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Seed Saving & Sowing at Home

4/4/2020

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How to Save & Sow Your Own Seeds

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My seed saving obsession started about five years ago. It was a long late summer and warm dry autumn and the first growing season I had been invovled with Blackhill Club Community Garden, I had always grabbed seeds and thrown them down as reflex when I saw them, but this year there was true intention and spotted them everywhere. I collected them from friends gardens and when out and about if I saw them,

I always ended up with seeds in bags and scraps in my pockets. So much so when I was frisked getting into an outdoor event and asked to explain myself as  clear bag was pulled out of my pocket, I didn't even break a smile or a sweat when replying "My wildflower seeds!"
I'm telling you this as fair warning, once you start it is almost impossible to stop collecting and inevitably sowing seeds. It can become obsessive and over time an ingrained relfex you can no longer control.

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Potato Tower - Vertical Growing Solutions

31/3/2020

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In order to save space and find effective ways of increasing the annual harvest of our crops we have been experimenting with various methods of growing, At Blackhill Club Community Garden we have generally adopted a no dig approach but with potato growing that seemed difficult,

From our first year of growing, in 2017 we had lots of space but no beds and few resources. Verticle growing and using tyres for potato tower growing was one of our very first experiments. We had some success in our very first year and much improved yields in 2018 when our experience helped us better understand the space and method.
Sadly in 2018 when we tried growing potatoes in our new vegetable beds they were badly eaten by vine weevel and our root growing days were over. We have been treating the ground, soil and compost with nematodes and are ready to grow again in 2020.

Learning from our mistakes we decided to go back to growing vertically with the potatoes and use our most effective, high yielding method which is low cost, easy and space saving. This year we are also experimenting to see if you can grow potatoes successfully from scraps. We will update this post in Autumn and let you know!

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The Big Impact of Small Systems

28/9/2019

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Listen as ALT Group director Terri Lee-Shield explains the large impact small scale food systems can have on reducing our carbon footprint and solving some of our enormous global problems.

Explaining issues such as food waste, positive activism and no waste, no pollution growing systems.
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Think Global, Act Local - Climate Strike Action Day

25/9/2019

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20.09.2019 saw the Global Climate Strike and we honoured it by hosting a special Action Day at Blackhill Club Community Garden.
Watch as Shannon explains the three demands made by the strike and explains how local solutions can help fight global climate change.
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Consett Community Fridge... Top Tips!

2/5/2018

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Consett Community Fridge... Spring Top Tips!

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After our first season of Community Fridge sessions in Consett, we decided to make your life easier and much more exciting by sharing some Our Top Tips. Get creative or stay simple with these Top Tips for using some of our more popular items from our spring sessions. They are all quick, easy and great tasting.
Why not give them a try and let us know what you think?


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Top Ten Tips...Cooking Flavours

30/3/2018

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Flavour of the Month

The ALT Group Community Meal team have been chatting with the Community Fridge team and have decided, after many requests for advice, to share our Top Ten Tips for flavour combinations that always work!
Adaptable and delicious flavours can be used together or alone to help you become a top chef in your own home, with tastes that your tongue and your tummy will adore. Learning a few simple complementary tastes and then mix and matching them for meals can be fun, creative and help you have healthier meals

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ALT Top 3 Spring Soup Recipes

18/3/2018

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Spring into your Kitchen!

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When Spring comes around we want to eat well and eat fast. Beginning to see longer days and better weather helps us have more light and time to do more with our days so we need energy and vitality to keep us going. Our ALT Top 3 Spring Soup recipes are just that, tasty, nutritious and quick and easy to make.

All of these recipes have simple methods and ingredients and can be made with little fuss. We have kept all of these great soup ideas at less than 30 minutes each,

Here are our ALT Top 3 Spring Soups...


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ALT Top 3 Winter Soup Recipes

18/3/2018

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Winter Warmers!

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Winter is that time of year when we all crave warm, hearty, home-cooked meals that are comforting and feed your soul as well as your belly. Combined with the cold weather and often lower than normal energy levels and soup is the perfect meal for cold winter days, or long winter nights.

Despite the lack of normal seasonal growth in winter, there are still some fantastic receipes perfect for this time of year, and some that help stretch the magic of Christmas a little further, and make great use of leftovers from your feasting.

These are our ALT Top 3 Winter Soup recipes...


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Sunset Spot

30/10/2017

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Seat Tops our Three Tier Treat

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We are extremely lucky up in Consett to be at the top of may hills and surrounded by miles and miles of beautiful countryside in most directions. At our Community Garden site at Blackhill Club there is a fantastic corner where you can watch the sun set, looking down past the housing estate, which leads on to the amazing rolling hills behind.  We wanted to make the most of this view and create an entrance feature for guests at the social club.

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Our ALT Top 3... Autumn Soup Recipes

24/10/2017

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We Love Soup!

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At our Community Meal we serve a range of soups all year around, but the start of Autumn is our favourite time to enjoy a steamy bowl of hot, home made soup.

Not only are soups great to warm you on a cold blustery, day, they are a great source of nutrition, easy to make and are a great way to use up your excess root vegetables.

Here are our Top 3 Autumn Soup Recipes:



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    ALT Life

    At The ALT Group, we care about sharing information and knowledge to help make your life better and our world cleaner and greener. We are promoters of creating the future we want for ourselves and future generation.

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  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Ethics & Values
    • Goals & Vision
    • Permaculture
    • FAQ's
  • Blackhill Club Community Garden
  • ALT LIFE
  • Past Projects
    • Community Fridge
    • Community Meal
    • Community Garden >
      • Transforming
  • ALT NEWS