Grounded Harvest Festival

What is Shieldfield Wheatfield?

In March, community members came together to sow grains of wheat around Shieldfield. The wheat is now ready to be harvested, threshed and ground into 10kg of flour, which will be used to bake 10 community loaves to share at the Grounded Harvest Festival. This urban-food growing project explores food sustainability and how this can bring people together to address social isolation and self-interest.


Wheat Harvest

When: Friday 14 August, 3pm

Where: SAW garden, Christ Church, Milton Place, Caring Hands, Shieldfield Growers’ gardens.

What: Keep an eye out for the wheat harvest. One day it will be standing tall and the next it will be cut for threshing and milling. We will save some of these seeds to be kept in a new Shieldfield Seedbank. We will also create a video of the threshing and milling processes and this will be made available on our Shieldfield Wheatfield page.


Cyanotype Workshop

When: Friday 11 September, 11-12.30pm and 2-3.30pm

Where: SAW garden, 1 Clarence St, NE2 1YH

What: Cyanotype is a light sensitive photography process which we’ll use to capture the beautiful silhouettes of Shieldfield’s plants, leaves and flowers. After the workshop, either keep your cyanotypes or let them be transformed into napkins, flags or bunting to use at future SAW celebrations. Cyanotype is a straightforward non-toxic process suitable for all ages (although children must be accompanied). Please feel free to bring your own leaves and flower cuttings to use – all other materials provided.

Sign up here.

Update 10 September: Unfortunately, due to changes in social distancing regulations we have made the difficult decision to cancel SAW’s cyanotype workshop.

Instead, we’ve put together a ‘Cyanotype at Home’ kit, which will include all materials and instructions to create cyanotypes in your own home.

If you have already bought a ticket for this event you will be able to pick up your kit from SAW between 11 – 11:30am 11th September (tomorrow). If you can’t make that time, we can post your kit to any UK address – simply email SAW to arrange.


Shieldfield Growers’ Showcase

We have organised a competition in order to showcase the amazing Shieldfield Growers’ talents. There are five categories:

  1. Photo of funniest veg
  2. Photo of Shieldfield
  3. Photo of the most creative thing you have made with your produce (think vegetable animals!)
  4. Poem about growing

Please email your entries to dwellbeingshieldfield@gmail.com by Friday 18th September, 5pm. You can enter as many or as few categories as you would like. Winners of each category will be announced at the Grounded Harvest Festival and will receive a prize. We hope to showcase all entries at the festival and will be in contact with you about delivery arrangements.


Preserves/pickling/using herbs demonstrations

When: Tuesday 22 September
Preserves and Pickling workshop: 10:30-12pm
Using Herbs workshop: 1:30-3pm

Where: SAW garden, 1 Clarence St, NE2 1YH

What: Join in one of our workshops looking at how we can use and save the produce grown in Shieldfield. These workshops will be led by members of the Shieldfield community who will share their skills.

Unfortunately we have had to cancel this event. We will create documentation of the processes that we would have shown in the demo and these will instead be available on our website and in the Dwellbeing newsletter that is included in the Harvest Festival Packs.


Baking Workshop

When: Friday 2 October, 10am-12pm

Where: Big River Bakery, Wretham Place

What: Join in our baking workshop to learn how to bake bread using the wheat grown in Shieldfield. All bread made in this workshop will go towards the Shieldfield Harvest Festival packs. So if you would like to taste what you have baked then I encourage you to sign up for our Shieldfield Harvest Festival Packs.

Sign up here.


Grounded Harvest Festival

When: Saturday 3 October, 11am-4pm

Where: SAW garden and around Shieldfield 

What: During lockdown we have been ‘grounded’ in our homes, and, just like the wheat that has also been grounded in the earth, we have been rooting, growing and ripening. Now the wheat grains will be ground to produce flour for baking bread. Will you come out at ground level and celebrate Shieldfield and its flourishing with us? Look out for the wheat scarecrow who may be roaming around Shieldfield on the day to help us celebrate.

Book a slot to come and spend 45 minutes in the SAW garden as part of our festivities. There will be an opportunity to chat with other people in the community, admire a showcase of the Shieldfield Growers’ produce and vote in the Shieldfield Grounded competition. Why not bring your own soft-drink to enjoy?

It is with sadness that we let you know that we have decided to cancel the in-person Harvest Festival. We do not feel that this event is in line with the new government regulations of only socialising with members of your household. You will receive a refund for this event.

 We are however still giving out Harvest Festival packs so that you can celebrate within your household and we are encouraging people to video call others with whom to celebrate. So can I encourage you, if you haven’t already, to sign up to collect a Shieldfield Harvest Festival pack below.

You can collect your very own Grounded Festival pack which you can take away and use to celebrate at home. Each pack will include a slice of Shieldfield loaf, Shieldfield Growers’ preserve, the latest newsletter from Dwellbeing, ‘Shieldfield mini Wave, an illustration, a poem and some activity ideas of how to celebrate safely. Book a slot to collect your pack here

We hope to create a map after the festival of where everyone was celebrating in Shieldfield.


Covid Guidance

We have ensured that all of our events and workshops follow the government’s Covid-19 guidelines and all our events will occur from a safe social distance. 

Expectations.

In light of the ongoing Covid situation, we expect all participants to behave in a safe and appropriate way. This includes:

  • You must book to attend an event or to collect items, so we can ensure we don’t go over our visitor capacity. If you have any difficulty doing this via Eventbrite, please get in touch with SAW or Dwellbeing staff and we will be happy to book you in.
  • Maintaining a two-metre distance from those outside your household group at all times. SAW’s indoor and outdoor spaces will be set out in a way that supports these rules.
  • Wearing a mask in indoor areas (unless you have a medical exemption)
  • Washing or sanitising your hands when you enter SAW’s premises (this includes outdoor activities)
  • Toilets will be available, but will operate a one-in one-out system
  • Do not attend if you, or anyone in your household, has any of the following symptoms: a persistent cough, temperature or loss of smell or taste
  • SAW will collect your contact details in order to support the Test & Trace system.

Grounded Harvest Festival is a collaboration between Shieldfield Art Works and Dwellbeing, as an outcome of our Covid-19 Response Programme (Shieldfield Cooks, Shieldfield Grows, Shieldfield Draws Together and Shieldfield Narrates). Dr Mikey Tomkins, an artist and researcher working in the area of urban agriculture and food sustainability, helped to instigate and develop Shieldfield Wheatfield.  Illustrator Benji Spence produced our Shieldfield Wheatfield Process posters.