Asparagus kale (Brassica oleracea)
by Chris Cant
Part of a map showing the hop growing sites during year 1 of the Brixton Beer Project.
Prima donna brewers Helen Steer of City Farmers, explains how a community hop growing initiative is encouraging locals to grow, drink and be merry in Brixton, London.
Tell us the story of the Brixton Beer Project Ann Bodkin and I started the Brixton Beer Project last year, to get people thinking about what goes into their pint. We were also concerned by the fact that many popular craft beers use hops imported from New Zealand and America. We chose the hop variety ‘prima donna’ for our project as it is well suited to city life and non-expert growers. The hop plants were sold in grower packs to various people across South London and the plants were grown
in gardens, on balconies, in council estates, in community gardens and in parks. We worked with a local microbrewery to make beer from the hops and had a community harvest and brew day at the end of summer. We then drank some of the beer we ‘grew’ when it was ready. Simple and delicious! This year there are projects being run in Brixton, Crystal Palace, Hackney and Cardiff. How has the project been funded and resourced? Brixton Beer funds itself: each grower buys a pack for £20 (plus an extra £10 per extra plant), to cover the cost of the plants and all the bits and bobs in the packs. We make a small profit on this, which allowed us to produce a map (shown above), cover our running costs and give those involved payment for their
time. We give the hops to the brewer at no cost in exchange for free beer for all the growers. Our brewer then sells the rest of the beer as they would normally. Were there any other projects that inspired you? I was inspired by the Brockwell Bake Project that bakes loaves from wheat grown across Lambeth, and helps people appreciate what goes into real bread. I was also inspired by the concept of patchwork farming and community gardening – people coming together to create a big collective harvest from many small ones. Each plant would have made very little but together we made over 1000 pints! The Independent Brewers Alliance in London were also very helpful and even took us out to a hop farm in Kent with a group of brewers.
What advice would you pass on to others hoping to set up a similar initiative? Get in touch! We are working with projects in Hackney, Cardiff and Crystal Palace with the aim of compiling an ‘open source business plan’ so the project can be replicated across the country, and we hope to have information packs available in October or November. We’d be delighted if others want to take it on elsewhere. It’s a fun project that pays for itself – plus you get a fair amount of free beer! There are also opportunities to take it further: you could sell the beer yourself, start a home brew circle, open up a popup pub selling locally grown beer at community events, or even hold a beer festival... Visit www.city-farmers.co.uk
Harvested hops ready for drying and use in brewing. Photo © Adam Frey/CrimsonChain.com
Fifteen years ago we grew a few brassica plants for the first time from heirloom seed provided by the HDRA (now Garden Organic). Over the course of the summer and autumn the plants developed green leaves tinged with purple, like looseheaded cabbage, then paused with the onset of winter. So far so good, but nothing spectacular. Then came spring and a new spurt of growth: sweet green leaves and eventually sturdy shoots. This explains the name, Asparagus Kale, for although it has a similar habit to purple sprouting broccoli the edible flower shoots have a milder flavour and greater tenderness. Those shoots not eaten eventually opened into yellow flowers loved by insects and the whole plant became tall, slowly leaning over and becoming brittle as its hundreds of seed pods developed and ripened. These days self-seeded kale plants appear all over the garden and we usually have a glut of succulent leaves and shoots to eat, freeze and give away, as well as young plants. Asparagus Kale is an old variety, listed as early as 1885. Seed has been saved and passed on by generations of gardeners and the variety is looked after by “seed guardians” around the country for Garden Organic’s Heritage Seed Library. The seeds cannot be sold but we’ll send you some seed free if you send an SAE or we’ll post some out if you make a donation to Penrith transition town PACT via its website – where there is also more info on the kale. This kale is a biennial so sow in spring in a tray and plant out when robust enough. Chris Cant is the treasurer of Penrith Action for Community Transition (PACT). The local Freegle group has joined forces with PACT to encourage more people to grow their own. For more info see www. penrithact.org.uk and http://freegle. in/EdenGrowYourOwn Subscribe – Have your copy of TFP delivered by post: · £15 a year - UK · £23 a year - Europe · £25 a year - Rest of the world www.transitionfreepress.org/ subscribe
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