Growing Newsome stall, 31st July 2021

Growing Newsome are taking part in this friendly morning event organised by Newsome Ward Community Forum:

Community Coffee & Catch Up

Saturday 31st July from 10am to 1pm

Newsome Scout Hall, Newsome Road South HD4 6JJ

Come along for a cuppa and sit down to enjoy some homemade cake (including some your favourites from our volunteers) and catch up with others in our community.

Visit our Growing Newsome stall for a selection of locally grown jams.

Browse our plants – if you’re looking for something in particular, please let us know and we’ll try to help.

Pick up information about other things going on in our local area.

If you’d like to avoid handling cash, at our stall we will be accepting contactless card payments, Apple Pay, Google Pay and payments from other contactless smartphones and watches (but you can still pay with cash if you’d like).

We look forward to seeing you there.

Community Coffee & Catch Up

Pop up Plant Swap – Saturday 12th June 2021

Pop up Plant Swap

Saturday 12th June 2021
10am to 12 noon

An outdoor event

Newsome Scout Hall, Newsome Road South, Huddersfield HD4 6JJ

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Looking for some plants?

One of the best things about growing your own food is having something to share and enjoy with others. We are really missing having our usual events, where we can all get together to swap our plants, seeds and experiences. So although we haven’t been able to hold our annual Big Plant Swap this year, we’re pleased to say that we’ve come up with an alternative event. 

Come along to our outdoor Pop up Plant Swap to take your pick from our wide selection of edible plants, and a few other things. Our plants will include:

Vegetables
Salads
Herbs
Fruit
Wildlife-friendly flowers

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Got some seedlings or plants to share?

You’re very welcome to bring along plants, seedlings, cuttings or seeds to swap – but you don’t need to bring something to be able to take something (you can make a donation to Growing Newsome in exchange for your plants).

Some things that other growers have told us they are particularly looking for are:

Summer Squash
Cucumbers
Courgettes
Runner Beans
Red Cabbages
Dwarf Tomatoes
Sweet Peas
Strawberries

Greenhouse veg is always popular, and people also like to pick up some flowering plants along with the edible plants. If you have a request to add, please email growingnewsome@gmail.com

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Top tips for plant swapping

1. Please label your plants – it will really help our other growers. Or let us know what you’ve brought so that we can label your plants for you.

2. Bring along a trug, box or basket – anything handy to carry your plants home in.

3. See what appears – you’ll be amazed how many plants get shuffled on the day.

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How you can visit safely and keep others safe

It’s safer for us to meet outdoors – so our Plant Swap will be outside the entrance to Newsome Scout Hall.

Please sanitise your hands when you arrive (we’re providing some hand sanitiser). We also recommend doing this before you leave.

If other people are already at the stall, please give each other room and wait for a safe space.

If you’d like to avoid handling cash, we will be accepting contactless card payments, Apple Pay, Google Pay and payments from other contactless smartphones and watches (but you can still pay with cash if you’d like).

Please be reassured that we’re following public health guidelines and keeping in touch with our ward councillors. 

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How you can help

We know it’s short notice for our Pop up event. We really hope you can make it on the day – and if you can help to let other people In the local area know it’s happening, we really appreciate it. You might want to offer to pick something up for others who are isolating. We also welcome donations of plants ahead of the day. If you’d like to buy something but can’t get here on the day, please let us know and between us we’ll do our best to help.

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It’s Volunteers Week

A huge thank you to our organising group and to all our volunteers and friends, who make our events and activities happen. Want to join our friendly community of food growers? We’re looking for more volunteers to help look after our Community Allotment and to help organise our community events.

Please come along to our Pop up Plant Swap to meet other volunteers and find out how you can get involved.

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What usually happens at our Plant Swap?

Here’s a short film about Growing Newsome’s Plant Swap, made by Alistair I Macdonald at Curlew Films for Plant it Grow it Eat it. Things are a bit different this year, but the plant swapping is still the same – and we all love it.

Potato pick and Spring seed shuffle 2021

Although we aren’t able to get together again just yet, thankfully Spring isn’t cancelled. We’re still here to help you grow your own food. We would usually have our annual Huddersfield Potato Day and Seed Swap on the first Saturday in March – so we’ve come up with an alternative to help you get growing.

