Three local projects backed by RSE and Williamson Trust

Three Edinburgh-based community projects have been awarded a total of more than £14,000 in research funding by the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) and Williamson Trust to promote healthy living.

Lauriston Farm and local environmental artist Natalie Taylor will benefit from a share of the funding pot, along with Leith-based Earth in Common.

Lauriston Farm, run by a workers’ cooperative, is dedicated to sustainable food production, biodiversity, and community. They will use their award of £4550 to develop a sustainable alternative to chemical fertilisers using Aerated Compost Teas, a process of mixing compost with water and then introducing oxygen into the mixture. 

Despite their potential, practical guidance for integrating compost teas into commercial market gardens and the potential benefits remains limited. The project is aiming to bridge that gap by refining recipes and protocols to make knowledge of Aerated Compost Teas production accessible and effective for both commercial growers and people at home.

Grower and Coop Director Jossie Ellis said:This funding will enable us to advance our experiments using Aerated Compost Teas in the Market Garden, which will help to improve soil health, crop resilience, and sustainable food production.

“With this support, we hope to refine our methodologies, share findings with growers, and contribute to a more regenerative food system.”

Environmental artist Natalie Taylor has received £4500 for her Scran Fir Bees project to extend a series of existing public space artworks incorporating wildflowers to provide nectar-rich habitats and food sources for pollinators.

Her long-term vision is that these artworks, using large-scale text cut into the landscape, will join up to eventually form a bee corridor across the North of Edinburgh.

Natalie Taylor said: “I am so pleased to be able to work alongside local communities to design, develop and implement the new environmental artwork, sharing skills in meadow maintenance and strategic seeding to increase local biodiversity.

“Through fun, creative workshops, I will highlight the importance of our relationship with insect pollinators, which contribute vital services to roughly one-third of our food. I see this creative action for biodiversity as really important at the moment due to the ongoing crisis in pollinator populations, especially in urban environments such as Edinburgh where there are so many natural spaces where we can potentially help them.”

The Edinburgh projects are among 16 innovative community-led research projects across Scotland to receive funding from the RSE and the Williamson Trust.

A total of £73,625 has been given to a range of creative projects to foster healthy communities as part of the Healthy Planet, Healthy People awards.

Meanwhile, Earth in Common, based at Leith Community Croft, which includes a market garden, an orchard, and a community area shared by over 100 growers, has been awarded £5000.

The Croft is situated on Common Good land inspired by the Gaelic concept of dùthchas – the deep-rooted connection between people and the land.

They will use the funding to gather data on cultivated and wild plants and pollinators, which will help formulate strategies for biodiversity conservation and inform a guidance manual for urban green spaces across Scotland.

Evie Murray, CEO of Earth in Common, said:This award will boost our mission to demonstrate that urban crofts, such as our model Leith Community Croft, can effectively address multiple societal and environmental issues. With its orchard, wild areas, market garden and unique system of group-shared food-growing plots, it has already been shown to foster great biodiversity.

“This will empower our ‘Crofters’ – local residents – to develop citizen-science skills to monitor and further increase biodiversity. This should benefit them as individuals and foster pride and engagement in land stewardship in densely populated Leith.

“We hope that the methodology we collectively develop will be widely shared and can have a significant positive impact on nature and people’s relationship with it across Scotland.”

This is the second year of the awards, generously funded by the Williamson Trust, a charitable organisation. The strength of the applications in the second round of the funding programme resulted in four additional projects being awarded financial support.

Professor David E Salt FRSE, Chair of the Williamson Trust, said: “This year, we again have an amazing diversity of projects, from dolphins, bees, seeds, orchards, woodlands and lochs to food banks, composting, urban crofts and coffee shops. We truly look to invest in hope and the power of ideas wherever they arise.

“The trustees at the Williamson Trust are excited to fund 16 great community-led projects from across Scotland.

