The Good Food Swap

The Good Food Swap is an event which gets people talking, thinking about and making food - a sort of inner city version of the village show. It’s an opportunity to show off produce you’ve made, grown, or found - and to get good food for free by swapping what you’ve brought! 

No money changes hands! 

The first Good Food Swap was held in October 2006 at The Old Firestation, to celebrate Growing Communities' 10th birthday.  Over 200 people came along with a wide range of wonderful produce that they had made, grown, picked or found. In December 2007 we held a festive Good Food Swap at St Paul’s Church Hall.  This smaller evening event had a winter theme and eager participants not deterred by the winter weather traded mince pies for oyster mushrooms, and home made yoghurts for home made breads!

Both Swap’s were great fun and their success in bringing out local people's skills in food growing and food making, as well as the excitement about home-produced and seasonal food that they generated means that we hope to develop the Good Food Swap into a project in its own right!

So watch this space for more details!

In the meantime here are some photos from the first Good Food Swap:

You may also find the following useful:

Where can I buy seasonal produce/ fresh ingredients?

Farmers' Markets – including Stoke Newington Farmer’s Market, Box Schemes, Community Markets, local Greengrocers, Continental Food Stores, Health Food Shops, Pick-Your-Own Farms and Farm Shops

Where can I find seasonal produce?
Ask friends and neighbours if they have fruit trees in their back gardens or spare veg from their allotments. Look out for foods such as Apples, Pears, Plums, Blackberries, Figs, Elderberries, Rosehips, Walnuts, Almonds, Hazelnuts and Chestnuts in local parks and green areas such as Springfield Park and Hackney Marshes. Always ask before picking produce from someone else’s property and try not to pick fruit grown next to busy roadsides!

I want to make ……………… but I haven't got a recipe for it.

Try searching online at the following sites:

Our own recipe site

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/

http://thefoody.com/home.html

http://www.vegsoc.org/cordonvert/recipes/index.html

http://www.allotment.org.uk/recipes.php

Failing this the Growing Communities' staff also have a fair share of recipe books between us so you could try emailing us and we'll see what we can do. 

Other useful links:
 
http://www.bigbarn.co.uk

www.farmersmarkets.net 

http://www.rivercottage.net

http://www.localfoodworks.org 

http://www.commonground.org.uk 

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growcomm@growingcommunities.org