Foodival in This Week's Wandsworth Guardian

Growing for the Foodival

One of the key messages of the Tooting Foodival is that you can grow local, cook local and eat local i.e. with very low food miles and so minimal carbon emissions.  Another is that we aim to have a lot of FUN both over the summer and during the Foodival weekend in September.  If you want to be part of this local food extrvaganza, in any capacity, just make contact, we always need more hands as Foodival is a totally volunteer run event.

Cyber Carrot

As usual we will ask for donations of home grown produce from your back gardens, pots, allotments or window sills.  If you are a grower of anything, please try to save something interesting for September 12th!  Perhaps you could be this year's Top Tooting Cook?  All you'd need to do is cook up a dish using locally grown ingredients - we hope to have plenty to give you!  That's another big idea, we distribute all donated produce to local restaurants, cooks and, this year, groups and schools too, who will then produce dishes for us all to sample.

We also want to celebrate the strange looking things that we grow that no supermarket would ever sell!  So if you're a producer of wonky carrots or weird tomatoes, be proud and show the world!  There will be prizes!

Meanwhile, now is the time to watch out for all those garden pests who might ruin your best laid plans!  Here is a snapshot of the battle in my garden.  I like butterflies but ...

Kohl rabi & caterpillar, both growing for Foodival!

Marko Is This Year's Foodival Poster Winner

For this year's Foodival, we asked students at South Thames College to design us a poster.  Emma Ashton, lecturer in Creative Media Production, set the task and sent us a shortlist of great designs. 

The standard was high but the winning design we have chosen is by 19 year old Marko Saponja, a first year student of Interactive Media Production. Emma says “Marko is very creative in visual arts and in the last 12 months he has really excelled in this area”.

Marko hopes to go on to University to study interactive media or visual effects once he leaves College. We think he's got off to a fine start and we wish him all the best in his future career.

Marko's Foodival Poster for 2015

Our thanks goes to Marko and all the students of South Thames College who took part in this challenge and for Emma Ashton for all her hard work in helping to organise it. 
Malsara

Join the Foodival Team - volunteering opportunities

Plans are underway for Foodival 2015 - Transition Town Tooting’s sustainable food festival – and we’re looking for people to join the team.

Maybe you’re someone who grows vegetables and want to connect with other growers? Or you love cooking and would like to work with local restaurants and organisations? Maybe you’re a dab hand at writing, photography or film making? Or maybe you’d like to get involved on the day, making the event a success.

Whatever takes your fancy, we’ve got a role for you.  You’ll meet some wonderful people, have the chance to shape the Foodival, and of course, get to eat some delicious food!

Foodival takes place over the weekend of 12 – 13 September.

How can you get involved?
There are lots of ways you can get involved, either by joining the planning team, or helping out over the weekend.

Join the planning team

Let us know which role or roles you're interested in and we can send more details or talk it through with you.

• Top Tooting Cook Competition Manager – plan and promote the competition, get people involved, and manage the competition on Sunday 13 September.
• Top Tooting Cook Competition Assistant – support the TTC Competition Manager in planning and running the competition.
• Growing and Produce Co-ordinator – get people growing for Foodival and encouraging local growers to donate their home grown fruit and vegetables on Saturday 12 September.
• Restaurant Liaison Manager – liaise with restaurants cooking for Foodival and manage distribution of produce on Saturday 12 September and collection of dishes for Foodival on Sunday 13 September.
• Marketing and Communications Assistant – get involved with the marketing and public relations campaigns to build awareness of Foodival in the local community.
• Entertainment Manager – source and manage the entertainers who will perform at Foodival.

Help spread the word!

• Poster and flyer distributors
• Local grower outreach team
• Cooking outreach team

Volunteer at Foodival

• Photographer
• Film maker
• Helpers to set up, serve, dismantle
• Local produce collection and donation support
• Local restaurant food collection

Get in touch if you’d like to get involved!
Contact transitiontowntooting@gmail.com or come to the next planning meeting on Tuesday, 26 May 7pm on Ramsden Road to find out more.

Foodival 2015 - 12th & 13th September

Thanks Dave for the new logo!

We are happy to announce that Foodival 2015, Transition Town Tooting's sustainable food festival, will take place in Tooting on the weekend of 12th/13th September 2015. 

Preparations are already underway for the 8th incarnation of this fabulous celebration of all things food and growing related and anyone can get involved.  As previously we aim to encourage local people to grow something for Foodival which can then be cooked by local cooks or restaurants to produce truly local, very low food mile dishes. What will you grow this year? What will you eat?

Kohl Rabi growing for the Foodival in SW12

The full line-up of events and entertainment will evolve as ever and be publicised on this site in the run up to September's food fiesta.

We always need volunteers so please do contact us via email at transitiontowntooting@gmail.com if you would like to get involved as a grower, a cook, an entertainer, or to help run the event.  And watch this space for more Foodival news.

Goodness Graveney Me! A Top Tooting Cook.