You can order seed potatoes, onions and shallots from us now. We also have some vegetable seeds that are good for growing in small spaces.

You can order and pay online, then collect from Newsome village. If you’re shielding or self-isolating, we’ll do our best to deliver to you at home.

If restrictions are eased over the next few weeks, we may also be able to have a pop up stall that you can come along to for more goodies. But in the meantime, please let us know what you’d like and we’ll do our best to help.

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Potato pick

You can choose just what you need from our selection of 20 different varieties. We have limited quantities of some varieties this time, but we also have our six most popular varieties in larger quantities than usual.

Potato varieties on sale in 2021

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Seed shuffle

We have a selection of onions and shallots for you to choose from, plus some vegetable seeds that are great for growing in smaller spaces. Or choose our Spring seed pack if you’d like a bit of everything for £5.

Onions, shallots and seeds on sale in 2021

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Order, pay and collect

Please fill in our online order form. Orders can be collected from Newsome village on a number of days during March. We’ll send you the details when your order is ready. We can accept a contactless card payment on your collection day, or you may be able to pay online. If you’d prefer to pay a different way, please let us know.

Send us your order

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Shielding or self-isolating? 

Please fill in our online order form to make a request. We’re hoping to deliver to people in Newsome and the wider Huddersfield area. If we’re able to deliver to you, we’ll confirm your order and send you a link that you can use to pay online. After we receive your payment, one of our volunteers will bring your order to you at home. If you have any questions, please let us know.

Send us your order

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Supported by our volunteers

Thank you to all the members of the Growing Newsome network who are continuing to offer help with our deliveries and preparations. Your support really means a lot to us. We’re following all the latest guidance to keep everyone safe. Thank you for looking out for each other.

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Growing guides

• How to grow potatoes (PDF)

• How to grow onions and shallots (PDF)

• How to grow broad beans (PDF)

• How to grow dwarf french beans (PDF)

 

Onions, shallots and vegetable seeds on sale in 2021

Spring seed planting pack £5

1 x packet Beetroot Cylindra

1 x packet Broad Bean Karmazyn

1 x packet Dwarf French Bean Amethyst

1 x packet Peas (mixed varieties)

1 x packet Sunflower Tall Single (Helianthus)

12 x Seed potatoes (6 x earlies, 6 x main crop)

18 x Onion sets (mixed)

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Onion sets – 60p per dozen (mix and match)

Sturon – A great size onion, well known for its flavour. RHS Award of Garden Merit winner. 

Rumba – British bred variety with improved vigour, shape and storage qualities.
Sorry, sold out

Snowball – A superb white onion with a full mild flavour. Stores well. Sorry, sold out

Red Baron – An eye-catching red onion with a stronger flavour than most varieties. RHS Award of Garden Merit winner. Sorry, sold out

Plant: March to April

Harvest: July to September.

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Onion sets – £1 per dozen (larger size) 

Centurion – Straw-yellow, semi-round onions with good crisp flesh. Good cropper and an excellent winter storer. RHS Award of Garden Merit winner.

sorry, sold out

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Shallot sets, Yellow Moon – £1 for 6

sorry, sold out

Golden skinned shallots. Sweeter and milder than onions, shallots have twice the amount of vitamin C and are also rich in vitamins A, B and E. They are great for sauces, dressings, and salads. Each set will grow into a bunch of shallots, which store well after harvest.

Plant: March to April

Harvest: July to September

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Seed packets – 50p each

We’ve chosen a few things that are easy to grow, especially in a smaller space. These seeds come in a simple paper envelope with printed label, all freshly packed in spring.

Beetroot Cylindra 

A unique cylindrical shaped beetroot which is great for salads and pickling, because you get more slices per root. Tender and sweet in flavour with deep red flesh. Maintains its sweetness and tenderness over a long growing season. Produces smooth roots about 10cm (4”) long and is slow to bolt. Minimum 120 seeds per pack.

