Edible Erdington Potato Day
On Saturday 26th February between 11am-3pm visitors to Erdington High Street will be able to join in the ‘Edible Erdington’ Potato Day celebrations. Edible Erdington is a project that has successfully transformed 3 large brick planters on Erdington High Street into vegetable plots. Dreamed up by Erdington Artist in Residence Eleanor Hoad ‘Edible Erdington’ has grown over 60 different varieties of vegetables in the last year with a group of volunteers, right in the high street and local people have welcomed the unusual edible change from flowers to vegetables.
Celebrating the humble potato, Potato Day will have activities for everyone including; a display of some of the 150 different varieties of potato available in the UK, free potato themed food, the chance to taste some of the high street harvest, free seed potato giveaways, Morris Dancing, a hands on session planting potatoes and vegetable growing advice. A ‘Seed Swap’ will take place on the day, bring along your spare seeds to swap.
Visitors will also be able to enter “The Great Erdington Potato Self Portrait Competition”. Everyone will have the chance to create a self-portrait using just a potato and a variety of craft materials! Prizes are available for the best entries and a display of all the entries will be created through the day. There will also be the chance to make a seed bomb to take away. Seed bombs are used by guerrilla gardeners and are a handy portable mix of seeds, compost and clay for planting in unusual locations.
Eleanor Hoad said “ We often overlook the humble potato but they are a great source of vitamin C and fibre and there are so many unusual varieties available that we hardly ever see in the shops. Potatoes are easy to grow at home in the ground or in containers, its amazing how many you can grow even in a small space.”
For more press information, pictures or interviews please contact
Eleanor Hoad on 07974 934 917
Notes to editors
- The Edible Erdington Potato Day will take place on Saturday 26th February, 11am-3pm.
- It will take place on Erdington High street, outside the Swan pub, near the fountain
- Edible Erdington is funded by Be Birmingham through the Active Citizenship Fund
- The project is a partnership between Erdington Artist in Residence Eleanor Hoad, Court Lane Allotments and Erdington Town Centre Partnership.
- Eleanor Hoad is funded by Birmingham City Council’s Community Arts Team and runs a series of urban food projects including ‘PREPARE’ a project to harvest and distribute unwanted fruit in the Erdington area
- Volunteers are always needed for the project, contact Eleanor Hoad on 07974 934 917 to get involved
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