Castle Garden Spring 2012

pear blossom

It has been a very eventful Spring in the Castle Garden, started with a hot weather, then news of droughts then very very wet weather for several weeks which washed out some tadpoles out of our pond and more than doubled our snail population!! (and ate many of my seedlings, I wasn't happy, and I won't tell you what I did with them when I caught them in the act). We still battled on in between the wet days and built 4 new raised beds, with sleepers to act as benches at the end of them. Barry carried about 7 of them across the garden on his shoulder (I'm sure they weigh about 100kg). However he did afterwards take a rest on one of the sleepers to test it out.

our pond's  first tadpoles

our pond

strong barry

 

barefoot gardening

We started to record our harvests this year, and up until end of April, we harvested about 75 kg of produce for the cafe kitchen. We have been self sufficient on green leaf salads, chard and rhubarb so far. Since March, Jack, one of our cooks has been harvesting 2-3kg of rhubarb each week and making crumbles and cakes. We've been forcing rhubarb again, and they come out this beautiful bright pink and yellow colour. Shame the leaves are poisonous!

This year we have Nick regularly working in the garden to create more herb gardens and supply the cafe and kitchen with herbs for teas and culinary herbs for the cooked dishes. He started tea club on Thursdays for anyone who wants to help him and learn. The cafe has been supplied with fresh herbs since the start of Spring, and now he's also busy drying herbs for our winter supply.

Over winter we made some balms with the beeswax made from our hives and other hackney hives, and with herbs from our garden. They sold really well in the Castle shop! We made "extreme lips" and "outdoor hands" with calendula, plantain and comfrey from our garden. All with properties that do wonders for state climbers hands get in!

Jack harvesting rhubarb

rhubarb on menu every week in Spring!

Nick harvesting herbs for the cafe

Caste selling fresh herb teas from our garden; mint, fennel, and lemon balm

 Coming up next in the garden.... Our bees swarmed and this time we will have our top bar hive and warre hive put into place for them to demonstrate natural beekeeping. Plus in July we will be building our cob oven ready for the garden party. Look out later this summer for pizzas!

Sustainable City Awards

Following on from Efua’s previous post regarding our award wins, I thought we should provide a bit more information about the work we’ve been doing in the Centre which gave rise to, not only the 2 awards we won but also another 2 we were shortlisted for, for which we received certificates.

On the 1st march 5 staff and volunteers from The Castle Climbing Centre donned their posh threads and attended the Sustainable City Awards. At a packed ceremony at the Lord Mayor of the City of London’s residence, Mansion House, we were delighted to receive not just one award but two!

This seemed even more remarkable when we found out the awards received in excess of 300 applications in its 11th year of running. The awards, one for Sustainable Building and one for Sustainable Procurement, were presented by Raymond Blanc (who champions sustainable fish) and Simon Mills (Head of Sustainability at the City of London Corporation).

In Simon Mills’ opening speech he said “this evening honours the efforts of organisations, both large and small who are at the leading edge of sustainability. Despite the economic challenges the country faces we have received a record number of applications- this is representative of a fundamental truth, that during tough economic times, it is the organisations which focus on resource efficiency, supply chain value and innovation which will best weather the storm. Sustainability is not an optional extra, to be discarded when the chill winds of the recession begin to blow. It is an essential shield which can protect businesses, and give them a spring board for growth as the economy begins to thaw. It is you, Ladies and Gentlemen, not politicians, who lead this country out of recession and I salute you”.

In the last 3 years the Castle Climbing Centre has been working tirelessly in our efforts to become a sustainable business, reducing our carbon footprint and increasing our environmental performance.

The building has undergone numerous environmental refurbishments, which the customers may not see, but include 2 new builds; a training room and offices completed using ecological building methods including insulation, natural ventilation, natural light and low energy heating systems.

Our main investment continues to be in Research and Development with plans to convert our site into a low energy building - looking at how we can further develop our climbing areas whilst making our Victorian building as energy efficient as possible.

Since 2009 we’ve made some substantial changes to our procurement code, prioritising the sourcing of sustainable products in all areas of the business. Purchasing decisions not only affect the performance of the Castle and the staff doing the purchasing, but sends a wider message down our supply chains, influencing their behaviour too. It is a diverse range of goods, works and services which are affected, such as the purchase of climbing holds, shop merchandise, staff uniforms, stationary, garden plants and cafe groceries.

The one area that has most obviously undergone huge change has been the development of the 1 acre of green space at the back of the centre into a market garden which now provides fresh, organic produce, not only for our own cafe but for Hackney’s Growing Communities, local businesses and the local community.

The Castle Climbing Centre continues to work hard to develop the centre as a premier indoor climbing venue, but not at the expense of the environment.

A copy of our new development plans for the Castle can be viewed at Reception.