News / Vegetable growers’ website
A NEW website has just been launched to support vegetable growers and self-sufficiency enthusiasts in Shetland.
Grow Shetland (www.growshetland.co.uk) aims to help more people become involved in food production by encouraging them to share land, work and information.
The website features a “landshare” forum, through which those with space to spare – whether a small patch on a croft or a plot within an existing garden – can meet people in need of somewhere to grow.
The idea follows the example set by TV chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage organisation whose landshare.net website now boasts 60,000 members.
The site’s “workshare” forum can help people who need an extra hand to find someone willing to work for a day, perhaps in exchange for a meal or a few vegetables.
Most popular, however, is the site’s advice forum on growing plants, but there is also a “freecycle” service for swapping or giving away useful items and other helpful resources, including a Shetland-specific sowing calendar, a list of vegetable varieties proven to grow well in our climate and links to some of the other innovative projects already on the go in the islands.
Anyone interested is encouraged to visit www.growshetland.co.uk and contribute or follow the forums on Twitter – www.twitter.com/GrowShetland – or Facebook.
The site was developed by Transition Shetland, a network of local people dedicated to building community resilience in the face of a changing climate and rising fuel prices. Their website can be found at www.transitionshetland.org.uk.
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