A growing desire to save the world.

Byline: John Avison

HERE it comes, the time poet John Keats loved so much.

He called autumn the 'season of mists and mellow fruitfulness', and anybody who owns a garden, a greenhouse and/or an allotment knows just what he means.

Incredible Edible, a loose confederation of mucky-nailed, horny-handed sons - and daughters - of toil, is delighted. This is what it's all about: trugs of beetroot, heavy-boughed apple and plum trees, jam and chutney by the ton, the soil banged off potatoes and garlic, Jerusalem artichoke and onion, bags of shelled peas.

Incredible Edible started in Todmorden, the brainchild of two women, Pam Warhurst and Mary Clear. It came to Huddersfield through Norah Hamill, a native of West Belfast, formerly of Todmorden and now of the Holme Valley, and Sue Daws.

Incredible Edible wants to save the planet, and it has a plan.

"We're a kind of dating agency," said Norah. "We put people in touch with each other so they can exchange ideas, seeds, fruit and vegetables. We are guerrilla gardeners."

So if I decide to grow cabbages around a war memorial or bus stop or teach my neighbours how to compost household waste and 'humanure' (you would be as well not asking), I could tell Incredible Edible and that would make it an Incredible Edible project.

Kath and Trevor Bettany of Holmbridge are converts.

"We grow our own produce in boxes and containers and we use most of this at our guesthouse and tea rooms," said Kath.

They've grown two dozen different vegetables and fruits in containers and from plants supplied by Norah.

It comes back, too. Tony Walls from the Tenants' and Residents Group of Holmclose, Holmbridge, has donated some of his harvest of beetroot to Incredible Edible, who then delivered the beetroot for pickling to Bob and Anne Thorpe from the Country Markets, Holmfirth.

The group's treasurer, Sarah Crabtree, said: "This is a great way to combat the recession and I think everyone should be doing it."

Mark and Lucy Ellis, inspired by the Incredibles, converted part of their garden into three raised beds. "We've never grown anything before," admitted Mark. "I now have healthy crops of cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, lettuces, parsnip, sweet corn, peas and raspberries. I have cayenne peppers, jalapenos and chillies, and cherry tomatoes in the greenhouse."

There's Incredible action at Colne Valley High School and Christ Church Primary School Deighton, in Honley, Newsome and Golcar.

The Incredibles were at a rain-drenched Emley Show, giving food away and asking people to 'adopt' a plant. They want the 'fosterers' to pass on any surplus produce to others to keep the chain going.

It's catching. A group of knitters - yes, knitters - who meet at Kirkburton Library spotted a barren area of gravel outside the library and asked if they could cultivate it. Their crop is ripening as we speak.

Holmfirth In Bloom donated a herb basket, and flowerbeds in the centre of Holmfirth are bursting with onions, which will be allowed to seed for the next harvest.

The Incredibles are busy making contacts with political parties, council departments and schools. They have vegetables growing in the most unlikely places - outside shops and cafes opposite Huddersfield Parish Church, for instance - and MP Barry Sheerman is an enthusiastic supporter.

"I suppose we'll have to end up with a base, a shop," Norah sighs.

A physical base would indeed focus attention: a cohesive organisation with a point-by-point plan, however damaging that might be to the principle of grassroots autonomy, would attract more grant cash and would therefore be able to do more, do it more publicly, and do it faster.

All this activity may appear to be frivolous, but in fact nothing could be more serious. If we don't take back stewardship of the Earth like the dozens of people who are in this new Dig For Victory campaign, we may well destroy it.

In 1987 the World Commission on Environment and Development developed a definition of sustainability that was included in its findings, which became known as the Brundtland Report. This read: "Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." And time is of the essence. Sustainability, a agronomic permaculture, are global objectives and need to be changing lives now. Incredible Edible is already changing it in a hundred small ways.

Help the group harvest the town centre onions at Holmfirth's Food and Drink Festival this Saturday (Sept 26, 1pm).

We'll be checking on Incredible Edible's progress. Watch this space and elsewhere in the Examiner.

CAPTION(S):

* HARVEST HOME: Fruit, vegetables and berries ready for processing and distribution, and (below) Holmbridge's Tony Walls with a crop of beetroot (tmcHUD220909harvest and tmcHUD220909tonywall)