Lockdown Love, Episode 1 - FOOD!

Lockdown has been in place here in the UK since the middle of March and had a huge affect on our activities. We had to improvise quick, like everyone, and adapt to a rapidly changing context of how we live, where we live. 

Over the early weeks, our growing core group found our niches and put what energy we each had into developing outward facing projects to help our community, both near and far, using networks nurtured with love for over 10 years. 

Over the next few days, we'll be posting what's live and how you can get involved. We'll be sharing projects about public space and building community with more posts cooking up.

Never know, Transition Town Tooting maybe fertile ground for collaboration with you!

This episode is all about food and offers four projects: Vegetanuary! - an online group focused on celebrating and sharing vegetarian and vegan cooking; Foodival2020 begins! A callout to share food growing stories and a date for the diary as we stretch to imagine our annual food festival in September; Tooting Community Garden has been sharing the wonders of nature in Spring and looks to future projects and our Neighbourhood Seed Swap in direct response to a huge spike in interest in growing your own. Do read on...

Growing Community across London - Part 1...

130 people joined us for 2 events during London National Park City Festival Week!

Our 2 linked workshops, called Growing Community in the Heart of Wandsworth, invited people to come and get their hands dirty learning how to make vertical planters, potting on, creating leaf pressings and loads more. They also created a lasting echo in both locations, read on to find out more...

The first event was at Ravenstone Primary School on Monday 22nd July. What struck me most about this day was that we had way more young people than adults and all the young people wanted to get active.

The cloth planters were made using a staple gun, here's Kate and Chuck in action. 

These four friends knew exactly what they were doing making cloth planters 

These guys loved moving muck and making a wee home for their plants.

A big element of our day was to give a workshop on making vertical planters. Why? To show what can be made with largely waste materials - pallets, any cloth, cardboard tubes from carpet shops and homemade compost. Paul Wilson gave a fantastic session on the pallet planters, encouraging people young and old to get involved.

Paul in action taking through the endless possibilities of a pallet

All planted up and ready to go!

Grandpa/son tackle the drill

The day also inspired a diverse range of volunteers who not only helped deliver the event, but also had time to catch up, share experiences and enjoy the day. HUGE thank you to Miranda, Tara, Paul and Paul, Sarah, Mary, Peter, Claire and Claire and Veronica.

Big up the Volunteer Team!

We were planting for community, for ourselves and for nature. At Ravenstone, the vertical planters for community will be used in a brand new Wild Place for Nature. This project, led by parent volunteers and quite literally digging up the asphalt down to the subsoil to build up new planting areas and provide much needed connection to nature for the 400 children at the school, not to mention parents, teachers and staff.

Everyone got to take a plant home and, of course, all the planting was good for nature.

Feedback, child-style... do we really hate plants??

Both events for part of a London wide National Park City Festival with events happening over 9 days and the announcement by Mayor Sadiq Khan of London being the world's first National Park City. Many more Cities across the World have their eyes on London and are exploring what National Park City status means for them. For us, its about advocacy for green and blue spaces in celebration for all that they give us. Its also about feeling part of a much bigger ecological and social system across London whenever we come and garden at home, at Ravenstone or at Tooting Community Garden. Its a fantastic response to the Climate Crisis, embracing imagination, communities and wonder in making London healthier, greener and wilder.

Blog 2 will be all about the linked workshop at Tooting Community Garden, keep those eyes peeled!

Follow London National Park City Foundation HERE
And their website HERE
Check out the National Park City Festival Website HERE

Jellybrella: TTT's invitation to be creative

A second set of photos of our Jellybrella creative workshop on May 11th. These  are all about the day as an invitation to be creative...welcoming people in new ways...and what participants thought about it.

All the background on this participative creative community sustainability project is in a past blog post - please click here It includes "what and why is a Jellybrella?" 

We asked for feedback and below there's a photo of two of the evaluation forms completed on May 11th (click here to enlarge):

We're proud that participants found the Jellybrella day welcoming and inviting.

Reaching parts we had not expected, David even wrote a very special Jellybrella song for one young girl who is a fan of Morrissey (think 'Jacky's Only Happy When She's Up On The Stage').

May 11th lyrics here

About 60 people came along on May 11th; over half were children. The participants were very diverse: half were english and half from many other places: several European and S Asian countries - and Mexico!




In our earlier adult workshops in March and April the balance was 2/3 of participants from countries other than the UK.
Lastly, everyone was from other countries in our February family workshop with CARAS refugee family participants. 65 took part in that workshop (2/3 were children).

A total of 140 people of all ages and cultures took part in our 5 Jellybrella workshops.

We're going to write up our collective reflections on the Jellybrella project, and we'll share our learning soon.

And we'll share our ideas for Jellybrella 2!

Making together to create a Jellybrella on Saturday

We were thrilled with the Jellybrella creative workshop on last Saturday May 11th which we facilitated at Sprout Arts in Furzedown as part of the Wandsworth Arts Fringe.
The weather was mostly kind and we did most of the day outdoors. Thanks for all the support and to Nikki, David, Jane & Chuck for facilitating.

