Last year around Valentine's Day we asked our customers what they loved about the market, (if they did love it of course..) and got some great responses, (my personal favourite: "Matthew's, (the mushroom man) hat" ). This year we asked our farmers and producers what they loved about coming to the market and their customers.. Here's a selection of their responses - read them, enjoy, (and blush..)We'll be displaying them all at the market this Saturday.

"What we really appreciate is the friendly community feel. People are really interested in what we are doing out here and that makes it all worthwhile when we're digging leeks out of the frozen ground! We had to close our farm shop as people round us are not so interested in food and its provenance. It's great to be part of a tradition of coming up to town to sell your produce as people did centuries ago". Sally Green, Sarah Green's mum.

"There's no comparison between Stoke Newington Farmers' market and others. It was my first market, so I didn't realise all markets weren't like that till I tried some others. It has a great sense of community and the customers are really sociable and take a real interest in the traders." Anthony Ferguson Niko B Chocolates.

" People here are cheerful, happy, friendly and loyal. All markets have their own atmosphere and I really like the one here. The trees help it to feel like its's not on the High Street - even tho' it it is!" Matthew Rooney, Mushroom Table

"People here are very down to earth. They come from all walks of life and they are very friendly and interesting. This market has a nice vibe - it's not pretentious, it's happy, eclectic, creative and left-field". Paul - Channel Fish

"The Stoke Newington Farmers' market has a lovely sense of cameraderie - not just with the stallholders but with the customers as well - there'e also a great community spirit. I'm proud of the fact that the market's maintained its organic status." Syd Aston, Astons Bakery

"I love the ambiance of this part of Stoke Newington- I prefer it to the old site in the school as it has more trees and feels closer to nature. " Kenny, Perrycourt Farm

Last week, Growing Communities hit the road again, this time to visit another community box scheme: Local Greens based in Herne Hill South London.

Local Greens is a not for profit enterprise and the brainchild of three friends: Therese, Jean and Maria. Fired up with the desire to create an alternative to the current food system they joined the Growing Communities’ Start up programme in 2010, a programme we set up to train and mentor other communities to set up community-led box schemes based on the Growing Communities' model. 

Local Greens launched their box scheme in June 2011 and are now packing and distributing over 100 bags of produce a week. Like Growing Communites, the Local Greens box scheme harnesses the purchasing power of their community to buy local sustainable food and supports small-scale organic farms by paying them a fair price for their produce. As a result of Local Greens' endeavours, the farms they work with are planning to increase the amount of organic growing in 2012 as well employ more local people. In turn the surplus monnies generated by Local Greens has led to job creation in Herne Hill and enabled them to start plans for an urban market garden project. 

Sometimes when you embark on new ventures you just don’t know whether they are going to work. The risk seems particularly high when you are a small community organization in Hackney with very limited financial resources and a small number of staff. When we embarked on the ‘Start up’ adventure we didn’t know whether success in Hackney could be replicated elsewhere. On this evidence, it can. A sustaining thought in the effort to create a fairer, sustainable alternative to the current food system.

To find out more about the Growing Communities Start-up programme: http://www.growingcommunities.org/start-ups/

To find out more about Local Greens: http://www.localgreens.org.uk/

More news this week of former Growing Communities employees going on to do great things. Many long standing members of the box scheme will already know the trajectory of our previous growers, with Ru Litherland running Organic Lea’s hawkwood nursery in north London (also supplying our box scheme) and Sara Davies busy setting up growing projects in her native Zimbabwe.

Now we’ve heard a rumour that Maisie 1 (our former milkfloat and stalwart extraordinaire of the delivery run) is treading the boards at the Barbican no less! Yes, the old gal was renovated and rejuvenated by the magic fingers of milkfloat engineer Trevor, before being painted green and tasked with ferrying on the operatic cast of Britten’s adaptation of a midsummer nights dream.  We imagine that Maisie’s somewhat temperamental nature might fit in quite well with the artistic warblers of the Guildhall school, although providing her with her own dressing room will no doubt prove to be a bit of a sticking point. Show starts 28 February 2012 http://www.barbican.org.uk/music/home  

Last week, on an unseasonably sunny hot morning in Jan, I visited Ripple farm to talk about planting plans for the coming season. 40 mins by train from London, Ripple is a small 14 acre farm situated in the Stour valley at the foot of the North Downs. Growing Communities partnership with Ripple goes back 10 years, when we visited them to persuade them to have a stall at our farmers market in Stoke Newington.  Ripple then began supplying the box scheme and is now one of our main suppliers.

The farm is rented by farmer Martin Mackey, originally hailing from county Cork, Ireland. Martin first went to Wye to study for a masters from the (now defunct) Wye valley agricultural college. After graduation, a job at Ripple farm later led to him renting the site with a colleague from the landowner and assuming the management of the farm in 1999. 

