Dig In Pumpkin Festival 2010

Just back from a wonderful Pumpkin Festival at Dig In. We were incredibly lucky with the weather, and even luckier with the number of fantastically artistic people who volunteered to help us carve pumpkins to decorate the site and who cooked fabulous pumpkin-based food for the event. Dave, our pumpkin poet last year, visited us again to provide another brilliant poem, this one with its own dance, and Pulp Friction provided us with non-stop hot pumpkin soup.

Thank you to everyone who volunteered both beforehand and on the day - it made a huge difference to be able to spread the workload, and really helped our 149 visitors to have a great experience. Thank you also to the Groundwork team who added to the work of our regular groups to make the site look really spick and span on the day. And we mustn't forget those who entered the competitions, especially those who made the huge effort required to bring along their giant pumpkins.

Congratulations to our Prize Winner Mr. Fisher, with his 110kg monster pumpkin, and to Mr. Genivere who was a worthy runner up. Both gentlemen have generously donated their pumpkins and their seeds to us, so we look forward to giving these out next year and seeing what folk manage to grow from them!

Here are a few photos to give you a flavour of the event.

Pumpkin Fun for Albany Nursery

The morning and afternoon classes of Albany Nursery visiting Dig In today to have a look around the allotment and help us harvest our pumpkins, ready for our Pumpkin Festival on 30th October.

They had a wonderful time looking at the bee hive and the pond, testing out the different smells of the herbs and choosing pumpkins to lift. 

Then they discovered how big the biggest pumpkin ever grown was (currently 1725lbs and 5.15m in circumference), by standing in a circle the same size as the pumpkin's girth. After that, we weighed all the children, added the weights together and found that they would need 3 classes the size of the morning group to weigh the same as the record pumpkin, or 4.5 classes the size of the afternoon group (which had less pupils). We rounded off the visit with a taste of pumpkin pudding, which nearly everyone tried (even the adults!)

Thank you to the staff at the Nursery and all the parents, grandparents and carers who came down to make the visit possible. And a special thank you to our allotment neighbour who helped make the visit extra-special by showing the children their chickens and letting them help to feed them.

Capital One - September Volunteer Work Party

On Thursday 30th September, an intrepid band from Capital One came to Dig In to help us revamp the planting around the pond, and to do battle with the Horseradish Monster!

They worked with a will, digging out the worst of the weeds, planting up with new pond plants and wildflowers, and removing huge amounts of algae from the pond.

Horseradish removal showed what a brute this plant is. The roots of the plant are incredibly deep, and you need to wear safety goggles to avoid the juice from them going into your eyes, and waterproof gloves to protect you hands. The team ended up collecting 3 buckets full of horseradish root - if anyone wants fresh horseradish sauce, we can help!

The pond area now looks great, so many thanks to Capital One for all your efforts.