“Applications to the Healthy Planet, Healthy People Community-led Research Awards continue to grow, demonstrating the strong desire of communities in Scotland to develop local solutions to the ongoing global challenges to our environment, our communities and our food.

“The Trust hopes that these locally focused projects can find solutions to the challenges the local communities face and that these solutions can also have wider application.”

RSE Vice President, Research, Professor Anne Anderson OBE FRSE, commented: “This marks the second round of RSE ‘Healthy Planet, Healthy People’: Community-led Research Awards, which were introduced to expand the Society’s range of awards and the type of research we support.

“The health of people and the environment are closely connected, and I hope that these awards will strengthen these innovative research groups and drive positive change in both areas. I look forward to following their progress and achievements over the coming year.”

Fresh food at Lauriston Farm

Would you like to join our veg bag membership scheme in 2025?

This is Year 3 of our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Veg Bags scheme and we are hoping to provide food for up to 160 households in North Edinburgh.

This year’s CSA will run for 25 weeks (six-and-a-half months), every Thursday from June 5th to Nov 20th.

As well as getting your share of fresh farm veg, you can also choose to add mushrooms from @rhyze.mushrooms, bread from @grantongardenbakery and organic free range eggs from Croft Farm in Penicuik.

Returning members from 2024, and folk who are already on our waitlist have already been contacted via email – so if that’s you, please check your inbox and spam folder and respond before the 22nd April.

As we are increasing membership numbers this year, we are open to new expressions of interest from North Edinburgh residents.

If you are interested in becoming a member, please go to our website for all the details

#NorthEdinburgh

#Edinburgh

#CSA

#CommunitySupportedAgriculture

#RegenerativeFarming

#Agroecology

Drylaw Walking Group: Walk and Talk at Lauriston Farm

🌿 EXCITING EVENT ALERT !!! 🌿

Join us next Monday for an inspiring Walk & Talk around Lauriston Farm with nature expert Leonie Alexander! 🌱✨

Explore this regenerative community farm—a stunning 100-acre haven in North West Edinburgh, overlooking the beautiful Firth of Forth. Since winter 2021, EAC has been transforming Lauriston into a vibrant space teeming with food production, biodiversity, and community spirit. 🍃👩‍🌾

🗓️ Date: Next Monday

⏰ Time: 10 AM – 2 PM

📍 Meeting Point: DRYLAW NEIGHBOURHOOD CENTRE

🚍 Bus to Toby Carvery entrance to Lauriston Farm at 10:30 AM

🌿 Walk begins at 10:30 AM

🥗 Vegetarian picnic provided!

What to bring:

🎒 A rucksack/bag

🥾 Good walking shoes

🧥 Waterproof jacket

Limited spaces available — book now through info@drylawnc.org.uk !

FREE Pollinator Picnic at Lauriston Farm tomorrow

✉️✉️ INVITATION to a local PICNIC! Drop-in to Lauriston Farm Agroecology Open Day this weekend where I will be hosting a ‘Pollinator Picnic’. Free, family friendly food and fun.

🖲 Lauriston Farm, next to Toby Carvery on Lauriston farm Rd, EH4 5EX, Edinburgh.

📆 SAT 18th MAY : 12.30-2.30

👥 Everyone welcome! Picnic blankets supplied.

Part of the co-design stage of artist Natalie Taylor’s proposal development for Granton Gas Tower.

Lauriston Agroecology Farm Open Day this Saturday

For our first Open Day of this year, we are delighted to be taking part in Agroforestry Open Weekend 2024, this Saturday 18th May. You can drop-in anytime between 10am-3:30pm, or come for the programmed activities (times below). Feel free to just turn up! No need to book.

