Eco-Comment September 2025

Eco-Conversations

A series of eco-conversations on Tuesdays 16, 23, 30 September at 19:00 in the Cathedral. Here’s a report from the first one on what we can do for food sustainability in our communities…

Most of us (of a certain age) will remember the television series ‘The Good Life’ where a couple endeavour to be self-sufficient in their suburban home much to the amazement of their very conventional neighbours. We learnt on Tuesday evening that they really didn’t need to have gone to such lengths, (though television would have missed a great series if they hadn’t) as one square meter of garden or earth is, if well planted, enough space to grow food for one person. 

I was so taken with what I heard that if I hadn’t spent quite a lot of money, time and effort on my flowers I would have come home and started preparing the ground for growing vegetables. I am tempted though to do some companion planting. Excuse me if you already know this but for those who don’t it’s where you plant to encourage insects/pests to go to the neighbouring plant to feed and so leave the other to grow in peace. I’m sure that some salad and vegetables could grow very well in amongst my flowers. Planting marigolds and nasturtiums attract blackfly which are a common pest to vegetables. 

Tuesday evening was the first of our Creationtide Conversations and we were very fortunate to have Leda Prest from Grow Wakefield with us. Not only did she share her very interesting life with us but she brought a selection of produce with her along with some bird and bat boxes plus some bee hotels and some Outwood honey. I bought some of the greens and made a soup with them. I was amazed at the taste and flavour! These were greens that were so obviously organic, no pesticides or bought fertilizer had been anywhere near these greens. An email later I discovered what they were. The leaves were a mix of the outer leaves of Kalettes, (I have yet to find out what this is) the lilac coloured central stems were open Brussel sprouts, and the other leaves were from a cauliflower, or as Leda told me, the stuff that gets chopped off and binned before they’re put on sale in supermarkets. It certainly gave me food for thought or rather reinforced what I already know. So much good food is wasted due to the message that is promoted by the supermarkets. This is that our food should look a certain way, and this has nothing to do with real life or include dirt, mis shapen items or are smaller/bigger than what we are sold as the norm.  

The conversation with Canon Erik gave us an insight into how her love of gardening grew from her childhood in the New Forest to her current gardening plot in Portobello and the very different places in between. Memories were invoked of growing beans in jam jars with blotting paper and growing cress in cottonwool. The miracle of watching life form with the added bonus of being able to eat the end product is something that never dies. I think the whole audience concurred with that. I, personally think that there is nothing to beat picking some fruit or tomatoes out of your own garden. I have a few raspberry canes and strawberries in window boxes and this year some cherry tomatoes in a growbag. I can look out of the window as I write this and see that there are a few ripe tomatoes which will go with my lunch.  

Leda told us about growing what she referred to as ‘snatch crops’, potatoes in buckets, salad leaves and in small quantities planted at different times so that they don’t all ripen together. We were told how easy it is to ‘chit’ potatoes, dry tomato seeds and plant them out when the weather is appropriate. She reminded us that all life is reliant of ‘6 inches of soil’ as several of us knew having been at the film showing of the same title a few months ago. Some statistics were given. We, as a country are 46% self-sufficient but this means that we import 54% of our food. These imports come from around the world at a great cost both monetarily and at a huge environmental cost. We really do need to eat more seasonal home-produced food.  

We learnt how Grow Wakefield has 69 projects in the Wakefield district and that surplus food grown is given to the 29 food banks and pantries in the area. The gardening plots create opportunities for collaborative working and social events. People discover the pleasure of gardening, that it creates places where people are kind, supportive and compassionate. She reminded us that the council take our garden waste and turn it into growing compound which can be found at council waste depots. We talked about preserving and freezing fruit and vegetables. I have a preserving pan but it’s a few years since I used it to make blackberry and apple jam. Talk of what might be seen to some as ‘the old ways’ brought home to us how much things have changed. How, after the war houses were built with big gardens in order to grow food. I’m reminded of my visit to the garden museum in London, next to Lambeth Palace. There it’s possible to see how important gardens were and the memorabilia associated with it. The drawings in those ladybird books will forever kindle childhood memories. Is it time to revert to these old ways? On consideration it probably is because new houses take up as little land as possible and so many apartments/flats are now being built. It was suggested that councils should be allocating land which can be turned into allotments and/or mini plots. I think we’re lucky in Wakefield as we do have quite a lot of growing spaces but there is also alot of unused land which could be turned into growing spaces. The audience was then taken on a local journey as to where there might be free produce if you knew where to find it? A treasure hunt? 

We were fortunate in that we had people in the audience from The Spring on Barnsley Road. This is a café and charity shop attached to St Helen’s church. They shared some of their food story with us and how they are trialling getting so many of their ingredients through Fare Share. This is proving challenging as they never quite know what will be in the delivery of food stuffs so they are having to be creative in their thinking to produce the home-made meals they are known for.  

I could write more but have gone over my usual word count so I’ll finish but I will remind you that next Tuesday our conversation will be about using land for nature. Our conversation will be between Barbara Butler and Canon Erik. We hope to see you there.