'Tomato City', dandelion coffee and nettle tea – growing produce and communities across Inverness
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During a tour of the New Start Gardens in Inverness, Neil Davidson extends an invitation to step inside "tomato city".
Inside the aptly-nicknamed polytunnel, tomatoes of different varieties, shades of red and stages of ripeness are growing in breathtaking abundance.
In another area, sweetcorn cobs, curious-looking lemon cucumbers and chilli plants are flourishing while in the compost heap a triffid-like pumpkin plant is growing rampantly.
The self-contained gardens, next to Hawthorn Allotments in Dalneigh, are home to a horticultural training project run by New Start Highland which operates projects across the region aiming to tackle homelessness, poverty and long-term unemployment.
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The gardens, which provide placements for people with mental health or other issues and unable to work, may not be on many people's radar.
But they are part of a grassroots revolution in the city and across the Highlands amid a growing interest in the benefits of collective growing not just to produce food but as a means of preventing social isolation and improving mental health.
The site was also the venue for a Get Your Community Growing gathering, organised by the Highland Good Food Partnership, bringing together organisations and projects – including the prison service, an orchard saving Scotland's heritage apples, a tool lending library and an allotment campaign group – to share ideas and experience.
Neil, who volunteers two days a week at the gardens, describes them as a "fabulous healing place" which should be expanded.
"It has been of huge benefit to my mental health and wellbeing," he reflects.
"I think it is an important connection for everyone to have in their life."
He says there are two strands to the garden – the sense of support for people from different backgrounds and needs plus the production of local chemical-free food which he says has a positive effect on all.
Neil recalls being taught to grow food from the age of five by his grandfather who cultivated an area at the back of a tenement block in Aberdeen.
He later lived in an off-grid community and developed an interest in the traditional use of plants such as wild herbs for food and medicine.
He is passionate about using whatever produce is to hand including dandelions to make coffee and nettles to brew tea – and says those who have given them a go, returned an "okay" verdict.
Mairi Macaulay, the deputy chief executive of New Start Highland, explains the gardens are a therapeutic placement and are SQA accredited, enabling people to learn life and numeracy skills.
In recent feedback, people spoke about how they felt happy and at peace in the gardens which are run by two staff members with 15 people attending at different times.
"The confidence and self belief was the thing which people spoke about most," she says.
At Inverness Prison, too, horticultural knowledge is being shared in the garden where vegetables such as leeks, onions, courgettes, potatoes and tomatoes are grown.
It offers an educational and therapeutic experience for prisoners, says one officer.
"A lot of them have never grown anything in their lives," he says. "It is a good experience for them."
Toni Clark is co-ordinator of the Highland Good Food Partnership's Good Food Movement – a year-long project funded via Sustainable Food Places – and is determined community food growing should not be a quiet revolution but mainstream.
Toni, who is involved in the environmental group, Black Isle Transition, has been involved in community growing for many years and she and her partner also ran a community garden on their croft near Muir of Ord from 2008 until 2016.
She often finds that using the produce grown is not the most important aspect for people but the social and mental health aspect of community growing.
"It isn't the food itself – that is a bonus," she says.
"It is that connection with nature. It is that opportunity for people to be in an outdoor space."
Martin Sherring, co-founder of Highland Good Food Partnership, reflects on the broader context.
"What we would like to see is more of a good foodie culture in the Highlands where people are more aware of how food is produced and realise the consequences for their own health whether they grow it themselves or buy it but understand much of the stuff which is in ultra-processed foods – and also the impact of how food is produced on the environment," he says.
"The more people engage in that, the more they value it and the less they waste. Food waste is a huge issue.
"I would love to see people grow their own stuff – but not necessarily everything they eat – and buy more local produce."
He acknowledges grow-your-own or buy local is often perceived as a middle-class trend.
"It is quite a difficult thing," he concedes.
"There is not an easy answer except to get involved in education."
He also says many projects are linked to tackling food poverty such as fresh produce being donated to a community larder in Culloden.
"Community food growing cannot be the total solution but it can help around the edges," he adds.
