Food Skills For All

22/12/2024

That's a nice stack of cardboard ready for mulching soft and top fruit in the new year! 😊

13/07/2023

This is the size of the punnets to give an idea.

12/07/2023

Berries Galore at Pen y Bonc!
Black Currants and Gooseberries £2.40/punnet.
*Also available by the kilo £10/kg*
Please text me to arrange collection
Lisa - 07870 505198

21/06/2023

A rewarding job for the right person - please share through your contacts !

14/06/2023

We have delicious organic home-grown strawberries for sale at the moment.
£2.40 / punnet
Collection only. Monday, Wednesday or Friday are our picking days. We are very close to Tesco Bangor, so that might tie in nicely with your shopping trip.
Drop me a text on 07870 505198 if you'd like a box. 😋

31/05/2023

Many hands make light work especially when you need to turn a compost heap of this size! Thanks Sam and Will, I would not have wanted to do this on my own!

08/05/2023

It looks like this coming Wednesday is going to be a wet one. :-( But since we didn't get round to washing the outside of the polytunnel last week, this might be the golden opportunity to do that fun task! :-)
Come prepared - they say that there is no such thing as bad weather, just inadequate gear. ;-)

And here is a quick reminder about the set up just in case anyone would benefit from it:
Community volunteering days here at Pen y Bonc weekly on Wednesdays 9.30am-3.30pm. Come dressed for the weather conditions and bring your own work gloves if you can. We are offering a simple vegetarien lunch. If you have any dietary requirements, please bring your own lunch.
Come for any length of time that suits you. PM me if you need directions.
I look forward to seeing you! 🙂🙃🙂

01/05/2023

These are some of the things we did last Wednesday. 🙂 Unfortunately the outside strawberries got the frost last week 🙁 though 🙁 but the ones in the polytunnel are starting to turn red! 🙂
This Wednesday we will be doing lots of bed prep, sowing and transplanting and who knows, we might even get round to washing the polytunnel. Hope to see you (anytime between 9.30am and 3.30pm).

20/04/2023

Thanks to our volunteers who joined us yesterday! We had a great day transplanting peas, planting potatoes and sowing all sorts of other crops amongst other things. Our next volunteering day is the 26th and we'll be giving our fruit trees and bushes a bit of tlc as well as doing more planting and sowing. 🍎🍐🥕🫐

We are starting community volunteering days here at Pen y Bonc weekly on Wednesdays 9.30am-3.30pm from next Wednesday (19th April). This is an opportunity to dip in your toes and find out what's involved in growing your own food as well as meeting like minded people. No previous experience necessary but come dressed appropriately for the weather conditions and bring your own work gloves if you can. We are offering a simple vegetarien lunch. If you have any dietary requirements, please bring your own lunch and you can still join in the conviviality.
Come for any length of time that suits you. PM me for directions.
I look forward to seeing you! 🙂🙃🙂

12/04/2023

We are starting community volunteering days here at Pen y Bonc weekly on Wednesdays 9.30am-3.30pm from next Wednesday (19th April). This is an opportunity to dip in your toes and find out what's involved in growing your own food as well as meeting like minded people. No previous experience necessary but come dressed appropriately for the weather conditions and bring your own work gloves if you can. We are offering a simple vegetarien lunch. If you have any dietary requirements, please bring your own lunch and you can still join in the conviviality.
Come for any length of time that suits you. PM me for directions.
I look forward to seeing you! 🙂🙃🙂

23/02/2023

There are quite a few misconceptions out there about bees and beekeeping. In the media the slogan 'Save the bees' is often followed by unclear messaging as to which bees are being refered to which causes confusion because there are significant differences between honeybees, solitary bees and bumble bees. Honeybees were under threat some 20 years ago but are luckily no longer endangered, so in order to 'save the bees' you don't need to become a beekeeper.
Another very common misconception is that if you want to keep honeybees 'naturally' you need to use a different type of beehive than what Jo Bloggs nextdoor is using because he is a 'traditional' beekeeper, not a natural one. It is what you do and don't do as a beekeeper that determines if you are keeping the bees 'naturally', not the container you keep them in.
On this comprehensive beekeeping course you will learn how to keep honeybees sympathetically and how to work with their natural rhythms and patterns in a way that is manageable and enjoyable for you and you will get lots of opportunity to see inside beehives to learn to read what's going on and if you need to do anything to support the colony or not. So you will become familiar with the bees and how the colony changes through the season and gain the confidence to take on your own honeybee colony. To facilitate this, the four sessions after the theory day will be held at our smallholding and be very hands on. All protective equipment will be provided.