Saturday 1 November 2025, 11am.
Everyone is welcome to join our Annual General Meeting, where we’ll review our activities over the last year and undertake the nomination and election of group officers.
The AGM will take place at the Saltaire Methodist Church, Saltaire Road, BD18 3HJ
Please email hello@vegontheedge.org if you would like to attend so we can ensure adequate seating for all.
Christmas Festivities
We’ve been celebrating the festive season in a variety of creative ways in the run up to Christmas. In November we entered the annual Christmas Tree Festival hosted by St Paul’s Church, Shipley with a compost themed Christmas tree! It was great fun to use everyone’s talents to put the ‘tree’ together. Although we didn’t end up winning, it was wonderful see the creativity of local groups in the other entries. You can see pictures of all the entries here.
We also created an advent window for Saltaire’s Living Advent Calendar 2024, our piece was of course fruit and vegetable themed! If you’ve walked around the trail you might have seen ours on Fanny Street. The windows are up until the 1st of January and you can find out more here if you haven’t visited yet.
We regularly post pictures of what we’re up to on social media, you can connect with us on social media here.
Seasonal Recipe
To warm you up on the cold winter nights why not try this recipe for a quick and warming winter soup which uses plenty of seasonable vegetables, including carrots, onions and garlic which we’ve got growing in our beds.
Saltaire Festival
Back in September we had a stall raising money for Veg on the Edge at the Saltaire Festival. We sold homemade cakes, fruit and plants and raised a total of £227! It was a great day chatting to lots of people about what Veg on the Edge does and sharing some of the things we’d been growing.
New Signs
During the winter months we reduce our gardening days to only the first Sunday of the month, but we’ve still got some veg growing, including some onions on platform one and carrots at the baker beds. We’ve made it easier to find out what’s growing in each of our beds by adding new signage to them. Look out for signs at each site with a QR code attached which links to our website. We’re working on keeping the pages updated so you can find out what’s growing currently and when it’s ready to pick. We’d love to encourage more people to harvest the fruit and veg we grow!
Bed Updates
We are in a quiet period for the beds. Onions and garlic have been planted for a summer harvest and there are some brassica, brussel sprouts and spinach. Unfortunately the caterpillars, earlier in the season, and more recently, pigeons have destroyed some of the crops. There is quite a bit of pruning that needs to take place, particularly at the Baker Beds and Japanese Garden. In February we will start preparing the soil for spring/summer planting.
Since the purpose of Veg on the Edge is to grow for the local community, we would love to hear from you about what you would like us to grow! Our next meeting is on the 5th of January in Saltaire Methodist Church at 1pm, we’ll be planning the coming year and it would be great to see you there.
Earlier in July a couple of us headed to a workshop to gut old pianos so they could be used as planters across Bradford. Keep reading to find out more about how this went!
We’ve got loads of fruit and veg ripening at the moment, so make sure to keep an eye out! We’ve also got the Saltaire Festival coming up on the 14-15/09, we’ll have a stall raising money for VotE. You can also find us at Shipley Eco Fair on the 19/10 in Northcliffe Church. Find out more here!
We recently had an abundance of spinach and rainbow chard growing at Platform One. You can find a recipe for a quick and light stir fry meal on a summer evening here. Most of the other vegetables can be swapped in and out depending on what you have in the cupboards!
We are very excited to be a part of the Piano Planters Project. The finals of the Leeds International Piano Competition are being held in St George’s Hall Bradford on 20th and 21st September. Supported by funding from Kew Garden’s Grow Wild Fund the organisers are bringing public pianos and piano planters to Bradford as part of the celebration.
Veg on the Edge will be planting up one of these piano planters with fruit, vegetables and edible flowers. We are currently growing the produce we hope to use, ready for planting at the end of August. The planter will be on display in Bradford’s City Park for the whole of September – so make sure to look out for it if you’re in the city centre. It’s an exciting project and we’ll share photos in the next newsletter.
In May we had a stall at the Saltaire Arts Trail where we sold our homemade cakes, bakes, jams and plants to raise money for Veg on the Edge. It was great to chat to people at the trail over the weekend and talk to them about what Veg on the Edge get up to. We raised a brilliant total of £265.85!
