Visiting the Hop Garden

It is now nearly 5 years since I gave up my PAYE existence to spend my time growing my own food and being self-sufficient. I'm always on the outlook for events near to where I live which can help keep us self-sufficient.

The Hop Garden is a community project in High Spen, a village in western Gateshead and only a few km from where I live. Yesterday they hosted a seed and plant swap event. I did not have time to sort seeds for swapping so I took some of our eggs instead - duck, hen and quail. In the world of self-sufficiency, eggs are like currency. Forget pounds, euros and dollars. My wallet was an egg box!



The end result was I got a load of tomato plants, some herbs and rhubarb. I also discovered they have a brick, outdoor oven. I am due to speak at a local history society in October on medieval foods. I'm hoping to use the oven therefore for some medieval bread and baking sessions.



A few shots around the Hop Garden:





I didn't get to use it but here is the compost toilet:



So, well worth a visit and I hope to be doing some more bartering there in the months ahead.