MUNGRISDALE
WOMEN’S INSTITUTE
Recent events
August
Meeting
Members were treated to an excellent demonstration of basket making by Phil Bradley at the August meeting.
Sixteen pieces of willow were used to start a plant support and these were carefully joined together by weaving willow that had been soaked in water to make it more flexible. With a little help from one of the members the support was finished in just 45 minutes.
The willow for the plant support was just one year old and each piece was between 6 and 8 feet long and of different thicknesses, although most of us could not tell the difference.
All
of the willow that Phil uses is grown in Cockermouth where he has 2.5 acres of
dedicated beds, growing 37 different varieties.
Each one grown with an end product in mind and all harvested by hand each
season. Phil uses management
techniques that avoid any reliance on artificial fertilizers and pesticides and
was awarded the