Big Plant Swap – Saturday 18th May 2024

Big Plant Swap

Saturday 18th May 2024
10am to 1pm

Free admission – all welcome

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

Plant Swap

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 in exchange for your plants.

We also accept donations of plants ahead of the event – please email us if you have something to share: growingnewsome@gmail.com

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Lots more to enjoy…

Stalls, including local produce on sale.

Seed Swap – vegetables and other seeds to swap or buy.

Plant some seeds to grow on your windowsill.

Craft Corner for children.

Tea, coffee and homemade cakes.

Information about growing your own food.

Crop protection materials on sale.

Find out about local projects and events.

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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.

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Help out with our Big Plant Swap

Volunteer
We’re looking for more volunteers to help out with the event. Can you help with our stalls on the day, or can you bake a cake? Expenses happily provided. Please contact us at growingnewsome@gmail.com if you’d like to help out.

Print our poster
Help us to promote the event:
Big Plant Swap poster 2024 (PDF)

Stalls & info

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

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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.

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Garlic bulbs available in 2023

Our Autumn planting vegetables this year will include seven different varieties of garlic. Pick up your garlic from our Autumn event on Saturday 21st 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…

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Carcassone Wight

• Exceptional hardneck garlic with pink cloves
• Great strength of flavour
• Good skin cover
• Has great vigour in the UK climate
• Can be planted in autumn or spring
• This variety was probably brought to Carcassonne by pilgrims travelling east

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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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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

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Maddock Wight

• Excellent all round softneck garlic with large cloves. 
• Large fat white bulbs with purple stripes.
• Premium Iberian garlic, from south west Spain.
• Grows well in the UK and was probably grown here by the Romans.
• Purple when grown close to the surface.
• Best planted October to December.

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Picardy Wight

• Originally from the fields of Picardy, growing around the battllefields of the Somme
• Hardneck variety which 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

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Printanor (organic)

• A French heirloom softneck variety.
• Excellent taste and stores well.
• White bulbs – the cloves have a pink blush.
• Suitable for planting in the autumn.
• Can also be planted from January to March for a July harvest.

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Thermidrome (organic)

• A traditional variety producing large white heads with a hint of pink, and large white cloves
• Very hardy so ideal even in harsh conditions
• A non-flowering, softneck variety which can be strung or plaited
• Plant in October or November
• Harvest in July – the bulbs should then keep until the December following harvesting

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You can pick up your garlic bulbs from our Autumn event on Saturday 21st October from 10am to 1pm at Newsome Scout Hall.

If you have a small garden or plot, getting your garlic from us means that 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).

Although seed costs have increased again considerably for us this year, we’re keeping our prices at just £2 per bulb, to help cover some of our costs whilst supporting local growers.

We’ll have several varieties of onions, some shallots, vegetable seeds and plants available 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.

Autumn event – Saturday 21st October 2023

Love local food? There’s lots for you to enjoy at this event…

Autumn event

Saturday 21st October 2023
10am to 1pm

Newsome Scout Hall
Newsome Road South
Huddersfield HD4 6JJ

Get together with other food growers, neighbours and friends.

Autumn-planting vegetables to grow at home or on your allotment.

Tea, coffee and homemade cakes available.

Lots of jam and preserves made from fruit and vegetables grown in Newsome

---

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 seeds and plants you’d like us to have available in 2023.

Garlic bulbs available at our Autumn event

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Meet our guest local organisations including:

Huddersfield Raw Honey – with local honey on sale.

Yorkshire Dama Cheese – with Squeaky cheese on sale

Growing Works – who are helping out on the day.

And there’s more to enjoy from Growing Newsome:

Book stall with all sorts of books.

Children’s craft activities.

Information about local events, activities and volunteering.

Look after your winter crops – plant protection fleece on sale.

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 (8oz, 120z or 1lb) that fit a 63mm lid are welcome.

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Hot homegrown lunch: served from 12 noon to 1pm

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 local fruit.

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Newsome Voices

This summer the Newsome Voices team asked you to share your experiences of life in Newsome and your hopes for the future of our area. This included thinking about our climate, our wildlife and green spaces, our local heritage, our voice and influence, and our connections with each other. Over 300 people have taken part. Come along to our Autumn Event to get a first look at the results and find out how you can get involved in what happens next.

Newsome Voices – part of Local Democracy Week 2023 in Kirklees.

