Inspiration from Reading’s
food and food-growing movement

Spring forth with radical hopefulness for a season full of planet-friendly food 🌱🌱🌱

In this edition of Fill My Plate we're spotlighting the incredible work of the team of tutors, gardeners and digital storytellers at Holy Brook Nook.

As the Lavender Place Community Garden experiment concluded to make way for new building developments, Food4Families needed to find a new, accessible location for community food growing in Reading. If you're interested in learning more about the garden team at the Nook check out the incredible video below!

We're also excited to get growing together now that the weather is warming up and the sun is returning to the skies and keen to enjoy the benefits that this brings to all. April is Good to Grow month and we'll be posting about various activities and events coming up in the weeks ahead. For some truly harmonising tales of how growing together helps us find peace through nature, check out this wonderful snippet from Shaheen Rashid at British Islamic Gardens (BIG), a member of the Reading Green Wellbeing Network (RGWN) and a keen participant in Good to Grow. Find out more about RGWN and how being in nature can improve your wellbeing here.

And to round off this edition, we have a fabulous idea to help you plan your growing activities this year and a brilliant recipe for making the most of your abundant harvest!

 
💚 from the INCREDIBLES 🥕

Garden Spotlight: Holy Brook Nook

We're gathering stories from our gardens to bring you a taste of who's involved, the purpose of growing together and how we think Incredible Edible Reading offers a blueprint for community flourishing.

The short video below is the first in our Garden Spotlight series and features the Food4Families garden at Holy Brook Nook. Situated a short walk from the town centre, the "Nook" is fast becoming a haven for wildlife and a hugely productive and welcoming site for growing fruit and veg together. The garden at Holy Brook Nook is made possible through a partnership with Nature Nurture.

For more details about gardening session times and contact details, check out the Food4Families site or let us know you're interested via our contact form.

Inspiring gardening activities for
getting children growing

We believe in the lost arts. The art of growing and soil science, the art of cooking and preserving and the connection that is made to our planet when we learn about food. Research from Natural England has revealed that children are more motivated to learn when outside - what better way to learn about food than in the gardens where it's grown?

Incredible Edible Reading believes reviving our hands-on knowledge of food is essential for all our futures. That's why we're introducing the #HEYPESTO campaign to ignite your learning journey and connect with the art of food growing.

While we love 🥕🥕🥕 know that it's not just carrots that will make a contribution to a tasty menu, so we've include a tasty recipe from one of the Incredibles to provide you with growing inspiration. Let us know how and what you get growing during April using #HEYPESTO on any socials!

Empowering Communities to Get Growing

As our thoughts turned towards the bright spots of Spring the good news landed that Incredible Edible Reading was awarded a partnership grant from Transition Together. The award recognises our collective approach to forging radically hopeful community food-growing initiatives and will provide another opportunity to embed our work across the Thames Valley region.

We're celebrating this incredibly bright spot that emerged this month, and grateful to all support we have received to date. Watch out for more details of how we're engaging with Reading Borough Council to support various projects during 2024.

What is Incredible Edible Reading?

We are a growing group of dedicated urban food growers who are on a mission to encourage and support Reading’s residents to grow food locally. We will make connections between communities, organisations and businesses that want to grow food and contribute to the town's biodiversity.

We were inspired by Incredible Edible UK's unique vision which is founded on the connection between three core ideas, or plates: Community, Learning and Business. You can learn more by watching the INCREDIBLE TED TALK by Pam Warhurst, one of Incredible Edible's founders.