Sow: March to July

Harvest: June to October

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Broad Bean Karmazyn

An improved heritage broad bean broad bean with lovely rose pink seeds. These compact plants produce small, upright, easy-to-pick growing pods. Enjoy a bountiful and tasty crop. Harvest when the seed shapes are just visible through the pod. Minimum 15 seeds per pack.

Sow: February to May

Harvest: June to August

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Dwarf French Bean Amethyst

These compact french bean plants grow striking purple pods and have pretty mauve flowers. The tasty, stringless beans are quick maturing and grow over a long picking season. Pods are about 15cm (6”) long and slender, turning an attractive shade of green when cooked. Height: 60cm (24″). Spread: 30cm (12″). Minimum 36 seeds per pack.

Sow: April to June

Harvest: July to September

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Pea Tom Thumb (Half Pint) – sorry, sold out

This dwarf pea is perfect for growing in pots or containers where space is limited, as it only grows 15-20cm (6-8”) tall. It’s frost hardy and can be grown with very little support. Gives a good crop of sweet full-sized pods with bright green and tasty peas. White flowers. Fast growing. Minimum 24 seeds per pack.

Sow: March to June

Harvest: May to September

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We’ve also included something that’s not so small, because we all need something to make us smile…

Sunflower Tall Single (Helianthus)

A very tall sunflower with enormous golden-yellow flowers. Great fun for children and perfect for pollinators. Easy to grow. Hardy annual. Height: 210-240cm (7-8′). Minimum 24 seeds per pack.

Sow: March (under glass) or April to May (outdoors)

Flowers July to October

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Sprouted garlic – £1 for 3

We have just a few sprouted garlic plants available, ready for planting straight out in February or March. Your plants will be either Thermidrome or Solent Wight Extra Early.

 2 packs remaining

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Find out more and order online

Potato pick and seed shuffle 2021

Potato varieties on sale

Send us your order

Potato varieties on sale in 2021

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If you’re growing your own this year, you might want to have a look at some of the 20 varieties of seed potato we’ll have available. There’s something for everyone, from old favourites to some more unusual varieties.

All our potatoes are £2 per dozen, pick and mix (or 20p each). You can choose just what you need – and you’ll be supporting our food growing community at the same time. We’ll also have shallots, onions and some packets of vegetable seeds available this spring. 

You can order and pay online, then collect from Newsome village. If you’re shielding or self-isolating, we’ll do our best to deliver to you at home.

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Our full list of potato varieties:

Potato picker 2021 – full details of all our varieties (PDF)

We have limited quantities of some varieties this time. but we also have our six most popular varieties in larger quantities than usual.

Current stock (last updated 25th March @ 12 noon)

1st Early
Casablanca	4
Home Guard	16
Maris Bard	0
Red Duke of York	11
Rocket	12
2nd Early
Charlotte	0
Kestrel	6
Maris Peer	0
Nicola	0
Sarpo Una	19
Early Main
Ambo	0
Mayan Gold	0
Orla	0
Pink Gypsy	0
Main
Cara	0
Desiree	0
International Kidney	0
Salad Blue	0
Sarpo Mira	4
Late main
Pink Fir Apple	0

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Popular potato picks

Rocket – first early

Rocket is well named, because it grows really quickly. It’s among the first potato varieties to crop and produces large quantities of uniform shaped tubers. It’s also well suited to growing at home in containers or potato bags.

 

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Charlotte – second early

Charlotte is a popular, easy to grow, waxy salad variety. You can grow fresh flavoured potatoes which taste great either hot or cold. Ideal for salads and your crop will store until Christmas. Good disease resistance and high yielding.

 

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Kestrel – second early

Kestrel is one of our ever-popular early potato varieties. It has a unique purple blush, a naturally occurring trait which is passed on from their parent variety, the Cara potato. Kestrel has a delicious, slightly-sweet flavour and is great for baking, roasting and chips. It also has good disease resistance and was recommended by Joe Maiden. 

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Desiree – main crop

Desiree is a very popular choice for food growers. The tasty white and creamy flesh has a lovely, fluffy texture when cooked. Great whether baked, roasted or mashed. It’s very versatile and easy to grow.

