ConnectedRoots

Connected Roots is a project that aims to create a trading connection between communities and to allow those who don't grow to learn how and to put a meal on the table for less.

Connected Roots is about growing locally and sharing what you don't want/need.

We want to make food social, cheap and fresh,
and we want you there with us.

Tumblr theme by ahhfred

November 12th, 2012

Get Growing London

In the UK we grow only just over half our food. In London we import 85% of it! We import 95% of our fruit. This is not sustainable. We could grow up to 30% of our food within London! How? Join TTB Food and Growing Group to vision, plan and pioneer how! And find out some of the excellent work that is already happening.

See more here: http://bit.ly/UD3vXa

June 22nd, 2012

The Urban Garden

It’s rubbish out right?

This weather is inhibiting so much growth which is frustrating; had 3 Cucumber seedlings shrivel and die when last year they were thriving by this point in the year.

Still, lets not get all negative. We’re cracking on irrespective and seeing what we can get out of our small plot. We currently have the following:

  • Raspberries
  • Strawberries
  • Courgettes
  • Mangetout
  • French beans
  • Peas
  • Broad Beans
  • Broccoli
  • Curly Kale
  • Red and White Onions
  • Rhubarb
  • Beetroot
  • Garlic
  • White Grape
  • tomatoes
  • Cabbage

It’s a new plot and being as such we are having a huge problem with pests! they seem to come out of everywhere and have decimated several pea shoots which appear to be the equivalent of ice cream to a 10 year old. Feel a bit genocidal wiping out so many of the little buggers but it’s the only way they learn…

Here are a few pics to show how the plots are getting on:

We decided to make the most of the space and sow lettuce, onions and Mangetout all together. The netting is an attempt to keep the cat out who seemed to enjoy rolling around in the sun. 

‘From small beginnings come great things’ This courgette plant is quite behind with late (lazy) planting and the bad weather. As soon as it hit the soil, the pest beacon was invisibly triggered…and on they came.

The Onions are doing really well. We covered them to keep off the birds and they have got on so blooming well! Except when the cat went and sat on the netting on the sun. Those wondrous growths to the right of the picture is the broccoli which will over winter and be ready come early next year (why does it take so long!)  Oh - and the raspberry bush is in the background - looking pretty small right now but it’ll crack on through the summer and produce bountiful greatness come September.

The garden is around 30ft in length and is already set to produce lots and lots of veg but we’re looking for more ways to get more out of the space. We eventually want every sunny (and not so sunny) surface covered with growing deliciousness.

We’ll keep this updated to see how things go.

May 28th, 2012
reachforviolet: Urban garden happy

reachforviolet:

Urban garden happy

reachforviolet: Urban garden happy

reachforviolet:

Urban garden happy

May 26th, 2012
How do you feed a city? It’s one of the great questions of our time, yet one that is rarely asked. We take it for granted that, if we walk into a restaurant or supermarket, food will be there, having arrived magically from somewhere else. But when you consider that in a city the size of London enough food for 30 million meals per day must be produced, transported, bought and sold, cooked, eaten, and disposed of — and that something similar must happen every day for every city on Earth — it is a miracle that we get fed at all. (via Sitopia | design mind)

How do you feed a city? It’s one of the great questions of our time, yet one that is rarely asked. We take it for granted that, if we walk into a restaurant or supermarket, food will be there, having arrived magically from somewhere else. But when you consider that in a city the size of London enough food for 30 million meals per day must be produced, transported, bought and sold, cooked, eaten, and disposed of — and that something similar must happen every day for every city on Earth — it is a miracle that we get fed at all.

(via Sitopia | design mind)

May 25th, 2012
so-aware: From Rooftops and Abandoned Lots, an Urban Harvest NPR’s Science Friday Covers Urban Agriculture From rooftop apiaries in Paris to a vegetable-and-chicken farm in Philadelphia, agriculture has come to the city. This hour, urban farmer Mary Seton Corboy and food writer Jennifer Cockrall-King talk about the future of food. And how about some dandelion flower jelly? Tama Matsuoka Wong, forager for Restaurant Daniel in New York City, talks about the joys of eating garden weeds.

so-aware:

From Rooftops and Abandoned Lots, an Urban Harvest

NPR’s Science Friday Covers Urban Agriculture

From rooftop apiaries in Paris to a vegetable-and-chicken farm in Philadelphia, agriculture has come to the city. This hour, urban farmer Mary Seton Corboy and food writer Jennifer Cockrall-King talk about the future of food. And how about some dandelion flower jelly? Tama Matsuoka Wong, forager for Restaurant Daniel in New York City, talks about the joys of eating garden weeds.

May 23rd, 2012

knowurbanis:

URBAN AGRICULTURE // POULTRY FARMING 

When people start thinking about growing some of their own vegetables at home, the task can seem simple at first, I mean how hard can it be to put a plant in the ground, water it and then enjoy the bountiful harvest of a fully operational farm? Yeah, not so much, although a wonderful dream, to get the bountiful harvest of your dreams takes a lot of space, work and time! With that said there are millions of small tricks that can make growing vegetables a little easier. One way is to use kitchen scraps to grow plants! Yes a lot of foods you disregard as not edible and/or trash can in fact grow into a plant and give you more fruits and vegetables! It is an alternative way of growing a vegetable garden then growing from seed or buying a bunch of plants. (via Growing Vegetables from Kitchen Scraps!)

When people start thinking about growing some of their own vegetables at home, the task can seem simple at first, I mean how hard can it be to put a plant in the ground, water it and then enjoy the bountiful harvest of a fully operational farm? Yeah, not so much, although a wonderful dream, to get the bountiful harvest of your dreams takes a lot of space, work and time! With that said there are millions of small tricks that can make growing vegetables a little easier. One way is to use kitchen scraps to grow plants! Yes a lot of foods you disregard as not edible and/or trash can in fact grow into a plant and give you more fruits and vegetables! It is an alternative way of growing a vegetable garden then growing from seed or buying a bunch of plants.

(via Growing Vegetables from Kitchen Scraps!)

lhiboubou: Rainbow chard (in the foreground) surrounded by sheep wool pellets to keep the slugs off. These Slug pellets are a marvel! :  http://www.sluggone.com/how-to-use Buy them here though…: http://amzn.to/JnIwr9

lhiboubou:

Rainbow chard (in the foreground) surrounded by sheep wool pellets to keep the slugs off.

These Slug pellets are a marvel! : 

http://www.sluggone.com/how-to-use
Buy them here though…: http://amzn.to/JnIwr9
May 10th, 2012

Student of the City: The Importance of Urban Agriculture

study-the-city:

Stones Throw Urban Farm, Minneapolis

My first urban garden was a 5x3 foot weed pit behind my rented duplex. With my landlady’s permission, I dug out the weeds and threw the coffee grounds from my french press and some organic compost into the dirt. My mission was simple: salsa ingredients, hopefully enough for a few jars….