EDIBLE LANDSCAPES LONDON is a volunteer-led project which aims to help Londoners grow more of their own food. We propagate edible plants which are then used at local growing projects. We teach people how to recognise plants, which parts are edible, how to propagate them, how they are grown in a forest garden and even how to cook with them. Our workdays (Monday and Friday) are open to anyone who has an interest in growing and eating food. Shared lunch is at 1pm.
Alongside the informal training there are many other training opportunities. From 2012 we started to offer several training days covering topics like plant identification, taxonomy, plant propagation and tool care. People can pay for their training by volunteering with us in advance, with Time Credits, with North London LETS pledges or with regular money. The courses have been very popular, most attendees so far are already fairly knowledgeable or associated with an existing growing project. The teachers have all been volunteers from the project and we are developing a good 'stock' of teachers, lessons plans, confidence and experience. We've also offered training workshops at festivals and at events, for example at the Capital Growth summer networking event. Training is our biggest source of income.
From 2013, and as part of the http://www.manorhousepact.org.uk/ project, we are offering more training and we have money to pay the trainers and the training manager. Between 2013 and 2015 we'll be offering 12 Permaculture Introductory courses, some accredited Plant Propagation Training and a new 20 week course called Creating a Forest Garden. These are all very reasonably priced and are targeted at people who live in the Manor House PACT area.
Also in 2013 we are entering into a new kind of agreement with the site managers, Metropolitan Housing, who are welcoming our input into a flatter site-management structure. This should lead to some additional opportunities that will helpfully lead to the site becoming an exciting Food Hub, which supports many social, commercial and training opportunities.

Sutton Community Farm was set up in 2010 in response to a need for local, fresh food, employment and skills. With a small team of staff and over 1,000 volunteers, we started the process of nurturing 7 acres of derelict land overlooking the London skyline back to life.

Our objectives are:

- To increase local food supply, grown sustainably;
- To create inclusive, shared spaces for the community to cultivate skills;
- To be community-led and not-for-profit;
- To achieve economic stability, supporting land-based employment

Stepney City Farm is a community based City Farm and Rural Crafts Centre in the heart of Stepney, in London’s East End. The Farm is dedicated to providing the people of London with a chance to see and learn about food growing, animal husbandry, rural crafts, and a whole host more! They have a small but very dedicated team of volunteers with many areas of interest and specialized skills ranging from Horticulture, Permaculture, Blacksmithing, Carpentry, Animal Husbandry, and more who run workshops with local people and groups, and is open to the public at weekends and Bank Holidays. They run free weekly growing sessions with the community, covering many aspects of practical permaculture. They have also begun planting a forest garden, as part of the Permaculture Association's forest garden research project.

The Meadow Orchard Project is a community group that has taken on a 29 year lease of a 1.5 acre disused site owned by the NHS behind a health centre, that is designated Metropolitan Open Land. The group have established food growing with annual and perennial beds, a polytunnel and forest garden with fruit trees, nut trees, shrubs and perennial herbs. They are protecting two-thirds of the site as wildlife conservation through managing the different habitats, such as mowing the meadow grassland twice a year, cutting back bramble scrub and transplanting saplings. They have also created a large wild-life pond and have a top-bar bee-hive.

There are plans to build an eco-hut shelter utilising local sustainable and reclaimed materials that will be a classroom and meeting/events space, as well as a warm shelter for volunteers. This will incorporate an earth oven,food prep area, outside social space with a fire circle and a picnic area. Regular courses are run on permaculture related themes such as forest gardening, introduction to permaculture, scything and natural building.

Green Peppers Community Orchard and Forest Garden is no longer open to visitors. The Green Peppers Gardening Group will no longer be working on the site but we would like to thank all those who supported the project over the years, enjoying the garden, coming along to courses or events and helping out on work days.

It used to be called Maiden Lane Permaculture Project and once was a LAND Centre.

The May Project Gardens is a 0.028 hectare plot situated in Morden, south London, and was founded with the aim to bring communities closer together through sustainable activities. The site houses several fruit and vegetable growing beds, a medium size polytunnel, and is open to all those interested in learning and/or sharing skills and knowledge in permaculture, horticulture and community development. The main aim of May Project Gardens is to bring communities closer together to act collectively. The project provides access to the tools necessary to educate communities about the issues that affect the environment and as a result the effects they have on those inhabiting the planet. May Project helps to demonstrate some of the solutions to these issues and encourages all to get involve and make a difference

This is a hidden, half acre strip of land at the back of our Alara factory site, adjacent to the high speed railway track from St Pancras Station.

We started it in 2004, working with a local youth charity called Jubilee Waterside Centre.  Since that date we have also planted, on other areas of the factory site, a vineyard and a community food growing space used by minority ethnic groups from the borough. We are also working on plans to build an anaerobic digester in partnership with another local business.  

The forest garden is very much part of our company ethos. Staff are encouraged to work in and enjoy the garden, taking time off from the production line. Local people are welcome to enjoy the space. We have wormeries and a compost bin.  We estimate that the garden has the potential to sequester about 100 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. Plants include Japanese Plum, Yew, Japanese Dogwood, Mulberry, Pineapple Guava and Pomegranate.  

Our vision for the site is to develop it as an educational space to teach people about the principals and potential of permaculture, healthy eating, food miles and the importance of food growing in tackling the issues of global warming and peak oil.  

Alara Wholefoods Ltd is a company, established 1975, that produces organic & gluten free muesli. We have a reputation for a sustainable approach to business, and won the Camden Eco Award in 2009 amongst other accolades. Our mission is to be the most sustainable food manufacturer on Earth! Our measures to reach this
aim includes financial, social and environmental.

5 paid posts and 120 volunteering opportunities will be created in food production and composting. Volunteers will be recruited from agencies supporting marginalised people living locally. As the project progresses further livelihood opportunities will develop. The project will use the food and plant production infrastructure to develop the processing, marketing and awareness raising initiatives that Organiclea has been establishing over the last 7 years (most recently as the Waltham Forest Food Hub under DEFRA's SPAN project and the current MLFW Lottery project). Training programmes will be developed in the areas of horticulture, gardening, permaculture and composting. Specific training will be targeted at adults with learning difficulties, people experiencing mental ill health, and long term unemployed as well as running accredited gardening courses as part of the Local Authority’s Lifelong Learning programme. Outcomes of the project will be jobs, food for local residents, plants for local food projects and gardeners, and training and volunteering opportunities. Beneficiaries will include: residents from economically deprived inner city areas accessing sustainably grown, local food; community food projects and local residents in N&E London accessing sustainably grown plants; residents from marginalised sections of the community gaining training and volunteering experience. Current partners involved in the project are: London Borough of Waltham Forest, Ellingham Employment Agency, Growing Communities, Hornbeam Centre, UK Food Waste, Eostre Farmer’s Cooperative, Forest Recycling, and London Food Links. Project sustainability will be secured through income from produce sales, composting and training fees. Funding will also be sought to further develop the project.