Hello there!!
It’s been quite the week, with Bristol City Council passing the increased allotment rents at a council meeting in a decision that will make allotments in the city less accessible, when the whole point was to make them more so. The whole process has been quite the fiasco and I’m going to do a deep dive into it which will land in your inboxes in the next few days, but the takeaway point is a lot of allotmenteers will be paying increases of 100% plus.
In better news, I’ve written a book! Well that’s not quite true; I’ve written an essay for a book of essays and poetry called This Allotment, along with a load of great writers including Sui Searle, Alice Vincent, Robbie Cowen and Marchelle Farelle. It’s published on 6th June, and you can preorder at Waterstones or your local bookshop!! I won’t give anything away, but my essay is entitled “From Sweetpeas to Politics”.
The other exciting news is that Edible Bristol was 10 years old on Monday 4th March. I’m not sure where those 10 years have gone, but they also feel like a lifetime. Every minute has been incredible and I have learned so much. The biggest gift has been sharing my skills and watching people grow and bloom both horticulturally and personally.I was working out on Monday that we’ve worked with well over 100 communities, organisations, businesses and likely thousands of individuals over that time.
This week I’ve been rereading Dan Saladino’s Eating to Extinction. It’s a bit of a time but it’s also brilliant, setting how we eat today into the context of the industrial food system, and looking at food we are losing simply because the skills to forage for it, the seeds to grow it, are being lost for the sake of easier options.
I’m also very excited to hear there’s a series 2 of High on the Hog coming to Netflix, so if you haven’t seen the first series now is the time to watch it.
And with that, see you next week!!