Dandelion
As part of the 2022 Dandelion programme we worked in partnership with The Place to create an Unexpected Garden in Alness.
Rooted in Scotland, with an international outlook and sustainability at its heart, the Dandelion programme, which was commissioned by EventScotland and funded via the Scottish Government, followed the arc of the growing season, from April to September 2022, and culminated in hundreds of Harvest Festivals across Scotland.
The main theme of our Unexpected Garden was seeds. Alongside healthy soils and waters, seeds are some of the main building blocks of any place’s food system and food culture, but today this understanding of their importance and the knowledge of how to care and tend to seeds has been largely forgotten.
The project involved growing a variety of vegetables which were suited to, or had historic ties to, the region, with a primary goal to harvest their seeds. Over the season, as the plants in the garden grow, members of the community were invited to come together to take part in the day to day growing and tending of the garden, and get involved in the events around it.
The project aimed to inspire, educate and empower the community around growing, food and seed production, and play a small part in bringing the community together. Seeds are small things but from them big things can grow.
March – April 2022
The work has begun and things are starting to flourish!
19th May 2022
As the daylight increases our crops are growing fast. This week we’ve reached a major milestone – we’ve had our very first harvest of the season which included radish, lettuce, spinach, rocket and mizuna, all of which have made space to plant a few varieties of dwarf French beans and some sweetcorn! The polytunnel is filling up fast, with the last of the tomatoes planted along with climbing French beans and some runner beans. We have been busy potting up lots of flowers and outside we have finished preparing the squash bed. With the help of some volunteers, we will begin sowing the next round of salad crops and preparing the final three beds!
6th June 2022
May passed in a blink of the eye and we have been welcomed into June with glorious sunshine and flowering peas! The new month has brought some new faces to the field; we’re delighted that some local members of the community have joined us and with their help, we have managed to finally finish the last vegetable beds. Now that the danger of frost is hopefully behind us, we have planted our tender squash plants. With crops growing taller and beetroots fattening up nicely, we have seen an abundance of life visiting the garden including orange tip butterflies, ladybirds, and bees.
Sown throughout Dandelion is a commitment to empowering young people, inspiring the artists, activists, scientists and creative producers of the future, and aiming to re-establish Harvest as a significant annual cultural festival for everyone. To find out more about Dandelion, please click here.
24th June 2022
All systems go for our open day tomorrow! We’ve taken our first harvest of the Syrian courgettes and flowers are blooming! Finlay also took some of our produce to the West End Free Food Shop. Pop down for a visit!
26th June 2022
Our Welcome to the Field event was a great success and it was so nice to see lots of faces down at The Field, all eager to learn about what we have been up to! And our group from Alness Academy have been getting stuck in too!
5th July
Throughout June we were harvesting lots of beetroot, khol rabi, turnips, lettuce, courgettes, kale, spring onions and even buckets filled with sugar snap peas! It has been great to be able to share this bounty with the West End free food shop and the Action for Children free food shop in Milnafua. All this harvesting means we have also made space for a second succession of vegetable.
This week The Field is hosting daily play scheme for over 80 primary school children from the local area, a bustling week with lots of games and music workshops. Now that the onsite kitchen is completed, we are delighted to be able to provide all the youngsters with a hot meal with vegetable straight from the garden.
This month we are very pleased to welcome Shona and Marc to the team, who are both students at SRUC, and will be working with us in the garden for the rest of the summer. Our first music event ‘Welcome to the Field’ was a great success with music from Col and Dagger Gordon, Liam Ross followed by a Ceilidh by the Highland Ceilidh Band. Come along on our next session on 16th of July for more great music and workshops!
12th July 2022
We are gearing up for a huge programme of events this summer (have a look here at our exciting programme!) and it has been all go down at The Field!
We’ve harvested more produce for Action for Children and our sweet peas are in flower! Marc, a SRUC student, has been working hard after joining us for the summer and today some children enjoyed some Woodland Stories with Lilian Ross. You can join us for more Woodland Stories this summer – just check out the brochure for full details.
16th July 2022 – an update from Marc
Today at The Field we held our first Festival in the Field; a chance for the local community to come and enjoy some tasty food and great music, as well as outdoor activities for all ages, all for free! We had fantastic weather as well which meant everyones’ spirits were high. There were two different vegan soups on offer; curried vegetable and bean and tomato and I can tell you first hand that they were both braw!
The activities throughout the day proved popular too. Some local children went on some Woodland Adventures, building shelters; our musician in residence, Liam Ross, led a great soundscape session with musicians of all experience levels, and our Growing Lead, Finlay Keiller, had a line of folk waiting to hear about what we were growing in the Seed Garden.
But, the big highlight of the day was, of course, the several amazing music acts we had lined up; Orin and Quin Simpson, Cionar (Christina Stewart and Grace Stewart-Skinner), Liam Ross, Mairearad Green and Fras. There will be lots more incredible music, activities and chances to sample the Garden’s produce over the next few weeks; check out our Festival In The Field programme here.
Col Gordon – Project Manager (Part-time freelance)
Col Gordon grew up just outside Invergordon on his family farm, Inchindown, where he has now returned. In his time away from the area, Col worked in many roles including as a seed researcher, heritage grain farmer, market gardener, sourdough baker, butcher and chef! He was the narrator and co-producer of a well received podcast series “Landed,” made by Farmerama, which investigated the past, present and future of the family farm model through the lens of colonialism.
Col is a director of the Shieling Project and Scotland the Bread, a trustee for Highland Good Food Partnership and is on the advisory board for Gaia Foundation’s Seed Sovereignty Program.
As a musician growing up in Ross-Shire, Col was heavily involved with Fèis Rois as both a participant and then a tutor. He spent many happy summers touring with the Fèis Rois Ceilidh Trail.
Haley Shepherd – Emerging Creative Producer (Full-time 1st February to 31st October 2022)
Haley graduated from Utrecht University in 2019 with a MSc Marine Ecology with a strong passion for environmental issues. Following her studies, Haley pursued an interest in developing localised food systems and learning about agri-ecological farming methods whilst working as a Market Gardener in farms across Scotland. Besides growing tasty veggies, you will find Haley out exploring the Highlands or creating an inky mess whilst print making.
Haley will be working with Fèis Rois to actively engage people in local communities with the new Unexpected Garden space.
Finlay Keiller – Growing Lead (Full-time 1st April to 30th September 2022)
Finlay will be responsible for the on-going care of the growing space. He is an Islander and grew up on North Uist where he spent his early years exploring its numerous lochs, moors, bays and islands. He later moved to the Shetland islands where he started a career at sea. When not at sea he was often out on the croft with the sheep, fishing in his boat or growing vegetables.
Finlay gradually realised that it was the growing of his own food and the connection that it brought with the land that gave him the most joy. More recently he has spent time on market gardens and veg box schemes around Scotland, gaining professional experience of growing vegetables on a larger scale.
Finlay is particularly interested in the historical and cultural importance of growing food in remote places. This has led him to become passionate about seeds, the stories they tell, the connection they have with people and the importance of saving them.