Shieldfield Wheatfield was part of an urban food-growing project with artist Mikey Tomkins that began in summer 2019. After talking with participants and residents after his mapping workshops the feedback was that there was a curiosity to actually grow some food in Shieldfield. So we collaborated with the community to grow wheat in Shieldfield that would harvest 10kg of flour, to bake around 10 community loaves to share at a Shieldfield harvest event in September 2020. There were many different aspects for people to get involved in such as building planters, the sowing and growing, harvesting and threshing, baking and eating.

The Covid-19 pandemic hit while we were part-way through this project, making the themes of community, shared food, and outdoor space more pertinent than we could ever have imagined. Due to the project’s outdoor nature, we were still able to continue a lot of the work we had planned.

We were able to sow, grow, harvest, thresh, mill, and bake the wheat.

We also held a cyanotype workshop and a preserving workshop, and documented the growing in our outdoor PROCESS gallery, featuring art from illustrator Benji Spence. We also held our annual harvest festival online, making packs to give out to participants.