The Urban Green Fair 9th September 2007. The pinnacle of the year as
it came from a miracle. Despite persistent efforts to get other groups involved we ended up with a tiny core of amazing people. Our
first project was to build a platform back home in order to construct the set on top of it. The set itself was originally going to be the
facade of a house with a roof and various technologies attached to it. With no money and a pathetic little work force I ended up personally
cobbling together some old planks. It worked a wonder.
Our first act of anarchy was to station ourselves next to the greenhouses in order
that we could attract more punters to this space. Unfortunately their lack of co-operation and snobbish nature preventing them from co-operating
fully. The most they could do was leave the gates open for the magnificent Orlando to give a talk on bees. Their reasons aren't very apparent, but
we hope to heal that rift over the year. We also set up the kids yurt where Kate Chahal made some tiny gardens out of odds and sods with children.
Again the stoic forces of Ken and Api were there painting the main set and managing the apple press, which was ongoing.
As for the set, it had my car
parked in front of it - an old Austin Allegro (all agro so they say) - parked on top of some drive-over matting. We hung various plants around the
front and back, including some unusual exotics like sweet yams, kiwi and banana. Who knows, in years to come, with climate change, all sorts of species
will be possible. Then we illustrated a mixed variety hedge, and some demonstration plots opposite. The talks I gave on home winemaking, permaculture, and
fruit tree grafting went down a treat. Elsewhere Philip drew a continuous crowd with his home-made solar cooking, and Tim attracted a few with his unusual wild
foods. These included jams etc.
Whether we have the resources next year again depends on more collaboration.