IPSWICH: Festival of Ideas and 30-mile Food Challenge- 12 May

Interested in green issues – from fixing your bike (bring it along!) or growing your own food to global concerns about climate change and population? Then come to Ipswich’s second Festival of Green Ideas on Saturday 12^th May at the Quaker Meeting House, on Fonnereau Rd, opposite Christchurch Park, 10am-5pm. Entrance is free and the whole family is welcome.

With a wide variety of stalls, talks, films and children’s activities throughout the day there will be plenty to get everyone engaged. Our Local Food Café will be serving delicious local produce and challenging you to Eat Local. During the afternoon there will be a Question Time style discussion, where everyone is encouraged share their thoughts and feelings on the many issues that the Festival embraces.

Transition Ipswich will be 'launching' our 30-Mile Food Challenge, which will be taking place this September. If you want more information about that - several Transition Groups are thinking of doing a similar Challenge - do get in touch we me as we are more than happy to share our resources (our new website will be going live in early May) and get ideas from others who have done it before.

Further information at http://www.suffolkquakers.org.uk/green-ideas.htm or contact Heather Bruce on: 01473 257 649 or hbbruce@hotmail.co.uk

Digging for Victor - Great East Anglian Beans

Norwich is geographically well placed to feed itself. But to do it, and to break our dependence on high energy inputs, would mean changes in our diet, land use and farming. Put simply: less meat, more beans!

Victor field beans, a type of fava bean, are grown widely in East Anglia for export. Aside from fertility building they make great food for livestock and people. In the UK we've lost our taste for the humble fava bean, preferring legumes like lentils and chick peas which are hard to grow here. But the rest of the world still loves them, whether as ful medames, hummus, falafel, crisp snacks or in many other dishes.

Victor beans will soon be available in Norwich. If you pop in to a Norwich FarmShare share day at the end of March or are part of the Low Carbon Cookbook team you'll be able to pick up packs free. They'll also be available to buy in selected shops.

The beans will be dried and split for ease of use, and come with cooking instructions and links to a website with recipes. And we'd really like to hear your feedback. Josiah Meldrum (East Anglia Food Link)

Contact: info@greatbritishbeans
Web: greatbritishbeans.co.uk

Norwich Abundance Project: Where are all the fruit and nut trees?

Years ago there was a tradition in our society of foraging in the wild. It is a tradition we have lost. Beginning with the Enclosure of common lands - and increasingly as food production has become more and more globalised, we have become used to buying all our food from shops and supermarkets. Before the process of Enclosure became widespread, culminating in the 18th and 19th century Acts, local people had the right to forage, cultivate, cut hay, graze their animals, fish and collect timber and turf for fuel from common land. As the fields, meadows and commons were fenced off, many of the poor became dispossessed and people were forced to leave the land. Food that had previously been free became a commodity that had to be bought.

These days there is necessarily an emphasis on local and low carbon food production; but ‘free food’ remains a largely untapped source. A number of communities have started mapping their local foraging opportunities. Following suit, a few of us from the FarmShare food hub have created a map to show fruit and nut bearing trees and bushes (walnuts, sweet chestnuts, rose hips, hazel, elderflowers and berries, sloes, blackberries, damson, plums and apples; and so on). Go here to add any sources you know of on publicly accessible land (please, not private land). And let’s grow the map.

There was a flurry of activity last month when the map was launched. There have been over 1,000 views, and a few trees have been added as people have found their way to the map. People with google accounts can add to it – and for others there is an email address on the map, so information can be sent via that to be added by us.

There have been some great ideas for how this project could be developed. One contributor to the map emailed suggesting trying to get more fruit and nut trees planted around the city; and even creating an orchard garden. Wivenhoe have broadened their foraging map to include fruit and veg, eggs and honey sold at people’s gates.