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How you can help

• Bring something for the cake stall.
• Display our poster:
  Autumn event 2023 poster (PDF)
• Bring along the rest of the family or bring a friend.
• We’re looking for volunteers.
  Please get in touch if you’d like to help.

Organised by Growing Newsome

Local organisations who are interested in taking part in our events are welcome to contact us.

Big Plant Swap – Saturday 20th May 2023

Big Plant Swap

Saturday 20th May 2023
10am to 1pm

Free admission – all welcome

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

Plant Swap

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 in exchange for your plants.

We also accept donations of plants ahead of the event – please email us if you have something to share: growingnewsome@gmail.com

---

Lots more to enjoy…

Stalls, including local produce on sale.

Huddersfield Raw Honey.

Seed Swap – vegetables and other seeds to swap or buy.

Children’s craft activities.

Plant some seeds to grow on your windowsill.

Tea, coffee and homemade cakes.

Information about growing your own food.

Crop protection materials on sale.

Find out about local projects and events.

---

Supporting the Newsome Centre

Any cash donations we receive for plants at this event will be contributed to the Newsome Centre crowdfunder. A newly formed Community Benefit Society have some exciting plans to set up a new Community Centre, Cafe & Event Space in the former St John’s Church in Newsome village, By donating, you can help to buy the building for our local community, which will create new possibilities for our food growing community.

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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.

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Take part in Newsome Voices

Newsome Voices is an opportunity to share your experiences and ideas about life in Newsome, and to say what you hope Newsome will be like in the future. Launching at our Big Plant Swap, it’s a month of local conversations. You can take part on the day or take some information away with you and then take part either online, by completing a paper questionnaire, or by talking with any of the Newsome Voices team from 20th May to 20th June. Anyone who lives or works in Newsome, or who visits the area, is welcome to join in. The results will be used to create an action plan for our area.

Newsome Voices is organised by the Newsome Centre and our Newsome councillors.
It is funded by Kirklees Council.

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Help out with our Big Plant Swap

Volunteer
We’re looking for more volunteers to help out with the event. Can you help with our stalls or refreshments on the day, or can you bake a cake or two? Please contact us at growingnewsome@gmail.com if you’d like to help out.

Print our poster
Help us to promote the event:
Big Plant Swap poster 2023 (PDF)

Stalls & info

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.

---

Seed potatoes for sale – free to local schools – March 2023

If you missed out on our recent Potato Day, we still have some varieties of seed potato available for you.

For food growers – Seed potatoes for sale at £2 per dozen (mix and match).

For local schools – Seed potatoes available free of charge. Please let us know how many you’d like. Varieties will depend on what we still have most available of, but please let us know if you have any preference.

All seed potatoes are for collection from Newsome village in March 2023.

This list was last updated on 29th March at 2pm

Sorry, we’re sold out until 2024 now

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First earlies

Colleen – Organic  0 remaining
Very high yielding. Ideal for boiled potatoes.

Lady Christl  – 0 remaining
New potato flavour. Good for garden growing – suits a sheltered site.

Maris Bard (Organic)  0 remaining
Smooth skinned, delicious when boiled or steamed. Has been successful for growers in Newsome.

Sharpe’s Express  0 remaining
This was TV gardener Percy Thrower’s favourite. Cooks well (but boil with care).

Winston  0 remaining
One of the first bakers of the season. Produces good baking size potatoes.

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Second earlies

Bambino – Organic  0 remaining
Lovely salad potatoes with a smooth, light waxy texture.

Nicola – Organic  0 remaining
Small, firm, waxy potatoes. Good for salads, boiling or potato wedges.

Ratte  0 remaining
Classic French variety. Long, curved tubers with yellow flesh. Has a distinctive chestnut flavour.

Sarpo Una – Organic  0 remaining
Nice waxy, pink-skinned salad potatoes. Perfect to grow in pots or sacks. Good resistance to diseases.

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Main crops

Ambo – Organic  0 remaining
Attractive, white-skinned tubers with a splash of red. White creamy flesh. High yielding.

Belle de Fontenay  0 remaining
A classic French heritage potato. Great for salads. Long, slightly curved tubers.

Carolous – Organic  0 remaining
Oval pale yellow tubers with red eyes. Very suitable for boiling, mashing or roasting.

Heidi Red – Organic  0 remaining
German speciality variety with bright red skin and flesh. Has a slightly buttery taste.

