ZINE WORKSHOP

At the September Global Gardens supper we had a workshop on zines. But to kick off, we started with a practical task - stuffing vine leaves with rice for dolma! Vaida had harvested some vine leaves from the garden, thought to have originated from the Italian farmer who was one of the plots previous tenants. Alice then blanched the leaves for 5 minutes and pre-prepared a rice mix, participants were invited to stuff the leaves. These were then put to boil for around 50 minutes.

A zine is a kind of DIY publication usually made by a small group or even one person. Our hope is to create a Global Gardens zine - gathering reflections and responses to the topics covered in the 'Seeds and Spores' Grow Wild workshops and the plants, fungi and creatures in the garden. Rosie Brown, local zine-pro introduced the concept of a zine, shared some examples and invited people to contribute to a Global Gardens zine or make their own personal zine. Then people got to work...

Folks got stuck in and there was an atmosphere of focus. People still carried on zine-ing even when the food was ready ... until they saw the tasty offering! We took a little break to feast upon the dolma, salsa and roasted giant squash harvested from the garden. Chris Fowler, local seed-saver thinks the huge squash is a Gete Okosomin x Hokkaido cross and has asked us to save the seeds.

By the end of the night we had a wide range of contributions from sketches of fungi and flowers to odes to bindweed to birds and ads for Good Gym.

Thanks to all who came along and contributed. There is still time to contribute if you would like - just email your scanned contribution by the 18th September to soilandclay@gmail.com or drop it to the Embassy.

This event was supported by Grow Wild.