There are some exciting ‘Abundance’ projects going on up and down the country - including just down the road in Bungay, where, separate from their public map, they keep a database of trees going unharvested on private land and then arrange (with owners’ permission!) harvesting forays, or getting people who want fruit together with other people’s surplus fruit. They also hold produce swap days and feature an Abundance table at most of their events. In Sheffield surplus fruit is redistributed to the community on a non-profit making basis, they have collective juicing days, make jams and preserves; now even manage trees and run workshops on planting and pruning. OrganicLea in London run a ‘Scrumping’ project, and distribute the fruit and juice, pickles and jams that they make from surplus or wild sources of fruit from a market stall and a community café.

These are all ways that we could take our own foraging project here in Norwich.

What do you think? Sarah Gann

Gathered Norwich walnuts and cobnuts, with sloe gin (Sarah Gann); GrowSheffield's first Abundance crop; poster for local Fruit Day; first fruits of the season (Sustainable Bungay).

BUNGAY: Happy Mondays at the Community Kitchen - 10 October

In August we hosted the second Happy Monday at the Community Kitchen, a soon to be regular shared meal made with local ingredients and served at the Community Centre. The first Happy Monday was a pie and mash night, the second a curry night and the kitchen team did a fantastic job; coming up with a great seasonal menu then turning vegetables and fruits from local farms and gardens into a mix of spicy Indian dishes followed by a plum kulfi.

Eating together is a pleasure that seems to transcend other cultural barriers and, as I’ve experienced working with farming communities in Italy, France and Spain, it’s a chance to talk unguardedly, perhaps do a bit of business, and celebrate great cooking, local food and food producers. The benefits of eating together go beyond the social: collective cooking has a lower environmental impact with fewer pots in fewer ovens, less energy and water used to cook and clean and, if well planned, less waste is produced.

Happy Mondays at the Community Kitchen will always be a celebration: the room will be decorated; the menu will use the best local and seasonal ingredients. But it will also offer opportunities for volunteers to build their kitchen confidence, learn about local suppliers and discover new recipes and ideas.

To highlight what’s growing in and around Bungay gardens and to help make sure it all finds a home, every Happy Monday will feature an Abundance table - a chance to bring and share surplus garden produce.

In time we hope there will be a Happy Monday every week, but at the moment our aim is a monthly meal. If you’d like to get involved, perhaps supplying ingredients from your garden to the kitchen and abundance table, cooking, suggesting recipes or helping meet and greet please do contact us.

For the next meal we’re focusing on local autumn fruit and vegetables, we’re cooking for 40 – please do join us!

When: October 10th, 6:45 for 7pm
Where: Bungay Community Centre, Upper Olland Street

If you'd like to join us for a delicious meal made using mostly local, often organic and always carefully thought about ingredients then please get in touch (info@sustainablebungay.com).

The exact menu will be decided closer to the date as we get a better idea of what might be available, but we're planning a celebration of autumnal bounty. What we can tell you is that our two course meal will only cost £5 - which we will ask for when you arrive - will be cooked and served by volunteers and will taste fantastic!.

We work to a single sitting and will be cooking for around 40 people so please arrive at Bungay Community Centre in Upper Olland Street at 6.45pm for dinner at 7pm (places will go quickly so please do fill in the form if you'd like to come).

We don't have a licence to serve alcohol, but do feel free to bring a bottle if you'd like a drink with your meal. Josiah Meldrum

HALESWORTH: Forest Garden Talk

Our HinT meeting at Halesworth Library last Thursday evening (8th September) was so well attended that we had to scout around the library to find more chairs. Marion Gaze who works at Wakelyns' Farm in nearby Fressingfield presented an entertaining and lively talk about how she ended up working on this experimental agroforestry farm. She went on to tell us more about the research they carry out at the farm where they are currently working with mixing different varieties of the same crops together and growing crops between lanes of trees.

