Accessible community beds launched

It was a gloriously sunny day as the accessible raised beds in Chapel Hill car park were launched. The gardens, which lie on the site of the old West Church, have been developed over the past three months and transformed from waste ground to vegetable, fruit and herb beds.

The site build is part of a project entitled ‘Bute Carbon Free Food’ run by Fyne Futures. The project aims to encourage growing fruit and vegetables in community spaces in an effort to reduce the islands carbon footprint, make it more sustainable and reduce food poverty and food waste. Together with a group of volunteers they have formed ‘Incredible Edible Bute’, a community action group keen on delivering this message to the wider public.

The staff at Bute Produce were joined by some local volunteers in the physical labour involved in creating the site. The transformation is evident from our photos, and those who follow either Bute Produce or Incredible Edible Bute on Facebook may have been watching this. We are very proud of the hard work our team have been able to deliver.

So it was on Sunday 24th of June that visitors to the gardens were greeted by the team and treated to a raw food demonstration and the opportunity to take part. Our guest speaker Annabrese was on hand to show how a vegan lifestyle can be both nutritional and have minimal impact on our environment. Together with her assistant they delivered a selection of tasty treats for the assembled crowd.

After this, our lead horticulturalist Ronnie delivered a training session for everyone, allowing people to see what was going into the beds and encouraging them to take part. The youngsters present were particularly interested in what he had to say, and he was pleased to help them learn.

All in all the success of the day was clear for all to see and judging by the interest that is being shown by the community it seems that the project and community group could continue to grow and achieve.