Lots of people came and many of them worked together - parents and children, friends, siblings, grandparents and grandchildren - as well as others who created solo.
It was fascinating to experience the energy of all these different relationships expressed in making together. 

Do you work closely, or independently? Is there a plan or are you both developing the Jellybrella as you go along? Who's leading? What's the energy like - thoughtful, stimulated, quiet, noisy?
 

These photos celebrate making together - and we'll share some more sets of photos on other aspects: happiness, pride, fun, wellbeing, surprise, working with the re-purposed materials, the Jellybrella's message & story. 




Jellybrella has been fascinating and we have a lot to reflect on in terms of community participation and carrying off bold ideas.
We also have more to share on the adult workshops that led up to this public event on Saturday.
If you missed it, here's a link explaining the Jellybrella project which we've been working with throughout this spring: https://tinyurl.com/y6t9pb9o

What combines creativity, community participation, charity, fun, repurposing waste, wellbeing, inclusion & shopping for good?

Jellybrella does! (now we know...)
On the Bank Holiday weekend and all next week: combine your love of creativity and fun with shopping in a good cause.

Visit the super new Wandsworth Oasis shop at 61 Balham High Rd & admire windows full of Jellybrella creations. 

The Jellybrellas were created last week by local adults with sight loss from Thomas Pocklington Trust Balham Resource Centre nearby: these two photos are from that workshop.















Thanks so much to Gill the Balham Oasis shop manager for all the support collecting customers' umbrellas since February and saying 'yes, have the window!' as a wonderful opportunity to share the joy of Jellybrella! Thanks also to Michelle the manager at Oasis Trinity Road and Joy in Oasis Mitcham Lane.

Make your own Jellybrella on Saturday May 11th at our free public workshop at Sprout Community Arts - all the details at tinyurl.com/y6t9pb9o

What will your Jellybrella be like? 

We can't wait to find out!

 

Eco-checking, a memorial bench, school planters, knitted bees and Jellybrella - 2019 Update #1 on our partnership project with CARAS

We've enjoyed and learned so much from our partnership project with CARAS which has been running since spring 2015.
Here's a short update on several of the strands - taking the first three in the list above, each of which has involved the Youth Club for asylum-seekers and refugees. We'll share Update #2 soon.

As ever, if you are inspired to contribute to the projects - offering good ideas or simply your time, sharing specialist skills, as a donor in kind, as a partner group - you are very welcome to contact Chuck at TTT by email here.
Over 40 individuals and a dozen local organisations locally have been involved with the TTT + CARAS partnership in many ways over the past 4 years.

Eco-Checking the CARAS offices
CARAS has achieved a gold standard London Youth Quality Mark for carrying out participatory and youth-led eco-check of activities across 3 sets of sustainability criteria: Energy & Water; Healthy Living and Litter & Waste. Helped by Egle from CARAS and Sara from TTT, a team of young people identified relevant issues and then analysed how well the organisation as a whole deals with the challenges.

The intention was not to blame, but to make an action plan for 'things to change and put right' as well as 'things we do well already...and so we should keep doing them!'




Examples from the action plan:

• stop purchasing single use plastics for the many meals that are prepared as part of the CARAS programmes
• renew the planting boxes outside the offices for 2019 so that we're growing what we might like to eat, and so that there are beautiful plants that are welcoming, that we like and that are good for pollinating insects

Here are the brand new colourful plates, bowls and cutlery which will be used again and again at CARAS and on Family Days at other local venues.
You're welcome to read the eco-check detail - click here.
It's admirable because it is short, practical and understandable, and transferable to many other community voluntary settings.


Congratulations to the multi-language group who came together in Tooting to put the eco-check together!

Tooting Speaks! The big dilemmas of local food

30 passionate Tooting folk came to The Selkirk (thanks so much Ben and the team!) on Wednesday night to join our 4 fantastic speakers, Kemi Akinola, Robert Biel, Robyn Knight and Sue Sheehan, in wrestling with the big dilemmas of sustainable food systems and what we can do locally. Our title was "Local Food is an Expensive Luxury" and the discussion was hosted by TTT's co-founder Lucy Neal. If you're interested in these gatherings, they're part of our monthly Green Drinks at The Selkirk on the third Wednesday of every month, details HERE.

Local Food is an Expensive Luxury

But what was it that contextualised food as "local"? Our first speaker, Sue Sheehan (Incredible Edible Lambeth) opened the account with the hyper local - food grown by you as being an active form of protest - claiming the land and building personal resilience for healthy, home grown, cheap veg and against the power of advertising and convenience, after all, gardening is the most "therapeutic and defiant act as you can do" according to the ultimate Guerrilla Gardener, Ron Finley, watch THIS and "plant some shit". Switch to our second speaker, Dr Robert Biel, Senior lecturer at University College London and author of Sustainable Food Systems - the role of the city and we learn as recently as 1985, with population at 56 million, the UK produced 95% of its food from within its shores... a poignant and powerful statistic, particularly given the risk of a no deal Brexit and the threat that presents of us not being able to feed ourselves, which you can read more about in a recent article by Jay Rayner HERE.