You can connect with us on social media here
If you’d like to donate, find out how here.
The site at the end of Caroline Street is looking healthy. The peas and beans are doing well and are nearly ready to pick. The courgettes are starting to fruit, so keep an eye on these, but the tomatoes have a way to go. They need some sun, like all of us. There will be fruit a bit later in the season. We have also planted brassica – broccoli, cabbage etc – for autumn/winter use.
The Japanese Garden on Exhibition Road is looking rather overgrown so we need to do some work there. Keep an eye on the Mulberry, the big tree on the left, the fruit are delicious.
The site at Platform One is currently out of action as Shipley College are repointing the walls. However, there are plenty of figs growing which will be ready later in the year but again they will need some sun to fully ripen.
The Washhouse Garden is looking glorious, so many varieties of herbs for you to use.
And finally the site by the car park on Caroline Street. Development of this site is delayed to the end of the year/beginning of next year so we will start to think about autumn/winter crops. Meanwhile, enjoy watching these lovely artichokes grow!
Wednesday 19 April 2023, 7.30pm
All welcome to join us at our AGM where we will review our activities over the last year, as well as undertake nomination and election of group officers.
The AGM will take place at Caroline Street Social Club, Saltaire.
Please email hello@vegontheedge.org if you would like to attend so we can ensure adequate seating for all.
The ever popular Potato Day is back to kickstart the growing season at Shipley College on 11 February 10am to 2pm.
Hosted by West Yorkshire Organic Group, Potato Day is a friendly event with 40+ varieties of seed potatoes on sale, many of which people cannot get from anywhere else.
Veg on the Edge will also be holding our usual Seed Swap during the event. Bring along some seeds to swap with ours, or donate extras to be grown in our community veg beds. If you don’t have any seeds to swap you can still join in the fun and ‘pay as you feel’ for any seeds you fancy.
As we look ahead to the next growing season, we want to thank you for your continued support for Veg on the Edge over the last year.
2022 was a year of consolidation after the turmoil of the previous couple of years. In January we received a £500 Community Chest Grant from Shipley Area Committee (Bradford Council). We used this money to help install two new beds at the Baker Beds. Our thanks, as ever, to Bradford Works (Shipley College) for constructing these.
The new growing beds were up and running in time for a good crop of courgettes and squash. Unfortunately, our newly installed water butts at this site went missing. Luckily, we had the funds to replace them, and we managed to fill them before the hosepipe ban kicked in. Watering was probably the biggest challenge in 2022 and the volume and quality of some produce suffered as a result. However, we did have some bumper fruit crops; pears and, in particular, mulberries.
We were delighted to, once again, take part in the Arts Trail (May), Saltaire Festival (September), the Christmas Tree Lights Switch-on Event (November). It was such a pleasure to meet with and chat to old friends and new and we are immensely grateful for the donations we receive which make what we do possible. It is worth saying here that you can now donate to Veg on the Edge online via Givey.
In June we arranged a picnic at the Baker Beds as part of the Eden Project Big Lunch, but also to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee. Our very special guests were the Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Martin Love and the Lady Mayoress, Mrs Helen Love.
We were also pleased to play a part in Shipley Town Council’s submission to the Yorkshire in Bloom competition. The judges visited our sites and seemed interested in what we are doing noting it was “good to hear the Veg on the Edge group have created five areas around Saltaire on former sites of buildings that formed part of the Model Village”. We were delighted to find out in December that Shipley in Bloom received a Silver for the Small Town category.
During the year we signed up with Plastic Free Shipley who are campaigning to reduce the use of single use plastics. You can find out more about Plastic Free Shipley by following them on Facebook and Twitter.
Veg on the Edge is always keen to work with other community groups and local organisations. This year we were pleased to visit Sapgate Gardens in Thornton; give a talk to the Women’s Fellowship group at Saltaire Methodist Church; support the Bradford and Shipley Travel Alliance consultation event at the Kirkgate Centre in March. We contributed to Shipley College’s Horticulture Employer network event, and Leeds City Council’s Green Month. We were also involved in a very interesting session in July run by the Saltaire History Club on Allotments in Saltaire.
