Thank You Growers!

Many thanks to all the growers who have donated produce for this year's Foodival. Roll of honour includes:

Hilary, plums from Trevelyan Rd.

Valerie, Bramley apples from Fishponds Rd

Jane, Russet apples from Abbotswood Rd

Belinda and Adam, blackberries, rosemary, patty pan squash, rhubarb, kale and marrow from Beatrix Potter allotments

Rosalind for potatoes from the Community Garden

Poppy & Teo, marrow, radiccio and potatoes from Streatham

Kath, beetroot, runner beans, rhubarb, nasturtium, spinach, savory, chard and cucumber from Khartoum Rd

Debbie, tomatoes, Charlotte potatoes, Bramley apples, rhubarb, nasturtium, rainbow chard, yellow courgette, savoy cabbage from North Mitcham Allotments

Justin & Diana, greengages from Louisville Rd

Nicola, mint, sage, courgette and beans from Brudenell Rd

Sharon for mint, potatoes, onions and runner beans from the Community Garden

Leanne, Scott and Georgia for squash, courgettes, yellow plums, chillis and tomaties from Tamworth Farm allotments.

David & Mal, tomatoes, courgettes, brassica leaves from Ramsden Rd

& Local Greens for a variety of produce that didn't quite make their delicious vegetable boxes, in Herne Hill.

Weather looks OK so hope to see you all at our street celebration tomorrow! 

Love from the Foodival Team x

What's On At Foodival 2021?

This is a draft schedule for this Saturday's event. We'll post up changes if they occur in the next few days.

Original doc is HERE: [updated 3/9/21]

Are You Growing for the Foodival?

Foodival relies on donations of locally grown fruit and veg and each year we celebrate those who contribute spare produce to make the Foodival happen. Even in 2020 when we held a reduced event, we still had to create our Grower's Feast with these donations! Thank you so much everyone. Can you spot yourself? Would you like to be in this year's photo? We hope to see you at the produce drop-off at Mushkil Aasaan at 220 Upper Tooting Rd on Weds 1st September 5.30 to 8pm.

Tooting Foodival – it’s not just about food!

Foodival is a community festival celebrating all things locally grown, cooked, re-created and re-imagined. Shining a light on how we can try to live sustainably in a time of global climate change. 

While we expect as ever to celebrate local growers and cooks, this year we are looking at some of the great initiatives that have emerged during lockdown that embrace sustainable living developed by local people, such as recycling and upcycling, repairing, mending and re-creating. 

Fast fashion has a huge environmental impact on the planet. Lockdown has seen our consumption of fast fashion drop massively and it has led many to think about buying less, caring more and making the clothes we love last longer. 

This year’s events on Saturday 4th September 2021 will feature: 

A Clothes Upcycling event - if you’ve made a new item of clothing out of an old garment then why not wear it to this year's Foodival. We would love to see your creations. Better still, if you feel like flaunting your creations on stage we will have a catwalk show so you could really showcase your wares. 

Don’t worry if you can’t sew but you still want to get involved, as we have a team of local tailors ready to do the sewing for you. We even have a supply of donated clothing for you to use if you need it. Just get in touch with us with your ideas. 

Restart – don’t bin it, repair it - get your electrical items repaired. Our amazing volunteers have fixed everyday items like irons, hairdryers, kettles and toasters. During those years we have saved tonnes of electrical and electronic objects from landfill - Register online to book your slot with a fixer. 

Locally grown veg display – on show will be an amazing diversity of produce that is grown by local gardeners and allotment holders throughout the Borough of Wandsworth. 

Tie-dye workshop – want to have a go at making your own tie-dye item using vegetable scraps? Bring an old T-shirt or any cotton cloth and we will teach you how. It’s fun, creative and you’ll be amazed at the results! 

Cooking your own – during lockdown many of us have had to cook more at home and it has certainly bought out the chef in some of you. At the festival, some of these home cooks will create a mouth-watering array of small plates made from locally grown ingredients for you to try for just £1! 

STALLS
Small local producers and makers We have a number of local producer and makers exhibiting and selling their produce at the event alongside local charities and community groups. APPLY HERE If you are interested in having a stall at Tooting Foodival

MUSIC BY LOCAL ARTISTS
As ever we will showcase a selection of music and dance by local artists.. 

ABOUT TOOTING FOODIVAL

Tooting Foodival is Transition Town Tooting’s annual sustainable community festival, celebrating all things locally grown, cooked, re-created and re-imagined. Shining a light on how we can try to live sustainably in a time of global climate change. The
event has been running since 2008 and aims to show how it is possible to live sustainably and have fun while doing it. 

