A course where you can Cook and eat Vegan food starts Wednesday 30th March at the Community Cafe, 1 Albert St. Ventnor

We will discuss and prepare a vegan meal each week, looking at possible variations and taking into account the season and cost of ingredients plus the individual allergies and dislikes of the group. Also to share ideas and useful tips for vegan cookery.

There will be an explanation of food combining and how it can help you to lose weight and digest food better, and an opportunity to eat the food you have prepared in the company of people on the course.

30th March,Vegetable stew with butter beans and herb dumplings

6th April, Two curries with rice and a fresh chutney

13th April, Nut roast with seasonable vegetables

20th April, Stir fry with tofu or cashew nuts

The sessions run from 5 til 7pm and cost £8 including all food.

To book call Wendy on 864054 or 07532372519

locally made soap

I’ve set a date for the Soap making course at The Community Café, 1  Albert Street , Ventnor. It will run on three Thursday mornings from 10 til 12 and possibly a little after as soap is a little unpredictable.

24th Feb – to discuss soap making, history, safety, equipment, different techniques and types of soap, in preparation for the following sessions. To create soap shapes with colour and fragrance using plain soap.

3rd March – to make soap using a hot process method, i.e. by cooking it. Also to make oaty bath bags.

10th march – to make liquid soap. also to make bath melts or bath bombs.

Please respond if you would like to attend. There are still a few places left. The price is£6 per session and you will be able to take home some soap.

This fits in well with the time of year, it being too cold to make bars of soap, and with our desire to use local rapaseed oil, which makes a very soft bar.

Previously Nick and I have been making bars of soap in the usual way using  oils and caustic soda. When people first made soap, they were using wood ash and water, that had been concentrated. We’d call that caustic potash. ( the generic term for both caustic potash and soda is lye) This makes a softer soap as potash is deliquescent, (please say ooooh!) that is, it absorbs moisture from the air. Thus the liquid soap is made by a similar process but using a potash lye and a different quantity of oils. What was good for us was that you can do the whole lot in a slow cooker, which makes things lovely and tidy.

later on I’m going to run a few classes on soapmaking and natural cosmetics and remedies at the cafe in Albert St. Ventnor. Apart from teaching the basics of soapmaking,  I will be encouraging discussion and sharing of knowledge and experiences of the group. Please let me know if you are interested by replying to this post or call Wendy on 07532372519

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I haven’t visited the permaculture blog for a long time, so its time for me to have ramble on and look back over the season to review how we did at the allotment. I hope there are still people about visiting the site to find out about permaculture on the Isle of Wight. At the moment we don’t seem to have any set meetings but a few of us meet up in the cafe in Albert St Ventnor on Saturday mornings where we still sell our produce. There is usually; vegetables from Ken, jam and honey from James, herbs and tasty tarts from Rowan and home made soap and hand-cream from me and Nick ( lip balm coming soon). There’s recently been the launch of a community cafe recipe book compiled by Jill and Penny with photographs by local artists. Only £2.99 its a great local product.

Me and Nick recently hosted an apple pressing day and the press is available for members to borrow, although we agreed that some kind of mincer would be useful prior to pressing the apples. I know there are some members keen to hold a meeting on their land so if you want to be involved make sure you are on the email list by replying to this post. The idea is that people do some work in return for hospitality.

Well to get to the allotment, We started off alright with a good crop of broad beans but as the season progressed and we didn’t get any rain we found our onions and potatoes rather small. We didn’t expect them to need watering and so they got overlooked. We were pleased with the vines. Its their first year in the ground and they did very well. So did the raspberries, well I think everyone did well for fruit this year. Last year I had left the spinach, beetroot and chard to flower and seed, and in the autumn, when it finally rained, they came up, and so did the land cress, so we’re eating that now.

Next years plan is more of the same. More onions and more potatoes and more beans. The plots not especially sunny and we’re still working on creating shelter so I’m giving up on the more delicate crops and concentrating on what grows well and what we eat. I always like to try something different though, and this year I grew a couple of cardoons. Just when I was thinking of blanching one, in October, it produce some flower buds. You’re supposed to blanch the whole plant by tying cardboard round it. I think I’ll wrap up the other small one for a taster.

I’m happy with the bog garden that we made near the allotment tap, it got filled with clover, and I had some lovely white violas in there and some pretty pink mallow at the edge. It was such a dry year year that it was the only place that I could safely strike cuttings. I managed to get some rugosa roses going and look after some of the willow cuttings from Richard Bolwell’s workshop this summer. When I get some of the grass out I’m going to sow a packet of meadow flower seed from Jill and Penny’s meadow at Alverstone.

