Transition Town Tooting

Author: Transition Town Tooting

  • 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  

    PhotographersBryony & 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 the 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 will be posted shortly.

  • Dermot’s Meltdown at Foodival 2019

    As ever we present a diverse range of local musicians and dancers at this year’s Foodival. Dermot’s 2nd Meltdown includes some familiar faces from Foodivals past and a few performers new to the Tooting streets. There may be one or two surprise additions before Saturday, but see below for details of who is confirmed so far.

    Dan Caleb

    Dan Caleb is a “London-based hyphen-loving alt-folk singer-songwriter” who performs solo. For more see Facebook, @dancalebmusic Spotify,  Video , Live Performance.

    “Friends Music Circle” are Praful Gajjar, Ranjit Patel, and Hitesh Vyasa, a group with over 40 years experience of playing and singing a variety of Bollywood and fusion music. 

    Ranjit from the Friends Music Circle will also be treating us to some of his renowned Karaoke.

    Georgia Maria

    Georgia Maria is a “Turbocharged acoustic-rocker let loose on London’s live circuit. Powerful, darkly poetic modern rock. And Tool covers”. See You Tube & Facebook

    Local children from “NATYALAYA” Academy of Tamil Arts will be performing two cultural dances, the children will be a aged between 6 and 15 years

    Performing a mix of well-known classics and some original material, Pensa & Read are a local Furzedown duo offering a taste of what Simon & Garfunkel might have sounded like if they were the severely overtired parents of 4 small children. Giles Read has plenty of Foodival pedigree, running the festival several times in its early years.


    Resina Chowdhury

    Usually seen as part of local blues-rock band we’re being treated to Resina the solo artist today!

    Troubadours de L’Avenue Verte

    The ‘Troubs’ will play Irish, Disco, and Rhythm and Blues, in an unamplified set – just as they do when on tour: they travel by bicycle and carry their entire tour rig with them: which is their instruments, voices and personalities. Their M.O is to turn up at a local bar or cafe, turn out a tune and and if it goes down well they’ll play some more, if not they’re on to the next spot…feel free to join them and – if the spirit moves you – join in!


    Vincent Burke

    Vincent played Latitude Festival for the second time this Summer. His music seeks to be both melodic and not-stupid in the word department. The live band now contains the tasty added ingredients of Paul on double-bass, and Jawad on percussion. 

    The debut Album ‘Over here in the Trees’ came out this year on Bandcamp and shook the Earth to its very foundations, but while Vincent’s feet may be in the gutter his soul rides tempestuously on the stars.

  • #createfoodival

    There’s a lot to share about all that’s happening at the Tooting Foodival on 14th September, so we’ll cover all of these in separate blog posts.

    We hope you enjoy the info about our creative offer for adults and young people. All invited to our base in the large yard part way down Hereward Road.

    Here’s your invitation 
    to a diverse 6 hours of creativity:

    Our schedule:

    11:00-12:30 We’ll be micro-observing with Annie, Nikki & Chuck using magnifying glasses and a microscope, drawing and creating the first small worlds which we’ll post on Instagram with the hashtag #createfoodival. We started with posting a first example today – have a look.
    We can’t wait to encourage visitors to be drawn to nature!
    We’ll continue these activities all day in parallel with the timed special sessions below.

    12:30-1:30 We welcome May Webber from the UK national charity Butterfly Conservation
    May will bring specimens of insects for us to explore with the help of her expertise and enthusiasm. With May and Nicola we’ll draw and realise that what’s good for insects in London is also good for people.
    MAYBE we will be able to run moth-trapping locally on Friday night, and bring the catch in unharmed to observe and draw.

    1:30-3:00 Nikki and Matt will be creating Microbrellas – our spin-off from this spring’s Jellybrella project which created big jellyfish-sculptures using scrap umbrellas and linked sea life with ocean plastics.

    Making beautiful detailed microbrellas also aims to highlight how minute nano-plastics in the oceans are as damaging pollution challenge as large-scale waste.

    We may have a visit from Jasmine the Mermaid and her stop ocean plastics campaign!

    3:00-4:30 Paul will lead us to create easy-to-use small home planters out of re-purposed materials. You can take these home and keep growing fresh food this autumn.

    All day Think Outside will join us in the creative yard with excellent outdoor learning activities complementary to #createfoodival – thanks for joining us, Beata & Think Outside

    We’ll display what you make on this inspiring sea turtle table made by Jamie Pattinson – it’s a wonderful object with a plastic waste message.

    The #createfoodival facilitators look forward 
    to seeing you on the 14th from 11:00 to 5:00. 
    And there’s all the rest 
    of the Foodival to enjoy, too!

  • 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! 

    Make a Microbrella

    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! 

    What will you make?

  • Sophie Rushton-Smith To Run TTC

    We are delighted to announce that Sophie Rushton-Smith from The Corner Plot will be coordinating this year’s Top Tooting Cook Competition at Foodival on the 14 September. 

    Sophie was Top Tooting Cook in 2015


    In 2015 Sophie won the prestigious TTC award for her use of locally grown vegetables to make a delicious colourful roast vegetable medley. 

    Who will be this year’s Top Tooting Cook? Could It Be YOU?

    There are lots of lovely prizes to be won. Want to take up the challenge? 

    See here for TTC FAQs and the 2019 Registration form.

    Email transitiontowntooting@gmail.com with any queries.

  • Three weeks to Tooting 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!

