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...

Seed and Plant Swap at TCG

Heads up & a date for the diary, for an early spring celebration in the Tooting Community Garden. On March 1st, we will be running a Seed and Plant Swap. Bring any spare plants or seeds you would like to swap or donate to others. It is fine to turn up with absolutely nothing and see what interesting plants or seeds you can pick up! 

It's also a great opportunity to think about growing something for Tooting Foodival in September.

We will include house plants, vegetable and fruit plants and seeds, rooted cuttings, divisions and bulbs.  It's all going to be very informal, family friendly and of course will be a FREE EVENT. 
 
Sunday,1 March 2020 1pm - 2.30pm 
Tooting Community Garden 5 North Drive, SW16 1RN (opposite the common) 

TTT Makes the Guardian in Rob Hopkins Article

TTT is pleased to be included in today's Guardian newspaper article featuring Rob Hopkins' new book What Is to What If: Unleashing the Power of Imagination to Create The Future We Want 

The paper version of today's Guardian

Well done to media mogul Mal for getting some photos sent over in the nick of time featuring the Community Garden, Tooting Twirl and Foodival. The article also references our regular Restart repair cafes.

The online version HERE has a great photo from last month's Foodival courtesy I think of Franco Ruarte. Other TTT pics are featured in the paper version above. Thanks to Simon Maggs, Jenny Teasdale, Bryony Williams and David Thorne for these!

Rob is running an event at Batersea Arts Centre with help from TTT's Lucy Neal entitled Pop-Up Tomorrow (click thru for tickets) which invites you to "step into an imagined future to collectively vision, playfully build and then physically inhabit a 3D vision of a Zero Carbon Britain in 2030".

Meanwhile don't forget tonight's talk with Resina and Belinda on Ecobricking at Tooting Green Drinks. All welcome to the Selkirk Pub SW17 0ES for 7.30pm

Dermot's Meltdown at Foodival 2019

As ever we present a diverse range of local musicians and dancers at this year's Foodival. Dermot's 2nd Meltdown includes some familiar faces from Foodivals past and a few performers new to the Tooting streets. There may be one or two surprise additions before Saturday, but see below for details of who is confirmed so far.

Dan Caleb

Dan Caleb is a "London-based hyphen-loving alt-folk singer-songwriter" who performs solo. For more see Facebook, @dancalebmusic Spotify,  Video , Live Performance.

"Friends Music Circle" are Praful Gajjar, Ranjit Patel, and Hitesh Vyasa, a group with over 40 years experience of playing and singing a variety of Bollywood and fusion music. 

Ranjit from the Friends Music Circle will also be treating us to some of his renowned Karaoke.

Georgia Maria

Georgia Maria is a "Turbocharged acoustic-rocker let loose on London's live circuit. Powerful, darkly poetic modern rock. And Tool covers". See You Tube & Facebook

Local children from "NATYALAYA" Academy of Tamil Arts will be performing two cultural dances, the children will be a aged between 6 and 15 years

Performing a mix of well-known classics and some original material, Pensa & Read are a local Furzedown duo offering a taste of what Simon & Garfunkel might have sounded like if they were the severely overtired parents of 4 small children. Giles Read has plenty of Foodival pedigree, running the festival several times in its early years.

Resina Chowdhury

Usually seen as part of local blues-rock band we're being treated to Resina the solo artist today!

Troubadours de L'Avenue Verte

The 'Troubs' will play Irish, Disco, and Rhythm and Blues, in an unamplified set – just as they do when on tour: they travel by bicycle and carry their entire tour rig with them: which is their instruments, voices and personalities. Their M.O is to turn up at a local bar or cafe, turn out a tune and and if it goes down well they'll play some more, if not they're on to the next spot...feel free to join them and - if the spirit moves you - join in!

Vincent Burke

Vincent played Latitude Festival for the second time this Summer. His music seeks to be both melodic and not-stupid in the word department. The live band now contains the tasty added ingredients of Paul on double-bass, and Jawad on percussion. 

The debut Album ‘Over here in the Trees’ came out this year on Bandcamp and shook the Earth to its very foundations, but while Vincent's feet may be in the gutter his soul rides tempestuously on the stars.

Sophie Rushton-Smith To Run TTC

We are delighted to announce that Sophie Rushton-Smith from The Corner Plot will be coordinating this year's Top Tooting Cook Competition at Foodival on the 14 September. 

Sophie was Top Tooting Cook in 2015

In 2015 Sophie won the prestigious TTC award for her use of locally grown vegetables to make a delicious colourful roast vegetable medley. 

