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/

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