Celebrating the Gift of Land
We have received the following report from VICKY MOLLER about the success of one more delighted community group:
Sunday 20 August was the launch and celebration of a new allotment site in Cilgerran. Two acres were leased this year by a kind landowner, so that residents can grow their own food on the edge of the village.
The owner knew it would be in good hands with Ffynnone Resilience. The group is one of the new resilience groups springing up after covid to build a green and community-based future from the ground up. Ffynnone formed in the pub of that name just before covid, and then listened to the results of a big meeting and a survey after covid, to seek more community land for Cilgerran.
Cilgerran council let them turn a patch of wilderness beyond the football pitch into a little community garden. Over three years they have steadily transformed and improved it by hand, to the fruitful haven it is today, tended by a dedicated band. The group set up Field of Beans, a community garden in Boncath and the Save the Teifi campaign. They collaborate with Grwp Resilience and other green pioneering organisations locally.
On that Sunday it seemed like the whole community turned out to eat each other’s cakes, and enjoy the flowers, songs,
and sense of achievement. The sun shone on their event so, having acquired seeds, surplus veg, a painted grandchild carrying their new made craft, nobody was in a hurry to leave. There was the choir framed by a recently completed shelter, tours of the allotments, a scything lesson where t’ai chi hip swings helped slice the long grass and maypole dancing. The allotments, started this year, are already being harvested with ten plots taken and a group sharing a larger area. Irrigation with a meter for each plot has just been installed as the solution to the challenge of watering in this dry edge of wet Wales.
It is all too rare to find land for a community to lease. The waiting list for allotments in Pembrokeshire which spiked during covid has doubled again since. The future is challenging, with darkening skies on many fronts. Sometimes working with nature to provide healthy food alongside neighbours feels like the only sane thing to do. It can help socially, physically, mentally and financially. The crowds who turned up to celebrate show that Cilgerran appreciates the expansion to its assets
