Inspired by #Foodival2016? Everyone can have a Tooting home farm by sprouting seeds!

A new idea at this year's Tooting Foodival was to celebrate local food together by encouraging home seed sprouting.

 Measuring out seeds to give away as trial packs at the Foodival (and checking the spelling)

Why sprout seeds at home?
It's easy, fun, accessible to all (no allotment, balcony or windowsill needed) and you produce fresh  nutritious food with zero food miles and no waste.

How to do it?
Growing your own is easy with our Successful Seed Sprouting at Home handout.

Soak the seeds (there are so many kinds you can use) for a day, then rinse them every day until ready, then enjoy them while beautifully fresh within a week of starting them off.

These sprouted seeds are nearly ready to eat

After the Foodival one family sprouted a mix of lentils and teff

We had good conversations about sprouting on the Saturday at the Foodival. Most people have heard about it....but maybe only ever had those big supermarket bags of bean sprouts. Some people may have a sprouting kit tucked away, or maybe it's a completely new idea.

Enjoy!
Enjoy in many ways - in salads, in pitta bread, mixed with a yogurt dressing or salsa, in a stir-fry, as a topping to add crunch and life to many dishes - and to school lunchboxes.

PS why teff?
In TTT we've become interested in teff cereal grain during our year and half working with refugees and asylum-seekers at CARAS in our Rooting in Tooting project. Teff is native to the Horn of Africa: in Ethiopian restaurants in London you'll be served injera, fermented bread made of teff grain.

Tooting teff

We've grown teff this year in the Tooting Community Garden, and we're going to get some hands-on advice about how to save the grains....so there can be plenty of future sprouting in Tooting.

Did you try Minestra's delicious pasta dish?

On Sunday afternoon, while the cooks were deliberating over who would become Top Tooting Cook for 2016, Minestra turned local produce donated from Tamworth Farm and around Tooting, into the most delicious vegetable pasta dish.

Elisabetta preparing vegetables (Pic by Riccardo, Minestra)

Elisabetta demonstrates to a packed Foodival crowd (Pic by Riccardo, Minestra)

We are really grateful to Minestra for their cooking demonstration. Maybe you saw it and tasted the delicious dish. Maybe you'd like to try it at home? Head over to Minestra's Facebook page for the recipe - Homemade Maltagliati with Vegetables.

Minestra also run Supper Clubs at their home - delicious low food mile dishes, shared with neighbours and new friends. The next Supper Club will take place on 15th October.

Soup Disco Characters

So the finale of Foodival 2016 yesterday was a Soup Disco held at Tooting Market. Many vegetables were peeled, washed and chopped before being cooked up into an uber soup by our team of dedicated volunteers. Thanks to everyone who helped out.
Just off the adjacent, hot, disco dancefloor (see Jeni's golden boots) various local characters indulged themselves in the semi-anonymity of Soup Disco Photobooth.  Can you spot any famous Tooting faces you know?

There'll be a full report on the whole event to follow ...

Top Tooting Cook Entries - Wow!

Feast your eyes on these amazing photos of the #Foodival2016 Top Tooting Cook entries!  All grown principally from donated home grown produce. More details on recipes and prize winners will follow ... but I thought you'd like to see this hot off the press!

Thank you to Charles for these stunning shots.  There'll be some from the Soup Disco photo booth soon too!

Soup Disco Tonight!

Don't miss the Soup Disco at Tooting Market this evening.  Low food mile sustainable veg peeled, chopped and cooked up into a community feast to the sound of classic dance beats.  You couldn't make it up!  Well you can if you come tonight ...

Optional checklist: peeler, glitter, apron, platform shoes, wig, chopping board, friend, inner Travolta

Foodival Day One

A great day at Foodival today - thanks to all our donors of locally grown fruit and vegetables, many of whom are pictured above. Tomorrow we have the Top Tooting Cook competition from 4pm, cooking demos from Minestra and the Soup Disco from 7pm. bring your peeler and your dancing shoes!

Sunday night Soup Disco

One prize that was decided was the Ugly Veg competiton - a tie between Rich's tomato and David's kohl rabi!

Looking Ugly

Grow Local, Cook Local, Eat Local with Minestra Supper Club on Sunday

Tooting Foodival celebrates growing food locally. It's also celebrates what we do with that produce together - how we share in cooking seasonal produce with very low food miles, and enjoying every delicious mouthful together as a community.

Transition Town Tooting is delighted to be welcoming Minestra back to Tooting Foodival this year. Run by Elisabetta and Riccardo, Minestra truly embraces the idea of growing, cooking and eating local.