Who will be this year's Top Tooting Cook? Could It Be YOU?

There are lots of lovely prizes to be won. Want to take up the challenge? 

See here for TTC FAQs and the 2019 Registration form.

Email transitiontowntooting@gmail.com with any queries.

Time to be growing for the Foodival!

There are over two growing months until the Tooting Foodival.

That's plenty of time to grow local vegetables from scratch to donate or cook for the Foodival community festival on September 14th.

What can you grow well in your garden, containers or window box in a couple of months?
Who can you get involved? There's a school summer holiday soon, and could the children be in charge? The RHS has a guide to getting children interested in gardening, here.

The varieties below will all grow fast.
Click on the vegetables in the list for more information from gardening websites.
Are some of these new to you? Try them out:

Coriander

Cress
Lettuce

Mizuna

Mustard greens

Radish

Rocket

White turnips

Kohl Rabi  and Beetroot
are worth a try too.

Click here to download a copy of these suggestions with the links to the gardening websites.

What else could be grown quickly? Please share your ideas with us all: Tooting Foodival and Tooting Community Garden are on Instagram, and the garden is on Facebook too.

Happy growing and see you at the Foodival. 
It will be great to see your produce and we'll add you to our 'I Grew This!' poster, 2019 edition

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.

Tooting Foodival 2018: Congratulations to this year’s Top Tooting Cook competition winners!

Thank you so much to the competition entrants, the judges and to the local enterprises who donated prizes for each class in the 'Top Tooting Cook' competition.

We had fabulous entries made with love and delicious fresh local ingredients...all adding up to good tasting and decision-making challenges for our panel of judges. The panel judged several classes as well as the overall 'Top Tooting Cook'.
Thanks loads to Bryony Williams for her beautiful photos in this post.

Overall 'Top Tooting Cook' Winner: 

Norah Jane Brasington - not only for taste and look of all her entries to three categories, but also for her exceptional use of locally sourced fruit and veg, eggs and honey. 

Her choices symbolised the fundamental reasons of this festival which are encouraging the community to consider sustainable living by Growing Local and reducing the air miles our food travels -  thereby reducing carbon emissions.

A fabulous example of a community action response to addressing climate change!

Winner in the Savoury Class:

Farhana Wahab who made delicious Spinach and potato burgers from locally grown vegetables. The judges commented that 'they are amazing and have great texture'.

Winner in the Dessert Class:

Rachel Crosby who made a blackberry and mint cake using locally grown fruit and mint. The judges were impressed especially by her beautiful presentation.

Winner in the Apples and Pears Class:

Norah Jane Brasington for her “beautifully moist" gluten-free apple and honey cake from locally sourced apples, eggs and honey! 

Winner in the Jams and Pickles Class:

Debbie Morey of Good Sorts won with her “delicious" Damson Jam with fruit sourced from a local allotment.

Special Commendation to ‘Baked Bean Boy’ for his hot kale and tomato salsa with “great heat”, all ingredients sourced from donations to Foodival 2018. 

The judges cogitate!

The audience enjoying a taste of the entries

Why not enter 'TTC' next year in Foodival 2019!

Yum!

Whats on at Foodival 2018!

Running Order 2018

Foodival 2018 started this evening with the produce drop-off at Mushkil Aasaan. Left is the running order for the event including all the food, Top Tooting Cook and music timings.  Click through for the pdf.


You can also drop off produce  between 10:00 & 11:00 on Saturday, in time to have what you have grown included in the chefs' cooking.

We look forward to seeing you for the main event tomorrow from 11am until 5pm in Hereward Rd and Mushkil Aasaan HERE

Meanwhile ... anything left in the garden, window box or allotment?  Here are five crops I harvested just now!

Who's Playing Music at This Year's Foodival?

The Dermot Jones Meltdown™ showcases a variety of local musical talent at this year's Foodival, including Dermot himself and some artists so secret we cannot yet name them here!  Here is a taster of some of this year's acts.
 

Dermot Jones

Armed with six steel strings, a larynx, and a love of music stretching back to the 1930's - a little before he was born - Dermot will entertain you with his own original songs mixed in with off-the-wall covers and instrumentals from the worlds of Soul, Pop, Blues, Country, Folk, Jazz, Rock - but not JazzRock, sorry - Spanish, and Ragtime @DermotTJones

The Troubadours de l'Avenue Verte

The Troubadours de l'Avenue Verte, Jawadi Darabuka, Bain Stringy Thing, Longpela Pick and Blow are Lido regulars going out to play with a mix of of Irish, Disco, Rhythm and Blues. Just back from their European tour, where they eschewed a tour bus for three bicycles. 