Foodival is a non-profit event, run by local volunteers and relies on the generosity of the local community to make it happen. We are extremely grateful for all our supporters and to everyone who gets involved. In a drive to highlight the adverse effect plastic has on our planet and marine life, the organisers of Foodival 2021 will again designate the area a plastic free zone. 

 If you have any questions, or would like to volunteer in preparation or on the day, please email Malsara Thorne at transitiontowntooting@gmail.com Please share on social media, and use the hashtag #tootingfoodival 

Taking place on Saturday 4th September 2021 Free event, open to all. 

Location and how to get there
Hereward Road is right in the heart of Tooting SW17, some events will also take place in the Mushkil Aasaan community centre at 222 Upper Tooting Rd, London SW17 7EW Nearest tube is Tooting Broadway or Tooting Bec and it’s a 5 minutes’ walk from there. Bus 155, 219, 255, 355

Dying to Discover Food Dyes

Interested in finding out what fascinating colours your food waste could produce in tie dye? Foodival will host a tie dye workshop on the 4th September using dyes derived from everyday food waste. Bring a white t-shirt or kitchen towel and see what colour combos cabbage scraps, onion peels and avocado pips can create. This is what we have found so far: 

Red cabbage produces a pale blue dye
Red onion produces green
Yellow onion produce a vibrant yellow
What other colours can you find among our every day fruit and vegetables?

Purple Orach in SW12

Meanwhile the summer has finally decided to show and there's still plenty of time to grow in your gardens, windowsills, allotments, roofs or any other spaces which get some rays! What are you growing this year? June is the ideal time to plant out runner beans, French beans, courgettes, pumpkins, squashes and sweetcorn, plus outdoor tomatoes and cucumbers. All of these can be ready in time for Foodival on 4th September. Don't forget to water them!

Call Out to Growers

With the sun trying to come out to play a little more and London opening up again, we are busy planning Foodival 2021! We also plans some new exciting additions as well as familiar favourites at this year's festival including:

A Clothes Upcycling Event: young people and local tailors will collaborate to design and create new items from old unwanted clothes, presenting their creations in a catwalk show. 

Restart: get your electrical items repaired by volunteers who can fix everyday items like irons, hairdryers, kettles and toasters, saving electrical and electronic objects from landfill. 

Tie-dye Workshop: Bring an old T-shirt or any cotton cloth and learn how to tie-dye using vegetable scraps! 

Locally Grown Veg Display: an amazingly diverse selection of produce grown by local gardeners and allotment holders. 

Cooking Your Own: home cooks will create a mouth-watering array of small plates made from locally grown ingredients for you to try for just £1! 

Music: as ever, there will be a showcase of a selection of music and dance by local artists. 

Stalls: Small local producers and makers lined up include @abundancesouthfields, @keepthemgreen, @norahskitchendiner, Richard's Bees (Balham honey), @skalandsaluti and @wrencakes. (and more being added as we write this!) 

As always, Foodival is a free to attend, non-profit event, run by volunteers, and will take place on Hereward Road, SW17 7EY, on Saturday 4th September 2021. The organisers will again designate the area a plastic-free zone. 

Every year Foodival could not have happened without your kind donations of locally seeded, cared for and grown produce. We hope to continue to be honoured with your wonderful food which is at the heart of the community event. We know you will be busy sowing, germinating, planting, arranging, watering and trying to keep new growth alive in these chillier May days - bring on the sun in June! But we wanted to draw your attention to something new this year, Tie-dying. . . Yes, we are aiming to get Tooting tie-dying using food scraps! Onion skins make a golden yellow, red cabbage makes purple, spinach creates green and these are just the obvious ones! 

We thought we would let you know of the new additions and if you would also like to get involved with your produce being used to not only make scrumptious food but a creative way of reusing waste as we know it, give us a quick email back with your growing plans for the year. Hey, you may know about a hidden veg/fruit/herb that can be grown for its colours. . . 

Happy June growing, 

Foodival team 🌱

Foodival Grower's Feast 2020

Due to the Covid restrictions in 2020 we were not able to run the usual late summer street festival in Tooting. We did however celebrate our local growers with a “Foodival Feast”, an invited appropriately distanced sustainable lunch at Tooting Works prepared by our chefs Volker, Norah and Elisabetta. With the help of Young Creators UK we created this short video of the day.

Foodival 2021

We are intending to hold Foodival 2021 on 4th September if restrictions at the time allow. 

Foodival is a sustainable, local, low food mile, community food festival celebrating all things locally grown, cooked, re-created and re-imagined. Shining a light on how we can try to live sustainably in a time of global climate change. 

The event aims to explore and celebrate the range of food that can be grown in the city and the diverse cultures found in Tooting, giving local people a chance to meet, learn from each other and have some fun. 

