Celebrate our green and pleasant land (From The Argus)

Celebrate our green and pleasant land

12:00pm Wednesday 25th July 2012 in Celebrating Sussex By Nione Meakin

* HAPPY birthday to Magpie Recycling which celebrated
its 20th anniversary last weekend.
After starting life as a workers’ cooperative and going on
to offer one of the first kerbside recycling services in the
UK, Magpie has grown into a self-sustaining business at
the heart of much of Brighton and Hove’s recycling work.
Operating from Shabitat, off the Lewes Road in Saunders
Park, Magpie collects and recycles household and events
waste, furniture and clothing. Items in good condition
are sold at Shabitat – where a flat can be kitted out
for under £200 – or given away through the Homeless
Furniture Project, which aims to provide basic
items for people recently housed by the council.
In addition to Greenbox, its original kerbside recycling
collection – which, it boasts, continues to collect
more materials than the council-run scheme – Magpie
has recently started collecting waste electrical and
electronic equipment, with the aim of reducing landfill.
Items are refurbished where possible or recycled.
Magpie will even come to your house to collect for
just £10, using the converted electric milk floats with
which they started Greenbox.

For more information about Magpie or Shabitat, visit
www.magpie.coop.

* FORGET blackened bangers and undercooked burgers,
learn how to cook properly in the great outdoors
at Wilderness Wood, where chef and food writer
Manju Malhi is today (Saturday, July 21) hosting
a Woodfood course.
Malhi, known for her fresh take on Anglo-Asian cooking,
will teach the basics of preparing a delicious three-course
meal with very limited resources before everyone
sits down to eat in Wilderness Wood.
The demonstration will include making the most effective
fire for cooking; using
a Dutch Oven and cooking
rice in a Wonder Bag.
Recipes, which will be
influenced by produce
available locally, could
include fondues, Indian
curries or risotto.
The course, which is suitable
for beginners to confident
cooks, runs from 11am-3pm
and is £110 per person.

For more information, visit
www.wildernesswood.co.uk.

* STILL taking your bike to be professionally repaired?
Head to the Harveys Depot at Lewes Station today
(Saturday, July 21) to find out how to maintain
it yourself.
Lewes Junior Film Club are running a free bicycle
maintenance day from 10am where cyclists of
all ages can learn how to maintain their bikes
and carry out repairs.
The event is supported by local groups including
Cycle Lewes and Sussex Birds on Bikes and will
also feature a bike jumble for people to sell parts.

* WITH the aim of capturing the essence of a good village
pub and replicating it outdoors, the Campfire Weekends
scheme is being piloted in Crowburgh, East Sussex
before, organisers hope, it is rolled out nationally.
Based at Green Hedges Farm, Mark Cross, Campfire
Weekends offers green space for up to 60 campers to pitch.
In part of the site there is a communal area comprising
pub-style garden benches arranged around a campfire
where people can cook. Private campfires are also permitted,
on specially designed wood-burning grates. Facilities are
basic and environmentally friendly, with sawdust toilets
and bucket showers that employ watering cans.
Campfire Weekends sets out to provide a network of
high-quality, low-density sites in remote rural locations
across the country. Sites will only be open at
weekends and will have a lower age limit of 21

From £12 per person per night.
Visit www.campfireweekends.co.uk

*HOW much do you love recycling? Enough
to spend a day doing it? The Green
Centre, on Manor Hill Brighton,
holds its annual Recycling
Bonanza next Sunday.
Bring along anything from
art materials to zips,
thimbles, knickers,
make-up, foreign
currency, cutlery, CDs
and Wellington boots –
you name it, they
can recycle it. The
event also includes
activities, games,
demonstrations,
music and food.
It runs from 11am to
3pm and entry is free.
For more information,
visit their website,
www.thegreencentre.co.uk
 

WHETHER it’s to
learn more about
organic food production,
permaculture and green
woodworking, or just
to have a nose around
the Brighton Earthship,
make your way to Stanmer
Park on Sunday for a rare
glimpse behind the gates
of Stanmer Organics.
Situated on 17 acres of land
towards the back of Stanmer Park,
Stanmer Organics is a not-for-profit
cooperative consortium that acts as an
umbrella for a range of crafts and trades that all share a commitment
to environmental protection and improvement.
Among the activities it promotes are wildlife habitat creation,
culinary and medicinal herb use, growing trees and wildflowers
for conservation planting, permaculture, renewable technology,
yurt-making and stone-carving.
Stanmer Organics is also home to Europe’s original Earthship,
a pioneering building built from waste materials as a community
centre to show visitors the uses and benefits of a modern eco-build.
Tours and demonstrations will take place throughout the open
day and Stanmer Organics produce, including plants, herbs,
trees and fruit,
will be on sale.
The open day
takes place from
noon to 6pm
and entry is free.
Visitors are
encouraged to use
public transport as
parking is limited.
 

For more
information, call
07713 628073.