Transition Town Tooting

Tag: Community participation

  • Thank You Everyone at Foodival 2018!

    It takes many people to make Tooting Foodival happen.  

    Here’s a short thank-you to (hopefully) most of you!

    GROWERS

    Without your generous contributions of locally grown producewe would not have been feasting!
    • Charles & Lesley, Foulser Rd – tarragon & bay leaves 
    • Elisabetta, Dahomey Rd – Tuscan kale, cima di rapa, marrow, leeks, chard, pumpkin
    • Jane, Furzedown – rhubarb, squash
    • Tamworth Farm Allotment growers – marrows, squashes, cucumbers, peppers
    • David & Mal, Ramsden Rd – radishes, grapes, tomatoes, runner beans, kohl rabi
    • Kath, Khartoum Rd – beetroot, carrots, courgette
    • Susan, Cornford Grove – grapes
    • Michael, Ullathorne Rd – grapes, courgettes
    • Hilary, Tooting – plums
    • Tooting Community Garden, North Drive – blackberries, greengages, garlic, Picasso & Maris Piper potatoes, pumpkins
    • Rachel, Tooting Bec Rd – courgettes, cucumbers, tomatoes, mini aubergines, chillis, peppers
    • Richard, Upper Tooting Park – mint, rosemary, beetroot, courgettes, tomatoes, curly kale
    • Chuck, Cornford Grove – sprouting microgreens
    • Debbie, Furzedown – pumpkin, runner beans, cucamelons, squash, courgettes, apples
    • Egle, Derinton Rd – pea shoots, mustard greens
    • Susie, Earlsfield – carrots, yellow courgette, potatoes, tomatoes, runner beans, rosemary, sage
    • Belinda, Beechcroft Rd – flowers, marrows
    • Poppy & Teo, Streatham – patty pan & butternut squash
    • Al, Tamworth Farm – snake gourds, squashes & marrows
    • Sue, Furzedown – butternut squash, pumpkin, courgette, green leaves 
    • Ollie, Clapham Junction – squash
    • plus…Abel & Cole donated several boxes of organic vegetables when we were concerned that the summer’s drought would limit the amount that community growers could spare us. Thank you so much!

    CHEFS
    Volker Nissen of Essential Ingredient for co-ordinating the cooking on Saturday with three notable local chefs: Manisha from Pooja Sweets, Rick Gibbs of Rick’s Tooting & Elisabetta Costantini from Minestra Supper Club.

    COMMUNITY PARTNERS 
    Mushkil Aasaan – A special thank you to Project Director Naseem Aboobaker who has been a rock-solid friend and partner to us throughout the last 10 years. Letting us use their space and land for free has allowed us to run projects such as the Tooting Community Garden, eleven Foodivals and countless meetings at Mushkil Aasaan Hall over many years. 

    Thanks to Sarah and Deborah at Share Nurseries who have supplied plants to for our pop-up raised beds and to Beata and family who ran the Think Outside stall showcasing their outdoor learning workshops in schools. 

    PHOTOGRAPHY
    Thank you so much to photographers Bryony Williams – findmeintooting, Franco Ruarte and Riccardo Sai.  Click the links to see their amazing work.

    LOGISTICS

    • Brian Joseph for his generous gift of electricity, water and lending us his forecourt. 
    • St Anselm’s Primary School for gazebos
    • Gatton Primary School for tables. 
    • Work & Play Scrapstore for various making materials
    • Volker Nissen for all the catering equipment 
    • Miss U Stationers for giving us top rates on all our printing
    • Al-Mirage Restaurant for letting us use their ovens 
    • The Phantom Knitter of Old Tooting Town for knitting the Foodival banner

    MUSIC
    Dermot Jones for curating a splendid “Meltdown” ably helped by Mark on the mixing desk.  All our brilliant artists:
    Vincent Burke, Tai Li Ling, Babar Luck, Slim Estrada & Ingrid, The Troubadours de l’Avenue Verte, Emma And The Hot Tub Men and the Unconfirmed. & Ranjit for the dhol!

    MEDIA
    Rachel Husband for taking Foodival onto Instagram and Tooting PRSS for giving us publicity throughout the year.  Everyone who have tweeted/liked and mentioned us in various posts.