The main premise is to connect people growing in Tooting with local cooks and to hold a celebration for all the community.

As usual there will be stalls, music, speakers, competitions, arts happenings and this year an upcycled catwalk fashion show thrown in to make a fun-packed day long event for all the family. Watch this space and our instagram for more details.

Foodival 2020 Produce Collection 5th Sept

Due to the restrictions placed on large gatherings we are changing the way we celebrate Foodival this year. There will not a be a public event in the street but what we are doing is celebrating our growers at a Foodival Feast next weekend. We still intend to make that sustainable low food mile feast with locally grown produce so if you are growing anything and would like to share some of your surplus produce with us we are collecting vegetables from 11-1pm tomorrow at Tooting Works, formally know as Trident Business Centre, 89, Bickersteth Road, SW17 9SH.

Here is Foodival organiser Mal harvesting her first home grown courgette to take along tomorrow. Foodival chef Volker and his team will use this and anything else donated to rustle up the vegetarian feast next Saturday.

Tooting Foodival 2020

The Foodival Team are delighted to announce that we will be doing something to celebrate local growing and cooking this year on September 12th. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, our plans to hold the much-loved regular street festival with music, stalls, art, cook's competition and general feasting have had to be shelved, but we do instead plan to hold a Grower's Feast to say thank you to all those that have made Foodivals happen over the last 12 years!

Chefs serving local food at Foodival 2019

This safe and appropriately socially distanced event will take place at Tooting Works (formerly Trident Business Centre) in Bickersteth Rd off Mitcham Rd and invites will be going out shortly. The Feast will as usual in true Foodival style need donations of locally grown fruit and vegetables which will be cooked up by Volker and his team of local chefs.

We currently intend to collect home grown produce donations on Saturday 5th September to give the crew enough time to prepare safely for the event the following weekend. So if you would like to donate something from your allotment, garden, window-box or pots please do get in contact. It will be much appreciated!

We are sorry that we cannot hold the regular festival, attended last year by over 1,000 people, but we do wish to keep the flame burning for local sustainable food in Tooting and hope that our regular supporters will be able to join us to celebrate on September 12th. More details here soon and on Instagram

Foodival Makes Today's Guardian!

We are delighted that Foodival is referenced in today's Guardian newspaper article featuring Rob Hopkins' new book What Is to What If: Unleashing the Power of Imagination to Create The Future We Want 

Today's Guardian Article includes Foodival

Not only that but we get some good photos among the examples of TTT activities. Head Chef Volker finally immortalised in the broadsheets cooking up a storm! Well done to media mogul Mal for getting some photos sent over in the nick of time featuring the Community Garden, Tooting Twirl as well as Foodival. The article also references TTT's regular Restart repair cafes.

Bryony's I Grew This Pic IS In The Paper Today

The online version HERE has this great photo from last month's Foodival courtesy I think of Franco Ruarte.

Volker, Annette, Emily and Isla all hard at work

Other TTT pics are featured in the paper version above. Thanks to Simon Maggs, Jenny Teasdale, Bryony Williams and David Thorne for these!

We reckon Foodival 2020 should be on the 12th September 2020 so mark the diary!  And let us know if you have any ideas of how to make the next one even better! 

I Grew This 2019

Most of this year's growers are here immortalised in the traditional I Grew This montage!

Thank Yous for Foodival 2019

Thanks everyone for creating a memorable Tooting Foodival No.12 last weekend. We hope we have not forgotten anyone!

Venue Hosts:
Naseem & Mushkil Aasaan thank you as ever for the provision of your special community space for us
Brian & BJ Hardware, thank you for the use of your yard, power and handyman skills!
Residents of Hereward Rd thanks for lending us your streetscape for the day

Volker, Sarah & Isla preparing vegetables

Donors:
David & Malsara, Ramsden Rd: marrows, tomatoes, sage, rocket, thyme, oregano, mint, St John's Wort
Ben, Endlesham Rd: many cooking apples
Rod & Jane, Streatham: apples
Sarah, Balham Park Rd: beetroot, carrots, tomatoes, borlotti beans
Chuck, Becky & Becky, Kay, Ryan. Katherine, Rosalind, Anuja & all at Tooting Community Garden: Picasso potatoes, pumpkin, tomatoes, leek, garlic, cucamelon, Jerusalem artichoke, herbs, pattypan squash, runner beans, kale
Susie & Mike, Earlsfield: tomatoes, snake squash, butternut squash
Maggie, Burntwood Lane: mint & nasturtiums
Debbie, Nimrod Rd, Charlotte potatoes, apples, Gris de Provence and Dinizza squashes, rhubarb, courgette, leeks, apples, potatoes
Becky, Tooting High St, carrots
Kath, Garratt Park alloments: 2 wonky courgettes, runner beans, rainbow chard
Lea, Price Close: salad greens, chilli, tomatoes, cavello nero
Rachel, Ruislip Close: baby peppers, aubergines, cucamelons, courgettes, cucumbers, beetroot, chillis
Jenny, Larry, Erin & Harley, Moffatt Rd, apples
Poppy & Teo, Streatham: tomatoes and beans
Elisabetta, Dahomey Rd: apples, chard, beetroot, carrots, beans
Hilary, Trevelyan Rd: plums
Fio, Dahomey Rd: apples
Jane, Tamworth Allotments: marrow, cucumber, courgette
Ian, Cotefford St: cucumbers, apples
Rose, Balham: bay leaves
Libby, Tamworth allotment: apples
Nikki, Tooting: potatoes, apples 

