Waterside Foraging – East End Jam.
“On Saturday 25th September I led a foraging walk and jam making workshop from a base at the Clockhouse Community Centre in Woolwich. Several participants had seen posters for the event up in the community centre over the previous weeks, and several more had found out about the workshop through the Hydracity exhibition at Thames Side gallery.
We undertook a short walk in the morning along the river side and through Moore Park. Two of the walk participants were local residents who had extensive knowledge of the neighbourhood and shared their stories of walking the river path as an activity that had kept them going during lockdown. One of the participants had ‘guerrilla’ gardened a patch of ground near the riverside, and she took the group to see what she had created. Another told us that she had recently seen apples nearby, and took us to find the tree so that we could pick some for our workshop.
Two of the participants were inspired to start thinking about what walks they might offer – and agreed to discuss with Clockhouse how they might start a do-it-yourself walking tour group.
We returned to Clockhouse garden with rosehips, plums, apples, blackberries and rowan, and were also given sloes and rhubarb grown/gathered locally.
We set up a pop-up kitchen in the garden with a fruit preparation area and a cooking area. We looked through the fruit that we’d picked, washing and weighing it, and together decided that we’d make a jelly and a jam.
More participants joined us as we went into the afternoon, with some coming to watch what we were doing and find out about the local fruits – and others joining in with the food prep and cooking. Many of the people who came had a link to the community centre – and almost all commented that they had not been able to access the garden before.
We were able to draw on expertise and experience of the participants as they shared stories of their own connections to walking, cooking and picking fruit, and to growing and gardening. Visitors included managers from the community centre, local councillors, council staff and even a TV crew from Hong Kong! The participants reflected the diversity of Woolwich in every way, in ethnicity, age, disabled and non-disabled.
By the end of the day we had produced 45 jars of jam and jelly which we shared amongst the participants and with people who were taking part in the community day at Clockhouse.
Clare Qualmann (October 2021)
