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GardenAfrica Charity

           Newsletter July 2010                 

“If you want one year of prosperity, grow grain.
If you want ten years of prosperity, grow trees.
If you want one hundred years of prosperity, grow people”.

- Chinese Proverb


Project update: Swaziland

GardenAfrica has recently visited our inspiring partnership project in Swaziland. With the second intake recently graduated, we met the third intake of trainees who are now settling in to their stride. This gave us an opportunity to visit the first group we trained between 2008-9. While the pressures of crop harvesting can be seen in some gardens, we were pleased to see that many gardeners have managed to increase productivity and crop diversity, with these skills being shared with others in their respective communities.

You may remember that we introduced you to Ncobile Mkhonta when she first won her place on the course by constructing her home-made fence (below).

Then: Ncobile in her newly fenced garden at the start of training

One year after graduating, along with twenty-seven others, we visited her to find out how she is getting on, and to see if the skills that she learned were useful.


AFTER

Now in her productive haven...Ncobile's homestead after receiving  training

Like the others, she has worked hard to build her soil and conserve water for drinking and irrigation, and now has a verdant, shady oasis on what was once a dusty patch of ground. Having increased her productive area by fifty percent, Ncobile is now producing and excess of fresh fruits and vegetables, and no longer needs to rely on hand-outs. Some of this they eat as a family, or share with even less well off neighbours, and the rest she is selling to pay for the schooling of her children and wards - the children of her sister who died of AIDS.

Project title and partners

As the third intake of twenty-five participants gets underway (below), you could help us to support people just like Ncobile to learn how to support their own families and share these skills, seed and vegetables with others.


Please make a donation to demonstrate your support for their commitment to transforming their lives, and those of others around them. Click here to give today.

Thank you to our supporters

The University Botanic Garden in Bristol hosted an exclusive evening of wine-tasting in and amongst its new South African gardens and glasshouses. With only 60 places, the event sold out very quickly, and while additional tickets were made available, there was still a waiting list of hopefuls. Thanks to Waitrose for providing the wine and expert, and to GardenAfrica’s regional fundraising coordinator Valerie Ferguson who worked tirelessly, and added flavour with her cookery demonstration of African foods which were later enjoyed by all the guests during dinner.  A special thanks to host and curator Nick Wray for sharing his botanical expertise, and to his team of volunteers for their hard work.  With such a resounding success, we hope to expand on this next year. To view photos of this event please click here.

Fiddleston Wood, Burton Thanks also to our Chester fundraising ‘girls’, who held a garden party at Fiddleston Wood in Burton, on the Wirral. The day included a demonstration of a GardenAfrica plot, a coconut shire, arts, craft and cake stands, garden tours of the 12 acre grounds, children’s face painting and even some fortune telling!  With the solid work of a hefty team of volunteers the event welcomed some 250 paying guests on a sunny day in the North West, and raised over £3000.  What an incredible effort – thank you. To view more photos of the event please click here.

Events like these raise important funds to run our exciting projects in Swaziland, South Africa and Zimbabwe.  If you are raising funds for GardenAfrica, and have an event you’d like to tell us about, then please contact us at gem@gardenafrica.org.uk.


The Big Lunch is back for its second year, how will you get involved?


On Sunday 18th July, communities across the UK will be celebrating neighbourliness by eating lunch together, in the middle of their streets, around tower blocks and on patches of common ground. Last year up to a million people took part in over 8,000 lunches. It was the biggest set of street parties since the Golden Jubilee and 80% said they felt closer to their neighbours as a result.

The Big Lunch aims to help strengthen neighbourhoods and promote social cohesion. It began life as a wild seed at The Eden Project. The Big Lunch believes that the world can get better and become safer through communities working together, with nature, optimism and common sense, to tackle local issues – which in turn affect the wider world around us. Why not host a big lunch and raise funds for GardenAfrica in July? Visit www.thebiglunch.com.


Lunch outdoors

Send this newsletter to a Friend

If you have a friend or colleague who might be interested in finding out more about the work of GardenAfrica, please forward this eNewsletter on to them. Or, better still, email their details to info@gardenafrica.org.uk and we will send them the eNewsletter.

GardenAfrica Blog


GardenAfrica blogger – the Muswell Hillbilly
Read about what’s new in the Muswell Hillbilly’s London garden this month.
Read the GardenAfrica Blog »

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     Welcome to our midsummer newsletter!

