Clapham Magazine Article

Great to get featured in one of our local magazines, thank you "The Clapham". Will anyone be able to rival this splendid haul from one of our well known local residents this year?!

Are you growing for the Foodival?  #seedtofeast

Who's cooking for Foodival?

The Foodival team have been busy bees this week, signing up more fantastic cooking establishments to deliver delicious dishes to you on Festival Day.

Already signed up (see previous post for details):

• Al Mirage
• Meza
• Pooja
• Rick's
• The Kitchen Table

 And newly signed up this week:

Brixton People's Kitchen is a community kitchen, who sometimes cook on a bicycle! Working with the local community, they deliver hot nutritious meals and cooking lessons to young people and adults alike. They'll be cooking up a surprise medley for us. We can't wait!

Route to Juice are a welcome addition to Tooting's High Street this year. They'll be whizzing together fresh, power-packed, nutrient rich juices and smoothies on the day. So if you've got fruit to donate - you know where it'll be going!


We have more restaurants, cooks, entertainment and announcements to come, so stay tuned, and add the dates to your diary:

Saturday 12th September

Mushkil Aasaan, 222 Tooting High Street, 12-4pm

• Donate your locally grown fruit, vegetables and herbs
• Watch cooking demonstrations
• Enter the Ugly Vegetable competition

Sunday 13th September

Samaj Hall, 26b Tooting High Street, 12-5pm

• Join the giant pea parade
• Eat delicious food
• Enjoy live entertainment
• Meet local producers
• Have fun!

Home Grown Lunch

Home growing is not always easy! Yes I support the laudable idea of the Foodival #seedtofeast but hey slugs, aphids, snails & caterpillars don't make it easy.  However, that said, August is a month when one can cull from one's humble cottage insect attacked vegetable patch a meal that is totally local, organic, non-food miled, low waste and energy efficient!

Please witness the above, clockwise from the top left: chard, choy sum, spring onion, cherry tomato, Lamb's lettuce, rocket & celeriac leaf. All grown from seed! This was my lunch. Some CO2 was saved. #veryproud.  And it tasted good!

But enough of me and my miniscule endeavours.  What of you?

ARE YOU GROWING FOR THE FOODIVAL?

Growers we need you or the festival of South London food would not exist.  What are you growing?  Can you spare any?  Can you add to our growing map?  You could be immortalised in a frame ...

We look forward to seeing you on the weekend of 12th & 13th September, it should be delicious! dt

Make a Pea for Foodival!

Want to contribute to Foodival, but don't grow or cook? Maybe you can make!  All welcome tomorrow for a maker session at Streatham Cemetery to get going on the creation of a Giant Pea for the opening ceremony. Using withy (sticks of willow) and paper mache, you'll learn how to construct amazing shapes just like the carnival professionals.

We'll also be making decorative plant pot covers using the same technique, so you can brighten up your window sills.

Join us from 6.30 - 8.30pm at the vestry at Streatham Cemetery - Garratt Lane, Tooting, SW17 0LT.

Thanks to both SMART and fanSHEN who will be leading the session. 

Any questions, please contact transitiontowntooting@gmail.com

Can you donate locally grown fruit and vegetables to Foodival?

Last year, we dished out over 600 servings of deliciously tasty vegetarian food, cooked by local restaurants to some very happy festival goers.

But we couldn't have done that without the amazing generosity of all the people who donated fruit, herbs and vegetables, that they'd grown in their allotments, community gardens, backyards, gardens, roofs and window sills!

Just some of the donations from last year

Do you grow any fruit and vegetables?  Do you know someone who does grow?  Do you know an allotment or growing space near you that might?

Whether you have a handful of salad leaves, a giant marrow, a punnet of plums or a piece of rosemary - it all counts.

Please help us promote Foodival to all your friends who grow fruit and vegetables.

• Send them a link to this blog
• Tweet them to see if they can donate #growingforfoodival
• Share a Facebook post to see if they want to enter the vegetable competition
• Download a flyer and pop it up on a noticeboard or give it out to your grower friends
• Or if you know a garden near you, let us know!

If you're growing or know a growing space, add them to the Foodival map. 

Let's see if we can get more than the 60 growers who donated last year. !

Saturday is Donations Day

• Drop off your locally grown produce anytime from 12pm - 4pm at Mushkil Aassaan, 222 Upper Tooting Road
• Enter the Ugly Vegetable Competition, or your Best Vegetables. We'll have master gardeners judging the entries, with winners announced on Sunday's Foodival Festival Day
• Enjoy cooking demonstrations from local chefs
• Pick up some seeds and cuttings to grow on for next year
• Find out all about our new project, Growing Tooting

 Leave a comment below and tell us what you're growing for Foodival!
 

Foodival 2015 - Just one month to go!

In exactly one month, hundreds of us will be celebrating locally grown, locally cooked food at Tooting Foodival.

We'll be making some exciting announcements over the next few weeks as we count down to festival weekend. And there are plenty of opportunities for you to get involved!

First up, we know you want to know who's cooking for Foodival this year.

Drum roll please...!

Rick's - Tooting's favourite modern British and European eaterie. Rick has supported the Foodival for many years. Who can forget the amazing fish filleting demonstration a couple of years ago!

Meza - Lebanese food is so popular in Tooting that owner, Hikmat opened a second restaurant in Tooting Broadway after the runaway success of the original on Trinity Road. Himat, Ali and team will be preparing a treat for us.

Pooja - the very best when it comes to Indian sweets and savouries. Who can resist the legendary samosas! We're delighted that Manisha and co are supporting Foodival again this year.

Al Mirage - Shamim and team will be bringing us the unique tastes and flavours of modern Pakistan that are so popular in Tooting. We know you'll be coming back for seconds!

The Kitchen Table - New to Foodival this year,  Zaf will be bringing his fresh neighbourhood pizazz and gorgeous dishes to the festival. If you've ever eaten at this wonderful café you'll know it's not to be missed.

Sounds tasty? Get 13th September in the diary!  And, stay tuned. We hope to have a few more local restaurants confirmed soon.

We'll also be sharing a recipe from each restaurant at Foodival too, so you can try what you tasted at home!

5½ weeks & Counting

Foodival always seems to come round quicker than you think.  Yes it's a mere 5½ weeks until south London's premier sustainable food festival kicks off over the weekend of 12^th/13^th September!  Local growing, cooking and of course eating are at the heart of Foodival and this year is no exception.  But as usual we need lots of lovely home grown vegetables and fruit to make the festival happen at all which begs the question ...

ARE YOU GROWING FOR THE FOODIVAL?

Above are some of 2014's vintage snapped at the BATCA Fun Day.  I really love these photos.  People are often really proud of what they have grown at home or in an allotment and just seem to want to share the joy with others!  We are always very grateful for any food donated.  

Could you be immortalised in September's Foodival hall of fame? This year we are going to celebrate the ordinary, weird shaped, supermarket rejectable vegetables in our Ugly Veg Competition.  Do you have a scary looking contender lurking in your window box?  How Ugly Can You Go?

Send us some photos of any aspiring contenders and we'll feature them on this blog!  There will be prizes for the most extraordinary entries!