A GROWING co-operative has been set up in Trawden to follow in the footsteps of Todmorden’s Incredible Edible.

Dozens of residents in the Pendle village have joined Trawden growing co-operative which aims to grow, share and cook its own food.

The group hopes to cultivate unused areas of the village to grow herbs, fruit and vegetables and hold regular meetings to swap home-grown produce.

The co-operative, set up by Trawden resident Claire Brightley, 41, has met twice to discuss ideas.

She said: “My husband and I grow a lot of our own fruit and vegetables as do a lot of residents in the village. We thought, why don’t we all get together and share the produce that we grow? We hope to hold events every couple of weeks in the church hall where we can swap produce.

“At the first two meetings we discussed what we aim to do and where we can grow things.

“The problem is that a lot of people want to get involved but don’t have the land, and allotments in the village are in short supply.

“We had a walk around and established locations in the village that we could use to put growing boxes, and other people who have a lot of land have offered to let other people use it.”

The group has built a growing box outside the village library but are seeking funding to build more. We have had a lot of ideas of things that we would like to do such as sharing hen and bee-keeping skills, having vegetable box deliveries and running a supper club with the produce that we have grown.

“We hope the co-operative will bring unused land back into cultivation and bring the community together.

“We are hoping to get some people from Incredible Edible in Todmorden to come and talk to us about how to progress.”

The next meeting is at The Old Rock Cafe in Keighley Road, Trawden, on August 22 at 7.30pm. For more information, call Claire on 07948 977919.