Two of the children in Ncobiles care


Also in this issue:

  • Project update: Swaziland

  • The Big Lunch

  • Events - thanks to:
                 University Botanic Garden, Bristol
                 Garden Party Fundraisers, Chester

  • Things to do in your garden in July

  • Tales from the Geodome

  • Raise money for GardenAfrica while shopping online

  • Seasonal Recipes: Rhubarb and strawberry ice lollies; Fillets of mackerel with dill and new potatoes


Tales from the Dome

Good news from the dome this season.  Stealing some propagation time away from our computers during the spring has paid dividends.  We have garlic, planted in the autumn, which is doing its job alongside leeks and onions as effective companions to the cabbage, cauliflower and purple sprouting broccoli.  On the solanum front we have 3 varieties of tomato alongside 3 of potato (one strange and unidentified variety) to meet our seemingly high demand for potato gratin (can’t wait!). 

Being the UK end of GardenAfrica we have sweetcorn, rather than maize, and peas, sugar snaps and beans from seed which we saved last year – all improving our soil in rotation from last years’ heavy feeding brassicas.  We are trying out radishes this year, and have our trusty and delicious beetroot, salad leaves and rocket which self seeded in abundance amongst the many herbs.  Oh, and then there are the pumpkin, butternuts, courgettes and patty-pan squashes.  Not bad for 4 beds.

Our war on slugs has now begun in earnest – it’s humane, quick and effective (we hope). But we’ll let you know just how effective next time.


The summer starts here!

Raise money for GardenAfrica while buying online at your favourite home or garden shop!

GardenAfrica has set up partnerships with trusted home and garden retailers such as John Lewis, B&Q, Blooming Direct, Wickes and Thomson & Morgan. If you buy online at these companies, please go to these sites via this GardenAfrica web page. Shop as normal but GardenAfrica receives commission from the store - at no extra cost to you. To see a full  list of all the  participating shops, click here. 

Remember over 97% of any funds raised for GardenAfrica go directly to our projects!

Things to do in your garden in June:

  • Harvest salad crops such as lettuce, spring onion and radish

  • Seedlings need daily watering as temperatures rise

  • Plant out young cabbages and sprouts

  • Sow sweetcorn, squash, courgette and cucumber

  • Everything will be growing in all the light – including weeds. Keep on top of them.

  • Water strawberries to encourage fruits to swell

  • Pinch out, or cut off, side shoots from tomato plants



Seasonal recipes

RHUBARB AND STRAWBERRY ICE LOLLIES

Note: For this recipes you will need ice lolly moulds.

Ingredients

  •  450g/1lb rhubarb, sliced into 7½cm/3in pieces
  •  200g/7oz strawberries, halved
  •  ½ orange, juice only
  •  175g/6¼oz sugar
  •  1 cinnamon stick
  •  50ml/1¾fl oz double cream

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
  2. Place the rhubarb and strawberries onto the baking tray. Pour over the orange juice and sprinkle over 75g/2¾oz of the sugar. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until soft.
  3. Bring 100ml/3½fl oz water, the remaining 100g/3½oz sugar and the cinnamon to the boil in a saucepan and continue to boil until the liquid is syrupy.
  4. Add the cooked fruit to the syrup and set aside to cool.
  5. Blend the mixture in a blender to a purée and stir in the cream.
  6. Pour the mixture into ice lolly moulds and freeze for 3-4 hours, or until completely frozen. 

FILLETS OF MACKEREL WITH DILL & NEW POTATOES

Ingredients

  •  4 mackerel, each weighing about 175-225g/6-8oz
  •  450g/1lb new potatoes
  •  1 small bunch of fresh dill, chopped, stalks reserved
  •  50g/2oz seasoned flour
  •  25ml/1fl oz vegetable oil
  •  25g/1oz unsalted butter
  •  1 lemon
  •  salt if desired


Method

  1. Either ask your fishmonger to fillet the mackerel for you or fillet yourself.
  2. Boil the new potatoes in a pan of well-salted water with the dill stalks.
  3. Dust the fillets in the seasoned flour and shake off any excess. Heat the oil in a frying pan and add a knob of the butter. Fry the mackerel for 3 minutes on each side then remove from the pan and keep warm.
  4. Pour away the fish-frying oil and butter. Add the rest of the butter to the pan and heat until it smells nutty. Squeeze the juice of half the lemon into the pan then pour over the fillets. Season the mackerel with salt, sprinkle over the dill and serve with the remaining half of the lemon wedges.

    5.

GardenAfrica works in collaboration with the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
Promoting Appropriate Social Plant Use for Community Health & Development

GardenAfrica | www.gardenafrica.org.uk | UK Registered Charity number: 1093568 | DR