Amrit with three of the judges Manisha, Kate and Chris

The Top Tooting Cook competition was fiercely fought out at Foodival last month. Twelve of Tooting's finest cultivators of cuisine produced some of the best presented dishes ever seen at TTC.  The judges tasted, deliberated, and after the dust had settled a new champion was crowned.

With the highest marks for taste, presentation and food miles, the Top Tooting Cook for 2014 is Amrit Sachar for her "Goodness Graveney Me" smoked aubergine starter. Well done to Amrit who won dinner for two at Meza. Runner up was a suspiciously dressed Sprout Lover with his beetroot & squash curry with Yasmin Salam in third place for her vegetable samosas.  Special commendation was given to Emily Boyce for her "Tooting Jam and Social" a trio of herb labneh balls, rosemary biscuits and tomato and chilli jam.

Check out the recipes for these winning dishes here.

Thanks to everyone involved in TTC this year and see you again in 2015.

Goodness Graveney Me!  "All I need is a smaaall aubergine!"

Thanks for being a part of a wonderful Foodival!

We needed a couple of days to recover from and relish the festivities of the weekend - now, here is our Foodival wrap-up report!

The sun was shining for Tooting Foodival festival day and the Foodival banner knitted by Penny (a.k.a. the Phantom Knitter of Tooting) looked gorgeous against the blue sky.

Hundreds of you joined in the fun and we hit our goal of serving food to over 300 people. In fact, together, we served up over 600 portions from food grown locally and donated to Foodival during the BATCA Community Fun Day and Foodcycle the day before.  And over 60 people and organisations have told us what they're growing in Tooting - you're all now on the map! See the wonderful pictures from Saturday's donation points here and from Sunday below.

"I've never seen so many smiling faces as I did over Tooting Foodival weekend", said Tooting Foodival event director, Dave Mauger. "This is thanks to all those who planned and took part in the event. We would like to say a massive thank you to all the volunteers, fruit and veg growers, restaurants, performers, stallholders, guests and everyone who made the 2014 Tooting Foodival our biggest and most successful ever! What a fantastic way to celebrate the vast amount of local growers and wide variety of Tooting restaurants! See you in 2015!" 

Seven restaurants and twelve local cooks rustled up tasty dishes for the crowds.  The dishes were so tasty that we didn't get any pictures! (Next year, next year, we promise!).

• Al Mirage - vegetable curry and pilau rice
• Fisher & Co - gingery plum cakes and flapjacks
• Meza - moussaka with flat breads, yoghurt and baba ganoush 
• Mina's Grill - vegetable lasagne 
• Mis Bar Mleczny - polish stew 
• Pooja - potato curry with apple chutney and vegetable pakora 
• Rick's Restaurant - cheese and tomato risotto followed by fruit crumble 

Local residents Indrajit and Jaya brought in some very tasty curry with rice and lassi for the crowds as a surprise.  And Mark Watson came back to Foodival for a second run, brewing up his delicious herbal teas made with foraged plants from Tooting and Bungay.

Meanwhile, Top Tooting Cook judges Kate Allan, secretary of BATCA, Mr (Chris) Nappy Valley, Rick Gibbs of Rick’s Restaurant and Manisha Patel from Pooja had a tough time deciding which local cooks would win the coveted prize this year. Congratulations to Amrit Sachar who was crowned Top Tooting Cook for 2014 for her Goodness Graveney Me small aubergine canape using aubergine grown by her mum at home! She won a dinner for two at Meza with wine.

There was a second year of controversy in the Top Tooting Cook competition, as TTT's very own David Thorne took second prize for his mixed vegetable curry, made with home grown beetroot and squash.  And congratulations to Yasmin who won third prize for her mixed vegetable samosas and spicy coriander chutney.  All of her ingredients were picked up from Foodival on Saturday and she won a cookery lesson donated by last year's winner "What's for Dinner?"

The food wasn't the only feast laid on for visitors. A wealth of talented performers kept the crowds entertained all afternoon: singer/songwriters Dermot Jones, Jonathan Buckley and Vince Burke, talent-of-tomorrow London Young Voices children's choir, comic performer Sam Quinn and his unique tombola, amazing sleight of hand magician Marc Kerstein, Blues masters Slim Estrada Trio who put the South into south London, the utterly brilliant Randolph Matthews who blew the audience away with his entertaining blend of soulful jazz and ethnic beatbox, and finally local folk heroes, the Bara Bara Band.

Venture around the venue and there was plenty more fun to be had. Guests worked up an appetite learning how much energy it takes to power speakers and light bulbs by bike. It was a joy to see so many people sweating it out to play a three minute song.  From young kids who could hardly reach the peddles, to Sadiq Khan MP and a lady who remembers a similar contraption that powered her lights when she lived in Sri Lanka!

