Annual event of sharing locally grown food cooked by local chefs and restaurants.
It was a great Day One at Tooting Foodival with more local fruit and veg donated than ever before. Thank you so much to all those who gave some of their hard grown produce.
Tomorrow’s celebration of home grown home cooked food should be epic. The action starts at 12.00 with plenty of food related stalls, music and some theatre involving a giant pea. See you there!
Two singer songwriters, two bands, a ukulele combo plus some alternative making & carnival will light up this weekend’s Tooting Foodival at the Samaj Hall. But can you guess who the performers are? Clues below:
Head over to the Foodival blog for the full details of this great line up. 
In today’s news we learn that 90% of seabirds have eaten plastic and are likely to retain some in their gut. It’s pretty horrendous that so much waste plastic ends up polluting our oceans and we will be highlighting waste at this year’s Tooting Foodival.
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| An Albatross takes a shine to a plastic bottle |
It is easy to forget that plastic comes largely from fossil fuels, that diminishing supply of 300m year old organic matter [see US Dept of Energy] that currently powers the global economy.
An event we ran nearly five years ago, Plastic from Oil Well to Ocean via Tooting, looked in more detail at this topic and, perhaps surprisingly, is by far the most read post in the history of this blog! Some of our readers evidently think this topic is important.
As usual, as part of Foodival, we will aim to give the south west London public a taste of locally grown, locally cooked, low food mile, tasty food. But we really want to minimise the waste we create as much as possible and especially waste from plastic that is so harmful to our environment, the natural world and ultimately us. So, can you help us?
This year we are asking all festival attendees to BRING YOUR OWN plate and cutlery to the Foodival. That way we will have less waste, fewer CO2 emissions and a lighter environmental footprint. Yes it might be a bit of a hassle and something we are not used to doing, but also is this small change that hard to accomplish? We hope that as many of you as possible will try to join in with this initiative. We will have biodegradable plates & cutlery on hand as a back up, but there is still an environmental impact inherent in any product manufacturing, so we will be charging for these!
That’s right. It’s less than a month until South London’s favourite sustainable food festival – Tooting Foodival!
Over on the Foodival blog, we’re ramping up the announcements – letting you know about all the great things that will be happening over the weekend, and all the great people who make Foodival the glorious local festival that it is.
Just this week, we’ve announced five local restaurants who are cooking for Foodival… and there will be more to come next week!
As well as the wonderful cooks, we couldn’t dish up over 600 servings to you hungry folk, without the generosity and talents of all the people growing delicious vegetables, fruit and herbs, who donate their produce to be cooked up overnight.
If you grow anything, or you know a grower, you can donate to Foodival… every salad leaf counts!
Add what you’re growing to the map! Share it with your friends. Download some flyers and dish them out to growers all around the area.
We can’t wait to see you all in just 4 short weeks!
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| Foodival in the Guardian |
There are so many things you can get involved with over the next few days in Tooting, hopefully something for everyone! Why not start tonight at the Streatham Cemetery Chapel by helping Jeni & SMArT make the Bird with Borrowed Feathers for Sunday’s Field Day. It’s a Mindful Making workshop where you can help to construct a giant bird and adorn it with “borrowed” feathers.
Then tomorrow you could check whether there are still tickets for Furzedown Low Carbon Zone’s screening of The Emperor’s New Clothes starring Russell Brand at Streatham Park Bowling Club, just off Tooting Common.
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| Tooting Restart in action |
On Saturday, get your broken electronic items fixed at the Tooting Restart Party at Mushkil Aasaan. And then join in a free puppet-making workshop, have a picnic, or walk all the way from Tooting to Clapham Junction only on the grass with fanSHEN on Sunday’s Field Day.
Also this week we are very happy to have this September’s Foodival featured in the Wandsworth Guardian. What are you growing? Want to help out? Just email TTT to find out how to get involved.
Are you growing for the Foodival? Unfortunately so are the caterpillars! They are causing havoc on the local cabbage patches!
Foodival is TTT’s sustainable celebration of local growing, local cooking and all things food related, taking place this year over the weekend of September 12th & 13th.
There will be a competition for weird looking vegetables, something on fermentation, a schools cook off challenge, plenty of entertainment, including I am reliably informed a giant pea, as well as the usual features such as Top Tooting Cook and dishes to sample cooked by local restaurants.
Keep an eye on the Foodival blog for the latest information and keep growing for this year’s event despite adversarial critters!
No, not these people … they are donors of home grown veg & fruit snapped at a previous Foodival. Recognise anyone? Fancy joining in this year?
Yes You Can!
We’re starting to plan Foodival 2015 – Transition Town Tooting’s sustainable food festival – and we’re looking for people to join the team.
Maybe you want to meet local growers? Or you love cooking? Maybe you’re looking for publicity experience? 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.
There are lots of ways you can get involved, either by joining the planning team, or helping out over the weekend.
Head over to the Tooting Foodival blog to see what we’re looking for, and get in touch at transitiontowntooting@gmail.com if you’re interested, or know someone who can help.
Or just pop in to the next planning meeting – Tuesday, 27 May, 7pm at the Kings Head on Upper Tooting Road.
Theatre group fanSHEN took centre stage at this year’s Foodival with their anarchic performance of the Applecart, which engaged young, medium and old alike. They also sent at least 50 interested visitors around the local area on a guided Tooting Walk. Two walks have been recorded and anyone can try them out: one a half hour loop from Samaj Hall and the other from Tooting Broadway to the Lido which lasts about 40 minutes. Both walks are available for download at the fanSHEN site HERE.
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| Applecart at Foodival, Sep 14th 2014 |
fanSHEN director Dan Barnard says: “the sound files and route maps are free to download and you can either listen to them as you do the walks (which enhances the experience) or just listen to them as radio programmes, which works well too! You may recognise some of the voices! “
Thanks to Dan and the team at fanSHEN for producing these fascinating and enjoyable trips round Tooting.
We had a great weekend, then a much-needed couple of days to relish the whole experience. Now, our Foodival wrap-up report is ready – it’s one click away on the Foodival page here
We hope you enjoy reliving last weekend!
Thanks to all from the whole team at Transition Town Tooting.
We can’t wait for the eighth annual Tooting Foodival in Sept 2015!
We’re very keen to get your feedback on Foodival. Either pop a comment on the blog below, get in touch or fill in our survey here.
A great day collecting fruit and veg at Foodival. Hope to see you tomorrow at Samaj Hall.