I’m a Londoner, it’s something I’m extremely proud about (even though I had nothing to do with it!) but it huge part of who I am. But in common with most cities, being from here can mean lots of things, I love my city but there are lots of bits of it that I’ve never been to or at least not very often.So on Friday, I gave my ‘west London’ self a shock and went to East London, not somewhere I often venture and I wouldn’t have gone all the way to Whitechapel on the Tube if not for the day my work team was going to spent at Spitalfields City Farm.If the nephews lived nearer, we’d go. It’s a really small space about 10 minutes away from Brick Lane (and no, I didn’t stop at the Beigel Bake but it was a close call!), with a garden, which right now is growing loads of chard and winter salad  and all sorts of animals (sheep, goats, geese, ducks, ex battery hens, donkeys, pigs and a parrot!). Spitalfields is a no kill farm (which if I’m honest makes me feel that it’s not so much a farm as a petting zoo) and is largely funded by donations. During the day, one of the volunteers noted that they had lost funding for things like the permaculture garden and were trying to work out how best to carry on with it.I knew that London had a couple of city farms but I’ve never been to one and it’s worth a visit. They have lots of Christmas events on over the next couple of weeks so if you’re nearby it’s worth a visit!

As to what I did on the farm, I turned compost, the bin below was full at the beginning of the day!