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Our Pandemic Response

18/8/2020

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On the 23rd March 2020, everything stopped as the country went into lockdown. We were bereft as we are normally so engaged with our community. With people panic buying, our usual surplus food donations from Tesco ground to a halt. All of us were worried about how to get our toilet roll! 

We ummmed and arrrhhhhed quite a bit and then came up with a plan. Within the first few days of not working, an email from "Neighbourly" dropped into our inbox offering small grants for charities and community organistions, to support people affected by the Lockdown. We quickly applied for this grant and within a week had recieved the money.

We decided that the best way to use this money was to buy food.  We linked this to our Fill Yer Boots project and worked with schools and local volunteers to get boxes of food for Easter to families. 
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Another, bigger grant from Leicestershire and Rutland Community Foundation also came through to support our work to deliver surplus food. It enabled us to expand our food delivery to three schools, where we already have connections.  There is currently an abundance of surplus food at Tesco that we pick up  4 or 5 times a week and distribute to families.​

Dig for Rutland! 
It is fortunate that visiting allotments has been allowed during this lockdown. We have been sowing hundreds of seeds at home for our own gardens and our three community growing spaces. Following discussions with Head Teachers, we have been caring for the growing spaces in two schools. Both primary schools in Uppingham have allotment beds that we have been clearing and getting food into the ground, ready for picking and eating this summer. 
​We are grateful to local folk for donating plants, seeds and tools for our projects.
  
Rutland Voluntary Sector Connections
We are really fortunate to have such strong networks within the voluntary sector.  There have been weekly Zoom meetings with others working in the community during this time and we have managed to discuss potential and exisiting projects and ideas for the benefit of our Rutland community. 
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Grubs Up! Cooking Course

7/2/2020

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With Rutland Home Education Children

The three weeks of home-made cooking were fun and informative for all of us involved.
It has proven to be a good thing to cook and eat together to encourage trying new flavours, textures and to generate discussion about where our food comes from, food miles and the impact of that on the planet.


We chose recipes that were seasonal, so we could often buy British sourced vegetables, bought from our local markets and supermarkets, and from the zero-waste stall in Uppingham market.  We also were fortunate to be able to use veggies from our community allotment for two of our dishes!

We talked a lot about hygiene and started each session, looking at the steps that we needed to go through to ensure we were clean and ready to prepare food. We put hair up, took hats off, rolled up sleeves, took off any jewellery, and washed hands.  Children were encouraged to clean up the workspace when necessary to maintain a clean area and to use the correct chopping boards for the appropriate foods. We also saved any raw peelings for our compost and disposed of any rubbish appropriately in refuse bin or recycling bin.

Our meals were ambitious with a group of eight children!

Week One
Week one involved a two-course meal of parsnip soup with a range of Indian spices. Pasta Pomodoro was our second course. Children in the group loved pasta and this was an easy one to please.

The tomato sauce was made from scratch to demonstrate how easy it is to make a sauce, rather than buy a ready-made one. Some had cheese on top of the pasta and we discussed the vegan alternative to cheese and noted that Lesley in Nature’s Dispensary, Mill Street, sells it.

Week Two
Week two was more elaborate; a meal with many elements to it.  We embarked on creating falafels with a base of raw beetroot. This was a wonderful vegetable to work with because of its colour. Our hands, the chopping boards and the falafels turned purple so the opportunities for chatting about colour and dyes was inevitable.

We made a side dish of coleslaw. Two different types were made, one with cheese and apple and mayo and the other a vegan option of carrot and apple and vegan mayonnaise. Both were delicious and though apple might not be in a usual ingredient in coleslaw, it was good to see how fruit could be incorporated into a savoury meal.  We also made flatbread to go with our falafels, which was easy for the children to make.

This week because of all the different types of preparation; grating, mashing, whizzing, chopping, and mixing there was so much washing up. The washing up was not the favourite activity of the course, but again demonstrated all that is involved in cooking. We had conversations about having a dishwasher at home and for some children, they see and participate in washing up less and less.

In this session we invited children to think about what their favourite foods were, and we had a range of answers inevitably. Some food was healthy, and some fast-food.  We also enjoyed working out where the country of origin of those foods and talked about how different foods grow in different climates and how its transported around the world.

Week Three
We decided that week three, we would make burgers; both vegan and meat.  We would also make our bread dough to make the buns needed to put our burgers in.  The two different types of burgers we made were both delicious.  The vegan burgers were enjoyed by a few children in the group and the meat burgers enjoyed by more children.

The children enjoyed making and kneading the bread dough, although the gluten-free option was a totally different texture to the wheat based dough and slightly resembled a paving slab! We talked about adding Xanthan Gum to the Gluten-free mix to enable the dough to become more stretchy.

