The first Tuesday of June marked an abrupt and definite end to the May heatwave, with hailstorms and thunderstorms raging over Ealing in the afternoon. Six GoodGymers who weren't scared off by the weather, caught in the worst of the rain, or stopped by the tube strikes were lucky enough to miss the downpour and even catch some shy rays of sunshine. Jumping over puddles, Freya, Steph, Sevan and Kash ran through Ealing Common to Popesfield Allotments to meet cyclist James and walker Anna.

The goal of the task, commissioned by the horticultural charity Cultivate London, was to clear a vegetable patch to serve as a communal starter plot for people on the allotment waiting list. The idea was to give them a chance to learn, practise, and enjoy growing their own fruit and veg while they wait for a plot of their own. As you may know, waiting for an allotment space in London can take years, so the GoodGym team was ready to take on the weeds that had spread across the patch and give those keen future gardeners the best possible start in food growing.

If you think the session was a typical power-weeding-raze-everything-to-the-ground-total-destruction affair, then think again! The veg patch was already planted with a variety of legitimate plants, so uncovering all the plot's secrets hidden beneath the overgrowth proved to be quite an educational experience. Although the GoodGymers were physically on their own at the allotment, Romina from Cultivate was on the other side of Kash's phone, providing live support. The team trusted Romina more than Google Lens and happily sent over pictures of questionable plants for identification.

Among the plants the group recognised on their own, or with Romina's help, were poppies, tarragon, sage, artichokes, broccoli and other brassica plants, African kale, and curry plant (not to be confused with the curry tree, which actually produces curry leaves), to name just a few. The remaining greenery, classified as weeds, filled nearly two half-tonne bags, later hauled to the green waste disposal area. In less than an hour, the two-sided plot was unrecognisable and looked like a veg patch once again – if you can identify your veggies, of course!

Next Tuesday, we are off to Elthorne Park to keep burdock under control before it spreads too far, prevents other plants from thriving, and produces the burrs that get stuck in your dog's fur! Let's tackle this spiky troublemaker before it starts producing its prickly hitchhikers. Sign up now!

Friend of GoodGym and LDN Tube Runner, Claire, is taking on the infamous Comrades Marathon in South Africa. As well as taking on this huge challenge, Claire's taking a bag of pre-loved running shoes with life left in them to donate to local runners from disadvantaged communities. Some of these folk can do 400km/month run-commuting because they can't afford public transport.

And this is where GoodGym comes in! Four of our runners who might possibly have more running shoes than are strictly required hunted through their shoe boxes!

Harvey collected the shoes, making use of old packaging, and met up with Claire for the official handover. Coffee may have been involved.

Claire will now transport our old shoes to the southern hemisphere, where they'll be cleaned up, and make sure they find new owners who'll get many more miles out of them!

Another unusually hot weekend in May, another trip to Southall for GoodGym Ealing - this time to Western Road Urban Garden to help Southall Community Alliance with planting exotic crops ahead of the season.

The garden was visited not only by six GoodGymers but also, unexpectedly, by three police officers on patrol. While the GoodGym team started preparing the veg beds and erecting trellises for beans and gourds, the hosts Janpal and Ash gave the officers on duty a comprehensive tour of the food-growing space. And there were novelties since our team last visited the garden - a new beehive had been built behind the polytunnel, with dozens of stingy pollinators already getting busy around it!

On such a hot day, many would choose an indoor task in the shade, rather than digging weeds and shovelling compost in full sun. It wasn't the case at WRUG, where the only place that counted as indoors was the polytunnel. While the early arrivals, Maxime, Sevan and Kash were responsible for preparing the outside raised beds, Ash was assigned to help Janpal construct trellises. After almost an hour (with breaks, of course!) of roasting in the 44°C "oven", he developed such an engineering skill in trellis building that his capabilities were sought for outdoors, at the raised beds, freshly weeded and topped with compost. Ash swapped with Kash and Sevan, who, together with Lena, entered the polytunnel for the planting phase. Meanwhile, Ash taught Harvey and Maxime all his trellis know-how, and all three got to planting in the raised beds.

It was a special session for Ash, as he not only survived the polytunnel sweat challenge and spread the construction knowledge, but also hit a milestone of 25 good deeds - halfway to the black T-shirt!

The crops planted today, including many South Asian staples, were:

• Snake gourd
• Bottle gourd
• Kerala
• Pumpkin
• Melon
• Tomato
• Red bell pepper

As usual, Janpal prepared a feast for the volunteers, with plenty of ice cold water to keep us hydrated, bananas, strawberries, tangerines, giant blueberries, and staple samosas. Breaks in the shade with refreshments in reach definitely helped the team keep going!

We should see the fruit ready for harvest in a couple of months! Meanwhile, we are planning another community day at WRUG in June to prepare space for additional water storage at the garden. Sign up now!

Four Goodgymers present for the lunch service. It started very quite in the morning and throughout the day the temperature was going up but the flow of people was still very smooth which helps the table service. James was giving out parcels ...90 of them. Delphine joined the kitchen crew as was on pot was duties. Rainu was serving guests and was in her element. Steph Ducat was still in kitchen plating either the chicken casserole or a veggie option with a hand made mash and sone green beans. The temperature reached 30 degres in thr kitchen despite having a fan put i it. The flow was very smooth and the guests enjoyed the food. We started getting Michelin ratings and we got several 20/10 for the food. Let's put a Michelin star outside of the ESK entrance. the crew plated just over 100 main courses...yet we counted and to be exact it was 105 plates. Dessert was either you love it or you hate it : you make your own mind on this one. The desert was a Tiramisu!!This was a last minute option as originally it was going to be apple pie with custard. We know the guests love their custard so maybe next time it will be apple pie and custard.

For Kash and Sevan's 4th missionversary 🎂, like their first mission in 2022, groceries were involved and they were helping an old favourite, Mr G.

Mr G had a few new issues since last week's shopping mission and the most important one was that everything was disconnected from his home broadband. His provider switched out his router a few days ago and didn't connect any of his devices to the new wifi. As well as Mr G's wifi being out of tune, so was his hearing. Everyone had to shout to be heard by him, making all attempts to communicate pretty noisy.

On the upside, Mr G had also had an epiphany (or maybe a dis-cod-very) during the week. Why did he keep buying salmon that he didn't like when he really enjoyed cod? He got out a pen and a white label that he stuck over the salmon packaging and got Kash to write "fresh white cod" neatly in its place. It would do until he got around to making a new bundle of labels.

With the shopping list fishnished, Kash and Sevan set off to Sainsbury's and spilt up to get a few of Mr G's favourites and some new additions, including tortellini. They found everything except the often-out-of-stock ciabattas, buying some panini bread instead. As it turned out Mr G had recently decided that paninis were the better of the 2 so, this turned into a happy coincidence.

Back at Mr G's, he was very happy with his haul of cod, both breaded and natural. Kash helped pack some groceries away while Sevan explained the magic of tortellini and that it can easily be cooked from frozen. Another amazing dishcovery for Mr G this week.

Both James and Steph Ducat were early at the crypt of the church to help out at ESK. Both regulars and before walking in they already knew were they would be working. James in the prep area of grocery bags and Steph Ducat in the kitchen. It was very calm : was a storm coming? The kitchen was in full swing but no chaos. 90 grocery bags were prepared and ready for later. The doors opened at 11am for the customers and it was very quite. Tea, coffee were served and bingo was also starting. In the kitchen, the crew were on time and had some spare time on their hands.