Next Swap: Halloween Special

The next food exchange is confirmed for Sun 30th Oct - short notice but it looks like it's going to be a return of the summer for a day so bring your best Halloween treats and Samhain savouries for another Fantastic Food Exchange! If you're feeling a little more adventurous you might want to bring down any arts and crafts to swap - I have heard there will be some participants with various artefacts they hope to barter so why not try your luck!

And if you fancy getting involved feel free to join our Facebook group here

Ian

Interview...

Me being interviewed about the food exchange at Metal...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A11bExuszpY&feature=player_embedded

Fantastic!

Thanks to everyone that turned out today the first Fantastic Food Exchange was a big success. We had no idea how the event would turn out so it was amazing to see everyone turn up with all kinds of foraged, self-made and grown produce, from jams to nuts to ...a children's bicycle seat attachment (swapped for cider!).  The weather was also perfect, which helps these things. By 11.00 most of the trades had been made and I had myself a treasure trove of treats which meant one less trip to the dreaded supermarket, with the added bonus of meeting some really interesting people.  I was particularly impressed by the stall populated by entirely foraged food placed in market-style boxes, adding a professional and colourful aesthetic to the event.  All in I managed to swap 6 apple pies, made with locally foraged blackberries and heritage apples from a local orchard, 4 bags of organic potatoes and 6 bottles of elderberry syrup, made from local elderberries and this is what I got in return:

Spinach
1 Beetroot
1 Butternut Squash
1 ? Squash
Plum Jam
Rosehip Jam
Runner Bean Chutney
Leeks
Spring Onions
Rosemary
2 Sour Dough Rolls
Runner Beans
Small Potatoes
1 Marrow
Red Chillies
1 Bottle White Wine
Tomatoes
2 Small Courgettes
Comfrey Liquid Fertilizer / Tea
Bag of Sloe Berries
Bag of Cob Nuts
Bag of Pears
2 slices of Apple Cake

You can see attached the delicious lunch Emma just made us in the photos attached made from this list!

Time to get Funghi!

As a solution to the need for locally sourced food for large urban areas, James Bromfield has shown that "the oyster mushroom, grown vertically within storage containers, and using coffee grounds, sawdust, food waste andfree newspapers  as its growth material, offers cheap, healthy food for those who wish to grow organic in the concrete jungle.

Speaking to james at the last Transitions meeting he informed me of his progress: 

"I have 80 kg of coffee grounds and sawdust in storage boxes at my family residences. I got the coffee from costa coffee and starbucks in the town, and the sawdust cost 13 quid online. From this, i hope to turn around 40kg of oyster mushrooms from my first harvest. If this is achieved, then that means i have a kg of mushrooms to eat nearly every week for a year, irrespective of inflation, tesco opening times and climate change. When you think about this, it means that should there be any disruption to the fossil fuel food chain, the individual who has partnered with the oyster mushroom has a solid food base to sustain themselves, a valuable asset.

 "The oyster mushroom appears to be an almost unstoppable species when it comes to digesting waste material. If you have time, I suggest that people watch this video by Paul Stamets - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI5frPV58tY. The King oyster mushroom appears to be even more formidable, as it can live within soil and deal with the bacteria within it, thats an easy way to increase yield from a land area."

If you are interesting in working together to grow oyster mushrooms as a hobby and/or for local community please contact me by email: james.bromfield@hotmail.co.uk"

James motivation is "Cheap, high quality food. Less dependence on byzantine supply chains that are far too wobbly for my tastes....and Fun!"

Annual Springfield Drive Allotment Show

The annual Springfield Allotment show was on in full force today, proving that fresh, locally grown food is all the rage. I spoke briefly to Allotment Secretary Keith Baxter (Famous Potatoes & co-founder of the Leigh Folk Festival) about the show and how this years chosen charity's (Fair Havens, Air Ambulance & MacMillan's Cancer) will benefit totally from the profits of the various fundraising activities, including an auction of fresh and homemade produce. In addition to the Allotment charity event Springfield Drive Allotments also runs a monthly "Plot to Pot" donation scheme for HARP- with surplus allotment produce/ food is offered to the homeless centre. Long live the Springfield Allotments! ...which has been there for a long long time - even Keith wasn't completely sure how long. If you want to put your name down on the long long waiting list for a plot, or maybe offer your services to any plot holders who are having trouble keeping their plots maintained (I spoke to one) then feel free to contact Keith and visit the site for more info:

01702 341889; keithbaxter@fastmail.fm

http://www.wlcsallotments.org.uk/

It's On!

Sharing The Food We Grow

Hello and welcome to this new blog. My name is Ian Hurd. I am a local artist, educator, Green Party candidate, member of Transition Town Southend, and I want to start a food revolution!

You may have noticed that all over the UK people are getting together to grow food in their communities, start box schemes and the like, which is great. I also noticed recently that more and more people are growing food in their gardens, as well as allotments in and around Southend and don't know what to do with their abundant crops, which tend to get given to family and friends, which is also great but doesn't really incentivise growers or allow them to save much money.

I have agreed with a local, central business owner to let me use a space to set up a swapping market, which can happen as regularly as possible, in line with demand. Think about it; you grow (like I have) loads of potatoes, runner beans and broccoli but have too much to eat and or store, and too little to sell. A number of other people grow a number of other vegetables or fruit and everyone brings their load to the market and we share, barter, swap, and everyone goes home with a variety of delicious locally grown, fresh food. It hasn't travelled 5 zillion miles to get there, it hasn't been sent from a farm in the outskirts of London and best of all it's pretty much organic in most cases and FREE! I will also be doing this from 10-12 am to avoid paying car parking fees for the first hour (the venue has plentiful parking in very close proximity).

So, I am awaiting confirmation for Sunday 21st August to start this and would be very grateful if you'd tell anyone you know who lives in Southend or the surrounding area about this scheme and to contact me if they'd like to attend. I will be opening it up to anyone on the day but I need to get an idea of numbers and organise things so whoever contacts me first will definitely get a space.

I will be asking for donations, though no one is obliged to give me anything, and I will be collecting up this money to put towards any events, change of venue etc. as part of a Not-for-Profit Community Investment Scheme co-operative under the same name (Swap Food Southend).

If you're interested please don't hesitate to contact me: ian.r.hurd@googlemail.com

Thank you for your time and I will post again as soon as I have confirmation of the date and time.