Apple-y Going About Life

27 people ran between 4-8k and helped tidy an elderly couples overgrown garden, watered trees in an urban orchard, planted a rare Peruvian root and ran the muesli fartlek.

Tube strike- pah!

Despite the threat of tube strikes affecting their onward journeys 27 people made their way to Somers Town Community Centre for another spectacular Goodgym evening.

They weren't disappointed, or at least I hope they weren't. The task was a corker. We went to help out Alex from Alara Wholefoods and the Urban Orchard Project.

We also had a mission this evening. Alex, Lucy and Paul set off on an 8K run to tidy up Joy's garden for her. It's impossible for her to do it these days and its brilliant that we can help her enjoy it. Great work crew.

Have a look at them Apples.

Alara is now the Urban Orchards Camden base. Read more about the Orchard Project here. It's a great project, (who doesnt love fruit!) showing children where their food comes from. Rock on the Orchard Project!

Water? yes we ought'ta

We had 2 major tasks. The first involved running around the block carrying watering cans or buckets filled with water. On this small industrial estate there are 4 areas where Alex and the team are growing trees (yup, an orchard on an industrial estate in Camden). Our job was to get water to all 4 areas and give the trees a thorough watering. We had one hose- which only reached one area of the plot. So we carried the rest of the water in cans- fairly hard work on the 8 or 9th trip!

Yacon de jak, don't talk back

The rest of the team were on Yacon duty. If you don't know what that is...have a read of this. It's really quite special. 4 people headed to the front of the plot where they 'got stuck in'- weeding the existing Yacon plot. They did a pretty fantastic job, pulling up two big bins of weed in little over 30 mins. Kudos to you.

The rest of the group were involved in planting. Led by Vlad from Alara they sorted through 2 big vats full of roots, taking those that were ready and separating them into pots ready for planting. It was a pretty laborious task but in 30 mins the entire job was done.

Wait a minute Mr Com-post man

We still had time to tidy up the compost pile (free to all community food growing enterprises- Alex is a legend), and have a fire ( nice one Chris and Monica). Phew- what an evening. Before we left Vlad gave us all a little thank you- a lovely pack of Yacon muesli. Thanks guys!

A beautiful evening for a fartlek

Running back to the centre carrying a box of muesli isn't easy so we came up with a plan. We grouped into 3's and ran as a pack. Each person took it in turns to surge to different landmarks on the canal while the others jogged slowly and held the boxes. When they reached the landmark they would jog and allow the others to catch up before swapping roles.

We finished with a stretch at Granary Square before jogging back to the centre. What a corking evening!