Tai Li Ling

Tai Li Ling is a ukulele/guitar-playing Scouser specialising in Folk and Blues songs about her experiences living in the Big Smoke - when not in her day job at St George's University.www.taililing.com Soundcloud

Slim Estrada

Slim Estrada, deep south bluesman and Foodival veteran will be making his way out of the alligator-infested swamps (of Ealing) to join us again this year. We don't know if Pablo X and Washboard Bob will be joining him! www.slim-estrada.com

Emma and the Hot Tub Men play an eclectic mixture of original blues and traditional folk songs, with the odd French cover thrown in. Emma has a beautiful, original voice with a wide range and a soulful, yet ethereal tone. https://soundcloud.com/emma-and-the-hot-tub-men https://www.facebook.com/emmaandthehottubmen 

Vincent Burke

Vincent Burke recently discovered the fresh air and long walks of Summer Festivals playing Latitude Festival; some of the set went out on BBC6 Music and BBC Radio 3. He is well behaved, pet-friendly and occasionally entertaining. His music is melodic and not stupid, and now contains the added ingredients of double-bass and percussion.  http://www.vincentburke.co.uk

There will also be acoustic songs and edutainment from a mystery special guest. 100% British culture from a world citizen... expect everything from kawalee to punk via country ballad and beatbox. 

More information will be added to this post as we receive it ... The Meltdown has secrets you know!

Tooting Foodival Food: the Four Wonderful Chefs, and the brilliant local donors of prizes for the Top Tooting Cook competition

All about Tooting Foodival Food:

• Four Wonderful Chefs for the feast on Saturday 15th!
• Brilliant donors of prizes for the Top Tooting Cook competition!

The Four Wonderful Chefs

 
Volker Nissen (top left) is co-ordinating the cooking on Saturday, plus Manisha from Pooja Sweets (top right), Rick Gibbs of Rick’s Tooting (bottom right) & Elisabetta Costantini from Minestra Supper (bottom left).
Thank you all for sharing your time, experience & passion! 

The Top Tooting Cook competition (for details on taking part click here - and please do enter, just for fun of it) has some brilliant prizes for the different entry classes as well as the main TTC award itself.
In the generous style that we so admire in the Tooting community, the competition prizes have been donated by the local enterprises listed below. Thank you so much!

• Abel & Cole (who are celebrating their 30th anniversary)
• Al- Mirage 215 Upper Tooting Road, SW17 7TG
• Deelicious Nazish’s Kitchen 12 Tooting Bec Road, SW17 8BD
• Meat & Shake - Tooting 47 Upper Tooting Rd, SW17 7TR
• Nando's 224-226 Upper Tooting Road, SW17 7EW
• Unwined Tooting Market
• Walker Wyatt Cafe 3 Upper Tooting Road SW17 7TS
• Bring Your Own Zero Waste Shop Tooting Market

So much to look forward to: all welcome to the Tooting Foodival 2018, 11:00 - 5:00 on Sat 15th

at 220 Upper Tooting Road, SW17 7EW!

Join us to celebrate & learn about four of TTT's valued community partners at the Tooting Foodival

We're all looking forward to the FREE 11th Tooting Foodival on Saturday 15th September - for all the details of the Saturday community feast and more, scroll through our recent posts including our invitation to you to donate locally-grown vegetables and fruit, and about entering the Top Tooting Cook competition. 

The Foodival will be at Hereward Road and next door at 220 Upper Tooting Road, SW17 7EW from 11:00 to 5:00 on Saturday 15th.

We want to celebrate four community partners who are helping make the Foodival creative, relevant and anchored in our local community:

• Mushkil Aasaan
• London Sustainability Exchange
• Share Nurseries
• Think Outside

Mushkil Aasaan is a community-based care provider. The Foodival will be in their Hall on Upper Tooting Road and in Hereward Road right outside. Ever since TTT was established ten years ago, Mushkil Aasaan and the Project Director Naseem Aboobaker have been rock-solid friends and partners.

We've lost count of the number of times we have been able to meet or run sessions in their Hall! 
Mushkil Asaan gifts us the yearly use of the land where we run the 'all welcome' Tooting Community Garden, our weekly outdoor learning provision with Gatton School, and our Gardens of Sanctuary family days with refugees & asylum seekers from CARAS.


London Sustainability Exchange has been our partners in past activities on Air Quality and more. Throughout 2017 we worked together as LSx co-ordinated the Pollinator Paths Wandsworth Project which engaged 50+ home growing spaces via 4 local community gardens. LSx will be bringing Pollinator Paths 2018 - come along and learn to love insects!
You can do the pollinator recognition survey and sign up for further exciting involvement whatever your age or growing experience.


