Edible York Barbican Beds

Location: Paragon Street, York, YO10 4AG

This bed is overseen by a local group of volunteers, FOBBEY (Friends of Barbican Bed Edible York), who meet every Saturday (from May-September), in 2022 sually from 10:30-11:30 on Saturdays.

We have tools and gloves to use at these gardening sesions. We also meet from time to time at the Seahorse Pub to think about ways to improve the bed, and to decide what to grow.

This year we’ve grown lots of edible flowers, rainbow chard and herbs. Californian poppy and marigold are particular favourites, we also have bronze fennel, courgettes, kale, and cavalo nero. The currant bushes donated by R.V.Rogers have been plentiful!

Edible Map

At Edible York, we’re working with the community to provide every local and organic food growing opportunity available. This also includes highlighting and pointing out areas where wild produce is already ripe for picking and areas which are ideal for foraging for delicious natural treats.

There is a world of goodness outside your home and with a simple look at our Edible Map; you’ll soon see the vast array of naturally growing wild produce just waiting to be enjoyed. In addition to mapping out all the public food growing space that are known of across the York area, Abundance, York’s urban harvesting group is also hoping to collect details of private fruit and vegetable sources. The map itself shows only publicly available areas.

Across York, the Edible Map highlights a vast array of wild fruit trees, ready for their fruit to be harvested and enjoyed, without a polythene bag in sight. From sweet chestnuts to wild apples and damsons to blackberries, the fruit available across York may surprise some people, who weren’t previously aware of the extent of wild, natural produce available. The Edible Map is collated by members of the Edible York team but also accepts submissions from readers who have spotted something interesting.

As well as fruit trees and bushes, plucky foragers have spotted many naturally occurring herbs and spices amongst the hedgerows of the area. The map shows sites growing of garlic mustard, horseradish and even edible roses. With the vast array of natural produce growing, our work at Edible York can only serve to help the community build up from this great starting point and further develop the sustainable food sources in the area.