York is packed with interesting little nooks and crannies. Nosing around the centre of town, you can find all manner of cut-throughs, snickleways and shortcuts. Secluded riverside spots and hidden church yards lurk all around, waiting to hold you to their breast away from the stag and hen parties that roam our city at the weekend. Doing fantastic things with some of these spaces are Edible York, whose mission to make our city more beautiful and offer its residents more skills has been growing and gathering pace over the last six years.
Even if you’ve not realised it, you’ve probably seen the fruits of their labours in our city’s public spaces. One of the most visible contributions Edible York makes to the city is their public vegetable beds, which can be seen outside the Barbican, Heron Foods and on Peasholme green. Members of the local community can help themselves to the produce from these beds, hopefully realising at the same time how easy it can be to replicate something like this domestically.
That’s only the tip of the iceberg though. 199 fruit trees have been planted in schools and communities around York and regular produce swapping sessions are just a couple of the initiatives that you can read more about on www.edibleyork.org.uk. There’re lots of ways to help out and there’s still lots to do so why not get in touch to see what you can do, even if you can only spare a little time.
If all this sounds exciting to you (and let’s be clear, it should) then check out the edible map of York to see how you can be interacting with our environment… I’m off to look for the wild garlic that’s not too far from me!
