We coudn’t have asked for a more perfect Autumn day to hold this year’s Allotment Soup! We had a great day with over 250 visitors – lots of old faces as well as many new ones! The theme of Allotment Soup held on Morley Street Allotments this year was “Growing Magic”. The weather was magic for October, we had bright sunshine all day. Twenty artists of all kinds showed their work or performed for us.
“I had a great time – picked up two handy hints in the same amount of minutes at Daniele’s pruning workshop, heard a fun story written and performed by Fay at Plot 16, tasted hawthorn wine and cheese (the wine not the cheese) and met lots of very enthusiastic and lovely growers. And what a glorious autumn day into the bargain! I hope that all of you who put in so much thought and work are really pleased.”
There were displays of wooden bowls, walking sticks, embroidery, painted stones and crochet animals, paintings and photo collage inspired by the allotments and an installation in a small grove of fruit trees.
There were poems and stories told on three different plots and a walk around the site with a herbalist. There was also a travelling poetry workshop which visited all the plots. And let’s not forget Wendi Beal’s two scarecrows!
Throughout the afternoon there were children’s activities including pedal powered smoothie making with the Woodcraft folk, a solar powered sound scape, a crochet workshop.
The real magic brought about by the event was the way it brought together the plot holders and the artists and the way they cooperated. John, Malcolm and Valerie on plot 96 built a tabernacle of woven willow under which we listened to poems and stories. The two Annie’s (one sculptor and one plotholder) spent several weeks sculpting Annie Stoker’s plot into a magical environment for poets to perform and Madame Zucchini to give us her wonderful vegetable puppet show.
Sandra who recently taken over plot no 124 (which has several mature apple trees on it) was very pleased to have the Abundance team pick the apples and turn them into juice. The children absolutely loved pressing the juice! In return the team ran a pruning workshop so Sandra had her fruit trees professionally pruned.
During the weeks of preparation Brian from plot 92, seeing that Sandra’s plot had no proper gate, put in two gate posts for her and fixed up the fence. They had never met each other before! Brian’s wife Margaret showed beautiful paintings of the plants and insects she sees in her garden.
The Treats and Beats cafe served food and drinks all afternoon and during the evening’s entertainment we were well supplied with Soup donated by Grow Sheffield members and the allotment holders.
Photos will be added to the website soon but to view a slideshow of the fabulous photos please go to this link below. Thank you very much to Jeremy Abrahams for taking such beautiful photos. If you would like to contact Jeremy about taking photos for you then please e mail him at [email protected]
http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/sets/72157631723523344/show/
