Anyone for some lovely fresh fruit and veg?

Today was a thoroughly enjoyable day at Windmill! Tracey, Ellis, Helen, Ray and Lisa were joined by two groups of children along with their mentors from the Groundwork office: Sarah Briley, Nicola Liburd, Daniel Davis and John Haslam.

The first group who were accompanied by Sarah were from BOBS, a residents' group from the Bridlington Street Park area of Nottingham who plan activities to keep the young ones entertained during the Summer holidays.  Activities included a guided tour of the allotment with a fantastic talk by Tracey as to what we do and what we grow.  They picked many different fruits and vegetables including courgettes, beans, sweetcorn, tomatoes and plums.  They had also arrived just in time for lunch so Helen, Ray and Ellis fired up the camping stovesso we could boil up some of the freshly-picked home-grown sweetcorn.  This went down an absolute treat among the children and adults alike.  It had a delicious, fresh sweet taste along with a gorgeous sunny golden colour.  There was a general consensus that they were far better than anything you could ever get in the shops!

A young lady picks some sweetcorn with Sarah's help!

Tracey explains how to remove the husk from a corn cob - pictures from two directions at once!

Ellis and Ray fire up the stove

Could this be the largest ever lettuce?!

One little gentleman certainly enjoyed the sweetcorn!

The second group who arrived with Nicola, John and Daniel were a youth group from Killisick, a housing estate in Arnold, Nottingham.  They were given the task of harvesting some plums from the very well laden trees. It is believed that they are actually plums crossed with damsons.  Once again, the regular volunteers took up the task of firing up the stoves and we successfully made some jam with the fruits of the childrens' labour.



In addition to the wonderful help we have had from the children, the regulars did a brilliant job of weeding (including yet more horseradish, sigh), harvesting and watering. With fantastic weather it was a brilliant day all round!

Helen and Lisa take a break from weeding!