Rhubarb Farm – September Update

September has seen a few firsts at Rhubarb Farm. We started our first two courses – a confidence building course for our volunteers and young gardeners, and a Growing Vegetables course for people with little or no experience of growing their own. Both have been well attended. And in late September an outdoor pizza oven was constructed using clay from the site, which volunteers puddle with their feet. It will be finished in time for our Hearty Harvest event in October.

We also hosted 11 Job Centre staff who gave a day to volunteer on Rhubarb Farm – they painted our café, constructed a path to it, planted garlic and daffodils, and harvested tons of potatoes. We welcome corporate volunteering days as they really help our site progress.

And finally, 7 of us went by minibus on a site visit to Growing Well in Cumbria, to learn how to run a Community Supported Agriculture scheme. A CSA is a membership organisation for people who want to have a regular weekly box of vegetables. The money they guarantee for the year helps fund the wages of ‘farmers’ to work the land. We plan to set up a Rhubarb CSA in 2012.