So, to 2023. This year Veg on the Edge is 10 years old. Quite an achievement! We are planning to celebrate this over the first weekend in June to coincide with the next Eden Project Big Lunch. We will keep you posted on details.
This year also heralds the need for some remedial work at our sites. You may have noticed that a number of beds at the Sunday School Garden and Platform 1 need restoration, and we are in the process of fundraising for this work.
During the winter months we continue to get together outside on the first Sunday of the month at 11am, meeting in the Sunday School Garden, Caroline Street. If you fancy getting your hands in the earth or just want a chat, do join us. Happy growing!
***UPDATE: Saltaire Festival is now postponed for two weeks***
Saturday 10 & Sunday 11 September 2022
We are pleased to once again be taking part in Saltaire Festival. Our growing spaces are part of the Open Gardens Trail over the opening weekend, 10 and 11 September.
Members of our group will be on site at the Sunday School Garden (Caroline Street car park), over the weekend. Drop by to say hello, treat yourself to some homemade goodies, take a look at what we’ve been growing, and find out how you can get involved.
All donations made at our pop-up stall will help fund the ongoing maintenance and development of our five public growing sites across village.
Other highlights of the opening weekend include West Yorkshire Organic Show, Art & Photography exhibitions, special events, heritage tours, and pop ups in village houses.
Click here to download a guide to the Open Gardens and the opening weekend.
Wednesday 21 September 2022, 7.15pm
All welcome to join us at our AGM where we will review our finances and activities over the last year, as well as undertake nomination and election of group officers.
The AGM will take place at Salts Bar on Bingley Road.
Please email hello@vegontheedge.org if you would like to attend so we can ensure adequate seating for all.
Veg on the Edge will be running a stall at The Big Consultation: Shipley Choked on Traffic at the Kirkgate Community Centre on Saturday 5 March, 10am to 4pm.
The event, jointly organised by Shipley Town Council & Bradford-Shipley Travel Alliance, aims to raise awareness and highlight possible solutions to the pollution, climate and health issues connected to high traffic levels in Shipley.
There’ll be a range of free community stalls, craft activities, and refreshments to enjoy, and opportunities to share what you think of the proposed ideas for less traffic, beating pollution, and a Shipley that’s easy to get to and easy to get around. Families welcome.
Veg on the Edge will be there to promote our policy of growing locally – saving transport costs, unnecessary packaging, food waste – as well as the community support, health and wellbeing aspects of our group.
We’ll be running our ever popular Seed Swap on the stall – bring some of your own seeds to swap with ours or donate any extras for us to grow in the community veg beds. If you don’t have any seeds to swap you can still join in the fun and ‘pay as you feel’ for any seeds you fancy!
We’ll also be raising funds for our local growing activities with a selection of plants and handmade items available for a donation.
This is a drop in event, but you can book onto timed sessions happening throughout the day on the Clean Air Zone, better buses, measuring air quality, climate change, Bradford Council’s plans, and transport campaigning.
Read more about the consultation event and Bradford Shipley Travel Alliance at https://bsta.org.uk/shipley-choked-event-march-5th/
Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 September
Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 September
12.00pm to 4.30pm
After a two year hiatus (we won’t mention why), we are delighted to once again be taking part in Saltaire Festival. Our growing spaces will form part of the Open Gardens Trail on the opening weekend, 11 and 12 September.
Members of our group will be on site at the Sunday School Garden, Caroline Street car park, over both weekends. Drop by to say hello, treat yourself to some homemade goodies, take a look at what we’ve been growing, and find out how you can get involved.
You can also pick up a copy of our vintage recipes and household tips sourced from local newspapers published in the late 1800s to early 1900s. This is perfect if you want to know how to cure earache with an onion or use tomatoes to remove stains (!) All donations made at our pop-up stall will help fund the ongoing maintenance and development of our sites in the village.
Other highlights of the opening weekend include West Yorkshire Organic Show, Art & Photography exhibitions, special events, heritage tours, and pop ups in village houses. Click here to download a guide to the opening weekend.
Veg On The Edge 