 

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Sarpo Mira – main crop (organic)

Sarpo potatoes are grown by the Sarvari Research Trust in North Wales. These potatoes all have excellent resistance to blight, so they are ideal for organic growers. Our participants have had great success with Sarpo Mira in particular. We often sell out of these early, but we have extra available this year.

 

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Pink Fir Apple – late main crop (heritage)

Pink Fir Apple potatoes are always in high demand here – and rightly so. They’re one of our all time favourites, great tasting both hot and cold. You can cook them whole in their skins, so don’t worry about peeling this unusual shaped spud. To make sure that you don’t miss out on this firm favourite, we keep lots of them in stock. Enjoy!

 

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Organised by Growing Newsome

Our special thanks to the
West Yorkshire Organic Group
for supporting our Potato Day.

 

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Find out more and order online

Potato pick and seed shuffle 2021

Onions, shallots and seeds on sale

Send us your order

 

Growing Newsome’s homegrown preserves – gift boxes

We have a selection of preserves available now, freshly made this Summer and Autumn from fruit and vegetables grown in the Newsome area. All sales help to support our food growing community.

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Christmas gift boxes – £5 each

Two 8oz jars of our homegrown preserves, presented in a fully recyclable gift box with festive fabric ribbon and paper tag. Choose from a selection of our jams and jellies made from fruit and vegetables grown in Newsome.

Choose any two jars:

• Jam – Blackberry and Apple Jam*, Blackcurrant Jam, Plum Jam,*
  Courgette and Ginger Jam, Plum and Apple Jam, Rhubarb and Apple Jam, Rhubarb and Ginger Jam,
• Jelly – Apple Jelly with Blackberries*, Blackcurrant Jelly, Mixed Currant Jelly*, Redcurrant Jelly.*
• Marmalade and Conserves – Orange marmalade (not homegrown, but homemade).

Sold out
*low stock    

If we’ve run out of something you really wanted, feel free to drop us an email to check whether we’re making any more before Christmas.

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Easy to recycle or reuse

Our gift boxes are fully recyclable. The box, tag, labels and stickers are made of paper and card. Our ribbons are fabric, which can be composted or reused.

You’re welcome to return the jars to us at any Growing Newsome event or Newsome Forum meeting in 2021, or glass can be taken to bottle banks or recycling centres.

Apart from the citrus fruits, all our fresh ingredients are homegrown, so we have limited supplies. We’ll update this page with our current stock. Label designs may vary.

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Order, pay and collect

Please email growingnewsome@gmail.com to make an order. We’ll confirm your order and send you a link that you can use to pay online. Orders can be collected from Newsome village on a number of days during December. We’ll send you the details when your order is ready. If you need to collect your order before a certain date, please let us know. Thank you.

Autumn Pop up Stall, 24th October 2020

If you’d like to get your autumn-planting garlic and onions from us this year, or pick up some locally grown jam and other things to enjoy, you van visit our Pop up Growing Newsome stall: Saturday 24th October from 10am to around 12 noon Outside St John’s Church, off Jackroyd Lane, in Newsome village Look out for our pop up stall on the path through the church grounds.

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How you can visit safely and keep others safe

Please arrive via the Lych gate (the covered gateway arch) at Newsome crossroads, at the corner of Jackroyd Lane and Newsome Road South.

If other people are already at the stall, please follow the distancing guidelines and wait for a safe space. We’re hoping to dodge the rain showers, but you might want to bring a brolley or shelter in the Lych gate if you need to wait a few minutes. 

Please sanitise your hands when you get to the stall (we’re providing some hand sanitiser). We also recommend doing this before you leave.

If you’d like to avoid handling cash, we will be accepting contactless card payments, Apple Pay, Google Pay and payments from other contactless smartphones and watches (but you can still pay with cash if you’d like).

In case the government guidelines for Kirklees change in the next few days, please be reassured that we have consent from West Yorkshire Police to hold our outdoor stall, and we’re keeping in touch with our ward councillors. 

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Choose your garlic

If you’re coming along to buy some garlic bulbs, you can find information about the varieties that we have available on our web site

Garlic bulbs available in 2020

We’ll also have some onion sets, seeds and plants available.

