Producing food in your own garden can be a lonely furrow to plough, which is why the emergence of community growing networks around the country is so exciting and so eminently practical. Cork Food Web is an online gathering of community gardens, allotments, urban and rural farms and food parks from all over Cork city and county.
The website is essentially Facebook for foodies, where users create a profile and exchange information and skills. There are currently 19 groups within the site, including strands dedicated to allotments, community gardens, foragers, guerrilla gardeners and poultry. The group will make occasional forays into the non-virtual world too – they are hosting a Valentine’s Day Seed Swap this evening at 5.45pm at Blackrock Castle Observatory. Check out www.corkfoodweb.ning.com for more information.
The Waterford Food Producers’ Network, meanwhile, has been up and running since September, with up to 100 people meeting each month in the city library on Lady Lane. The network aims to take the “self” out of “self-sufficiency” by getting growers together to talk, learn from each other, and exchange tips, information and produce. Meetings are free of charge and open to all growers. Darina Allen of Ballymaloe Cookery School will give a talk at the group’s next meeting on Wednesday, February 25th, at 6pm. Based on the template from Waterford, a similar network has been established in Wexford by Will Sutherland (of the John Seymour School for Self-Sufficiency in Killowen, Co Wexford). It will meet for the first time in New Ross library at 7pm on Tuesday, February 24th. For more information on the networks, or if you are interested in establishing one in your area, see www.wfpn.net.