  • Growing Community across London – Part 2

    Our previous blog post describes Growing Community Part 1 – and to recap in the last week of July our long-planned collaboration between Ravenstone School and Tooting Community Garden offered two interlinked local ‘Growing Community in the Heart of the City’ workshops as part of The Mayor of London’s National Park City Festival

    The common green thread running through both events was celebrating city growing and the outdoors, creating an environment which is good for ourselves, for the community and for nature.

    Blog post Part 1 describes the Ravenstone School event on July 22.
    Here we’re sharing what we did together in the second of the two events, the Tooting Community Garden open day on July 28th.

    The garden team of a dozen volunteers met early (no Sunday lie-ins) to put up signs, hang our TTT bunting, set up activities and then provide a warm welcome and an invitation to join in the day in any way people wished. We wanted to demonstrate that being outdoors together is accessible and enjoyable.

    Over 80 people came along on a Sunday with an on-off forecast for rain. We decided to not put up gazebos, and we were all rewarded with a lovely afternoon.

    The welcome table gave a focus for saying hello and having a chance to talk with visitors who either explored the garden, relaxed or joined one of our fun and practical activity workshops:

    1. Creating vertical wall planters with Paul: sharing environmental, DIY, creativity and urban growing benefits.

    2. Being guided by Sharon to select plants and re-purposed containers to take home – building growing skills and wellbeing.

    3. Joining Jane’s ‘Drawn to Nature’ drawing workshop: enjoying taking time to observe and be present, with wellbeing and drawing practice benefits.

    4. Annie’s creative workshops in the family zone: sharing benefits of creating together in unusual ways across generations or with people new to you and learning fun techniques to take home.

    Feedback from visitors included:
    ‘A lovely place, and lovely people’ ‘A lovely celebration of nature and community spirit’ ‘The day was beautiful, well thought-out and sustainable’ ‘A nice peaceful day and a great community feel’ ‘Loved the community feeling and how positive and welcoming everyone has been’ ‘What a lovely garden, and such friendly people. We’ll be back’

    Our own responses to the day?
    It was very affirming for the Community Garden team to welcome so many people who enjoyed what we offered together. Sundays in the Garden are fun and informal, and it was a good challenge to do something different, facilitating an engaging and outward-looking day.
    Plus, it was our 8th birthday as a garden project since being generously offered use of the land by Naseem Aboobaker.  

    Many volunteers have opened the Garden space on over 400 Sundays. 
    That’s worth celebrating!

    Thanks to all the volunteers: Amanda, Annie, Chuck, Deb, Jane, Kay, Keith, Paul, Ryan, Sharon & Tom. A big shout out to our new friends and qualified first aiders Alice & Charlie who joined us on the day to provide that cover – thankfully they had no cause to leap into action. Kudos to photographer Bryony Williams for images used here (plus more for another time) and to Kay and Chuck for other pictures in this blog.

    Everyone is welcome to join us at the Community Garden every Sunday from 11:00 to 1:00 (sometimes later into the afternoon). No experience necessary and we share any updates or changes on our Tooting Community Garden Facebook and Instagram pages.

    The annual Tooting Foodival – our twelfth! – is TTT’s next big community event! It’s taking place on Saturday 14th September and we hope to see you there – it’s going to be great!

  • Growing Community across London – Part 1…

    130 people joined us for 2 events during London National Park City Festival Week!

    Our 2 linked workshops, called Growing Community in the Heart of Wandsworth, invited people to come and get their hands dirty learning how to make vertical planters, potting on, creating leaf pressings and loads more. They also created a lasting echo in both locations, read on to find out more…

    The first event was at Ravenstone Primary School on Monday 22nd July. What struck me most about this day was that we had way more young people than adults and all the young people wanted to get active.

    The cloth planters were made using a staple gun, here’s Kate and Chuck in action. 
    These four friends knew exactly what they were doing making cloth planters 
    These guys loved moving muck and making a wee home for their plants.
    A big element of our day was to give a workshop on making vertical planters. Why? To show what can be made with largely waste materials – pallets, any cloth, cardboard tubes from carpet shops and homemade compost. Paul Wilson gave a fantastic session on the pallet planters, encouraging people young and old to get involved.

    Paul in action taking through the endless possibilities of a pallet

    All planted up and ready to go!
    Grandpa/son tackle the drill

    The day also inspired a diverse range of volunteers who not only helped deliver the event, but also had time to catch up, share experiences and enjoy the day. HUGE thank you to Miranda, Tara, Paul and Paul, Sarah, Mary, Peter, Claire and Claire and Veronica.

    Big up the Volunteer Team!

    We were planting for community, for ourselves and for nature. At Ravenstone, the vertical planters for community will be used in a brand new Wild Place for Nature. This project, led by parent volunteers and quite literally digging up the asphalt down to the subsoil to build up new planting areas and provide much needed connection to nature for the 400 children at the school, not to mention parents, teachers and staff.

    Everyone got to take a plant home and, of course, all the planting was good for nature.

    Feedback, child-style… do we really hate plants??

    Both events for part of a London wide National Park City Festival with events happening over 9 days and the announcement by Mayor Sadiq Khan of London being the world’s first National Park City. Many more Cities across the World have their eyes on London and are exploring what National Park City status means for them. For us, its about advocacy for green and blue spaces in celebration for all that they give us. Its also about feeling part of a much bigger ecological and social system across London whenever we come and garden at home, at Ravenstone or at Tooting Community Garden. Its a fantastic response to the Climate Crisis, embracing imagination, communities and wonder in making London healthier, greener and wilder.

    Blog 2 will be all about the linked workshop at Tooting Community Garden, keep those eyes peeled!

    Follow London National Park City Foundation HERE
    And their website HERE
    Check out the National Park City Festival Website HERE