Growing to Gathering Project: Community Meal
Clare Limb, October 2026
As Autumn Harvest approached, I was nervous that our idea to ask members of Crich Parish community to donate fresh, home-grown produce was not going to come to fruition.
There had been many months of talking with community partners to invite them to grow food for the meal and we were hoping that the dry, hot summer had not killed off everyone’s crops.
As I approached St. Mary’s church on 4th October, I did so with trepidation. It genuinely had been the worst summer for growing ever. Notwithstanding, I entered the church to find my big basket laden with an amazing array of fruit and vegetables, including carrots, squash, turnip, apples, potatoes, cabbage, cauliflower and runner beans. What an abundance of freshly dug up and hand-picked food for our community meal.
On Wednesday morning a group of us met in the kitchen of the Wesley Chapel and got on with the job of preparing the produce for cooking with. Apples were peeled, cored and cooked in a pan; butternut squash was sliced and roasted in the oven; and to add to the growing amount of ingredients, Janet M had brought in lots of borlotti beans which she had shelled and pre-cooked.
We poured the cooked apple into several baking dishes and sprinkled Janet A’s pre-prepared crumble topping on to it. Linda and Jocelyn took away the roasted squash for their dishes – Sicilian Style Stew and Butternut Squash Lasagne respectively. I took the cooked Borlotti Beans and Cauliflower to make a soup with, and we divided up the rest of the produce up to make more dishes at home.
In the afternoon I popped into see the children and staff of Crich Juniors in their gardening slot. The children harvested a couple of pumpkins from the ‘no dig’ pumpkin patch that we have been working with them on, as well as a courgette, all for me to take away and cook with.
Thursday and Friday were cooking days for the Growing to Gathering Team, and our fridges were fit to burst by the end of the two days. We were ready.
On Saturday morning of the 10th of October, the Growing to Gathering team arrived at St Mary’s Church, nice and early to get our slow cookers switched on and set up.
By 12 O’clock the tables were set, the bunting was up, and the food smelled amazing! We had created a 3-course meal with side dishes; all we needed was for members of the community to turn up and enjoy it.
And they did! People of all ages came to eat the fare that we made with locally grown, chemical free food; from Courgette, Pea and Lemon Soup and Sri Lankan Style Curry to Apple and Redcurrant Crumble and Courgette and Chocolate Cake – and it all got eaten!
The appreciation of the meal was such that we collected in a total of £280 in donations on the day for the junior school to reinvest in their garden.
Thank you to everyone who got on board with this project, including Reverand Jo Honour, Linda Paul and Lynda Gray from St. Mary’s Church; Crich and Whatstandwell Allotments group, and the staff and pupils of Crich Junior School. We could not have done all this without you.
A final big thanks goes to all the volunteers from Transition Crich who made this project and the meal itself so successful.