Adventure #4 Feasts and Famines, Metaphors and Monastic gardens
Tuesday 14th October New Ross
So many adventures so little time to write about them.
New Ross was an obvious place to visit. Only a 30 minute bus ride from Waterford with a Get Ireland Growing fund project run by the local GIY group. 2 in 1.
So I was off across the Suir and into Wexford. A big traffic jam on the far bank coming into New Ross gave me a long look at the Famine Ship on the River Barrow, a living museum about the emigration of Irish people to escape the famine in search of a better world. It was beautiful and eerie with its tall masts as the sun went down. It’s interesting that there is emigration from Ireland again but this time there’s also an obesity epidemic. <span 12px;"="">There’s something in that I suppose. The way the world has developed has meant that although in many ways our quality of life has improved, we now have too much of what we want and not enough of what we need. That’s why things like GIY and Incredible Edible are so important because they are working on that by connecting people back with food, so we begin to understand its value and the importance of what we eat.
Eventually I arrived on the Quay just by GIY New Ross’ Get Ireland Growing Fund project. One of my favourites! Taken from the idea of Incredible Edible up in Todmorden (near Leeds) they have planted vegetables in big beds in the centre of town so local people can try them and learn about where found comes from. The beds were full (even in October) of pak choi, tomatoes, kale, giant sunflowers and flowers provided by the council.
Sara the group champion of GIY New Ross showed me around. She told me that when they had opened the beds in summer there was a folk band and people had danced around the vegetables. A perfect way to spread the message of GIY, create a bit understanding about food and promote her group locally. She told me stories of people without much money (who had just come out of the pub) who would come up to her to tell her they had cleared the litter out of the beds and asked whether they could they eat some of the vegetables. It’s a nice way to contradict the idea that came up at my first GIY meeting that GIY is just for middle aged, middle class, white people.
Then it was off to the GIY meeting. It was on herbs (I’m going to get knowledgably accidentally if I keep going to these). Sara had found a local business man who ran a guest house with a spa and monastic herb garden. It was a good move on both their parts, we got to learn about herbs and he got to advertise his business.
Sara is a great champion, she took some time to talk about GIY and share her knowledge and at the end she sold her excess produce to make money to pay for printing for the group. Her produce was very enticing, I don’t think anyone left without any (to my surprise I found myself taking a pumpkin and a starter garlic home).
The meeting had a good turnout, with people of my age as well as older. It had been a very small group Sara told me but with growing project down at the Quay many more people had started coming along.
Inclusivity and dancing around vegetables are clearly things we need to work into the long term plan.
(If you ever find yourself in New Ross on the third tuesday of the month you now know where to be, New Ross Library at 7pm)
