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.

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

I Grew This 2019

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

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!

Vegetables, Fruit, Creativity ...

The Tooting Foodival on 14th Sept would love and appreciate your veg and your fruit to help us co-create our low food-miles community feast! You can donate produce on the day or the evening before - from 6.30pm to 8.30pm at Mushkil Aasaan (SW17 7EW). When you see the range and quality of what grows locally, you'll be amazed! Thanks so much for any contribution you can share - simple or exotic, small or large. Here are some examples from recent years, starting with Tooting tomatoes picked in the heat last Sunday (they'll last until the 14th if we make them into sauce).

How will you feed your imagination at the Tooting Foodival? The Foodival mixes sustainability, food, growing, fun, wellbeing and reducing waste. We're going to offer an activity which will inspire you to be creative: all ages welcome. We'll have fruit peel from Tooting's juice bars, Foodival veg scraps, beautiful saved-from-waste materials from Work and Play Scrapstore - South London and Wandsworth Oasis and stories from our Jellybrella project to help you create playful magical micro worlds. We'll tag photos of what you make on Instagram at #createfoodival and once you start creating, you'll see the potential for imaginative re-use everywhere! 

Enjoy our examples in the photos - subtle objects of mystery and fascination! We look forward to what's dreamed up on Sept 14th. As well as creative activities there's the main event: community cooking and the shared feast. Plus live bands, the soap box, boutique stalls and much more...for free! 

Three Weeks to Foodival 2019

This year’s Tooting Foodival is only three weeks away! 

Our annual sustainable food celebration takes place in central Tooting between 11am and 5pm on Saturday 14th September. We will close half of Hereward Rd and fill the street with cooking activities, stalls showcasing local products and organisations, creative activities, music and soap box talks. 

The premise of Foodival as ever is that we seek donations of fruit and vegetables from local growers that will be cooked up by local Tooting chefs and served to you, the hungry public, as the central part of our street festival. We seek to show that you don’t need to import food from miles away; you can enjoy sustainable locally grown low food mile delicious fare right here in SW17. 

I Grew This!

We collect donations of fruit and vegetables the evening before (Friday 13th September, this year) where we also hope to immortalise each of our growers in the now famous “I Grew This” photos. This is also the time when prospective entrants to the Top Tooting Cook Competition can pick up produce to conjure a prize winning dish for the following day’s competition. There will be some great prizes! 


If you would like to get involved there are several possible ways to do so: 

1) Are you growing any vegetables or fruit that you could donate? We would be ever so grateful, as Foodival only happens due to home grown produce. 

2) Would you like to help out on the day? We have a reliable team but can always do with a hand from anyone who wants to get involved in some random community fun! 

3) Do you fancy entering the Top Tooting Cook Competition? What is your speciality dish that will wow the judges? Or would you like to be a judge? Here is all the TTC info you need: details of the TTC and the registration form. Good luck and we look forward to what you make!

4) Do you have something to say... about food, sustainability, plastics or anything a bit related? You could book yourself a spot on the Soap Box! 

Whatever, contact us on transitiontowntooting@gmail.com to find out more, check us out on Instragram @tootingfoodival or on facebook

We look forward to celebrating local food and local cooking with you on the streets of Tooting in September!

What Are You Growing?

It's been a strange old summer, what with torrential rain for much of June and scorching weather for quite a lot of July. As usual some of my vegetable patch has done well despite this, while other parts have got a bit confused!

One area of success is runner beans which are cropping plentifully. 

Tooting Foodival is on Instagram these days and as of this evening we have 1,029 followers so we hope we are doing something interesting in our local community! Amazing that this event has been going since 2008!

Tooting Community Garden at the weekend

Do get involved as a grower, a cook or an eater on 14th September or join the gang who make the whole thing happen - you can do as little or as much as you like!

We enjoyed meeting loads of you at the National Park City Celebration at Tooting Community Garden yesterday and hope to see you again in September if not before.

Foodival 2019 - Sat 14th Sept

The 12th annual Tooting Foodival takes place this autumn on Saturday 14th September. The festival aims to encourage people to grow fruit and vegetables locally, cook healthy food with local produce and connect with others to enjoy eating the results!  We are in the planning stages for this year's event and welcome anyone who wants to get involved.

We will create a street feast for up to 500 cooked up from home grown and donated vegetables and fruit, there will be and array of local live music and of course your chance to win the Top Tooting Cook Competition.