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How you can help

We know it’s short notice for our stall. We hope you can make it on Saturday – and if you can help to let other people In the local area know it’s happening, we really appreciate it. You might also want to offer to pick something up for others who have been shielding. If you’d like to buy something but can’t get there, please let us know and between us we’ll do our best to help.

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Supported by our councillors

Our new contactless payments facility is funded by the Newsome councillors, from their community response Ward Project Budgets. This is extra funding available from Kirklees Council to help all kinds of organisations who are supporting people in our local places during Covid-19.

We’d like to say thank you to our councillors, and especially to Cllr Andrew Cooper for his continuing encouragement and personal support.

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Thank you

We also wanted to say thank you to everyone who has shared some fruit or vegetables for our autumn preserves, and thank you to everyone who has helped us to organise the stall.

If you have any questions about the stall, you can contact us at: GrowingNewsome@gmail.com

Photo by Steve F, licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.

Garlic bulbs available in 2020

Our Autumn planting vegetables this year will include five different varieties of garlic. Pick up your garlic from our Pop up Growing Newsome stall on Saturday 24th October from 10am to around 12 noon outside St John’s Church in Newsome village.

Garlic needs a month or more in the ground at a temperature of 10C or less, and Autumn planting gives you the best chance for this. So you can get planting yours soon – all you need to do is decide what sort to grow.

To help you choose, here are some notes…

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Solent Wight Extra Early

• For early crops of tasty garlic
• Hardneck variety originally from China, which has been developed in France
• White skinned with crisp brilliant white flesh
• Large, high quality bulbs
• Plant in autumn or spring
• Excellent keeping qualities

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Caulk Wight

• Purple-striped bulbs which resist splitting
• Hardneck variety from Eastern Europe
• Grows well in the UK climate
• Good flavour and easy to peel
• Perfect for autumn planting
• Harvest as early as June

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Iberian Wight

• Good all-round garlic
• Softneck variety from Cordoba in Spain
• Large, flat bulbs
• White skins, can be flecked with purple
• Plant October to December
• Stores well into winter

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Carcassone Wight

• Especially fragrant, with good flavour
• Hardneck variety from the South of France
• Pink cloves and good skin cover
• Performs well in the UK
• Plant in autumn or spring
• Harvest in July

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Mersley Wight

• Has the best keeping quality
• Softneck variety originally from France
• Classic silverskin garlic
• Larger cloves and very vigorous
• Plant in late winter or spring
• Harvest in late July

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You can pick up your garlic bulbs from our Pop up Growing Newsome stall on Saturday 24th October from 10am to around 12 noon outside St John’s Church in Newsome village. We ask for £2 per bulb to cover our costs. This is ideal if you have a small garden or plot, as you don’t need to buy a whole pack. It’s also great if you fancy planting more than one variety and you just want one bulb of each – or if you want lots, but want to save some pennies (and avoid paying for postage). We’ll have some onions, vegetable seeds and plants too.

If you can’t make it to our Autumn pop up stall, we will offer any remaining stock afterwards. You can Join our email list for updates.

Growing Newsome Plant Drop, June 2020

Although we aren’t able to get together for our usual Big Plant Swap this year, we are still here for each other. And we still want to help people grow their own food. So with a little help from our friends, we have turned our annual plant swap into a Plant Drop.

We’ve decided that if our growers can’t come to us, we’ll bring some plants to your doorstep. We hope you will join in. Please let us know what plants you’d like and we’ll do our best to get them to you.

 

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See our plant list

We have over 90 different varieties of edible plants, including:

Cabbages, Broccoli and Kale

Chard, Sorrel and Mustard

Tomatoes and Peppers

Courgettes, Pumpkins and Squash

Herbs for your windowsill

and lots more…

 

Here’s a list of the plants that we have for you:

Plants available for our Plant Drop

 

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Request a doorstep plant drop

Please let us know if you’d like some plants delivering to your doorstep. Your plants will be brought by one of the other growers from our network who have kindly volunteered to help. We’ll do this in a safe way.