Over 60 people walked off their dinner with the premier of Tootingwalks - a new project developed by fanSHEN theatre who also performed the wonderfully entertaining play, the Apple Cart. The walks are available to download for free from fanSHEN’s website. We can't wait to be guided on a walk around Tooting!

Upstairs, guests enjoyed more tasty treats - honey from Streatham Cemetary, local chutneys from Hilary's preserves, and home-made cakes from China Jordan and Klevis Kola’s Chickpea Sisters. Many spent time pinning food on the world map, playing green living jenga and the human fruit machine with Carbon Collaborations, while others spent time decorating cakes and learning about vegetable ivory jewellery.

Twenty-eight people made leaves for SMArT's Tooting Future Tree to think about what people want to grow in Tooting. The leaves featured wishes for love, a rugby field and more sycamore trees among them. If that wasn’t enough, there was also plenty of opportunity to learn about healthy eating with Niamh's Nutrition, local energy with Furzedown Low Carbon Zone and growing projects with Transition Town Tooting.

David Thorne, co-chair of Transition Town Tooting gave his perspective on the weekend.

“We want to say thanks to everyone who donated produce to Foodival. We couldn't have done this without that locally grown food. It's amazing to see just how many people are growing in Tooting and the variety that's growing from dozens of chillies growing on windowsills to tomatoes, courgettes, chard, squash and cabbages. Our map of what’s growing in Tooting shows just how many people are growing and we really enjoyed taking the pictures of all the people who donated their locally grown produce on Saturday. It was great to have space for collections at the BATCA Funday and the Foodcycle lunch where many great connections were made!

Thanks also to the 30+ volunteers, who gave so many hours in the run up to and during the weekend. Foodival is totally run by volunteers and funded in part by the Wandsworth Eco Fund and the donations received on the day. We'll see you all next year!”

Thanks from the whole team at Transition Town Tooting. We can't wait for the eighth Foodival in 2015! We're keen to get your feedback on Foodival. Either pop a comment on the blog below, get in touch or fill in our survey here.

Foodival Day One

A great day collecting fruit and veg at Foodival. Hope to see you tomorrow at Samaj Hall.

Let's get harvesting, let's get cooking!

The seventh annual Tooting Foodival is nearly here. It's time to get harvesting!

Foodival exists to celebrate the wealth of produce you can grow in an urban environment like Tooting. Since June, people have been adding to the map to show all the wonderful fruit, veg, herbs and salads growing in the area. The variety is astounding - from the familiar - tomatoes, potatoes, beans, strawberries - to the more unusual - cola plants, green guages, loganberries and celeriac.

Bring your food on Saturday for Foodival!

Whether you have one tomato, a handful of salad leaves, or a veritable feast of fruit and veg, it's time to get harvesting for Foodival. The restaurants are eager to get creative and cook up a feast so everyone can celebrate on Sunday. 

Drop off your produce at two spots between 1pm and 5pm. Put yourself on the map that will be displayed on Sunday. and have some fun or a bite to eat while you deliver your goods. It's a win win!

• BATCA Fun Day, Broadwater Road - drop off  your fruit and veg at the Foodival stall. Then enjoy the fun - stalls food and entertainment. Visit the Kingston Farm Animals, get a henna tattoo, try some local or international food, learn about growing your own food, laugh at the clown show, get your blood pressure checked or chill out with ice cream. 
• Foodcycle Wandsworth, Mushkil Aasaan, 220-222 Upper Tooting Road - give some locally grown food for Foodival and enjoy a free meal cooked by local volunteers from food that supermarkets would otherwise throw away!

Sunday is Festival Day!

We're hopeful that Foodival day at Samaj Hall on Sunday will be a lot of fun and that you'll meet a lot of people. It's the day we celebrate the incredible talents of people in Tooting and together show what's possible in the city. Fingers crossed it'll be a record breaker so every apple, potato and tomato counts!

Do you want to cook for Foodival?

If growing isn't your thing but you love to cook, get in touch with Mal to enter the Top Tooting Cook competition. There are some great prizes to be won. The aim is to cook something tasty with low food miles. We can even supply you with some ingredients. 

Just pop into Mushkil Aasaan on Saturday between 4pm and 5pm, then come to Foodival on Sunday with your dish. Good luck!

We'll see you all at Foodival!

Hot gifts hidden in the streets of Tooting

Keep your eyes peeled around Tooting this week and you might just find an especially hot gift from the folks at SMArT.  Nestled on a windowsill, settled on steps and hidden around the BATCA Fun Day, will you spot an upcycled package inviting you to "Open Me"?

We're keeping the surprise under wraps for now. What we can say is if you're lucky enough to find these carefully crafted gifts, you can keep it to yourself, or take it along to Foodival on Sunday, where you'll receive another something special. Hmmm, intriguing!

Thanks to all the makers who joined in at the last two SMArT Meet & Make sessions and everyone who collected their Tetrapak cartons and donated hot home-grown produce.

Let us know if you find one of the mysterious packages and we'll see you at Foodival for more home-grown fun!