We recognised that the very act of cooking and eating together creates a sense of community. Working out people’s food needs and likes takes cooperation and respect, a real lesson for all of us.

The evaluations returned by the children were positive and it would seem, that they have been encouraged by their cooking together to take a keen interest in the future.

Thanks for being part of this food community!
Many thanks to The Healthy Rutland Grant for funding this project.


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Rutland High Sheriff Margaret Miles Visits Forest School

2/12/2019

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​On a beautiful sunny day in November 2019, we were delighted to host The High Sheriff. Fully prepared in wellies and warm clothes Margaret Miles was introduced to the forest school ethos with Uppingham C of E Primary School group.  The children made sure our visitor was welcomed and knew how to walk around the fire circle, which trees you can climb, where the swings and dens were and shared their play and creations.
 
We received this email after her visit:
 
Dear Alex and Claire,
 
Thank you so much for letting me join you and the school pupils in Belton on Monday.
It was a real treat to meet the children who without doubt enjoyed the freedom to simply ‘play in the woods’ and the opportunity to learn about different countryside activities. They were all full of enthusiasm throughout the visit and so keen to share their learning with me.The learning opportunities that you provide, as well as giving them time for unstructured play , is impressive.
 
Thank you both for your hard work and dedication, to a cause that is so invaluable for our young people of Rutland.
 
I hope to catch you again at the Rutland Farm Park on a Wednesday.
 
Very best wishes
Margaret


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Reflections of the Home Ed Forest Group

30/10/2019

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We have met every Wednesday at the Rutland Farm Park at 10am and got ready to walk to the woods for our session in the Community Woods (Victorian Arboretum).  The site has changed over the course of their time here and a new log circle has been made with a fire pit in the centre, a tool area is emerging and being developed on one side of the site and the Willow trees were cut as they had been a hazard with some weak limbs. The logs from the willow now act as a climbing area and are now home to a huge number of fungi, mosses and insects.  There are now two swings, the climbing area, the bridge has been completed during this time too and there is a designated climbing tree, which the children identified and had a good think about its hazards and benefits.

Our time in the woods continues to begin around the fire circle to consider our values as a group and ends in the fire circle to consider what we have learnt, how we have played, what we have enjoyed and what we wish to do the following week.  The group have taken time to build relationships together and we often discussed the children’s feelings in the reflection session or in response to some elements of play that needed clarification among the group.

There were some types of play that needed discussion to sort out the “group rules.”  There was a wish by some children to play rough; jumping on each other, chasing and mild wrestling play. Some of the children were not keen on this type of play. We had many discussions about how to manage some children’s need for this type of play and the other children’s need to stay safe and unhurt . We discussed asking for consent around playing in a rough play way, and also decided that we should only play as rough as the weakest person in the group. This took some working out as it’s not necessarily the smallest person who is the weakest so there was lots of thinking about permission to play in this way and the level of rough play that should be used. Children seemed happy to discuss this and set some ground rules for the small group and it has worked well.

Two more children joined our group this term (Autumn) which again altered the dynamics of the group the children have been working together to accommodate each other in the woodland setting. The new children have brought their skills and warm personalities and added a new dynamic to our group.

The swing on Cyril the Sycamore became a very happy place however there obviously were tensions among the group about taking turns and who had the longest go. We bought an egg timer and we provided children with pen and paper to write a name list so they could take turns.  We talked about what might be a sensible time to have a turn on the swing and they stuck to their plan most of the time. Sometimes though, other things became more interesting, and all of the waiting and organising of the swing timetable was quickly abandoned as something else became the stimulus. A few weeks after the egg timer and name list was introduced the children started to work out for themselves when they would take turns. They also were risk assessing constantly while using the swing. They recognised that there was a branch in the way and so we had to take tools to remove it they also recognise that there were many stinging nettles and although they were afraid of them in one way, they also wanted to fly on the swing as high as they could to swing over the stinging nettles.

The children found a den that they wanted to call their own and there was some frustration about who was ‘allowed’ to use the den. This was another opportunity for discussion about our value of “fair share” and about enabling all people to access all places so that people feel included.  The den still needs some work although it has fallen down the children’s list of priorities right now. We would like to invite them to do some work on this then to make it a manageable place to play and to set up some boundaries within it because of its proximity to the stream.

We have enjoyed lighting fires this term and the children have taken a keen interest in fire lighting and looking at materials that will catch fire quickly when starting a fire. Children have been helping to prepare wood to for the fire and have been able to use a Froe and mallet to chop our ash logs into smaller pieces.

