Tuesday 12th July from 10am to 12.30pm In Newsome or nearby
Join us to try some willow weaving.
We will make a simple willow platter for you to take away. Useful in the kitchen for bread or cake cooling, for serving food or for lots of other things. We will also look at using different natural materials that can be found in the garden.
Free. Booking essential – all tools and materials provided. Tea provided.
Join in this series of informal growing workshops, designed to give you confidence to grow your own fruit and veg, with your available time and energy.
Tuesday evenings from 6.30pm to 8.30pm:
5th July Growing mediums and composting
12th July Growing winter salads and undercover growing
19th July Pests, diseases and organic methods of prevention
26th July Perennial fruit, herbs and vegetables
Combining theory with practical hands-on growing, we will look at the best use of growing space, soil management and tool use in every session. We encourage participants to ask questions and let us know your interests.
Gardening clothes, gloves and boots required (there is some steep and uneven ground). Notebook useful. Tea provided – please bring a mug!
Book your free place
These activities are funded by Growing Newsome. Places are limited and booking is essential.
To help us plan our future activities, please tell us about any activities or events you’d like to take part in (and any other ways we can help you to grow your own food) here:
Come and take your pick from hundreds of plants and seedlings at our popular annual plant swap – great for food growers and friends. You can choose from: Vegetables, Salads, Herbs, Fruit and Wildlife-friendly flowers.
You’re very welcome to bring along plants, seedlings, cuttings or seeds to swap.
Our top tips for plant swappers
It’s really helpful to other growers if you can label your plants.
You might like to bring along a trug, basket or tray to carry your plants home in.
We advise hanging around to see what else appears during the morning.
Don’t worry if you don’t have anything to swap – 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.
We also accept donations of plants ahead of the event – just email us if you have something to share: growingnewsome@gmail.com
Lots more to enjoy…
Seed Swap – vegetables and other seeds to swap or buy.
Huddersfield Raw Honey – with local honey available to buy
Growing Works – with an activity or two for you to try
Join us for lunch
Served 12 noon to 1pm
Enjoy a healthy lunch at Newsome Scout Hall – with recipes for you to take home. We’ll be serving a selection of tasty salads from our Spring salad bar with pasta and roasted vegetables, plus a fruit pudding.
We ask for a small donation to cover the costs of making your lunch.
Want to help?
Volunteer We’re looking for volunteers to help out with our events and activities. Contact us at growingnewsome@gmail.com to find out more, or ask on the day.
If your local group or organisation are interested in having a stall at one of our events or you’d like to bring some local information to share on the day, please get in touch: growingnewsome@gmail.com
What happens at the 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.
Choose from 20 different types of seed potato, including popular easy-to-grow varieties and some more unusual types. All seed potatoes are £2 per dozen (pick and mix) or 20p each. Our 2020 varieties are:
1st Earlies: Casablanca (organic), Epicure, Maris Bard (organic), Red Duke of York, Rocket, Vitabella (organic).
2nd Earlies: Charlotte, Kestrel, Maris Peer (organic), Nicola (organic), Ratte, Sarpo Una (organic).
Mains: Ambo (organic), Blue Annelise (organic), Cara (organic), Desiree, Orla (organic), Pink Gypsy (organic), Sarpo Mira (organic), Pink Fir Apple.
Seeds galore – We’ll also have vegetable and salad seeds, lots of onion sets and shallots on offer. You can either swap, or pick up some seeds in exchange for a small donation. Try our seed starter packs – ideal for growing in small spaces.
Activities – Enjoy seed planting and crafts for kids with our Growing Newsome volunteers.
Local foodon sale – Jam and other preserves made from fruit and veg grown in Newsome..
Huddersfield Raw Honey – local honey and beekeeping info from Ryad Alsous.
Plant protection materials – protect your homegrown crops.
Books – Book stall with all sorts of books.
Refreshments – Tea, coffee and home made cakes available.
Help with growing – Please ask for advice.
Local information – Come and promote your group or activity.
Plant pot & jam jar amnesty – Bring along your spare small plant pots or small jam jars (we can only use 1Ib jam jars or smaller, which will fit a standard 63mm screw top lid).
Join us for lunch
served 12 noon to 1pm
Enjoy a warming, two-course cooked lunch, featuring some local ingredients.
Free admission. All welcome. And please tell all your friends!
Want to help?
Volunteer We’re looking for volunteers to help out with our events and activities. Contact us at growingnewsome@gmail.com to find out more, or ask on the day.
If you’d like some seed potatoes to plant this spring, have a look at some of the 20 potato varieties we have available. There’s something for everyone, from our regular 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 lots of other vegetable seeds available this spring.
