GROW Festival - supported by Riverford

Date: 2 May 2015; 3 May 2015; 4 May 2015, from 10:00 until 18:00.

One of the cornerstone events of Food Connections, College Green will be bursting into life for the Grow Festival, supported by Riverford. It’s the international year of soil so there’s never been a better time to get to grips with the importance of linking healthy people and planet.

The Grow pod will be a hub of activity covering important topics around land, growing and wellbeing, featuring local experts. Click here to see the daily schedule.

The Riverford yurt is going to be a hive of activity, with plenty of activities around soil, planting, and wriggly worms! Click here to see the daily schedule.

As well as talks, Grow Bristol will be demonstrating their aquaponic and hydroponic systems. Take a look at their vertical growing wall and be inspired to grow food in small spaces, or take in a talk about urban farming solutions to learn how Bristol can become a resilient food city.

Did you know that one third of the food we eat wouldn’t be available if it wasn’t for bees? Bees are a vital part of our food chain as they pollinate a huge number of plants, so we’ve got Bee Bristol on hand to give you an insight into their world. See a live hive in action, find out more about their role in the food chain and listen to an experienced bee keeper talk about the highs and lows of bee keeping and how to get started yourself. Keep an eye out for wildflower installations and find out what you can do to help these vitally important creatures.

If all of that wasn’t enough, we’ve also got a ‘Get Cooking’ pod where children and families can rediscover the joy of cooking and get stuck into some fun-filled, creative activities. Little grown ups (aged 5 to 9) are invited to enrol at the Children’s University to learn more about their favourite foods. They can enjoy immersive educational and sensory experiences, creating crazy flavoured ice creams, identifying spices and trying totally new foods, before graduating into fully fledged mini-Gastronomes. Riverford will be running a whacky vegetable spaghetti bar, as well as creating yummy salad dressings and dips. For the really little ones, parents will have the opportunity to try their hand at making wholesome and nourishing baby foods and find out how to guarantee the best start in life for their children. Daily schedule to be released soon.