The Brighton Permaculture Trust plot at Stanmer is a LAND (Learning And Network Demonstration) site and shows permaculture in action, working in the real world, with real world challenges. All the work to maintain and develop the site is done by volunteers.
Visitors
Between 150 to 300 volunteers attend the plot each year on the regular volunteer sessions on a Thursday. Around 90% of the volunteer sessions over the past year had two or more new volunteers or passing members of the public who attended the tour of the site at the beginning of the session. This alone means that over 100 new people got shown around the site over the last year.
In addition to this, other people visit the site on Brighton Permaculture Trust courses, workshops and special events like Stanmer Organics Open Day and Apple Day. This raises the total number of visitors to the plot to over 650 people a year.
Produce
Over the last year the plot has grown an impressive harvest of around 89.5kg of herbs, fruits and vegetables.
This included: calendula, carrots, kale, lemon balm, lettuce, mezuma, mint, nettles, oregano, parsley, peppermint, radish, raspberries, rocket, rose petals, ruby chard, sage, shitake mushrooms, sloes, sorrel, sugar snap peas and tomatoes.
The World Health Organisation recommends about 400g of fruit and veg per person per day, so this equates to about 223 days worth of food.
Over the past year, produce grown to sell included teas, seeds, apple trees, apples, perennial plants, annual plug plants and compost. All the income generated goes back into the running of the site.
To find out more about volunteering with us at the plot and being part of this great project see our plot webpage and see our video: