Durga Puja Festival!

Durga Puja are an Asian Charity supporting community interaction and are having their 24th festival this week from the 13th to the 17th of October. Visit: http://www.durgapujaonline.com/2010/09/tooting-durga-puja.html for more info. I'll be along on Friday as will Sadiq Khan and the local press...and about 500 other visitors so well worth a look!   G.

The Power of Community

Just a quick reminder that The Power of Community will be showing at Mushkil Aasaan -222 Upper Tooting Road -Tomorrow, Tuesday the 28th of September from 7pm till 9pm.
It's FREE and There'll be snacks provided so see you there!  G.x

A big thank you for all your veggie donations!

A big thank you to all of you who donated your produce to the Foodival last weekend.  A big hand goes out to...

Eddie from Balham who donated kale and squash
Robin from Brixton who donated tomatoes
Mary from Furzedown who donated apples
Judy from Nimrod road who donated pears
Moria from Furzedown who donated swiss chard and tomatoes
Avril from Tooting who donated conference pears and green beans
Esther from Tooting who donated parsley, onions and apples
Lucy from Furzedown who donated potatoes
Sue Rentoul from Furzedown (who does all our lovely design!) and who donated apples
David and Mal from SW16 who donated grapes, tomatoes, chives, apples, potatoes and cress
Anna Smith from SW16 who donated apples
Sofia from Tooting who donated tomatoes and green chllies
Jane Haskings from Tooting who donated peppermint, bay, fennel, chives, curry plant, apples and runner beans
Everyone at Share Community Gardens at Springfield who donated peppers, tomatoes, rocket, mint, beans, cabbage and beetroot
Rose, Stephen and Margaret of Tooting Bec Housing Association who donated pears and damsons
Bunny from Tooting who donated courgettes, green beans, tomatoes and apples
Jane from SW18 who donated tomatoes, green peppers and aubergine
Helen and Shalini from St Georges Hospital Allotment Society who donated tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, chillies, chard, beetroot and swede
Mark Stroud from Tooting who donated tomatoes, courgettes, marrow, apples and parsley

Phew!  We had about twice as much food as last year - so start building up your appetites for Foodival 4!

What A Lot of Fruit & Veg!

 

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the mountain of delicious local fruit and veg donated today and also to everyone who helped collect, distribute and set up.  We hope to see you all tomorrow between 12 and 4 pm to taste what Tooting's finest chefs create with it!  DT

FOODIVAL THIS WEEKEND!

REMEMBER THE CONDIMENT CONTEST - ENTER YOURS TO WIN AN ABEL AND COLE PRIZE! 

BRING ALL FOOD DONATIONS TO 222 UPPER TOOTING ROAD ON SATURDAY 18TH SEPT BETWEEN 12 AND 3PM AND

THE FOODIVAL IS ON SUNDAY THE 19TH OF SEPT FROM 12 - 4PM AT THE SAME VENUE!!! SEE YOU ALL THERE! 

Foodival this weekend!

Hello all,

With less than a week to go till Foodival time preparations have stepped up a notch! The Foodival posters have been printed and given out to the restaurants and we now have cotton bags for printing on the day with a special TTT logo stamp being made as we speak. Donation of aprons have been coming in thick and fast and thanks for all the offers of plastic sheeting –I’ve collected one large piece and reckon we’ll only need a couple more to make sure all the floor space is covered J

We also have a range of green decorations including a veg shopping cart and a Foodival banner so the event should look pretty spectacular! Rememember that if you have spare time and come to Mushkil aassan on Satbetween 12 and 3pm and on Sunday between 11.30 and 5 it’d be much appreciated.

Below is a list of things we still need:

• Large A3 writing board and pad and pens–to write down donators details on the Saturday
• Bowls and spoons –better if biodegradable
• Lots of aprons
• 2 sheets of large plastic or tarp
• Tons and tons of fruit and veg donations!
• Reminding everyone to enter a condiment into the condiment contest. You will lose against my killer mint conconction but I feel it is only fair to ask for some competion…. ;)
• Please email me if I’ve forgotten something!

Thanks again for all your help –the Foodival looks set to be amazing!

See you on Saturday or Sunday or both!

Foodival Update and Planning Meeting and PEARS PEARS PEARS!

Well with a month to go we now have 8, yes, 8 Tooting restaurants on board for Foodival so now it's a big call to grow, grow, grow for the event! I should also say that it's also time to pick, pick, pick for event - Rose is looking for Pear pickers (see pear trees below) for the mountains of them. This also means we need storage - Mark has already kindly offered the use of his freezer but we will need more so let me know if you've any space. Rose is looking for pickers on Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings so please call her if you're free - 0208 673 3754 and 07910 028 367.
Hope you're all well and also to remind everyone of the Foodival Planning meeting next Tuesday in the Selkirk -it'll be downstairs as there's a party in our usual room but i'm sure we'll be fine :)
Cheers,
G.x

Rose is calling for all 7 foot Tooting Residents with Mr Tickle arms to help collect these pears. You know who you are!!

Finally A Proper Courgette!

The flowers may be pretty and the bees may like them but my courgette plant has only been producing "chiplolatas" all summer: one bite and they are gone!  But this week finally, ach ja, fantastisch ... ein BRATWURST!

This plant is actually grown from a seed I picked up at April seed swap.  Despite myriad slug and snail attacks, it's producing the goods at last!

And these handsome tomatoes will hopefully be red by Sep 18th!  Anyone else out there have some pictures of what they are growing?  DT

5 Restaurants On Board!

With less than 6 weeks to go before the Foodival I thought I best post an update. Thanks to the timely efforts of Esther we now have 5 restaurants on board for the day - Mirch Masala, Al Mirage, Spice Village, Roti Restaurant, and Masaledar with the possibility of more to come! After a nice little planting sesssion on the 3rd we now have oddles of compost and pots thanks to Abby (please email me if you'd like any of this!) and some lovely planted wellies thanks to Bunny -i foolishly failed to get a picture but i've put what they will hopefully look like below!
Also, a call has come from Rose to see if anyone is free to help collect pears and damsons -if you're willing and able please call her on: 07910 028 376 and she'll give details of collection dates/times :)
So all that's needed now is a call from me to see who can volunteer on either or both of the 18th and 19th of September and check that none of your lettuces have wilted to death in the insane heat!
Please email me any new pics you have of growing fruit and veg and i'll put them up on the site.
Right, well as a turn up for the books i've got to go drain some of my seedlings that have been drowned in this afternoon's down pour -eek!
See you all soon,

 

Bootiful!! ahahahaha!

GilesX

Tuesday 3rd August *UPDATE*

Hello all,

News just in -Mary at the Christian Education Centre has very kindly let us have our little planting event there so please see the final details below and a big thanks to Mary!

What? - Foodival Planting Meeting -bring some seeds,pots or plants if you have them to plant or swap but otherwise just bring yourself for the Foodival planting session -I've got some pots and compost and seeds so lets get growing :)

Where? -Christian Education Centre - 21 Tooting Bec Road, London SW17 8BS

When?? - Tuesday 3rd of August from 6pm to 8pm

See you all there!

 

 
Hilary J and Davey T's Toms...are you "Green" with envy!! (somebody please shoot me...)

Tuesday August 3rd -Foodival Action Day!

Venue TBA but the evening of Tuesday 3rd August is all about the Foodival - they'll be free planting pots and compost as well as seeds and advice on how and what to grow. Bring your kids and get planting! If you happen to have any spare seeds/plants/pots please bring those as well as having another little seed swap would be ace. It will also be a chance to think about what you want to make for the Great Tooting Condiment Contest - your sauce / preserve / chutney or other condiment must be made from at least 75% home-grown ingredients and the winner will get an Able & Cole mix box that can be used to provide dipping veg!!

I'll blog again as soon as venue and times are sorted so watch this space and see you on the 3rd.

Giles X 

TOOTING HARVEST FOODIVAL 2010 IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ll not that I can believe it but it's less than 2 months till this year's Harvest Foodival. I've been busy fighting against the torrent of heat to keep my chives and tomatoes alive which has been a battle but they're fine -phew! On the upside, the heat has given me a bumper crop of grapes to bring to the foodival so maybe it'll be a donation more of fruit than veg from me this year but hey ho, it all tastes the better from having come from Tooting :)

I thought it was time to start blogging again for the event and get people excited and to let everyone know what's going on.

So far, we already have a cycle powered smoothie machmine and two allotments - one at Springfield and one at St George's Hospitals signed up (see pic from St G's below!) so it already looks like a stonker of a festival is at hand.

Just to remind those that don't know the dates and details for the event(why you wouldn't have these etched on to your arm is beyond me ;) Saturday the 18th of September is collection day for all donations of fruit big and small and Sunday the 19th of September from midday is the start of the festival foodie fun! Collection will be held at Mushkil Aasaan at 222 Upper Tooting Rd on the 18th so please donate anything you've got spare!

Also, I want to keep a pic record of how everyone is doing growing in this summer's searing heat -please email all pics and comments to giles@cen.org.uk

All the Best and more details to follow!

Giles