Marion then introduced us to the concept of forest gardens, and the course with Martin Crawford that she recently attended. Although we have already run a HinT tour of the farm, we can see that another one could be interesting for newer HinT supporters. Trish Dent

HinT website: http://hint.onesuffolk.net

NORWICH: Introducing Kitchen Conversations - Low Carbon Cookbook - 24 August

Last month the Low Carbon Cookbook project met, as usual, for delicious supper of shared dishes (from rainbow summer slaws to foraged cherry plum pie) and afterwards discussed the Burning Issues embedded in the present industrialised food system. We looked at the scarcity of water, the destructiveness of supermarkets, peak phosphates, and how we can change the menu, both practically and philosophically, in our daily lives and neighbourhoods.

We also decided to open out these monthly discussions and invite everyone to take part in a conversation over supper on all aspects of food and carbon reduction.

Our first Kitchen Conversation will be on Eating Local for Real on Wednesday 24 August at 6.30pm at Jo Balfe's new cafe The Nectar at 16 Onley Street, just off the Unthank Road. Jo is a member of the TN Permaculture group and gives regular workshops on cooking and eating local and raw food. We'll bring our own local low carbon dishes to share and Jo will be offering drinks and pedal-powered desserts.

We'll be holding our second Low Carbon Kitchen Conversation at Norwich FoodCycle Cafe in September. These free community meals are cooked up each week at the Friends Meeting House kitchens from food that would otherwise be thrown away, donated by local shops, restaurants and market stalls (including surplus veg from Norwich FarmShare).

Everyone is welcome at both events. Details and times will be added soon to the calendar. Watch this space! Charlotte Du Cann

Bicycle blender outside The Nectar; Low Carbon Cookbook Crew; blight-free organic potatoes at The Spuds Don't Work anti-GM rally outside the Forum

Kitchen Conversation 1: Eating Local for Real at The Nectar Cafe, 16 Onley Street. KC 2: Food and Waste will be at FoodCycle, Friends Meeting House, Upper Goat Lane in September. For more details contact Charlotte Du Cann rootshootsandseeds@hotmail.co.uk

Events for Community Food Enterprises

GOOD GOVERNANCE & COMMUNICATION SKILLS FOR CO-OPERATIVES

A training day for individuals, employees, volunteers, public sector organisations, transition groups, community groups & co-operatives
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10 - 5pm Saturday 22nd January 2011
Friends Meeting House, Fonnereau Rd, Ipswich
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This event isn't restricted to food enterprises; I want everybody to come!

The skills on offer may not at first glance seem meaty or applicable, but it's been proven that when community projects fail it's often due to the membership or employees not having the basic skills to work together, or not understanding the infrastructure and systems of the entreprise.






















A MINIATURE FOOD CO-OPS CONFERENCE FOR THE EASTERN REGION

For interested individuals, new and established community-owned food entreprises, and food access or ‘5-a-day’ projects

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Tuesday 25th January 10:30 - 4:30
Museum of East Anglian Life, Stowmarket, Suffolk
www.eastanglianlife.org.uk
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Discover what support you can get from Sustain’s Food Co-ops project, where your nearest co-op is, hear from experienced food projects, and exchange ideas for the future!

Speakers:

- Kirstin Glendinning - Swillington Community Supported Agriculture & the Soil Association
- Gemma Sayers - Food Co-ops Project & Ipswich Food Co-op

A Plenary with:

- JP- Hastings Community Fruit ‘n’ Veg project
- Jacqui - Community Food Entreprise, East London

+ Networking with local groups and Action Planning to help set up or improve your community food project
+ Delicious lunch of local seasonal produce

This is a FREE event but booking is essential
Contact: http://www.blogger.com/gemma@sustainweb.org or 07971 863 586

More information and a toolkit showing how to get started is available at http://www.blogger.com/www.foodcoops.org

If you are involved in the local food, community food, or food production sector, this event is for you. Likewise, if you are faced with transitioning to a more sustainable and autonomous future. But you are welcome even if your interest is simply in the consumption of good food!

