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Category Archives: volunteering

Potatoes, Primroses and Pancakes

There was a bitterly cold wind up at Roots today but the hardiest of the volunteers planted all the potatoes. A less hardy group of us planted tomato, aubergine, pepper, fennel and celery seeds. Others were transplanting the baby onion plants from seed trays into modules.

Amy among the rows of potatoes

There are more beautiful primroses in our front garden.

It’s Shrove Tuesday and this evening we’ve had savoury pancakes stuffed with ham and sweet corn followed by crêpes suzettes with the juice of ruby red blood oranges.

 

 

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Plants, Automata and Pancake Day

What a beautiful day in every way! The sun shone and the sky was blue. I met friends at Community Roots where we potted on lots of celery and celeriac, admired our growing tomato plants and laughed along with the team. Later I visited the Contraptions exhibition, we met two enthusiastic young gardeners, a friend called round with some books to swap and finally I made pancakes, both savoury stuffed and, to finish, Crêpes Suzettes.

Salad leaves

Baby tomatoes, many varieties

 

We have a couple of Esther Smith’s pieces – I love her work.

The last remnants of the pancake batter made a rather pretty lacy pancake pattern.

 

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Tête à Tête, Poly Tunnels and Rainbow Chard

There was just one little Tête à Tête in flower near the shed, braving the bitter wind.

A very efficient team of three, today we planted all sorts of seeds for summer harvesting, such a positive and hopeful job. Seeds included lettuce, chillies, peppers, aubergines and tomatoes, several varieties of each.  Not much photo opportunity there so I went for a walk around the poly tunnels to see how everything is coming on. Brilliantly is the answer. Many more braver Community Roots volunteers were out in the field, clearing ground and preparing for planting out later. I forgot to take a photo of the gluten free Lemon Cake I made which went down very well at coffee break..

Two very happy volunteers, D and G

All sorts of salad leaves

Rainbow Chard

 

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Community Roots, Kohl Rabi and Candle

Being winter, there is less sowing and planting so today I re-painted the sign boards and will do the lettering next week. The last of the carrots were harvested. Over coffee we always go over the jobs board and decide what next to get on with.

This is our Kohl Rabi. We’ve not eaten one before so will try it out soon.

Our Advent candle, photo taken yesterday

 

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A Poem for Community Roots and A Video

It was Volunteer Sunday today but we couldn’t go. We read this poem, The Glory of the Garden by Rudyard Kipling, with Ti on our last visit and so many lines seemed to fit the aims and philosophy of Community Roots. Here are the middle two verses.

And there you’ll see the gardeners, the men and ‘prentice boys
Told off to do as they are bid and do it without noise ;
For, except when seeds are planted and we shout to scare the birds,
The Glory of the Garden it abideth not in words.
And some can pot begonias and some can bud a rose,
And some are hardly fit to trust with anything that grows ;
But they can roll and trim the lawns and sift the sand and loam,
For the Glory of the Garden occupieth all who come.
Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not made
By singing:—” Oh, how beautiful,” and sitting in the shade
While better men than we go out and start their working lives
At grubbing weeds from gravel—paths with broken dinner—knives.
There’s not a pair of legs so thin, there’s not a head so thick,
There’s not a hand so weak and white, nor yet a heart so sick
But it can find some needful job that’s crying to be done,
For the Glory of the Garden glorifieth every one.
And the Glory of the Garden it shall never pass away!
I hope you can follow the link to see the youngest volunteers at Roots.
 

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Daffodils, Cakes and AGM

When we arrived in Redruth in 2008, our lovely neighbour turned up with a jam jar full of local daffodils and joined us on the floor (furniture arriving the next day) to share our Chinese takeaway. Every year since, on the anniversary of our arrival, she has come round with daffodils. Just the best neighbour!

The cherries didn’t sink in the cake and the Victoria sponge was a huge success. As well as being my favourite, it is clearly loved by many.

It was the AGM of Community Roots this evening, a fascinating account of what is being achieved and what  hopes and plans there are for the future of the project. I share three of the slides here with you, apologies for the slight fuzziness.

Our Values

Colourful contents of veggie bags over the year

Word cloud, collected this evening from all the people present

 

 

Signs, Soup and Seed Bombs

Another very productive and happy day spent at Community Roots,

My job, making signs for the crops of salad leaves

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Rainy Day at Roots

Click on any photo for a bigger version and the caption. We had a lovely day, potting on, sowing seeds and laughing with the gang at coffee time where we shared cake and pastries.

 

Brilliant Day at Community Roots

What a lot of fun we had today with the team and the volunteers at Community Roots. It really is the best community for us both to be involved in.

 

Veggie Bags and Veggies

I did all my volunteering at home last week and for another hour today, sewing two more of the bags that Roots uses rather than bags for the weekly veggie deliveries.

When I arrived today, I was amazed at the growth of the vegetables (and the flowers) since I was last there. My job today was sowing two trays of Spring Onions. Enjoy the gallery.

 

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