Around 60 local residents and members of local community groups enjoyed a food sharing session on Sunday 30th September at the Coplow Street Grow Site in Ladywood.

The Taster session was the first of a series of events organised by the North Summerfield Residents and the Black Environment Network which revolve around engaging with ethnic minority communities to celebrate, grow and share knowledge of food and food growing.

This first event of this new project to link local communities with food growing opportunities centred around a food tasting session.

Other activities included a smoothie bike from the British Heart Foundation,a pakora demonstration, with the opportunity to get stuck in and make your own, as well as a presentation from Love Food Hate Waste.

Food at the event included asian bites, stuffed nastursium leaves (grown in a local garden), traditional Polish, German & Lithuanian food and of course the always handy barbeque, as well as pakora made in the demonstrations and by those who tried their hand.

All in all the afternoon was a great success, and although windy, the rain held off. Comments after the event showed that in just one afternoon we had encouraged people to view urban spaces in a different light and to see the clear benefits of community growing, as a cohesive link, as a health driver, and also as a means of having great fun.

Everyone involved is looking forward to the next event, which we plan to centre around basic learning of how to plant and what to grow.