The Kitchen Garden started on a cold November day ten years ago. The initiative stemmed from our desire as a parish to help in a practical and tangible way malnourished and impoverished people in the developing world.
In 2005 we were given the opportunity to create out of neglected and derelict ground belonging to St Patrick’s, a garden plot capable of producing enough fresh organic vegetables to sell on a regular basis.
On that November day we assembled parish volunteers and enthusiasts. We dug out a skip load of rubble, laid out vegetable beds according to ancient principles, ordered earthworms on line and dug in horse manure in industrial quantities.
All we were armed with was enthusiasm, packets of seeds and a couple of inspirational gardening books. To our complete amazement the vegetables grew. And after remarkable little trial and error we started to sell the vegetables by donation after Mass on Sunday mornings to the parish and thus our enduring relationship with CAFOD began.
We are pleased to be in our tenth season. Since 2006 we have been able to send CAFOD over £1000 each year from the proceeds of the Kitchen Garden through the generosity of our Parish supporters, the hard work of our committed volunteer gardeners, our bee keepers and all those who sell the produce on Sundays.
We owe a lot of thanks to many but especially CAFOD. We are honoured as a parish to help in a small way and inspired beyond words by CAFOD’s work.
So as we say in Wapping, “Buy local but think global!”