All being well, you can pick up your seed potatoes from our Huddersfield Potato Day and Seed Swap on Saturday 5th March 2022 from 10am at Newsome Scout Hall, Newsome, Huddersfield HD4 6JJ. Sorry we’re not able to take any advance orders this year, but you can pick up your potatoes from our event, or buy afterwards if we have some left. If you have any questions, you can email us at: GrowingNewsome@gmail.com
We have our six most popular potato picks available in much larger quantities. More than half of our varieties are Organic. We also have some heritage and blight-resistant varieties.
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.
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.
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 the 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.
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.
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 and we always grow these ourselves.
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!
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.
Christmas gift boxes – £5 each
————————————————————
Two 8oz jars of our homegrown preserves, presented in a fully recyclable gift box with festive fabric ribbon, paper tag and wooden charm. Choose from our selection of preserves, made from fruit and vegetables grown in Newsome.
Choose any two jars:
Jam
Autumn Berry and Apple Jam, Blackcurrant Jam, Courgette and Ginger Jam*, Blackberry and Apple Jam*, Loganberry, Raspberry and Lime Jam*, Plum Jam*, Plum and Apple Jam*, Raspberry Jam*
Jelly Apple Jelly with Blackberries, Mixed Currant Jelly, Redcurrant Jelly
Marmalade and Conserves Orange Marmalade (not homegrown, but homemade), Spiced Apple Butter (a slow cooked smooth preserve, made with cinnamon and nutmeg)
Pickles Bread and Butter Pickles (made with cucumber and onion)
* low stock * Sorry, sold out
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.
Easy to recycle or reuse
Our gift boxes are fully recyclable. The box, tag and labels are made of paper and card. Our ribbons are fabric, which can be composted or reused – and you can hang the wooden charm on your Christmas tree.
You’re welcome to return jars to us at any Growing Newsome event in 2022, or glass can be taken to bottle banks or recycling centres.
Nutritional and allergy information
All our preserves are Vegetarian. Our homegrown jam and jelly is made with just fruit or vegetables, sugar and sometimes lemon or lime. Everything except our marmalade is Vegan. Pickles contain mustard seeds.
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 availability. Label designs may vary.
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.
Freshly picked vegetables from Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Stirley Farm.
Book stall with all sorts of books.
Information about local volunteering, events and activities.
Got something to share? You can bring along spare fruit or vegetables, seeds, recipes or anything you’d like to share.
Jam jar amnesty – clean, small jam jars (1 Ib or less) that fit a 63mm lid are welcome.
Autumn planting:
Autumn planting vegetables for you to take home – including a selection of garlic bulbs, onions, seeds, overwintering leaf crops and anything else we can rustle up. You can also let us know what kind of seed potatoes you’d like us to have available in 2022.
Enjoy some seasonal soup for lunch at the Scout Hall, made with some locally grown vegetables and served with a selection of fresh breads, followed by a hot Autumn pudding made with some local fruit.
Our Autumn planting vegetables this year will include six different varieties of garlic. Pick up your garlic from our Autumn Gathering event on Saturday 16th October from 10am to 1pm at Newsome Scout Hall, Newsome Road South, Newsome, Huddersfield HD4 6JJ.
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…
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
Germidour (organic)
Fast growing French variety with high yields
A rich purple head with ivory clove skins – very attractive non-flowering variety
Can be strung or plaited
Winner of RHS Award of Gardening Merit
Plant October or November for harvest in June
Lift as soon as mature. Should keep until December following harvesting
Mersley Wight
Has the best keeping quality (up to 10 months)
Softneck variety well suited to UK growing
Classic silverskin garlic
Larger cloves and very vigorous
Plant in late winter or ideally early spring
Harvest in late July or early August
Picardy Wight
Originally from the fields of Picardy, growing around the battllefields of the Somme
Copes really well with cooler and wetter conditions – will grow where other varieties have struggled
Strong flavoured bulbs which store well
Plant from October to March
Harvest July to August
Rhapsody Wight
The first true garlic of the season
Large purple bulbs with wide leafy growth
Fresh flavour – perfect for salads
Softneck variety from France
Plant: October to January
Harvest: June
Thermidrome (organic)
A traditional variety producing large heads and cloves
Very hardy so ideal even in harsh conditions
White head with a hint of pink, and white clove skins
Plant in October or November for harvest in July
A non-flowering variety which can be strung or plaited
Should keep until the December following harvesting
You can pick up your garlic bulbs from our Autumn Gathering event on Saturday 16th October from 10am to 1pm at Newsome Scout Hall. 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 event, we will offer any remaining stock afterwards. You can Join our email list for updates.
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).
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
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:
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Rocket – first early
Kestrel – second early
Sarpo Mira – main crop (Organic)
Growing Newsome 