First of all, Happy New Year! We hope 2010 will be a year full of newly discovered or continued enthusiasm for growing your own and enjoying great local food.

Harvest update: All the shops are running January sales and so is Harvest! Get £5 off any training course when you book in January. Course topics in 2010 include container growing, planning your plot, and an introduction to organic growing – plus many more. Have a look at the courses and register now!

What’s on: Harvest is very pleased to announce that Charles Dowding, ‘no dig’ gardener extraordinaire, is coming to Brighton to give a workshop on Saturday 6 March. In the workshop, Charles will give a detailed explanation of no dig practices and show examples from his own garden to illustrate the many possibilities in using this technique.  For more information click here.

Some other events...

Natural Bee Keeping, 15 January, 19:30 – 20:15, Phoenix Centre. A talk given by Vanessa Tourle, who is setting up hives at Moulsecoomb Forest Garden, to look at the differences between commercial and natural bee keeping. For more information and directions to the venue please visit http://www.bhogg.org/category_id__19.aspx.     

Pick, Cook and Learn days at Fork & Dig It: 16 February, 28 February and 14 March, 11:00 – 15:30. Come and enjoy a day out with the family learning new gardening and cooking skills, free lunch included! For more information click here.

Get involved: Climate Connections is a project being run by Brighton Peace and Environment Centre, the City Council and Oxfam GB. The project aims to connect stories of people living in Brighton & Hove with people living in other parts of the world, sharing their experiences, challenges and responses to climate change. If you’d like to share your story and take part in a city-wide photo exhibition contact Paolo on gpaolo.boldrini@bpec.org or 01273 766610. For more info visit www.bpec.org.

Funding & project support: Just a reminder that the deadline for the Good Food Grants and Kitchen Equipment grants is on 19 February. Under these programmes up to £1000 of funding is available to groups working on food growing, healthy eating, and cookery training. Check out the application form and guidance notes here.

Also, Harvest has funding to support new growing projects through it’s Mentoring Programme. This programme links new projects with an experienced grower to share skills and knowledge and help new or struggling projects get growing. 

All the best

The Harvest Team

To find out more and keep in touch with Harvest, you can find us at www.harvest-bh.org.uk or become a fan of Harvest on Facebook.

Harvest is a city-wide project, delivered by a wide range of partners and led by Brighton & Hove Food Partnership and Food Matters. The Food Partnership is a membership organisation, and membership is free to anyone who lives or works in Brighton & Hove. For benefits of membership and to join go to: www.bhfood.org.uk

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