Harvesting Hopes For The Future At Basil Street Barbeque.

Trust staff and Petra Wilson, one of the Team's Community Development Officers, have played a key role in encouraging people to join the Friends of Basil Street Allotment in Colne.

It was decided to mark the end of the growing season with a get-together which would also give the allotment links to the Open Door Café in Colne.

The Café on Albert Road offers volunteering and training opportunities.

Petra said: "The barbeque was a way to celebrate the role and value of volunteering in the community. It brought two volunteer groups together to share ideas and experiences.

"It also provided an opportunity to highlight the potential of the allotment - fruit and vegetables from there could be cooked and sold in the café."

Petra added: "We had an opportunity to thank volunteers for their contribution to their community and presented them with small gifts of a box of chocolates and a card from ourselves and the Lancashire Wildlife Trust. It was a small token - but we wanted to tell them how their work is valued."

Volunteers help care for the allotment which recently won the Colne In Bloom Best Community Garden award.

This year they have enjoyed a very successful growing season.

Local schools had also been involved, with pupils from Lord Street and West Street Primary growing produce on the allotment, at sessions run by the Wildlife Trust.

Rebecca Witcombe, Community Project Officer with LWT, who leads the allotment groups, said: "We had a successful season with volunteers and local school children growing strawberries, carrots, beetroot, radishes, lettuces and Jerusalem Artichokes.

"We wanted to celebrate this harvest and thank the volunteers who worked so hard. We are looking forward to planning for next year's crops."

There'll be a further opportunity to discuss growing ambitions for 2010 in December at a Christmas event at the allotment.

*The allotment has transformed a once derelict site in Colne.  Local and trust volunteers and Pendle Council's Environmental Action Group (PEAG) worked to make the difference.

The project started in 2005 when the land was selected as part of the Trust's "Pendle Productive Landscapes" project.

Since 2008 it has received funding from Target: Wellbeing and NHS East Lancashire to improve the physical and mental wellbeing of Pendle's residents through food growing.

If you would like to get involved in the Basil Street project contact Petra Wilson on 07970 266879 or Rebecca Witcombe on 07795 017315.