News
Growing Communities launches UK-wide search for new box scheme entrepreneurs
Growing Communities is looking for other groups or individuals from across the UK to set up community-led box schemes based on Growing Communities' model.
Last year, Growing Communities’ pilot Start-up Programme helped five groups from South London, Margate, Burnley, Manchester and Scotland to set up their own box schemes. These are now thriving and supplying sustainably and locally produced fruit and veg to their local communities – as well as generating new jobs and income.
Growing Communities’ community-led model is part of the wider movement for creating environmental and social change that includes social enterprises and cooperatives, community-supported agriculture and crowd funding.
“We believe that community-led box schemes are key to making our food system more sustainable and resilient in the face of climate change and resource depletion,” said Growing Communities’ director Julie Brown. “We set up our box scheme over 18 years ago to provide our community with a way of sourcing local organic food and to direct money from this community to the small farmers and growers who are farming in a more sustainable way. Along the way we’ve also created jobs here in Hackney and generated the income to allow us to start other projects to change our food system – including our urban food growing and our farmers’ market. We are now looking for other people who are passionate about providing their communities with real alternatives that make a direct link between those communities and the people producing their food.”
This year Growing Communities aims to take on six groups and is hosting a free introductory workshop on 4 July from which groups will be selected for the Start-up Programme. Individuals and local groups who are interested in setting up a community-led box scheme in their area and who would like to apply to join Growing Communities’ Start-up Programme should sign up for the workshop here.
Growing Communities now packs more than 1,100 bags of fruit and veg every week, supplying around 2,500 people in East London with organic, locally produced food. The scheme helps support 25 small organic farmers and growers, mostly from Kent, Essex and East Anglia, as well as employing 22 people part-time in Hackney. Growing Communities also grows almost a tonne of salad leaves every year on its own small market gardens in Hackney to supply the box scheme.
Five community groups from Margate, Burnley, Herne Hill in London, Moffat in Scotland and Hulme in Manchester launched their own box schemes in summer 2011 after taking part in Growing Communities’ pilot Start-Up scheme last year. Jenny Slaughter from Burnley Cropshare said: “Being part of the Growing Communities Start-Up scheme has been invaluable in giving us the confidence to launch our own local veg box scheme in Burnley. By having a tried and tested model to follow, we have saved time and effort in reinventing the wheel and have avoided many pitfalls. Ongoing support for problems and queries has definitely smoothed our path. Despite Burnley being demographically very different from Hackney, we have learned that the same principles for success apply.”
Therese Stowell from Local Greens in Herne Hill said: “Being a part of the Growing Communities Start-up Programme has been brilliant, and key to our success. As well as providing us with a proven business model to follow, it gave us the confidence and support we needed to undertake such a daunting project.”
* According to Defra, the combined market share of food and non-alcoholic drinks of the largest four food and drink retailers (Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons) was 62% in 2009.
* Small farms find it increasingly hard to make a living from agriculture. In 1939, there were 500,000 farms in the UK, employing 15% of the population. In 2010, according to Defra, there were just 114,000 farms, employing less than 1% of the population.
* Organic farming in the UK provides 32% more jobs per farm than equivalent non-organic farms. (Source: Organic Works report. Soil Association 2006).
* Defra figures show that UK producers accounted for just 23% of the fruit and vegetables consumed in the UK in 2009. Last year, 85% of the veg and 34% of the fruit supplied by Growing Communities’ Hackney box scheme was grown in the UK.
* The five new box schemes from Growing Communities’ pilot programme are supporting at least eight more local organic farms and two wholesalers in their local areas.
The Annual Growing Communities Plant Swap 2012
Want to give your vegetable garden a kick start this spring?
Our Annual Plant and Seed Swap will be taking place at our Springfield Park site on Sunday 6th May, from 2pm til 5pm. We will have plants to swap or to buy (by donation) as well as seeds. Seedlings on offer this year will include tomatoes, squashes, herbs, soft fruit, salads and more. Please bring along any plants or seeds you want to swap.
There will also be tours of the growing space, so this a chance for you to come and see where your box scheme salad comes from!