‘Home farm’ is the hub of the farm: The two fields surrounding the barn are a visual testament to Ripple farm’s commitment to small scale, sustainable, organic mixed farming. Phacelia is grown to encourage bees. A patchwork of different vegetable growing is interspersed with pollytunnels of salad and strips of fallow ground, where grass and clover is grown to rejuvenate the soil before crop rotation ensures the soil’s nutrients are once again utilised to grow the food that GC members eat. On the other side of the valley an ancient earthwork is evidence of the 2000 year old agricultural history of the area.

As well as Martin and his wife Sarah, the team at Ripple consists of local growers, harvesters and packers. Many have worked at Ripple for years.  Some have come through the apprentice programme that Martin runs in conjunction with a local college.  Being a tenant farmer is very far from a lucrative occupation. It is also very hard work, with long hours and six day weeks the norm. But get Martin on the subject of organic farming (particularly potatoes) and you get a sense of the drive that keeps this operation going.

The story of the relationship between Ripple and Growing Communities symbolises everything that Growing Communities was set up to try to achieve.  As the box scheme has grown and thrived so it has provided a stable, predictable income to Ripple farm. This in turn has enabled Martin to be confident in renting and utilising more land in the local area for sustainable growing: which includes an unused Victorian walled garden complete with Haversham-esque collection of dilapidated buildings and glass houses, now used for propagation. Both organisations have been able to generate employment for their communities and train the much needed growers, processors and farmers of the future.

Paul Bradbury is Growing Communities' new grower and we asked him to tell us about what's going on at the sites right now. Given that it's January you might be expecting him to say " not much" but as you'll see below, there's more happening at the Urban Market Gardens than you'd expect. Over to Paul:

"Well, our gardens are resting under their winter fleeces, which I’m happy to say have so far survived the bouts of lashing wind and rain that we have had over the last few days.  Storms aside though, the winter has been so mild that everything is still growing.  As a result, we are harvesting a few bags of rocket which will be on sale at our Urban Farm Shop at the Old Fire Station next Wednesday.  Also at the Farm Shop will be a rare chance to buy some Oca tubers.  Also known as New Zealand Yam, Oca actually hails from the Andes and has a lemony flavour reminiscent of wood sorrel to which it is related.  For that fresh crunchy taste, the tubers can be eaten raw but they can also be boiled, baked or fried like potatoes.  In Mexico, they are traditionally eaten raw with salt, lemon and hot pepper.  If all this wets your appetite, then be sure to pick up a bag at our Farm Shop – it may be the only time you see Oca on sale in London.
The downside of the mild temperatures is that aphids are still abroad.  They are currently having a bit of a party in the Allens Gardens greenhouse, which I’m doing my best to break it up with my trusty nettle and garlic sprays.   I think I’m making headway, although the greenhouse has taken on the aroma of an ancient piece of garlic bread! The gardens will be opening up again to volunteers at the beginning of February – an exciting time when we will begin planning and planting for the new season, so if you fancy coming along and getting involved, it would be great to see you."

Sara - our lovely grower is leaving us to go back to Zimbawe - Sara has written a goodbye blog for us:

I’ve known for a while that come the end of the growing season I’d be handing over my gardening belt and heading back to Zimbabwe. Yet despite some time to get used to the idea, it’s no easier to say good-bye, both to the sites I’ve been working these last five years and the rather amazing group of people I’ve worked with.

When I started in 2007, there was the grower, two of us apprentices, and a fairly flexible programme for volunteers. Now as I leave my post as grower, the volunteer programme is still going strong but as well as the grower there’s also an assistant, five Patchwork Farmers and four newly graduated apprentices. In addition to growing a serious amount of food, we’ve really managed to grow a fine team of growers!

With our Clissold site becoming more and more productive (we turned the butterfly tunnel into a polytunnel last year) and the Patchwork Farmers running four microsites as part of the Patchwork Farm, it’s become quite an operation. One which saw us harvesting and then packing over 80kg of mixed salad leaves at the height of the growing season: getting a bag of salad out to every member of the box scheme plus onto the plates of many more people through local restaurants – and we kept this up for 6 weeks running.  It’s been hard work to say the least, with the rather large dose of logistics that comes with growing at multiple sites. But the level of cheer and dedication from my fellow growers plus the honest appreciation for the delicious organic leaves we are growing right here in London has been more than enough to buoy me along.

I wish Paul well as he takes up the reins: may your secateurs be sharp, the compost rich, the robin friendly, the slug scarce and let the salad growing continue on.

