Paul has been supporting our nature conservation project ‘Urban Nature’ for 14 years, bringing with him a wealth of experience and expertise from his career. This is his story of how he came to volunteer with us, and his thoughts on nature conservation now – “In 1962, two years before I began work with the…
Dear friend, A huge thank you to all of the volunteers who support us with their skills, dedication and enthusiasm Volunteers are at the core of STAA, integral to all our delivery, and we’re so proud to celebrate their achievements this National Volunteer Week. We’ve also launched our Summer workshop programme, including planning your winter…
Yellow tomato sauce (* means it was sourced from the Nursery garden) Pasta (usually homemade from duck eggs and 00 pasta flour – but here, dried, courtesy of Aldi) Onion Garlic* Tomato puree Yellow tomatoes* String beans* Fresh loofah* Grated Italian hard cheese A few broccoli spears Pesto* Nasturtium pesto Handful of each: Nasturtium* Fresh basil (not entirely necessary – but…
All organisations have their unsung heroes, the ones rarely seen and barely known-about without whom the whole thing would fall apart. For STAA, it’s always the volunteers, and most particularly the management committee; giving up their evenings – and often a lot, lot more than that – to make sure budgets balance, procedures are adhered to and that staff are free to get on…
I moved into my house 20 years ago and enthusiastically installed my greenhouse and raised beds. Many solutions to pigeons, squirrels and other crop-raiding critters have been tried with little success. My heart fell when, after much lockdown attention, my red current and gooseberry bushes fell to the same fate, even before ripe this year!…
Ingredients 1 red onion, chopped 4cm fresh ginger, grated 2 green chillies, chopped 6 large garlic cloves, crushed 2 tbsp vegetable oil (or other mild flavoured oil) 2 tbsp mustard oil (or other flavoursome oil) 2 tsp turmeric 2 tsp cumin 2 tsp coriander 2 tsp fennel seeds 2 tsp curry powder Salt and pepper 275g chard, finely chopped…