bristol can make this happen? Join the conversation now.
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