Seasonal Taster event at Dalston Eastern Curve
Our second Seasonal Taster event of the year will be taking place at our Dalston Eastern Curve Garden pick-up this Thursday 29th March from 4pm till 7pm. The free event will allow GC box scheme members who collect from the garden to...
Sample some seasonal dishes prepared with delicious produce from the box scheme (including veg quiches, one-pot veg stew & veg cake)- Meet some of the GC team and find out more about our various projects
- Take away some great recipe ideas
- Celebrate the beginning of Spring!
We'll be running more seasonal taster events at our other pick-ups over the next few weeks, so watch this space!
Seasonal Taster event at Chat's Palace
Our first Seasonal Taster event will be taking place at the Chat's Palace pick-up next Wednesday 21st March from 4pm till 8pm. The free event will allow GC box scheme members who collect from Chat's to...
- Sample some seasonal dishes prepared with delicious produce from the box scheme (including veg quiches, one-pot veg stew & veg cake)
- Meet some of the GC team and find out more about our various projects
- Take away some great recipe ideas
- Have a sneak preview of Claudia Moroni’s photography exhibition (based on different aspects of GC’s work)
- Celebrate the beginning of Spring!
We'll be running more seasonal taster events at our other pick-ups over the next few weeks, so watch this space!
A green Christmas at Stoke Newington Farmers’ Market
December 2011 - It was an even greener Christmas than usual at the Stoke Newington Farmers’ Market last December when the market temporarily moved to the West Hackney Recreation Ground on Evering Road, N16 (immediately behind St Paul’s Church on Stoke Newington High Street, where the market normally runs).
We had a great range of sustainable, local food from small organic farmers and producers and the seasonal mood was enhanced by mulled wine, roast chestnuts and fairy lights in the trees. The market is the only all-organic weekly farmers’ market in the UK and was one of only three finalists in the BBC Food & Farming Awards 2010 in the Best Food Market category.
We have a fantastic new cheese maker at the market. The Bath Soft Cheese Company have been farming at the 300-acre Park Farm in Somerset for three generations, raising cattle and making a range of soft, hard and blue organic, pastuerised cheeses that have won awards up and down the country. Bath soft cheeses have a long and impressive heritage – Admiral Nelson’s father even wrote letters to him commending them more than 200 years ago!
Stocks Farm have organic turkeys and geese as well as hams, sausages and bacon – they also have a new range of pies, steak and kidney puddings and pâtés. Lots of lovely organic veg at the market too – potatoes perfect for roasting as well as parsnips, carrots and, of course, Brussels sprouts. For those preferring a less traditional spread, the market has a fantastic range of wild and cultivated mushrooms, salads and seasonal veg, as well as fresh and smoked seafish caught off the Sussex coast.
Move over Westfield; hello West Hackney
The market is also a great place to buy presents. Foodie friends enjoy the selection of amazing cakes, cheeses, chutneys, jams and beers. Niko B sells a range of fantastic chocolates made with seasonal ingredients. We think pies make perfect presents too! And Sheila Poole makes beautiful, aromatic Christmas wreaths out of herbs and spices.
In the run-up to Christmas the market was home to a range of craft producers, including Ruth Cadeby, who knits lovely shawls and baby clothes from reused wool, Natural and Organic Soaps and the Stour Valley Organic Lavender Company.
OFFICIAL NOTICE OF MEETING - AGM
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Annual General Meeting of the Company for 2011 will be held at The Old Fire Station, 61 Leswin Road, Stoke Newington, London N16 7NX on Wednesday 7th December 2011 at 7.30pm.
AGENDA
1. Welcome, introductions and apologies for absence
2. Financial Report for the period ended 31 March 2011.
3. Election of Management Committee for the year 2011 to 2012
Please download the Management Committee Election form and information (pdf).
4. Chair’s report
5. Any Other Business
There will also be seasonal celebratory food and drinks and copies of the Annual Report and Annual Accounts to view or take away.
Making a buzz on Apple Day
Stoke Newington Farmers’ Market celebrated Apple Day on Saturday 15th October with lots of apples as well as local honey and bee experts on hand to explain the importance of bees to fruit growing. Growing Communities’ assistant grower, Pip Bromley, talked about our natural bee-keeping project at St Mary’s Church on Stoke Newington Church Street.
