Black Grove Greens Community Volunteering

Black Grove Greens is a market garden in Colliers End, near Ware, East Hertfordshire.

We produce vegetables on 1.5 acres of land with the work of employees and support of volunteers. We also host a flock of free-range hens who do their fair share of gardening. Everyone is welcome to volunteer or visit, to come and meet new friends or bring young children and experience being a 'little farmer'. Community connection starts here!

We need to raise £10,000 for essential skilled workers next year to support us in expanding our offering and work towards being a financially sustainable project.

We keep all the money we raise and the more people that pledge the more we can expand. Volunteering and food production are symbiotic for us. This garden is PEOPLE powered and the people are fuelled by great food and uplifting community experiences.

£1000 = 8 volunteer open days

£5000= 40 volunteer open days

£10,000= 80 volunteer open days plus free lunches, Vegetables and eggs to vulnerable volunteers such as the homeless. 

The last 8 months have been hard for everyone, but our first season as a CSA, supplying a small group of customers with Veg and eggs showed us that there is real demand for more locally grown food using organic techniques. People are looking for local food security with the recent experience of shortages. Local shops and gathering places have been closing at an alarming rate. They need a safe way to shop, we are outdoors and can deliver. The social distancing and lockdown measures have been so challenging for people who are already suffering from isolation, illness, addiction or anxiety. We provide a safe space to re-connect, heal and grow. 

We're on a mission to feed local people and to help people to think about where their food has come from. Our vegetables taste fantastic - fresh and full of nutrients that haven't wasted away in a truck coughing down the A10. We also love to challenge people to eat seasonal food they wouldn't ordinarily try.

We’re looking for pioneers, change makers and food lovers. Because, well… the world's food system needs to change. It needs to change one small farm at a time. We need more mindful farming, farming which looks at ecology and food.

Black Grove Greens Market Garden

We are a no-dig market farm growing seasonal vegetables. We encourage wildlife into the garden with bee-friendly flowers and bird friendly shrubs and trees. We do not use harmful pesticides that would indiscriminately kill the targeted pests as well as the other micro-life in the soil. We leave seed heads on flowers to feed overwintering birds and 

We sell a CSA veg box scheme to members within a 7 mile radius. We’re looking to connect community and growers, so that you know what you’re getting. We want to build up trust and customers can communicate with the farm and give feedback. It’s a membership, a club and a team. Community involvement is critical to the functioning of the farm.

Directors (The people who have made this happen )

• Barney -One of our first customers (he cycled 4 miles from Ware), local food enthusiast, brander and food photographer, activist for the planet and saucy veg. lover. He advocates for the green credentials of the enterprise and keeps us laughing.
• Dan-Wwoofer on the farm and market garden (willing worker on organic farms), bee keeper (Dan, Dan the honey man) and beer brewer, regenerative agriculture and self sufficiency enthusiast and proud vegetable grower. He provides very practical support and connects us to the local green scene. 
• Lou- long time volunteer in the garden (4 years!), Activist for the planet including clean air and saving the amazon amongst many other passions, twitcher, allotmenteer, cooking enthusiastic, Egg dealer (to her neighbours). She is the best cheerleader you would want to have as well as being a great sounding board and advice giver. 
• Rosie- Grower and teacher, permaculture advocate, social entrepreneur, writer, The lady waving radishes around wildly in the video. 

• Advisory board

• Derek-local farmer and supporter. He has been farming all his life and loves to work with other people outdoors, laugh at our inexperience, and operate his tractor and digger. He connects people and recycles materials such as horse manure, rubble, farming equipment so that they are put to the best use. He ask questions and advises. 

No dig is a technique he has used for many years, and it has become more and more popular, with now courses, books and podcasts. By using a great deal of compost I can create a growing medium that smothers weeds and increases worm life, and that vegetables love. The soil biology is left undisturbed, meaning the soil is living.  We're increasing fungal life, bacterial life and balancing the fertility.  This approach to farming is the at the core of regenerative agriculture and it is the future for our children. 

Our history so far.

In 2020, after an award from the national lottery, we started the box scheme with 15 customer and regular volunteer days twice a week for 20 weeks. We have been blessed with visits from ex-offenders, agricultural trainees, retired people, families, self employed, unemployed and single parent families amongst others.  

The benefits of volunteering in the CSA garden are: 

• Improved mental and physical health.
• Greater connection with nature, food and community.
• A healthy distraction from daily cares and struggles.
• More people who appreciate and will advocate for the environment and wildlife.
• SHARING a united sense of purpose, working towards a common goal that people really believe in.
• More resilient local food production systems and stimulating rural economies.

Without the volunteers, the garden would not be so productive. Over 200 people contributed over 1000 hours to this project last year. As farmers we feel valued and appreciated and connected to the community.

We were chosen by Projects that Matter Herts as a beneficiary for funding in 2021. We aim to increase our customer base to 40 boxes and facilitate open days  for 40 weeks and welcome more people to the garden. We would like to take visits from homeless shelters and the elderly, provide workplace training for the young unemployed, and continue supporting those in rehabilitation programmes.

Small scale farming is the future

There is a new movement towards small scale agriculture. But when farming has the average age of 60 you know it’s in big trouble. The need for a different approach to industrialised agriculture is vital, and we are only just at the start of the rise of micro/ regenerative and urban farms. We need millions more all around the world. 

The micro farm means that we don’t need motorisation. Increased diversity and soil biology means more fertility, healthier and tastier plants and no need for GMOs and pesticides. More humus in the soil means more water retention and robustness to unseasonal dry spells. These techniques can’t be achieved on industrial scales, that is why they are not practiced. The use of machinery demands that farms become bigger and bigger. Tractor wheels take up huge amounts of space. For efficiencies they need to grow fewer crops. The bigger the farm the wider their market needs to be and the greater the pressure this puts on the environment through transportation. There are techniques like no dig and no till which help build soil, increase fertility, and manage weed and insect pressures but they are rarely practiced on a large scale.

Your help, however large or small, is game changing

If you live in Ware and the surrounding areas this is actually for you!

Rewards

We have some ace swag for you guys. We've got some organic flower seeds. We've worked with illustrator Barney Bryant to bring you some epic enamel mugs, caps, t-shirts and Vegetable tote bags with our logo on.

Could some rewards be Christmas gifts for a green-fingered loved one? 

(t-shirts, caps and mugs won't be delivered before Christmas however)

You can also plant trees to create important hedgerows with rosehips, blackthorn, hawthorn and hazel trees. Play your part in creating precious habitat and producing food for birds and other native wildlife.

Adopt a hen

We're also offering some great days on the farm. You can chose from a foraging walk, a little farmer experience for all the family and a 2 hour tour with the farmers and Q and A or a longer delux farming tour with lunch and structured support to make your dreams a reality!

Would you like to join the CSA? 

You can find out more or drop me your details so you'll be notified when the CSA membership opens at www.blackgrovefarm.org or you contact us direct if you have any questions at [email protected]