A brief history of mud cic

In January 2016, siblings Jo and Sam, who were born and raised in Eccles, a town in Salford, started a year long commercial organic market gardening programme - Farm Start, with the dreams of running a veg box scheme near Manchester one day. A year down the line and they were made an offer they could not refuse, some friends had access to a disused old bowling green in a busy public park in the middle of Manchester and wanted to hand it over to people keen to turn it in to a space for growing food. They named it Platt Fields Market Garden.

January 2017 - One of the first days Sam & Jo visited the former bowling greens at Platt Fields Park

Not long later, a mutual friend introduced them to Mike, an experienced allotmenteer who was working in the social justice sector. They quickly became friends and the three decided to form MUD, with the collective dream of starting a career in food growing without having to leave their community and home to do so.

It had soon become clear to them that there was so much that a community market garden could bring. All with their own lived experience of how community growing helped them through difficult times, the focus shifted from not only soil and biodiversity but to wellbeing and community too.

2 years later, in an extremely unique turn of events, 6 months after the three quit their jobs to commit full time to MUD, the pandemic hit and everything changed rapidly.

From 10-15 volunteers a week to hundreds of volunteers signing up in a matter of months, they were hosting hundreds of volunteer hours a week. They accessed the second side to the the bowling green and literally doubled the space to grow.

What went from workshops, gleaning and food growing snowballed into 40 veg boxes a week, streams of funding for wellbeing services flowed and the first sparks of MUD Kitchen in the form of filter coffee and cake from the gates of the garden.

Jo, Sam & Ashley in 2019 making up veg boxes.

The team grew and as the restrictions lifted community events began. Everyone wanted to be together again and what better way to do it than in a place that formed through the community in such difficult times.

Although veg sales dropped, interest in wellbeing, growing and community steadily grew and the team developed more sites across the city.

They continued to develop the infrastructure at Platt Fields Market Garden and invested in a new indoor and outdoor kitchen and cafe to continue to host community events, volunteering and forest school.

Now the team of growers, support, chefs, baristas and all-rounders continue to help make MUD a sustainable business. Full of talent and passion the wider team are working hard to fight against the constant push towards greed and destruction of our environment, communities and wellbeing.