“There were plenty of the usual fun activities for adults and children, including the chance to get soaking wet bobbing for apples or have a go at pressing your own apple juice,” said market manager Kerry Rankine. “And we had some of the more unusual apple varieties on show, such as Ellison’s Orange and Court Pendu Plat, which is one of Britain’s oldest apples as well as bee inspired art from artist Julian Beere”.
Alongside the apple display we played a radio programme about apple wassailing in Hackney and showed some short films about sustainable food. A local charity sold vintage clothing and offered visitors the chance to sit down and enjoy a cup of tea in a proper china cup.
Apples have always been important to the market: Stocks Farm brought apples to our very first market back in 2003 from the small orchard they rented from a local landowner in Essex - which was also where Chris and Iain kept their chickens and later grazed their sheep under the apple trees. Since then they've planted up new orchards with a mixture of old and new varieties including Court Plat Pendu - which dates back to the 1600s, James Grieve, Egremont Russett and Charles Ross. Marina O'Connell has planted up her 4 acre smallholding in Essex with hundreds of fruit trees including hardy apple varieties
such as Saturn and Red Devil which she sells at the market. And recently Ripple Farm, who sell organic veg at the market, were able to bring along some the Spartans they'd harvested from some old trees they'd rescued on their land.
Growing Communities' Open Day - Sunday September 18th
Growing Communities welcomed dozens of visitors to its three urban market gardens in Clissold Park, Springfield Park and Allens Gardens on Sunday 18th September. At our Clissold site, visitors had a chance to taste the leaves for themselves - and vote for their favourite.
Growers, apprentice growers and graduates from the urban apprentice scheme were at the sites to talk about how we produce organic salad leaves for the box scheme on the market gardens and on our smaller sites that make up its Patchwork Farm in Hackney.
The Allens Gardens site also has an eco-classroom that was featured as part of this year's architectural programme Open House London. The sustainable building has a green roof to attract insects, a composting toilet and sustainable insulation.
Growing Communities' Hackney-grown salad is "highly commended" in national organic awards
Growing Communities’ salad leaves, grown on our market gardens and Patchwork Farm in Hackney, have been “highly commended” in this year’s Soil Association Organic Food Awards. These awards are open to organic farmers and producers across the UK.
“We are really pleased that our salad has done so well in the Organic Food Awards – it’s a bit of a triumph for urban growing and for our hardworking growers, apprentices and volunteers” said Sara Davies, Growing Communities’ grower, “ It makes sense to grow produce like salad as close as possible to where we live – this award shows that urban produce is delicious as well as sustainable!”
The majority of Growing Communities’ salad bags go into our community-led organic box scheme but over the last year the Growing Communities sites have become so productive that the salad leaves are now being sold to over ten local restaurants, cafes and shops in and around Hackney as well as going into the box scheme – giving even more people access to locally grown organic produce. Outlets include the E5 Bakehouse, the Three Crowns in Stoke Newington, Organic and Natural in Clapton, Happy Kitchen in London Fields and the Duke of Cambridge pub in Clerkenwell. Ben Mackinnon of the E5 Bakehouse said “We are delighted to be able to receive such great quality salad leaves grown right here in Hackney and delivered in a sustainable way. Our customers love the freshness and diversity of the leaves.”
As one of the pioneers of urban food growing in the UK, Growing Communities also runs an Urban Apprentice programme to help get more people into growing for a living. The Apprentice scheme currently trains four apprentices a year. Growing Communities’ Patchwork Farm, which recently received Big Lottery funding, offers graduate Apprentices, micro-sites in Hackney where they can grow salad leaves, sell them into the box scheme and generate income for themselves.
Stoke Newington Farmers' market opens on High Street
Stoke Newington Farmers' market launched in its new location at St Paul's Church on Stoke Newington High Street on Saturday 9th July. Niall Weir, vicar of St Paul's cut the official ribbon and welcomed customers to the market. 
Hundreds of local people turned out to shop for locally produced organic food and enjoy the cucumber sandwiches and live music from Beskydy. There was a fine selection of produce for sale - in particular lots of soft fruit and summer salad vegetables as well as artisan chocolates from local chocolatier Niko B and sourdough breads from Syd Aston.
