My friend Sara Venn

My wonderful friend Sara Venn sadly died on Saturday 21st June, after a long illness with cancer. She was well known, loved and respected in the world of gardening and horticulture as an activist, especially for her work promoting community gardening at Edible Bristol, which she founded.

After a lifetime’s connection with the soil, and working to protect the environment, it is fitting and very Sara that she died on the Summer Solstice.

Sara was a trained horticulturalist, with over 30 years experience and qualifications in horticulture  including a master’s degree. She worked tirelessly as a garden, food and social activist and was a superb communicator. People felt inspired by her, that they could achieve their goals.

Fuelled by considerable cups of tea, Sara Venn was determined to change the world.

I am mentioning her work and qualifications because one of the issues Sara had time and again was some people in the gardening world belittling her, treating her as if she had just grown a few cabbages rather than have a depth of knowledge and experience that very often surpassed theirs.

Sara’s work in community gardening was amazing. I wish she had been able to write a book about real community gardening, listening to and acting on the needs and wishes of the local community. Too many projects are managed by well meaning people wanting to impose their ideas on communities, rather than finding out what was needed. Whenever Sara was approached by these people, asking for advice, she would always say: “Have you asked the local community?”

Fortunately her work is being carried forwards by her son Noah, an excellent and experienced gardener.

Sara was an outspoken supporter of LGBTQ+ rights, a passionate trans ally and the proud mother of a trans son.

Since Noah shared that she had died on social media, there has been an extraordinary response. The outpouring of grief and many comments explaining Sara’s impact on their lives and community, show what an absolute force of nature she was.

Her remarkable influence was shared in an obituary on Radio 4 here.

This isn’t an obituary, or a “life of Sara Venn” post. I want to write a bit about my friend, who was one of the most marvellous people I have ever met. This is also in response to that feeling of absolute unfairness one feels when someone who contributed so much to society, and fought so passionately to support the rights of others and make the world a better place, dies much too young.

The world needs more people like Sara. She is no longer with us, but her work inspired so many that we can all continue to help change things for the better.

One way is to support the crowdfunder for The Sara Venn Project, set up by Noah who explains:

The Sara Venn Project will run firstly from Edible Bristols speedwell site and solely produce fresh fruit and vegetables to a food bank at the haven at speedwell. Sara’s passion was food and making people food secure and this will ensure that 40 families (over 150 people!) will see fresh seasonal food at a time they probably need it most!

Sara had a marvellous sense of humour, and was incredibly sweary. It is unsurprising to those who knew her that when this horrible disease robbed her of her ability to speak much, she could still say “F-off” ! I’m not going to portray her as some kind of St Sara of the Compost Heap. No one who knew her would believe me if I did.

Sara supported me during one of the most horrible periods of my life. As the events at that time went from bad to worse, and then to even more ghastly, when I wasn’t sure that I could cope with any more of the horror, Sara was always there. On the other end of the phone for much of the time, as it was lockdown and both Sara and her husband were shielding, and in person when it was possible to meet up.

I am glad that I told Sara that I am not sure I could have got through that time without her support. This is a reminder to tell people they are appreciated whilst you can: you never know what is round the corner.

The last time we met in person, and in phone conversations, during one of the periods when her speech had returned enough for us to be able to have a proper chat and put the world to rights, Sara spoke about some of the wrongs she wanted to sort out, things she had kept under the radar publicly but felt needed airing finally. Sadly her health declined and she was unable to do this.

I’m not going to name names. The conversation reminded me so much of two classic Sara lines:

“No, just no”
“Don’t be a d*ck”

Sara couldn’t stand people using their privileged position to cause harm to others – an author using their global influence to bully, generate fear and misunderstanding, and create misery for minority groups. People in the gardening world using their influence and huge social media presence to share conspiracy theories, encouraging the use of expensive “devices”, and monetising this by selling books and courses (although she did find the photos of their devices etc hilarious). Climate change deniers winning environmental awards. Employers treating their staff improperly, unkindly, or down right cruelly. Sara described her experience of this as “hell”. Establishment organisations standing in the way of change. People writing gardening books with almost no experience of growing. And so on… there was quite a list!

“Check your privilege”

Another very Sara comment, and one which most of us need to refer to from time to time. Sara had a way of saying “Stephanie” when I was saying something that really was twatty. And as she was not St Sara of the Compost Heap, Sara also had her twatty moments – and the good humour to laugh about them.

“Check your privilege” isn’t about being all doom laden, but understanding the privileges we all have, in different ways, and also using our privilege to make life better for others. Of course too often those with a huge amount of privilege in our society use it just to make their own life easier, wealthier, more powerful.

I have so many things I was waiting to tell Sara next time we met up, but she died before I could. Her health declined the week I was due to visit.

How can all of that energy be gone? Who will I sing The Bog Song with now?

The Bog Song

Sara was great fun to be with, we had such a laugh together. Here we are singing part of  “The Bog Song”, filmed by Becky Searle.