I have chosen the speakers to cater to a variety of groups; those needing templates for making their entreprise stand alone when they've previously been shored up by local authority funding and support; those looking for radical ways to take control of their food supply, those needing specialised information on ambitious independent systems like CSA's; and anybody who'd like to know what's out there that can make good food more affordable and accessible.

There will be plenty of time for Open Space discussions at the event, and that includes food co-ops and others presenting about the work they do, bringing any issues they've encountered to the forum, or thrashing out ideas for a project step-by-step.

Bungay, Halesworth and Beccles - Apple Days - 16 and 23 October

Several Transition Suffolk initiatives are hosting Apple Days this year in celebration of our great native fruit and all things juicy and sweet - from local community orchards to the best apple recipes. Sustainable Beccles and Halesworth are both holding stalls in their respective town centres on 16 October and Beccles hosting an apple talk and community lunch on 23 October (see poster).

Sustainable Bungay meanwhile hosted a stall at this years' Bungay Apple Day on 2 October in collaboration with the Suffolk Wildlife Trust. Our main aim was to promote the Abundance of Fruit project and sign up people with surplus fruit, neglected trees who were keen to help gather, process and redistribute fruit much along the lines of the inspiring Abundance project in Sheffield and similar to the work Transition Beccles and Halesworth are doing.

We pressed apples and gave away juice, tried some of the 50 varieties of apples that Jim Cooper of Clarkes Lane Orchard grows and ate Elinor's delicious apple cake (Josiah Meldrum).

Scratting (breaking the apples up before pressing them)



Some of Jim's apples

Norwich: Introduction to Permaculture Gardening Workshop - 10 July

Come and find out what Permaculture Gardening is all about. These informal workshops will cover the 12 Permaculture Design Principles, how to apply these in your own gardens to create edible, biodiverse and beautiful spaces, including using ponds, discovering Mulch (and why mulching matters!), companion planting, herb spirals, keyhole beds and composting. Also a session on Forest Gardening, layering and Perennial crops. and Permaculture gardeners question time!

The introductory workshop will be held at the Grow Your Own shed at Bluebell Allotments (South), from 10-4 on Saturday 10th July. Please bring something to share for lunch, hot drinks provided. £10 donation to cover costs. 10-12 participants. (Brenna Powys/Food & Farming)

To book a place please contact Mahesh Pant at sustainable@talktalk.net tel:01603 455868 www.grow-our-own.co.uk

Norwich: Food,Inc.

This must-see film tells an unwholesome story of big American agri-business, where working conditions, animal welfare, the livelihoods of farmers and consumers’ health are all held hostage by the drive for ever bigger profits.

The film highlights how a mere handful of companies control most of the food production business. One such company, Monsanto, has teams of detectives out scouring the countryside for farmers daring to save seed from one year to the next – or those that could be said to encourage such practice through their offer of services, like seed cleaning.

The film illustrates how ‘corn’ (maize to us) is turned into beef in the notorious feeding lot (with not a blade of grass in sight) – how corn indeed forms the basis for so many products in what seems on the surface to be an almost infinite choice in the modern American supermarket; how chickens (with echoes here of recent TV programmes by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall & Jamie Oliver) are crammed in their thousands into spaces where they can barely move around – and if they could, they’re so weighed down by grossly fattened bodies that their legs can’t carry them more than a few paces.

Don’t miss this film! Catch it at Cinema City on Monday, 29th March, 8.30 pm. Peter Melchett – Policy Director of the Soil Association and North Norfolk organic farmer – will be present at the end of the film for a Question & Answer session. The Soil Association is the official charity partner of the film.

Suggested links: http://www.foodincmovie.com/; and ‘Why Food, Inc. should make us all retch’ by Charles Clover in The Sunday Times: www.timesonline.co.uk/news.

(Sarah Gann/Transition Norwich Food Group)