Minestra will be harvesting produce from their allotment plot and receiving donations from other plot holders at Tamworth Farm in Tooting on Saturday. They'll be giving a cooking demonstration using that produce on Sunday afternoon at Mushkil Aasaan (222 Upper Tooting Road) from 5pm - 6pm. We'll share the recipe with you on Sunday at the event!

Come along to see what Minestra will cook.  Of course, we'll eat a little together too, before we find out who has won Top Tooting Cook at 6.15pm (also at Mushkil Aasaan) and then all head to Soup Disco at 7pm at Tooting Market!

Elisabetta has been kind enough to share a recipe here. So if you're thinking about entering Top Tooting Cook, maybe this will inspire you!  If you'd like to try Minestra's food, come along on Sunday. Like them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter to find out more about the supper club and cooking classes they run.  Next supper club is on 15th October.

Courgette and Pumpkin Flower Fritters

Ingredients

To make about 15 fritters you need:

• 15 courgette or pumpkin flowers
• 80/100g of plain flour
• 1 egg
• Cold sparkling water
• Peanut oil or sunflower oil for frying

Method

Mix the egg and the flour, and then add enough sparkling cold water to make a thick batter (so it is the same consistency as pancake batter). Add a pinch of salt. Let it to rest for half an hour covered.

Meanwhile prepare the flowers by removing the green part attached to the stem, including the pistil.  Don’t wash them if possible but shake them of any dirt.

Bring the oil to frying temperature in a large, deep frying pan. Dip the flowers, one at the time, into the batter and fry for 2 min or until gold, turning them several times.  Gently remove them with a slotted spoon and let them drain on kitchen paper.  Serve them hot.

Share your recipes

Maybe you have a delicious recipe to share.  If you'd like to share a recipe or picture of something you've cooked using seasonal fruit, vegetables and herbs, post it to our Facebook page or tweet us @TTTooting. You'll be sharing it with over 1,000 people locally!

 

Or enter Top Tooting Cook!  Judges and prizes have just been announced - take a look at the Top Tooting Cook page for all the details.

Calling out for your locally-grown vegetables & fruit for #Foodival2016

This is the ninth year we've run the Tooting Foodival, and every year we call out to local growers for home-grown donations.

Every year we're amazed at the range and quality of what gets grown locally by beginners and experts in backyards or pots, on balconies or allotments.
Maybe you took part in our Growing Tooting classes in spring 2016?
Maybe you have been growing your own all your life.

Here's our 'I Grew This' poster of locally-grown donations at the 2015 Foodival.


To contribute your locally-grown donations, please select something you've grown which you'd like to share and bring it along to Mushkil Aasaan, 222 Upper Tooting Road SW17 7EW between 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm on Saturday 10th Sept. There are lots of other activities at the venue on Saturday.

• After 4:00 pm on Saturday 10th, local cooks taking part in the Top Tooting Cook event will be able to choose produce from what's on offer. There will be the potential for wonderful dishes - maybe with surprising ingredients that the cooks had not anticipated using before seeing the selection.
• Then we'll store remaining vegetables overnight for use in the Soup Disco cook-up with music and dancing on Sunday evening in Tooting Market.
• Any surplus will be donated to the Battersea Canteen supper clubs being run by the London Cooking Project and Tooting's own Be Enriched. The clubs aim to reduce food waste and feed those in need.  And to CARAS, who run clubs and support services for refugees and asylum seekers in south west London.

A huge Jerusalem Artichoke!

And small ones - but with big leaves!

Whatever you decide to bring along, donating is all about celebrating local food and wanting to share that enthusiasm with others.
It's about sharing Tooting's flavour, diversity and interest! 

Foodival Supports Zero Waste Week 2016

TTT is supporting National Zero Waste week which starts this coming Monday 5th Sept.  People and organisations all over the UK have made pledges to reduce waste in their lives and committed to help spread the message of how zero waste can be part of all of our futures.

As a group we are pledging to create zero food waste at next weekend's Foodival Soup Disco by collecting all the food scraps at the event for composting at the Tooting Community Garden. Plus, bring a container with you and you can take home any left-over soup. What can you pledge to do next week?  Maybe you could join in with some office colleagues or friends?

Are these pledgers copying our poster?

There is still time to sign up and make your pledge here and help spread the word using #ZeroWasteWeek.

And come to the Soup Disco on Sunday evening to celebrate your wastelessness!