Josh’s Blog
As Josh comes to the end of his Eco Talent internship at Sussex Surplus, he’s written a blog to share what he’s been up to.
What have you been doing with Feedback during your internship?
I have been working with Feedback on the Flavour Project creating the Sussex Surplus brand. Sussex Surplus will sell food made from gleaned produce. I have been learning about surplus food and tonnes of crops that can lie dormant in fields at risk of rotting.
I have also been visiting garden projects, helping out at allotments, harvesting, foraging and maintenance, and building community connections. Networking is a really important part of community work, getting to know people and the different things they do.
What were you doing before the internship?
I was studying at Plumpton College and started an internship there, cut short by the pandemic. I did work experience at Stanmer and with the grounds team at Plumpton.
Before that I did a Horticulture course. My learning was around planting and digging, learning names of plants, classification and the growing cycle. I learnt about sowing seeds, planting out, weeds, compost and harvesting. The previous year at Plumpton I did a course in Hard Landscaping where I learnt about fencing, paving and garden design.
What have you learnt during your internship?
I’ve done a lot of working with surplus pumpkins, learning about different flavour profiles that work, the cooking process and pumpkin products. I’ve learnt about different community settings for growing food and places that use organic farming. I’ve learnt a lot about soil and compost. We visited the Lewes Orchard and the community compost scheme called Compost Club. I’ve learnt about the circular food economy.
Are there any standout moments?
Helping build a straw bale house at Rock Farm was amazing, also working at Ashurst Organics for the day where I learnt a lot about organic growing.
The seaweed foraging day was interesting and we went on a guided tour of all the seaweed that is edible along the beach east of Brighton next to the undercliff path. I never knew how many different types of seaweed could be eaten.
Would you recommend doing an internship to someone considering doing it?
I’ve enjoyed working with friendly and helpful people and it’s upped my confidence and feeling I can do new things, also that making mistakes and getting some things wrong is part of learning. I’ve met a lot of new people and people on the Zoom sessions who know a lot about various things and it’s made me more clued up.
I’d recommend the internship for anyone who has an interest in the circular food economy, reducing waste re-using surplus food for the community, also permaculture and community organic farming and allotments.
The Eco Talent programme is managed by Feedback and funded by the National Lottery Community Fund as part of the Our Bright Future programme
Josh splitting and deseeding squash.
Harvesting chard for at Whitehawk Community Food Project.
Josh is an artist too - this is our painting of our pumpkins.
Turning compost at Compost Club in Lewes.