At the Sacred Arts Camp earlier this year I met an amazing horticulture, wild
edible and medicinal plants expert called Stephen Watts. He led a lively series
of "Herb Walks" during which he told us about the big "Abundance" project he has
been running successfully in the Midlands and which he wants to encourage others
to copy in other parts of the country.

The "Abundance" project joins up folks who have a surplus of garden/orchard
produce with people who would willingly help harvest it, in return for keeping
some. It is a way of making use of the vast quantities of food that gets left to
rot in gardens and orchards around the UK every year. You can read about the
successful pilot project in Sheffield
in the "Abundance Handbook" - available as a free download here:
http://www.growsheffield.com/pages/groshefhandb.html

The mission statement of the "Abundance Project" is:

"To learn a process through harvesting a product, and harvest a product through
learning a process"

Stephen will be giving a free talk and slideshow about the Abundance Project
[and how you can run your own project] at Reading International Solidarity
Center on 22nd July.
Details here: http://www.risc.org.uk/news/index.html#abundance

He is also running a seed-saving workshop at Braziers Park
[http://www.braziers.org.uk] on 23rd July which will focus on saving seeds from
edible and medicinal plants, showing you how to save your own seeds, for home
organic growing.

More on Stephen's work and associated articles and pictures can be found here:
http://www.organic-guru.co.uk


Mike