There are tasks to finish before that, I think we’ve put in enough onion sets now, extra to make up for last years poor show, and I’m still putting in broad beans and peas. Today I tasted my first pea shoot, in a pea shoot and nasturtium sandwich. Is that permaculture enough for you? Other tasks are putting in the garlic, but I’ve read that you sow that on the shortest day, and making cloches. For this we cut lengths of bendy hazel for the frame and put plastic or fleece over the top. We still have some corrugated plastic and that is great for the job. I also have some calibrese plants to put in, hopefully the bugs won’t notice them amongst the mustard. Last year I left out brassica altogether because of the clouds of whitefly. This year we had none, and now they’ve just returned, in the peas amongst other places. Its a challenge growing organically on allotments where you are surrounded by people with a different ethos to you. Whilst you are busy building up the wildlife, they don’t always show appreciation. I said to one couple at the back, Its a great season for insects! And well, they looked at me rather strange. Last year we, and the neighbour, had thrips in our leeks. I’ve never had that before. He sprayed his with something but I decided to grow our leeks in a spare patch that a woman I work for offered me in her garden. They’re doing well.

Its a good time now to burn up all the old wood thats around to get some ash to help with fruit and flowering and to sow some green manure. This year I’ve sown mustard, I got the seed from easy weigh if you can’t find them in a garden shop. You can also buy seed from ebay but watch out with beans because mine arrived with pink powdery stuff on. Ugh! And I’d already sent feedback.

Thats it for the time being, please send in your tips or tales of disaster. We hope to see you in the cafe or at the meetings, yet to be arranged.

If you would like to host it please let us know ASAP, you don’t have to have held one before, nothing grand is expected. All you need is a garden or a bit of land and preferably a kettle. We can help out around your garden or we can just talk, have a question and answer session or swap seeds and plants etc

We have a host for July but we welcome the chance to pencil in people for future months.

Please get in contact if you would like to host this or a future month or would like to come to our meetings.

Email: ventnorpermaculture(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)uk
Phone: 01983 854968
Mobile: 07766077336

Fabric & Paper
Bag Making
Workshop

Every Friday
2pm – 4pm
Ventnor Community Cafe



3 Albert St, Ventnor,
Isle Of Wight PO38 1DS

Come along and make yourself a Morsbag – a shopping bag made out of recycled fabric (like the ones in the photo above) to help rid Ventnor of plastic carrier bags. Sheila will show you how to make them, you only have to sew straight lines on the sewing machine – they are very easy to make.

Morsbags fold up really small and easily fit into a pocket or a handbag, pick a fabric to suit your personality, plain, stripes or floral etc. These bags are quick to make and they make ideal gifts. Morsbags are always given away for free and are never sold.

Sheila has also been perfecting the art on making paper carrier bags – so you can have a go at that as well.

Tea and coffee available.

Ventnor Community Cafe is also open every Saturday from 10:30 – 1pm
Local produce, plants, preserves and crafts for sale
Local artists paintings displayed on the walls
Internet Cafe
Coffee, Tea, Home-made cakes, pies etc

Ken's Land June 08

The next Ventnor Permaculture Meeting on Sunday May 17th 10:30am – 12:30pm will be hosted by Ken at his land in St Lawrence.

He could do with some help weeding or you can just admire some of his weird and wonderful, unusual plants as well as the large selection of more conventional ones.  It is just over a year since Ken started renting this land which was just a grass covered field, it will be interesting to see the changes.

If you live in the Ventnor area and are interested in growing your own food or flowers do come along and join us. It is free and friendly and their is no obligation to come every month or do any work, you can just pick our brains if you want.

Bring along any plants or seeds to swap. Tea, coffee and biscuits provided.

For directions etc contact:
Email:ventnorpermaculture(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)uk
Phone: 01983 854968
Mobile: 07766077336

There will be lots of different things you can lend a hand with: transplanting leek seedlings. Sharpening the remaining stakes with a billhook provided and making sense of the netting to cover the fruit cage. Putting up wires for the vines that I will plant out in Autumn. No need to bring anything but gloves are a good idea, and you may have some plants or seeds left over from the sale the day before. It will be good to see you.
Wendy and Nick

People have tried before and failed (not helped by a private residents only sign on the road you need to go down! ) to find the allotment, so I have comprehensive directions from Wendy and as I did find it last year I will gladly send you the grid reference which you can put into Google Maps to see exactly where it is. There is very limited parking at the allotments.

The photo was taken at the allotment last year, come and see how much it has changed. You don’t have to work you can come along just to say hello. There is no fee or anything to sign up to for meetings, anyone is welcome.

For directions contact:
Email: ventnorpermaculture(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)uk
Phone: 01983 854968
Mobile: 07766077336

is holding a

Plant and Seed Sale/Swap

Saturday 2nd May

Ventnor Community Cafe

3 Albert St, Ventnor,
Isle Of Wight PO38 1DS

10:30am – 1pm.

Get some cheap flower and vegetable plants, seedlings or seeds.
Never grown anything before?
We will advise you how to grow anything you buy!

Come and have a chat about gardening with us over a cup of coffee and some home-made cake.

Ventnor Community Cafe is open every Saturday from 10:30 – 1pm
Local produce, preserves and crafts for sale
Local artists paintings displayed on the walls
Internet Cafe
Coffee, Tea, Home-made cakes, pies etc