 

Growing Newsome Plant Drop – request some plants

If we get a lot of requests at the same time, we may pause our order form for a while to give us chance to pack the deliveries that we already have. We can deliver anywhere in the Newsome ward and will also aim to deliver to other places in Huddersfield, 

 

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Ways to say thank you for your plants

Rebecca has shared this photo of veg happily growing in her garden during lockdown, including some Growing Newsome potatoes

In the usual spirit of our Plant Swap, you are welcome to share something with us in exchange for your plants, if you can. We’d love to receive a note, card or email from you saying why growing your own food matters to you, especially right now. You might like to send us a photo of something that you’re growing via email: GrowingNewsome@gmail.com or via twitter: @GrowingNewsome

Making a donation

If you’d like to make a financial donation for your plants, we’ll let you know how to do this safely. Or come along to a future Growing Newsome event and put something in one of our donation boxes.

 

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Supported by our volunteers

We want to say a huge thank you to all the members of the Growing Newsome network who have kindly volunteered to help with the deliveries and preparations.

Many of our elves are currently unable to do the things they love to do to help others, because they are self-isolating or shielding. It’s hard for all of us. So our Plant Drop would not be possible without the kind hearts of our community. Thank you.

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Supported by our councillors

Our Plant Drop is funded by the Newsome councillors, from their community response Ward Project Budgets. This is extra funding available from Kirklees Council to help all kinds of organisations who are supporting people in our local places during Covid-19.

We’d like to say thank you to our councillors, and especially to Cllr Andrew Cooper for his encouragement and personal support.

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Potato varieties on sale in 2020

Apache potatoes

If you’re going to grow some spuds this year, you might want to have a look at some of the 30+ varieties of seed potato we’ll have available at our Seed Swap and Potato Day. There’s something for everyone, from old favourites to some more unusual varieties.

All our potatoes are £2 per dozen, pick and mix (or 20p each). You can choose just what you need – and you’ll be supporting our community activities at the same time.

Our full list of varieties:

Potato picker 2020 – full details of all our varieties (PDF)

or you might like to try one of our top five…

 

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Our top five potato picks

Kestrel is one of our ever-popular early potato varieties. It has a unique purple blush, a naturally occurring trait which is passed on from their parent variety, the Cara potato. Kestrel has a delicious, slightly-sweet flavour and is great for baking, roasting and chips. It also has good disease resistance and was recommended by Joe Maiden. If reliable earlies are your thing, you might also like to try Rocket (one of the earliest croppers) or Charlotte (an easy-to-grow and well-know favourite).

 

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International Kidney is a classic heritage salad potato. Sold early in the season by Jersey growers under the trademark ‘Jersey Royals’. Harvest yours early as waxy perfect salad potatoes, or leave them in the ground a few more weeks to bulk up as a main crops. If heritage salad potatoes are your thing, you might also like Belle de Fontenay, which was new to us last year. It’s a classic French salad potato, first introduced in 1885. It has a fine flavour – great for salads (hot or cold).

 

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Pink Gypsy is fairly new to us and has already proved very popular. It’s one of 14 organic varieties that we have this year. Pink Gypsy is quite distinctive looking, with deep pink and cream skins. The tasty white and creamy flesh has a lovely, fluffy texture when cooked. Great whether baked, roasted or mashed. If striking-coloured spuds are your thing, you might also like to try Apache (which has similar markings), Salad Blue, Red Emmalie or Highland Burgundy Red.

 

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Pink Fir Apple potatoes are always in high demand here – and rightly so. They’re one of our all time favourites, great tasting both hot and cold. You can cook them whole in their skins, so don’t worry about peeling this unusual shaped spud. To make sure that you don’t miss out on this firm favourite, we keep lots of them in stock. Enjoy!

 

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Sarpo potatoes are grown by the Sarvari Research Trust in North Wales. These potatoes all have excellent resistance to blight, so they are ideal for organic growers. Our participants have had great success with the maincrop Sarpo Mira in particular. This year we also have Sarpo Kifli (a maincrop) and Sarpo Una (grown as a second early or early main). Kifli can be grown over a long period and stores well – enjoy them when freshly harvested and cooked in their skins.

 

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