International Kidney  0 remaining
A classic. Sold by Jersey growers under the trademark Jersey Royals.

Orla – Organic  0 remaining
Delicious boiled or steamed, Can be grown as an early or left in the ground longer to bulk up.

Picasso  0 remaining
Waxy fleshed, creamy oval tubers with rosy pink eyes. Perfect for boiling and mashing.

Pink Fir Apple  0 remaining
Very knobbly tubers that should be cooked whole in their skins. Delicious served hot or cold.

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How to order

Please email:
growingnewsome@gmail.com
if you’d like some.

First come, first served!

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Spring seed sowing and growing workshops 2023

Spring seed sowing and growing workshops

Venue: Ashenhurst Avenue Allotments

Join in this series of informal growing workshops, designed to give you confidence to grow your own food from seed, with your available time and energy.

Wednesday mornings from 10am to 12 noon

• 22nd March – Seed sowing and perennials propagation, including
  growing mediums.
• 29th March – Frost protection, pest control, temperature and watering
  tips for strong seedlings.
• 19th April – Bed preparation composting and general maintenance.
• 26th April – Pricking out, potting on and more tips for strong seedlings.

Combining theory with practical hands-on growing, we will look at the best use of growing space 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 uneven ground). Notebook useful. Tea provided – please bring a mug!

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Book your free place

These activities are funded by Growing Newsome. Places are limited and booking is essential.

Book online now:

Book your free place for our Wednesday sessions

Questions? Contact us…

Contact Sue Brown: 07444 390071
or email: sue.brown@greenandbrown.org.uk

Spring seed sowing and growing leaflet (PDF)

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Looking for something different?

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).

Email us at: GrowingNewsome@gmail.com

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Autumn event – Saturday 29th October 2022

Love local food? There’s lots for you to enjoy at this event…

Autumn event

Saturday 29th October 2022
10am to 1pm

Newsome Scout Hall
Newsome Road South
Huddersfield HD4 6JJ

Get together with other food growers, neighbours and friends.

Autumn-planting vegetables to grow at home or on your allotment.

Tea, coffee and homemade cakes available.

Lots of jam and preserves made from fruit and vegetables grown in Newsome

---

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 seeds and plants you’d like us to have available in 2023.

Garlic bulbs available at our Autumn event 2022

---

Meet local organisations including Huddersfield Raw Honey – with local honey available to buy.

Book stall with all sorts of books.

Children’s craft activities.

Information about local volunteering, events and activities.

Look after your winter crops – plant protection fleece on sale.

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.

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Wild Plant Walk, 10.30am to 12 noon – now on Saturday 29th October

Find out how to use and identify wild plants, what you can eat and what plants you can use for health benefits. This walk is organised by our friends at Growing Works, who will also have a stall at our event.

Wild Plant Walk leaflet (PDF)

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Hot homegrown lunch: served from 12 noon to 1pm

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 local fruit.

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Share what you love about nature

What do you and your family love about nature? On the day you can take part in the UK’s biggest ever conversation about the future of nature by adding something to a special tree. You’ll be helping to shape the People’s Plan for Nature, powered by WWF, the National Trust and the RSPB.

Part of Local Democracy Week 2022 in Kirklees.

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How you can help

• Bring something for the cake stall.
• Bring along the rest of the family or bring a friend.
• Please get in touch if you’d like to come along and help out on the day.

Organised by Growing Newsome

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We’re really sorry for the short notice, but due to an unexpected issue with our venue’s roof we’re having to change the date of our Autumn event (which was originally planned for 22nd October). Thank you for your patience.

Local organisations who are interested in taking part in our events are welcome to contact us.

Remembering David Browning 1939-2022

David’s 80th birthday, June 2019

I had the great fortune to meet David when he moved to the Newsome area and joined our community forum. He brought all his learning and decades of food growing experience with him. Always keen to help others and generous with his time and expertise, David quickly embarked on a tour of allotment sites, keen to investigate why local people were struggling to find an allotment, despite there being plots available “on paper”. His belief in seeing things for yourself and taking the time to understand how things really are for people is something that helped to shape Growing Newsome.

We first started working together through our shared interest in local land for food growing and wildlife. Through David’s contacts, we were able to work with Steve and Kate’s wonderful research company, who supported us to go out and ask hundreds of local people whether they wanted to grow their own food, and what might help them. The results were overwhelmingly positive – and three weeks after hearing those results, we held our first Growing Newsome event.