In the autumn and children picked prepared used other ingredients and cooked with us the cordial and then enjoyed the drink over a couple of weeks to warm our tummies in the woods. We are pausing for a half term break now and will return in November for more play and learning in the woods.

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Wildflower Meadow – Barrowden

26/9/2019

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The sun shone on a group of about 20 volunteers who came to support the Barrowden wildflower meadow project. Hugh Cripps from Barrowden, with support from Active Rutland’s Grow Together project, has been instrumental in getting this project going on a patch of grassy hill above the village allotments.

Native wildflower seed was scattered over an area of about 300 m², after raking off cut grass and scarifying the ground. It was good physical work that brought people together to build community and networks.

The wildflower meadow will increase colour, beauty and biodiversity in this area of wild space for people to enjoy.

The Grow Together team, Alex and Claire, hope to encourage local artists to visit this wildflower sanctuary and be inspired to draw and paint what grows.  A future botanical art exhibition is planned for early summer next year to celebrate the Grow Together stories around Rutland.

If you would like to get involved in community growing projects through the Grow Together project please get in touch with Claire and Alex from Root-and-Branch Out CIC and they can put you in touch with existing projects or you could develop your own.
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Worm Survey

29/6/2019

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“Grow Together” held a community engagement event along with Barleythorpe Allotment Society on the 22nd May 2019, to do some worm charming and a soil survey. It was a lovely May evening and around 30 people came out in summer clothes for an early evening get-together! We sang, played drums, stamped our feet and dug holes to encourage any worms living in the new allotment beds to have a wriggle around! 
 
Around six samples were completed and overall only three worms were found! This is not to say that worms don’t exist here, but as the allotments are a new site with builder’s rubble in the imported topsoil, this is not an ideal habitat for our worm friends.
 
More worms would be of real benefit for this growing space for food and flowers and would greatly improve the quality of the soil. Worms help to improve drainage and aerate the soil so that plants grow better allowing them to root more efficiently to draw up the water and nutrients that they need to grow. 
 
It was evident that work needs to be done to enrich the soil on this new allotment site. No doubt this will be done as the older allotment site at Barleythorpe has a productive and thriving soil, growing food and worms in abundance!
 
We shall host the worm survey again next May after a year of growing and adding nutrition to the soil and hope that the worm population increases!
 
Thank you to Cllr Sue Webb for working on this project with Grow Together and to all for coming to the event and for thinking about maintaining good growing conditions for food for families for now and in the future.
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Wildflower Quiz

27/6/2019

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A small and beautiful event was held last Thursday 20th June, to look at identifying the Wildflowers at the Oakham Castle meadow.

Clare Caro, a Home Educator, and her two girls have led on this project with other local Home Education families to diversify the land in the Castle grounds, to grow wildflowers from seed and to increase biodiversity.  The group used seeds from the national Grow Wild project (a national outreach initiative of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew), and they were broadcast over a wide bank after it was cleared of grass. This was a big and heavy task as lots of earth had to be shifted in barrows across the site! Once this was achieved, the seeds could be sown and watered.

The project is now two years on, and seeds were collected last year to share with other wildflower projects. This year there are beautiful flowers in abundance to encourage wildlife and pollinators.

The Wildflower quiz encouraged participants to look closely and slowly and to think about
the flowers we saw. Identifying flowers by sight, knowledge, books, discussion and memories gave us a picture of the variety of the wildflowers that are growing. We found; Red Dead Nettle, Salad Burnet, Teasel, Corn Chamomile, Red campion and Bladder Campion to name a few.

The event was supported by the Lord Lieutenant of Rutland, Sarah Furness who has a passion for Wildflowers and Rutland County Councillor Miranda Jones who represents the Green party and Chair of Uppingham in Bloom, both are campaigning for the natural growth of verges to support pollinators. Root-and-Branch Out CIC were there as participants to learn and as coordinators of the Active Rutland, Grow Together Project, of which Clare Caro is a lead volunteer.

More work will be undertaken now after identifying many of the wildflowers, by the Home Education community, and there are great plans to create a resource for Castle visitors about the Wildflower meadow. Watch this space!

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Key-Hole Garden - a Rutland Home Education Group community project

5/6/2019

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Guest post written by Clare Caro

There are three amazing things to know about the Key-Hole Garden design; it can successfully provide food for a family all year round (one), regardless of the soil quality of the area (two) and in just about any climate (three).  If ever you were going to grow-your-own, it figures that learning to build a garden that is guaranteed to yield is a must. 


Key-hole gardens are built up and contained, there are many advantages to this build.  The garden takes less watering, yet still holds the moisture needed for healthy growth.  In the centre is a 'basket' where raw compost goes,  feeding the surrounding garden bed which increases the garden bed soil nutrient and quality.

