With the longest day behind us, we’re officially in British summer time! For the garden this means bigger harvests, more weeding, more pruning and a lot more watering. We’re lucky enough to have two 1000 litre on in our garden, These get filled naturally by rain water by a pipe system connected to the roofing of our tool shed. We always have our fingers crossed that we’ll have had enough rain over spring to keep us going, or that a short shower might happen during summer to top us up.
Our summer harvest so far has brought us an abundance of strawberries, salads, peas, mangetouts and more raspberries than we can handle! Artichoke was a new one for us as well, which if we’re honest we probably won’t grow again… You can’t go wrong with a classic spud!
Elderflower cordial has been made, which is our officially marker of the beginning of summer. The sweet syrup of elderflower cordial mixed with ice cold lemonade is only made more perfect by knowing the seeds you sown in winter that have bloomed to become thriving plants.
Thanks to our amazing community gardeners who have…
We loved our jubilee celebration of community. In June we opened North Park Community
Garden for a celebration Gateway style! Over 60 people attended and enjoyed games,
pizza and some amazing home made cakes. It was so good to actually spend some time in
the garden chatting, relaxing and having fun. The highlight of the afternoon was
definitely the impressive dance moves on display!
Work is progressing towards having our very own kitchen on site. We were delighted to
have been successful in gaining funding from the Asda Foundation and combined with the
support of our local Linacre Ward Councillors and Bootle based international firm Cargills
we now have enough funding to start work. The first jobs have been to locate the water
and electricity supplies but after that planning awaits!
Sharing is Caring! Share this and tag us in a social media post on Instagram at @thegatewaycollective on Instagram or on twitter at @thegatewaycoll !
Hartley’s Newspaper now available
Our heritage group have been working hard and have produced a newspaper all about William Hartley and his love of jam and people (2 of the things we love as well!)
This newspaper is available in Gateway Kitchen Community Cafe, Bootle Library and Crosby Library if you want a physical copy or feel free to download it here!
Made possible with the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund we have been exploring Bootle’s jam making heritage, focusing on Hartleys Jam. William Pickles Hartley founded Hartleys Jam in Bootle in 1874. We have explored the archives of local libraries and the universities and have found out A LOT about this remarkable man. Our findings will be published in a newspaper later in the year but the parallels for today need to be shared sooner!
Hartley was a self made man. He didn’t come from a wealthy family but he had a vision and he believed he could achieve.
What would the world look like today if we took the opportunities available to us?
Hartley was honest. He believed his products should be high quality and sold at a fair price
What would the world look like today if everyone was honest and fair in business?
Hartley believed he had a responsibility to the people around him. When he got married he pledged to give 10% of his income to charitable causes and this had risen to 33% at the time of his death. In total he gave away 1 million pounds which equates to £154,036,551 today.
What would the world look like today if big businesses looked after their local communities?
Hartley was a devout Primitive Methodist and his Christian faith was evident in everything he did. “My daily prayer is that God will show me what he wishes me to do. I only want to see clearly his guiding hand, and I am daily asking him to lead me.”
If Hartley was alive today it is possible he would be diagnosed as bi-polar. His mood fluctuated between times of intense focus and productivity and times where he struggled to get out of bed and his anxious thoughts overwhelmed him.
What would the world look like today if we believed people with mental ill-health could achieve great things?
