Incredible Edible Lambeth are walking each of our routes twice this summer to show the seasonality of green spaces and growing places and this was the first of the Brixton walks. Our Brixton walk took place on Wednesday 11th June, led by two qualified tour guides. Our exploration of the green spaces and growing places of Brixton started at Wyck Forest Garden in the heart of the Loughborough Estate, just metres from the traffic of Coldharbour Lane.
This route surprises people hugely with the wealth of green spaces and community projects they wouldn’t have known about without these free walks offered by Incredible Edible Lambeth. It was a real mix of ages with the walkers. The youngest was a month shy of her second birthday, the oldest close to his eightieth. Within five minutes this group of all ages and cultures had found common ground in fruit.
They sampled a few mulberries from the tree at Wyck Forest Garden describing their knowledge of mulberry recipes or the uses of the tree from South Asia, Italy, Brazil and Scandinavia. They loved the fluffy furry feel of the budding quinces and some of the native fruits to Britain and were excited to return in autumn to harvest plums and apples or join some of the events like the annual Apple Day.
They loved the mixture of Loughborough Farm’s shared space with the charity shop, cinema and coffee roastery and how the Platform Café links the Farm and Forest Garden through their food.
At Myatt’s Fields they fell in love with this Grade II listed park because who doesn’t? It’s a true gem of the borough. The fruit connected them again with the toddler spotting the Edible Hedge of redcurrants, white currants and blackcurrants. A quick explainer about safe foraging and there was a little more sampling. The blackcurrants need more time to ripen so several of the group plan to do the second walk to taste fully!
We concluded our walk at Eyethorne Park and on a walk of high points, they adored the high point of view to the Southbank from the raised grass field there. And in true Incredible Edible style, the connection continued with new friends visiting the Home Grown Café beneath and arranging which walks they’d meet up on again.
One walker left for home in West London again full of fruit and homemade food and saying he hadn’t expected the walk to be actually edible or that Lambeth would be the most incredibly friendly borough he’s been. He has booked three more walks and hopefully will be setting up an Incredible Edible group in his borough too.
Why not join us on our walks in July and August. Book now