Read on for LOADS more...

Thank You Everyone at Foodival 2018!

It takes many people to make Tooting Foodival happen.  

Here's a short thank-you to (hopefully) most of you!









GROWERS

Without your generous contributions of locally grown produce we would not have been feasting!

• Charles & Lesley, Foulser Rd - tarragon & bay leaves 
• Elisabetta, Dahomey Rd - Tuscan kale, cima di rapa, marrow, leeks, chard, pumpkin
• Jane, Furzedown - rhubarb, squash
• Tamworth Farm Allotment growers - marrows, squashes, cucumbers, peppers
• David & Mal, Ramsden Rd - radishes, grapes, tomatoes, runner beans, kohl rabi
• Kath, Khartoum Rd - beetroot, carrots, courgette
• Susan, Cornford Grove - grapes
• Michael, Ullathorne Rd - grapes, courgettes
• Hilary, Tooting - plums
• Tooting Community Garden, North Drive - blackberries, greengages, garlic, Picasso & Maris Piper potatoes, pumpkins

• Rachel, Tooting Bec Rd - courgettes, cucumbers, tomatoes, mini aubergines, chillis, peppers
• Richard, Upper Tooting Park - mint, rosemary, beetroot, courgettes, tomatoes, curly kale
• Chuck, Cornford Grove - sprouting microgreens
• Debbie, Furzedown - pumpkin, runner beans, cucamelons, squash, courgettes, apples
• Egle, Derinton Rd - pea shoots, mustard greens
• Susie, Earlsfield - carrots, yellow courgette, potatoes, tomatoes, runner beans, rosemary, sage
• Belinda, Beechcroft Rd - flowers, marrows
• Poppy & Teo, Streatham - patty pan & butternut squash
• Al, Tamworth Farm - snake gourds, squashes & marrows
• Sue, Furzedown - butternut squash, pumpkin, courgette, green leaves 
• Ollie, Clapham Junction - squash
• plus...Abel & Cole donated several boxes of organic vegetables when we were concerned that the summer's drought would limit the amount that community growers could spare us. Thank you so much!

CHEFS
Volker Nissen of Essential Ingredient for co-ordinating the cooking on Saturday with three notable local chefs: Manisha from Pooja Sweets, Rick Gibbs of Rick’s Tooting & Elisabetta Costantini from Minestra Supper Club.

Inviting you to our series of free local events this autumn exploring sustainability in Tooting!

We're thrilled with the fun and buzz at the Tooting Foodival last Saturday! Thanks to all who contributed their time, equipment, skills and produce to make it a success (see the I Grew This 2018 blog post).  Over 600 people took part on a sunny Tooting afternoon!
Much more to share about it soon on this blog.

The Tooting Foodival was the first in a series of free local events this autumn, all about exploring, influencing and creating sustainability in Tooting, together.


All invited to all of them!

Click here for a copy of the flyer.



The next event is a Tooting Debate on Weds 19th Sept:

'Local Food is an Expensive Luxury'.

Yes, we know.....that's intended to be provocative after the success of the community Foodival based on locally-grown food, local cooking and local eating together. 
Come along and share what you think! Details to come here on the blog.
The debate is on Weds 19th Sept from 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm at The Selkirk Pub, SW17 0ES

We'll promote and share details of all the other events in good time.

Annual general meeting and celebrations

Here at Transition Town Tooting we love a chance to celebrate - and we don't mind a good birthday cake either!
Last month was our annual general meeting and party, the perfect opportunity to reflect on the past year, look forward to the future and celebrate the now.
We had feedback from some of our main events and projects of the last year and it was lovely to hear from some new faces.

The projects represented were: Foodival (Mal), Future Tooting (Eleanor), Restart/Sewstart (Jeni), Vegetanuary (Sharon), Tooting Twirl (Lucy & Richard), Carbon Conversations (Peter), Caras (Jeni & Egle), Outdoor Learning (Sharon), Tooting Community Garden (Christine) and Green Drinks (Richard).


This list shows the diversity of our community activities - some long standing partnerships, some one-off events - and of course covers just a snapshot of the many things TTT is involved with.

We then moved to the formal part of the evening - reports from the treasurer, secretary and co-chairs and the reelection of the officers. Your chief officers remain: Sharon Gray & Jeni Walker, co-chairs; Eleanor Glen, secretary; and David Thorne, treasurer. We look forward to hearing from you!




Time for a fun activity - we asked everyone present to write down some ideas for future TTT projects or wishes for Tooting on a 'cookie' and these will be stored in our TTT Cookie Jar to be enjoyed when we have a lull in our calendar - there was certainly plenty of food for thought.

A quiz followed, put together by David, which provoked much debate and brain-straining and then we rounded off the evening with a gorgeous chocolate cake to celebrate TTT's 10th birthday, some delicious snacks and many enjoyable conversations.
Huge thanks to everyone who came and contributed to a great evening. We look forward to seeing you at next year's party, or before then at any of our TT activities. Just email us on transitiontowntooting@gmail.com to find out how you can get involved.
Sharon