Sunday 27th June : Buds & Buds Summer Event

Despite the football there was a grand turnout at the Summer Event to celebrate The Year of Biodiversity.

Everyone enjoyed the sweltering heat with lemonade and a vegetarian barbecue executed with the usual Lost Plot style - cooked in a reclaimed sink barbecue for that recycled authenticity! All those who glugged down lemonade used their cups to plant wild flowers for their own gardens to attract those all important bees and butterflies. Meanwhile the kids got to have there face painted with different insects in an array of colours and enjoyed the wildlife pond that's teaming with bugs now it's more established. There were plenty of water boatman, newts and a dragonfly even made a brief visit to check out all the fuss!

Tours of the allotment seemed to get some great feedback especially from those people who had attended the spring event and were now seeing all the volunteers hard work pay off.



It was an all round brilliant day, finished off with Sarah's amazing strawberry cream cake. Wow!

May 25th - Nell Lane Wild Food Hunt with Jesper Launder

On Tuesday 25th May 2010, local herbalist and wild food expert Jesper Launder led a group of volunteers from The Lost Plot Allomtent Project & local residents of Nell Lane estate on a forage around Chortlon Water Park and the River Mersey. The group learned to identify a range of edible foods as well as the odd medicinal herb and then a feast was prepared within the park from all the foods forgaed.

Jesper, a qualified medicinal herbalist and food forager for over five years, was full of enthusiasm and relentless knowledge about the uses of plants. He was keen and patient with the group and his love of his subject encouraged the paticpants to trial leaves, herbs and roots such as the pungent and fiery horseraddish found directly on the River Mersey. There were a few odd stares from passers by when a few particpants took on the challenge to pick a nettle by hand, roll and eat the stinging leaf. It was an invigorating experience, if not a little nerve racking! Overall it seemed to be the children were most excited during the hunt. They were willing to give anything a go.

The feast included assorted tepura -using a light batter to coat rapseed flowers (which taste like brocoli) and cumphrey leaves - and St. Geroges mushrooms which were actually foraged earlier in the day from Chorlton Ees.