David at our first ever Growing Newsome event, May 2009

This was the beginning of a decade of working with David. In that time, we learned that we were growing far more than food – we were growing friendships and a shared sense of belonging. And David was a real friend throughout it all. Despite having worked on so many other projects, we knew that he really valued the work we were doing in our local neighbourhood and he encouraged us to share our learning with other groups and organisations. He was always looking ahead and was a great strategic thinker. But he also had a huge amount of practical knowledge and skills, which he was generous in sharing. He helped us to build growing frames at our community allotment and helped lots of others to build raised beds for growing food.

David helping to set up our Community Allotment, 2010

Each October he would run the garlic stall at our Autumn event in Newsome Scout Hall, using his encyclopaedic understanding of the different varieties and growing techniques to help people choose well. When discussing the health benefits of Growing Newsome in a workshop one day, he joked that he was sure we’d collectively lowered the blood pressure of half of Newsome by the sheer amount of garlic that we’d given out and encouraged people to grow over the years.

David with my mum and Cherry on our stall at Stirley Farm, 2011

The crops that David grew at his own allotment were as abundant as his knowledge. Once a year, we’d get a message saying that he was overrun with fruit and please could we come and pick some to help him out (though of course, he was really helping us). We were amazed by the huge crop of loganberries, the unfeasibly enormous blackcurrants, and the seemingly never-ending supply of berries from what came to be known as “David’s infinite gooseberry bush”.

We started Growing Newsome together in the belief that we all have something to share – that between us, we have everything we need to grow our own food. David was a great example of that. He shared so much with us over the years, and with me personally. More than once I would come home to find a little packet on my doormat which contained a wonderful book that I had not ordered, only later to discover that David had thoughtfully sent me a copy because he thought I might find it useful. I suspect that he quietly helped lots of people in similar ways, building people’s confidence and making sure that we knew how to do things ourselves, so that we could support other people in future.

David with me & a visitor at our Community Allotment, July 2015

This summer, we had a particularly good crop of loganberries and gooseberries at our community allotment. It made me think of David and remember the happy afternoons spent picking masses of fruit at his immaculately kept allotment, harvesting the fruits of his labour for people in our community to enjoy.

Diane, Growing Newsome

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You might also like to read this tribute from David’s friend Ali Stopher:

Celebrating the Life of David Browning

Garlic bulbs available in 2022

Our Autumn planting vegetables this year will include seven different varieties of garlic. Pick up your garlic from our Autumn event on Saturday 29th 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…

---

Carcassone Wight

• Exceptional hardneck garlic with pink cloves
• Great strength of flavour
• Good skin cover
• Has great vigour in the UK climate
• Can be planted in autumn or spring
• This variety was probably brought to Carcassonne by pilgrims travelling east

---

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

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Messidor (organic)

• A new, very attractive white variety
• Produces very high yields
• Strong roots – an excellent choice for our wet British winters 
• Harvest semi-dry from June
• Has 10-15 beige cloves per bulb
• Softneck variety with a rounded flavour

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Picardy Wight

• Originally from the fields of Picardy, growing around the battllefields of the Somme
• Hardneck variety which 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

---

Thermidrome (organic)

• A traditional variety producing large white heads with a hint of pink, and large white cloves
• Very hardy so ideal even in harsh conditions
• A non-flowering, softneck variety which can be strung or plaited
• Plant in October or November
• Harvest in July – the bulbs should then keep until the December following harvesting

---

You can pick up your garlic bulbs from our Autumn event on Saturday 29th October from 10am to 1pm at Newsome Scout Hall.

If you have a small garden or plot, getting your garlic from us means that 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). Although seed costs have increased for us this year, we’re keeping our prices at just £2 per bulb (which helps towards covering our costs).

We’ll have several varieties of onions, some shallots, vegetable seeds and plants available 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.

Getting (back) into growing – workshops in July 2022

Getting (back) into growing your own food

Venue: Hangingstone Road, Berry Brow

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.

Book online now:

Book your free place for our Tuesday evening sessions

Questions? Contact us…

Contact Sue Brown: 07444 390071
or email: sue.brown@greenandbrown.org.uk

Getting (back) into growing leaflet (PDF)

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Looking for something different?

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:

How can we help you to grow this year?