ABOUT THE PROJECT

The Comfrey Almanac is a transcultural garden guide to organic growing, cooking and wellbeing, rooted in the everyday life of The Comfrey Project's community garden, where we support people who have become refugees and those seeking asylum in the North East of England. Created by the staff and participants of The Comfrey Project in partnership with cultural geographer Gillian Jein (Modern Languages, Newcastle University), it brings together diverse cultural festivals, garden knowledge, well-being recipes and the voices of people from around the world. Richly illustrated with community-made artworks and photographs, it is both a practical handbook and an enduring record of shared lives, of migratory forms of belonging and urban ecological care.

A practical tool for any astute gardener, the almanac reflects the seasonal rhythms of life in the garden. Each month is framed by original artworks from The Comfrey Project volunteers. The book has been lovingly designed, illustrating information from tips on companion planting to stories of migration and homemaking, from traditional recipes to correspondences with garden fauna, this book invites the gardener to engage with the translocal times, places and human and non-human beings that bring our shared world to life.

The project was made possible by a network of collaborators, including artists, designers, writers, and local communities. The book was designed by Ronan Devlin; anthotypes were created with Dominic Smith; storytelling was facilitated by Ruth Brickland; the cover illustration was created by architect Afsaneh Amirriahy.

The project was funded by the ESRC’s Impact Acceleration Account, the North East Combined Authority, Newcastle University Centre for Researching Cities, the Humanities Research Institute, the School of Modern Languages at Newcastle University, as well as kind donations from individual sponsors.