We already know we need help with the following:

• Co-ordinating stalls 
• Social media and PR
• Connecting with community groups

and probably lots of other things we haven't yet thought of!  It's a great team effort to create Tooting Foodival and you can get involved in any way you like.

EMAIL US to find out more.

I Grew This 2018

Yesterday was another memorable one in the Foodival annals.  Full reports with myriad pictures will be posted in the coming days but firstly thank you to our fabulous growers who donated home grown fruit and vegetables.  Without you the event is not possible.
We give you I Grew This 2018!

What's On At Foodival 2018

Running Order 2018

Foodival 2018 starts this evening with the produce drop-off at Mushkil Aasaan. Left is the running order for the event including all the food, Top Tooting Cook and music timings.  Click through for the pdf.

Drop off produce this evening between 5.30 and 8.30 at Mushkil Aasaan 220-222 Upper Tooting Road, London. Postcode, SW17 7EW  HERE

If you want to enter Top Tooting Cook please try to come after 7pm to collect produce.

And we look forward to seeing you for the main event tomorrow from 11am until 5pm in Hereward Rd and Mushkil Aasaan HERE

Meanwhile ... anything left in the garden, window box or allotment?  Here are five crops I harvested just now!

 

Foodival 2017 Growers

Thank you so much to all the fantastic donors who make the Tooting Foodival happen.  Here they are in their "I Grew This" photos and this is what they grew and donated:

Jon - chives, beetroot & rhubarb
Kath - runner beans and potatoes
Debbie - raspberries, blackberries, courgettes, sweet corn, pears, cucumelons, onions, cavolo nero & pumpkin
Richard - carrots, chives, rosemary, potatoes & tomatoes
Indrajit - grapes
Heide - apples, pears and bay leaves
David - runner beans, tomatoes & kohl rabi
Mal - tomatoes
Jane - apples & leeks
Abundance Southfields - apples (thank you Richard)
Barbara - beans & lettuce
Tamworth Allotments - rocket & chard
Maggie - nasturtiums & mint
Judy - pears
Kelly - apples, chillis, tomatoes, carrots, sage, rosemary, cabbage, lemon balm, beans kale & chives
Chris - pumpkin & 2lbs of safari beans
Esther - tomatoes
Eleanor - blackberries & pears
Helen - rosemary & marrow
Tooting Community Garden - 25kg of potatoes, curly kale, cavolo ner, swiss chard, coriander, fennel, callaloo, young Jerusalem artichoke, pattypan squash, rosemary & sage, Paradise Co-op - beans, tomato, bay leaves & herbs
Doddington & Rollo Community Garden - coriander, rosemary & sage
SHARE Community Garden - cabbages & a fantastic plant display

WANTED

Foodival Cooking Event

For the 10th Foodival we are planning to create a real hands-on event to show the visitors how to turn homegrown vegetables into simple and delicious meals. To do that, we will create work areas for 3 groups preparing each a part of a 3-course-menu. Each of the groups will be guided by a chef/helper.

Some home grown donations from 2015

The menu we will be broadly the following:

Starter: Pakoras – Ingredients needed: Onions, cauliflower, courgette, spinach 

Main course: Vegetable stew – Ingredients needed: Onions, carrots, potatoes, turnips, peas and any other veg including tomatoes, garlic, herbs etc.

Dessert: Fruit Crumble – Ingredients needed: Any soft fruit – apples, pears, plums, berries 

This menu will be made from donated locally grown produce - yeahhhh!

But to do that we need the green fingers of the great south-west London public.  It would be great if you could help us to realise this menu by donating some of the above ingredients. There are still two months to go so get out the watering can, the tomorite or whatever it takes!

Donations will be gratefully received on Friday afternoon, 15 September to: Mushkil Aasaan, 222 Upper Tooting Road, London SW17 7EW or let us know when you would like us to collect. Thank you very much The Foodival Team.

Foodival 2017 Poster

Tooting Foodival is back this autumn.  What are you growing now that could be cooked up in 3 months time?  

On Saturday 16th September we'll be celebrating the range of low food mile food that can be grown in and around SW17.  Come along and join in, in whatever capacity you like.  We guarantee it will be FUN!

We Need Local Vegetable & Fruit Growers

And We Need Local Cooks!

Could It Be YOU? 

For more information or to get involved please email transitiontowntooting@gmail.com

Full PRESS RELEASE HERE

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.