Dig It & Eat It! Training
24 August 2010
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Saturday 11 September will see the start of the second block of “Dig It and Eat It!”:http://www.cvni.org/greengym/fruitandveg/ Training.
The training is run at Conservation Volunteers Northern Ireland’s allotment at Knockbracken Healthcare Park every Saturday from 10am until 2.30pm.
Training will be delivered on various aspects of allotment growing and healthy eating and this block aims to provide a variety of information on harvesting and storing produce, overwintering veg and green manures, food for free, cooking demonstration and visits to other allotment sites and projects for inspiration in the coming year plus a session from our community dietitian tailored to meet group interests.
The Dig It and Eat It! Project, run by us in partnership with the Community Nutrition and Dietetic Service of the Belfast Health Trust, has been running since 2004 and involves people in practical action to grow their own vegetables, fruit and herbs and will help to change dietary views and perceptions, increase knowledge of healthy eating and also provides a programme of regular physical activity.
We have been running the Saturday Dig It and Eat It! since March 2010 in their allotment and wildflower nursery in Knockbracken Healthcare Park, Belfast. Currently there are 8 allotment plots run by families, organisations or individuals and training has already been delivered on soil preparation, crop rotation, composting, building raised beds plus much more. We are in the process of developing further land and hope to be able to release more plots at the start of 2011.
The idea behind the project was to inspire people and improve places, to help families reduce their impact on climate change and show how they can live lightly on the land to become more self sufficient.
Through working with families it is hoped that the children will have an understanding of how nature and wildlife work and the importance of growing your own from an early age. One recent comment from Jack, aged 6 was, “Isn’t it amazing how different it looks from the start to now?”.
