This week marked the end of the growing season for this year’s apprentices. And they’ve been great. They started back in April and each week they have been tirelessly involved in the growing, picking and packing of our salad, and lots of learning besides.
Here they are, up to their elbows in salad…
That’s Ximena on the left. She’s been doing the one-day-a-week slot, working with me at our Springfield Park site. And on the right, that’s Emma, who did the one-day at Allens Gardens and then half a day on Tuesday, harvesting the sites and ending up with the packing session.
So, what’s on the cards now their apprenticeship has come to an end? Well, as successful graduates of our scheme, they’ll be setting up their very own site as part of our Patchwork Farm project. Over the winter, they’ll be building their site along similar lines to our urban market gardens. Then, come spring, they’ll join other graduates of our apprenticeship scheme, and bring trailer loads of delicious, freshly harvested salad to the Old Fire Station in Stoke Newington. Here we will happily buy it to mix up with ours and pack it into bags for Hackney locals – pushing up the amount of locally-grown food we’re able to produce in our small part of London.
Watch this space if you’re keen to follow in their footsteps…we’ll be recruiting next year’s apprentices towards the end of winter…