    TOP TOOTING COOK
    TTC local Prize donors: Abel & Cole, Al- Mirage, Deelicious Nazish’s Kitchen,Meat & Shake, Nando’s, Unwined, Walker Wyatt Cafe, Bring Your Own Zero Waste Shop.
    TTC Judges: Brian Albuquerque, Lillie Langford, Nazish Omar and Rick Gibbs.
    All cooks taking part in the TTC

    STALLHOLDERS
    Field and Flower,  Richard Glassborow and 15,000 honey bees, Debbie Morey – Good sorts, Jane Haskings, LSx – Abshir Weli and Charlotte Hawthorne 

    VOLUNTEERS

    • Ben and Sharon – sustainability games and fun 
    • Eleanor and Richard – waste management 
    • Barbara and Emily – choppers (and furniture-moving, Emily) 
    • Esther and Hilary – manning tables 
    • Jenny and Caty for taking your money! 
    • Christine for wool-spinning 
    • Rosalind & Resina for hard work at the welcome table, and selling plants 
    • Leon for fetching and carrying at the clear up 
    • Eleanor for looking after cash donation buckets 
    • Millie & Lewis for helping out with the food.
    • Ranjit & Mita for helping clear up. 

    All the Foodival visitors who helped create an enjoyable atmosphere on the day and many of you who helped us tidy up after and take rubbish away. Everyone who very kindly put money into the donation buckets – we need this to make the next Foodival happen so thank you to you all. 
    The residents of Hereward Road – thank you for putting up with us again. 
    Tim and the Metropolitan Police team who joined us.

    With big love from the Organisers:
    Chuck, Volker, Belinda, David and Mal 

    With your help, see you at Foodival 2019!

  • Inviting you to our series of free local events this autumn exploring sustainability in Tooting!

    We’re thrilled with the fun and buzz at the Tooting Foodival last Saturday! Thanks to all who contributed their time, equipment, skills and produce to make it a success (see the I Grew This 2018 blog post).  Over 600 people took part on a sunny Tooting afternoon!
    Much more to share about it soon on this blog.

    The Tooting Foodival was the first in a series of free local events this autumn, all about exploring, influencing and creating sustainability in Tooting, together.

    All invited to all of them!

    Click here for a copy of the flyer.

    The next event is a Tooting Debate on Weds 19th Sept:

    ‘Local Food is an Expensive Luxury’.

    Yes, we know…..that’s intended to be provocative after the success of the community Foodival based on locally-grown food, local cooking and local eating together. 
    Come along and share what you think! Details to come here on the blog.
    The debate is on Weds 19th Sept from 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm at The Selkirk Pub, SW17 0ES

    We’ll promote and share details of all the other events in good time.

  • Annual general meeting and celebrations

    Annual general meeting and celebrations

    Here at Transition Town Tooting we love a chance to celebrate – and we don’t mind a good birthday cake either!
    Last month was our annual general meeting and party, the perfect opportunity to reflect on the past year, look forward to the future and celebrate the now.
    We had feedback from some of our main events and projects of the last year and it was lovely to hear from some new faces.

    The projects represented were: Foodival (Mal), Future Tooting (Eleanor), Restart/Sewstart (Jeni), Vegetanuary (Sharon), Tooting Twirl (Lucy & Richard), Carbon Conversations (Peter), Caras (Jeni & Egle), Outdoor Learning (Sharon), Tooting Community Garden (Christine) and Green Drinks (Richard).

    This list shows the diversity of our community activities – some long standing partnerships, some one-off events – and of course covers just a snapshot of the many things TTT is involved with.

    We then moved to the formal part of the evening – reports from the treasurer, secretary and co-chairs and the reelection of the officers. Your chief officers remain: Sharon Gray & Jeni Walker, co-chairs; Eleanor Glen, secretary; and David Thorne, treasurer. We look forward to hearing from you!

    Time for a fun activity – we asked everyone present to write down some ideas for future TTT projects or wishes for Tooting on a ‘cookie’ and these will be stored in our TTT Cookie Jar to be enjoyed when we have a lull in our calendar – there was certainly plenty of food for thought.

    A quiz followed, put together by David, which provoked much debate and brain-straining and then we rounded off the evening with a gorgeous chocolate cake to celebrate TTT’s 10th birthday, some delicious snacks and many enjoyable conversations.
    Huge thanks to everyone who came and contributed to a great evening. We look forward to seeing you at next year’s party, or before then at any of our TT activities. Just email us on transitiontowntooting@gmail.com to find out how you can get involved.
    Sharon

  • All welcome to join in locally with our next five creative & thoughtful ‘Signs of Welcome’ workshops

    Our Signs of Welcome series of ten local workshops is continuing now over the next two weeks.
    Click here to read about the first five events and what we experienced together with our project partner CARAS.

    We created these participatory workshops to provide a vivid, simple and accessible opportunity to imagine how to welcome people new to the community and then make decorative signs to take away. 
    The workshops are for all ages and are free, fun, thoughtful and creative. 

    Each workshop runs in a great local venue which offers the space for all comers to join in. Thank you to all the venues for partnering with us and supporting the project.

    Signs of Welcome workshops in diverse places!