Special thanks to local not-for-profit veg supplier Local Greens who donated butternut squash, courgettes, onions and potatoes.

Emily and Annette front of house

Chefs
Volker of Essential Ingredient for co-ordinating cooking in the street with help from local chefs Manisha from Pooja, Rick of Rick's Dining Room, Elisabetta from Minestra and gluten-free chef Sarah.

Volunteers
Richard, Sharon, Hilary, Ben, Jenny, Mita, Emily, Annette, Larry, Millie & Lewis.

Tooting Community Garden Team
Anuja, Barbara, Becky H, Becky K, Katherine, Kay, Rosalind & Ryan.

Creative Activities Team
Annie, Chuck, Nicola, Nikki, Matt, Paul & May from Butterfly Conservation. Beata & Think Outside tucked in with us.
Enterprises who were donors to the creative activities included Brindisa, Flashmat, Get Juiced, Milk & Work & Play Scrapstore.

Everyone who spoke on the Soap Box with special thanks to Mermaid Jasmine for her eye-catching performance and ocean plastics talks. Also special thanks to Millie & Erin for their help with the creative activities & their impromptu speeches. 

Kay and Ryan hosting the Community Garden Table

Top Tooting Cook
Thank you Sophie @thecornerplot for co-ordinating and judging with co judges Sarah and Mark. And thanks to all those who entered the competition!

Music
Thanks to Dermot for co-ordinating his meltdown and to his support team of Stave, Howard and Tye. To all the performers including Dermot himself, Resina Chowdhury, Natyalaya Academy of Tamil Art, Dan Caleb, Friend's Circle Group, Ranjit's Karaoke, Vincent Burke, Pensa & Reid, Georgia Maria, The Troubadors de L'Avenue Verte and Alex Wonderland  

Photographers Bryony & Franco, the latter taking all images in this post.

Logistics
St Anselm's Catholic Primary School for gazebos, Volker & Charlie's Catering Hire for catering equipment, Furzedown Network for the PA, Miss U Stationers for printing, The Phantom Knitter for the Foodival banner and Jane for knitting an edit to show this year's date!

Thanks also to all stall holders and Foodival visitors who made this a memorable day in the sun.

Love from the organisers, see you in 2020!

Chuck, David, Mal and Volker

Foodival Continues... Thank You Donors!

Thank you to everyone who donated fruit and vegetables last night. We seem to be doing well for apples, but could do with more squash! 

Head down to Hereward Rd off Tooting High St, by Mushkil Aasaan (see map) from 11-5 TODAY to see what our chefs cook up, tuck into the Community Feast, enjoy the music, stalls and creative spaces at Tooting's sustainable food festival. Late entrants to Top Tooting Cook accepted!

Foodival features ...

A Grower 2018

This year's Tooting Foodival includes some new features alongside some familar favourites. We start this coming Friday evening with donations of fruit and vegetables from local growers. Can you spare anything from your allotment, window box or garden? These donations are used by our chefs to cook up a great sustainable feast in Hereward Rd on Saturday 14th.

Here's where to find the Foodival

The Top Tooting Cook Competition is an annual keenly fought tussle between local cooks to rustle up the best home made locally sourced dish. Follow the link to find out how to enter.


This year we have several special guests including May Webber from Butterfly Conservation and Ocean Plastic Warrior Mermaid Jasmine Seales. Don't miss the chance to catch a selfie in a sea shell!

Mermaid Jasmine Swims By Foodival

Of course we have a good array of sustainable and foodie stalls plus a long rosta of dance and music action via Dermot's Meltdown.

Dermot Melting Down

In a late change to the running order we expect to hear Dermot himself opening the show with his eclectic trug of homegrown songs and lovingly plucked instrumental covers!

So we look forward to seeing you this Saturday for what should be a great event. Friday evening for the much needed produce donations at Mushkil Aasaan 222 Upper Tooting Rd, SW17 7EW.

A full schedule of events is HERE.