"Stoke Newington Farmers' market has made a huge difference to the fortunes of over 20 small organic family farms around London as well as helping lots of local people set up their own sustainable food businesses" said Kerry Rankine, farmers' market organiser for Growing Communities "We hope our new location at St Pauls on the High Street will allow more people across Hackney to buy food directly from the local farmers and growers who produced it."
Last year, BBC Radio 4's selected the Stoke Newington Farmers' market as one of three finalists from across the UK in its Food and Farming awards in the Best Food Market category.
The Ecologist magazine recently listed the Stoke Newington Farmers' market as one of the top ten farmers' market in the UK - the magazine particularly liked "the way it encourages and fosters urban organic farming and consumption, via the inspirational produce."
The market continues to attract a strong local following with over 1,900 people from across Hackney and surrounding boroughs visiting the market every Saturday. Growing Communities has also worked with several local food producers from in and around Hackney to help them set up and develop their products to sell at the market. Producers from our immediate area include Hatice Trugrul, who makes traditional Turkish borek from ingredients at the market, Niko B Organics Chocolates and Global Fusion, who bake Creole-style vegan cakes and breads.
Farmers' market makes Ecologist's top ten
Those lovely people at The Ecologist magazine have listed Stoke Newington Farmers’ Market as one of the top ten farmers’ markets in the UK, saying: “The true beauty of this hidden gem is the way it encourages and fosters urban organic farming and consumption, via the inspirational produce.” They singled out Niko B for a special mention – “an organic chocolatier whose offerings include chocolates containing some unusual ingredients such as fresh herbs and sea salt. Best of the bunch are the ganache-stuffed figs soaked in amaretto”.
Stoke Newington Farmers' Market - supporting small dairy farmers
With the arrival of Hook and Son, the farmers' market now has two organic dairy producers selling raw milk, yoghurt, cheese and for the first time - butter and cream.
It's never been more important to support small dairy producers and to know how your milk is produced. Rising costs and low milk prices have meant that over the last decade two-thirds of small dairy farmers in England and Wales have gone out of business. At the same time cows reared on conventional farms now produce thousands of litres more milk every year than they did twenty years ago which has implications for their welfare.
The industrialisationof UK food production - in particular - dairy and meat - continues:an application in Lincolnshire for a giant dairy unit housing more than 3,000 cows inside has just been withdrawn after thousands of objections; the next application may not be.
The market is an important outlet for small mixed farms that produce food in a truly sustainable way, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and without routine use of antibiotics and vaccines. These farms also make a real contribution to rural economies; Hook and Son's farm now employs 17 local people in processing, packaging and distributing their dairy produce.
Hook and Son and Higher Alham farm sell raw (unpasteurised) milk and dairy and attend the market every week.
On Saturday 19 March, Iain Learmonth of Stocks Farm chatted to Growing Communities' Nick Perry about how he makes the sausages and showed us how it is all done. Some brave market customers had a go at making their own sausages and discovered just how tricky it is.
Iain explained how he and his brother Chris rear the pigs, a mixture of Gloucester Old Spot and Large Black, on their small mixed organic farm at Wiston in Essex, where they also keep sheep and chickens as well as growing apples in their organic orchards. Chris and Iain were the first farmers to agree to come to the Stoke Newington Farmers' Market when it started in May 2003. Iain makes all the sausages himself - using his pork and local ingredients. When he started making sausages, Iain discovered an old recipe belonging to his grandfather, who was a butcher - and tried it out. Since then it has become one of their most popular sausages: the "Granddad". Iain also makes his own organic black pudding - which is some of the best you'll ever taste. The black pudding has become so popular that Iain has now invented a "Breakfast sausage"which combines pork and black pudding for the ultimate breakfast fry-up. Iain is continually thinking of new sausage recipes: his latest invention is a pork, mustard, beer and honey sausage.
We also welcomed a new stallholder to the market this week. Kate Hopkins, who liv
es in Sussex, makes a selection of delicious salads using seasonal, organic ingredients bought from Ripple and Perrycourt farms, which are both neighbours of hers, as well as Sarah Green Organics in Essex. This week she had several beautifully coloured and very tasty salads including beetroot and pear, potato, carrot and squash, and purple-sprouting broccoli and bacon. You can eat them on the spot or take them home to enjoy later.