Share Nurseries is the social enterprise recently launched as part of Share Community.
Share Nurseries have supplied plants to us in many projects - all grown in Tooting with a tiny carbon footprint and a large amount of love, care and skill by Share's beneficiaries. 
Their plants will form 2 pop-up raised beds in Hereward Road, and the plants will be for sale later in the day on the 15th.



Think Outside is a local enterprise which runs and advises on outdoor learning workshops in schools, assists schools in raising funds for the re-development of outdoor spaces and leads gardening classes and related activities for the wider community.
Come and meet the Think Outside team: they are bringing some great activities from 11:00 until 2:00.
 

 

All welcome to come and learn about these enterprises and enjoy their activities at the Foodival on Saturday.

In another post we'll also celebrate the local people who are taking stands to sell their produce - there's lots to enjoy at the 2018 Foodival!

We invite you to share and celebrate your locally-grown vegetables and fruit at the Tooting Foodival on Saturday September 15th!

We're very excited to be hosting our eleventh annual Tooting Foodival community celebration of locally grown, cooked and enjoyed food on Saturday Sept 15th.

Traditionally we invite our friends and neighbours - and also complete strangers - to generously donate locally-grown fruit and vegetables they can spare. Please join in!

All grown locally and generously donated!

In 2017 500+ people feasted with us via the creativity of many volunteers and 4 chefs, cooking entirely local fruit and vegetables. It was a fantastic experience (more to share to celebrate the chefs).

2018 has been a much harder growing year than 2017, and despite that we hope that everyone's green fingers and generosity can be expressed in some donations - everything is appreciated however diverse or apparently humble. It's about the love of sharing rather than volume (though we do need some bulk as well!).

We celebrate the donors on our 'I Grew This' poster and on social media. Donated veg and fruit also provides the ingredients for our Top Tooting Cook Competition.

All the info in the series of posts here on this blog.

To donate produce, bring it along to Mushkil Aasaan at 220 Upper Tooting Road SW17 7EW on Friday evening 14th Sept between 6 & 8 pm, or on Sat 15th between 10 & 11 am. 

We do hope you can contribute - thanks so much.

And we look forward to seeing you at the Foodival! 

A fun event at the Tooting Foodival in a fortnight. Could you be 2018's Top Tooting Cook? Enter the competition today!

Could you be 2018's Top Tooting Cook?  

Enter the Competition Today!

Even more exciting than Bake Off: show us your vegetarian culinary skills using produce grown and sourced locally and you could win a prize at the Foodival on Saturday September 15th...
and the coveted overall title of "Top Tooting Cook"!



Cook something tasty and vegetarian to enter into the grand cooking fiesta at the 2018 Tooting Foodival!

The competition is open to anyone living, producing, growing or cooking in Tooting and the surrounding area. We supply (or you can use your own) locally-grown fruit and veg for you to cook up at home and then serve to our panel of hungry judges on Saturday Sept 15th.

There are four competition dish categories this year, and the winner in each will win a prize:

1. A dish made with Apples or Pears
2. A Savoury dish
3. Pudding / Dessert / Cake 
4. Pickles / Jam / Preserve / Jelly / Chutney

All entries will be judged on look, taste and how locally-grown the ingredients are. You can use 'pantry' items such as flour, sugar, spices but the more you use that's locally-grown, the higher your mark will be. We have had dishes that are 100% local ingredients...!

There will also be an overall Top Tooting Cook prize, which could be a dish from any category. Last year's overall TTC winner was a squash compote...what will happen in 2018?

This is Imira, 2017's Top Tooting Cook and her prizewinning dish.

 

When and Where:

• Collect free locally-grown fruit and veg at Mushkil Aasaan, 220 Upper Tooting Road SW17 7EY on Friday 14th Sept from 6:00 - 8:00 pm or on Saturday 15th Sept from 10:00 - 11:00 am

• Deliver your delicious vegetarian dish between 1:30 and 2:30 pm to the same venue on Saturday 15th. Please hand in a full recipe sheet for judging and for inclusion in our local recipe bank.

How to Enter:

Belinda is the firm and fair TTC organiser. Contact her by emailing transitiontowntooting@gmail.com to enter or ask any questions.

The TTC judging and audience tasting is always a great scene. Please enter for the fun or the challenge - and to just have a go.
We look forward to seeing you and your dish on the 15th!.

TTC entries in 2017