Day programme

10:30am-11.30am

Agroforestry Tour (meet at green portacabin near the Toby Carvery farm entrance)

11:45am-12:30pm

Market Garden tour (meet at Market Garden portacabin)

12:30-2:30pm

Pollinator Picnic with @Art for Granton Gas Tower artist Natalie Taylor (drop-in to the Wildflower Hill by the wooden gazebo)

1:30- 2:30pm

Agroforestry tour (meet at green portacabin)

2:45-3:30pm

Market Garden tour (meet at Market Garden portacabin)

+ Our Community Orchard volunteers will be around to chat about fruit trees

+ Farm staff and volunteers will be at the green portacabin from 10am and throughout the day to welcome you, chat and signpost you to walks and other points of interest across the farm

+ Free refreshments

+ Wildflowers and Grass Roots Remedies Co-op stalls

More details about the day here:

#AgroforestryOpenWeekend#Agroforestry#Agroecology#NorthEdinburgh#Edinburgh#UrbanFarm#FarmVisit#Pollinators#Biodiversity

Community Navigator wanted

Do you have experience in community engagement and development? We have an exciting new paid role for a Community Navigator, to support more people in North Edinburgh to access and benefit from Lauriston Farm.

The Community Navigator will work to foster relationships, increase engagement, make the farm more accessible and inclusive and reach people within our neighbouring communities of Muirhouse, Pilton, Drylaw and Granton.

You would collaborate with local organisations such as Pilton Community Health Partnership (with a desk based at PCHP), North Edinburgh Arts, Granton Youth, Low Income Families Together, Muirhouse Medical Practice and Community Renewal to offer activities and support individuals and groups with their engagement at the farm.

We would particularly like to encourage people from the Muirhouse, Pilton, Drylaw and Granton areas and from under-represented and marginalised groups to consider applying for this role.

Click here to see all details and the application process:

https://drive.google.com/…/1bxCcCAvDVphjq8ES2RTOfi…/view

Summer hours at Lauriston Farm

Summer hours!

Now the days are longer, we can be at the community garden and allotments a bit later, so … starting this Tuesday 2nd May, the drop-in hours are:

Tuesdays 3-5pm

Thursdays 1-3pm

We hope you can join us. You don’t need gardening experience and you don’t need to book – just come along when you can.

There are a mix of jobs – you can choose the ones that are right for you, have a blether with neighbours, get some sea air, learn more about growing food using nature-friendly methods, and feel good about feeding the neighbourhood.

You also get a share of produce when things are ready to pick.

Hope to see you there!

#Edinburgh

#NorthEdinburgh

#FarmVolunteering

#UrbanFarm

#Agroecology

ELREC: Free Permaculture Course at Lauriston Farm

🪴🥬🥕 We are excited to announce the launch of our Permaculture Course, taking place at ELREC plot in Lauriston Farm as part of our Communities’ Reduce Reuse & Recycle project.

This course is open to everyone who is interested in learning about gardening and sustainable land management practices.

🫒🍅 Our course offers a comprehensive curriculum that covers a range of topics such as soil building, sowing seeds, compost making, beneficial insects, pest management, and much more. By taking our Permaculture Course, you will gain a deeper understanding of how to live more sustainably, reduce your ecological footprint, and contribute positively to the local and global ecosystem.

🌍This is an excellent opportunity to participate in a transformative and enriching experience that empowers individuals to create meaningful and positive change in their lives and communities.

😀The best part? The course is completely FREE, although donations are welcomed to support our work. To book your spot, please email cfc@elrec.org.uk.

🍃🌱Check out the course timetable here https://www.elrec.org.uk/elrec-permaculture-course-at…/ for more details.

🗣🤝🌍Don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn about permaculture and join us on this journey towards sustainability and regeneration!

#climateaction

#permaculture

#gardening

#foodgrowing

Volunteer sessions with Edinburgh Agroecology Group

MARKET GARDEN VOLUNTEERING at LAURISTON FARM

EDINBURGH Agroecology Group at Lauriston Farm has got big plans for the Market Garden for 2023 – do you want to get involved?

Upcoming volunteer sessions on 14th & 28th January.

RSVP on Volunteer Signup to join us: https://volunteersignup.org/ALFRW

#UrbanFarm

#Agroecology

#FarmVolunteering

#Edinburgh

#NorthEdinburgh