Sara Davies, November 2011

A lovely sunny day at the market on Saturday - and lots of even more lovely produce, (over-use of the word lovely? almost definitely..) but a bit of a highlight was Kate Hopkin's salad stall. Kate started at the market in April with her home-made salads which are ready to eat. Kate uses vegetables and sometimes fruit from the market to make a range of delicious salads.  The salads change with the seasons and reflect the produce on sale from the farmers' stalls around her.  Personal favourites include her beetroot and pumpkin seed salad and on Saturday she produced a new turnip salad based on her home-made turnip pickle using turnips from Sarah Green's farm in Essex.  Turnips are not one of my favourite vegetables but Kate's Parsley and Pink Pickled Turnip salad was a bit of a revelation..like a pink and less spicy version of Korean kimchi.  This week in the veg bag we have turnips and Kate has very generously given us her recipe to share with the box scheme members via the newsletter and on-line here. 

Growing Communities' Open Day on Sunday - all three market gardens were open and looking beautiful and highly productive. The sun shone despite the previous evening's forecast of heavy rain all day which had created a slight feeling of gloom for those of us who were due to work! Visitors included joggers at Clissold - who ran in and round the polytunnel, box scheme members keen to see where their salad bags came from, farmers' market customers, people who came to see our eco-classroom at Allens Gardens as part of the Open House weekend and lots and lots of people passing by who wanted to find out more about urban organic growing.  It was really nice to have our Urban Apprentices on site - Shelagh and Jack at Springfield and Jo at Clissold as well as actual Patchwork farmers, Ximena at Clissold and Sophie at Allens who could tell people about the reality of running a micro-site.  Apart from the key role played by all the growers, including Sara and Pip obviously, it's possible the real star of the day was the yards and yards of green and white bunting which was drapped all over the Clissold site and virtually developed its own fan base...I know there should be a picture of the bunting but I didn't take one, (too in awe??) so here's a lovely picture of Allens Gardens instead with our eco building and its green roof tucked away at the end of the site.

Well - Chris and Iain from Stocks didn't have their new juice from this year's harvest - because they've just been too busy harvesting to get juicing! For the same reason, Iain hadn't been able to make his usual black pudding and white puddings or smoked sausages - there were a couple of disappointed faces in the meat queue but hopefully they were cheered up by seeing all the lovely Worcesters, Coxes and Red Devils.  We've got nearly all the stalls back at the market now - Hatice who makes her borek from ingredients at the market will be back next Saturday. Johannes who runs Primo e Ultimo was back at the market selling his ice-cream and home-made pasta - despite having his van with all his equipment in stolen a couple of weeks ago from outside his flat.

Slightly more depressing news from Ripple Farm in Kent who not only come to the farmers' market every week but also supply our box scheme - this years strangely cold August has meant that the squash crop has failed to ripen.  This is a real blow for Martin as he always has a great range of squash - which last through till late January/February and provide a much needed splash of colour at the market - not to mention vital income for the farm. It's also disappointing for the rest of us as we'll miss out on roasted squash, squash soup etc. Martin says we shouldn't give up completely as its possible that some of the squash will ripen up if there's a bit of sun and warmth in September, so fingers crossed for a sunny September but we do need to prepare ourselves for an Extreme Lack of Squash.

Looking forward to doing the market this weekend (Sat 10th) - autumn is always such a great time for produce and if it could just, (please) stay sunny and not rain, particularly not rain, on Saturday when the market is on, that would be great. Chris and Iain from Stocks Farm are meant to have their new apple juice there this Saturday- the apple harvesting is really taking off now - so it should be a mixture of Discovery and Worcester. Might be nice to organise some tastings.. We will have a lot more apple stuff on Apple Day at the market which this year will be on Saturday 15th October - think I might go for a Bee theme this year..A to Bee - mmm - need to work on that a bit.  That's Chris in the picture looking at his apples in a gloating sort of way...

We're just sorting out some leafleting to let people in Dalston and London Fields know about our new community pick-ups for the box scheme which are starting up at Passing Clouds in Dalston and the Happy Kitchen in London Fields this month. The Happy Kitchen have previously bought Growing Communities' salad so it's really nice that we're going to have even more of a link soon.

Also on the things-to-do list is getting everything set up for the Growing Communities Open Day on Sunday 18th September - when all the main sites will be open for visitors from 10 in the morning till 5pm. The Allens Garden site's Eco-building is also open as part of the Open House weekend and Sara, Pip and the apprentices will be on hand to answer questions about organic growing and the rest of our work. The growers and volunteers have been working away to make the new beds at the front of the Clissold site look good and fortunately there are still lots of salad leaves in the main beds. I need to work out a way of getting Maisie the milk-float to Clissold on the day and really need to repair her eyelashes - one of them has dropped off - giving her an even more louche appearance than usual...  Last year we had a lot of people visiting the sites - some of whom were box scheme members and lots of people who come to the farmers' market but had never seen our growing sites before. Have just found out that Hackney Council are re-organising the Carnival procession that got cancelled in the wake of the riots, for that Sunday  - sadly the procession won't make it as far as Clissold Park as they are ending on Stoke Newington Church Street but hope some of the revellers will drop by afterwards to have a look at our salad leaves growing...