In a nutshell, this is sustainable gardening, where one can grow-your-own food in a fluctuating climate.  As we plan education and curriculum for children heading into the Sixth Mass Extinction, and recently recognised Climate Crisis, learning how to build and grow in a key-hole garden may be essential life skills.

A chance meeting with Jane, from Send a Cow charity, seeded the idea of providing this as an education opportunity to the Rutland Home Education group.  Jane told us all about the Key-Hole Garden design, and how Send a Cow helps families in Africa build key-hole gardens.  Jane had instruction, experience and was keen to oversee a build.

Soon after, Claire and Alex from Root and Branch Out CIC stepped forward and offered the space to build a key-hole garden.  Claire and Alex recognised this as a great educational opportunity. Having a key-hole garden where they offer growing, harvesting and more in their Plot to Pot and Grow Together educational work would provide another level.

Work on the key-hole garden began on the 6th of February, with a set of instructions from Send a Cow and tools from Root and Branch Out.  Every Wednesday afternoon, a group of children, parents and volunteers met to work on the project. 

The materials to build the garden came from all corners; Send a Cow donated the basket (this was the only thing bought on the build). Soil from donations, freecycle and excess from other projects on site.  Logs came from tree removals and the Wildlife Trusts excess at Egleton and straw from the Rutland Farm Park.  Root and Branch Out provided canes and much more, their finding and sharing of materials, upcycling and recycling, along with continued constant support have been invaluable.

On the 1st of May we took the first harvest, a big bunch of rocket.  The key-hole garden is also planted with strawberry, onion, potato, pea, sweetcorn, spring onion, leek, beetroot, radish, lettuce and there is still room for more.

The learning continues, as we watch, water and harvest the first year of this key-hole garden.

Week by week account.

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Week one - measuring and marking out the area.  Week two - building the walls and building up the growing area with a layer of straw and then top soil.
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Week three - installing the compost basket in the center of the garden, adding more top soil.  Compost we had been saving up for a few weeks was finally tipped into the center of the garden.
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Week four - working in the rain, cutting logs to build the walls. Week five - a final load of logs from the Wildlife Trusts at Egleton meant the wall was finished.
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Week six - we reach the end of the build as the last of the top soil goes in.  The first plants go in, rocket seedlings, onion sets and potatoes.
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Week six also saw us making punnets for raising seedlings indoors, which we later planted out.
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Watching, watering and harvesting! 

This project took 6 afternoons of work to complete, over a 3 month period - from Feb 6  when we began to April 3 when we completed the build and started planting.  The first harvest was 1 month later on May 1st.
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And the Winner is . . ..  In our nature Oscars, who lives in our woods?

25/2/2019

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Fill Yer Boots Cafe a Great Success

21/12/2018

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What a success!  The café has been running twice a week during term time, at Uppingham C of E Primary School for nearly 20 months.  The school community have embraced the café whole heartedly, with consistent numbers of families attending on Mondays and Fridays.
 
Shirley, our amazing chef, a parent, who is now the school cook too, creates fantastic breakfasts from the surplus food supplied from Tesco and Lidl, we also receive donations of overstocked baked beans and cereals from Rutland Food Bank.  The delicious menu can include, scrambled eggs, pancakes, sausages, fruit, cereals or a last day of school fry up.

One Mum shared with us,   
I've been attending the Breakfast Club Cafe at the CofE school for just over a year now. It is hugely beneficial to the families who attend. Obviously the children (and adults who want it) are able to eat a hot wholesome breakfast before school however the social side of it too shouldn't be underestimated. I've met families there whom I would not have met as our children are in different years. Parents bring their younger pre-school children with them, they get to know the school environment long before they are of school age and other parents are able to lend a hand with the babies\toddlers if needed. Shirley, the cook and the other kitchen volunteers are fabulous. Always welcoming, friendly and have the kettle on and the tea made waiting before we've asked for a cup! We seemed to have formed quite a social network and whilst I don't 'need' the cafe to supply my son with breakfast we have certainly both benefitted from the social side and friendly interaction. Before I went to breakfast club and being relatively new to the school I struggled socially at school pick ups, drop offs and events. Now, thanks to 'regular contact' at breakfast club we've created links and friendships with other parents that I wouldn't have made had I didn't go. My son and I both look forward to Mondays and Fridays, he for the pancakes, me for the friendly faces. I can't thank the volunteers and organisers enough. Thank you.  
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Address

Freedom Farm
​Belton in Rutland
United Kingdom

Telephone

Alex 07929 989 432
Claire 07811 424 430

Email

rootandbranchout@gmail.com
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