    The remaining workshops (all details on the TTT Events Calendar here on the blog):

    > Paradise Co-operative Garden, Earlsfield
       Sat 9th June, 10:00-12:00
     
    > St Mary Magdalene Church, Trinity Road, Tooting
       Weds 13th June, 4:00-5:30
     
    > Sprout Community Arts, Furzedown
       Fri 15th June, 4:00-5:30 

    > The Migration Museum, Vauxhall
       Thurs 21st June, 6:00pm-7:45pm 
       Part of a drop-in evening of events at the Museum, 
       all celebrating Refugee Week

     

    As we’ve run the events, new features have emerged. 
    Recently we offered the workshop at a Family Visit Day in Wandsworth Prison. With four walls surrounding participants, the signs they created became a way to imagine new welcomes and relationships. One adult’s sign simply stated ‘Kids Matter’. A family created a sign together, a graphic recording of a live and positive conversation between themselves.

    Our introductory script has developed. 
    Now we’re also saying “you can create signs to put up in the city spaces where you live – signs that don’t just label places or limit us (‘keep off the grass’ or ‘no ball games’). They’re about welcoming people and what we value when we get together”

    All welcome, all ages can join in 
    and each workshop is different!

     Many thanks for funding support from ThriveLDN, an initiative by the Mayor Of London.

  • The simple invitations of our ‘Signs of Welcome’ workshops have brought vivid, compelling and complex results. More to come, please join in!

    It’s TTT’s tenth anniversary, and we’re facilitating ten free, fun, thoughtful and creative ‘Signs of Welcome’ workshops locally, along with our partner CARAS. We’re in diverse venues that are themselves welcoming and interesting spaces to visit: cafes, shops, local enterprises.
    We’re half way through – five workshops completed since March and five more in the next few weeks.  
    All welcome! 
    See the TTT events calendar for all the dates and details. 

    The NEXT ‘Signs’ workshop is in the wonderful surroundings of the Wandsworth Oasis shop at Amen Corner on Friday 1st June from 4:00-5:30. 
    That’s at 234-250 Mitcham Rd, Tooting SW17 9NT.
    Have you ever done a creative workshop in a shop? Was it as amazing a place as the Amen Corner Oasis shop? You’ll have time to browse….and it’s half term, so all the family can join.

    We have lots of ‘Signs’ in many languages – all responding to this open question: “What would you like to say to welcome people who are new to the community?”
    They’ve been fascinating sessions which everyone seems to appreciate. Expressing ourselves, meeting others, making it visual and being creative by ‘thinking with our hands’ is a very powerful mix.
    A brilliant and valuable extra is that young people from the CARAS youth club have been joining in to gain volunteering experience co-facilitating a creative community session. 
    There’s been inspiring communication across the cakes and mint tea on the cafe tables. Young people who are refugees and asylum-seekers have enjoyed friendly venues they may not have considered visiting, and met many local people they would not otherwise have encountered.  

    Throughout there’s been interwoven threads of self-expression plus a two-way invitation to ask questions and share experiences.


    We have a vivid record of the sessions in the shape of the Signs themselves. They’ll be included in a local exhibition during Refugee Week, June 18th-24th: details to come. The materials for the Signs are re-purposed from publicity boards from the wonderful Work and Play Scrapstore. We had one of our workshops there, and met this Japanese architect who joined in (with a translation on the back):
    These workshops are part of our partnership with CARAS throughout 2018 – the partnership purpose throughout the year will be to facilitate events which draw refugees and asylum-seekers and the local community closer together. For more about the year’s projects, please click here, and there are lots of pictures on our TTT Facebook pages. 
    Many thanks to the partnership funder ThriveLDN, an initiative by the Mayor Of London .


  • ‘Stay With Love’: Gardens of Refuge Project update

    We’re reporting back every six weeks on the Gardens of Refuge Project. That’s our local project running throughout 2017 with refugees and asylum-seekers living in and nearby Tooting, alongside our project partners CARAS and The Grange.

    Our previous summary at the end of May can be read here.
    In June and July we’ve worked with the CARAS Saturday Youth Club. 

    Elly Brown, MD at CARAS says:

    “We’ve already witnessed the
    transformations that take place
    when people from far and wide
    can use their skills and knowledge
    to create something shared.”
    What have we been doing together?
    ‘Stay with Love’ Making instant pallet benches:

    In one mighty 4-hour session, a loose and changing group from the CARAS Youth Club co-designed, shared ideas, problem solved and brought in new team members to make four of these pallet benches.
    Hats off to that dedicated group whose pride meant they insisted on eating their communal lunch sitting on the new benches.
    Part of the production line was to write messages of welcome and invitation on the seat backs. 
    These are in many languages.
    These young people have come to the UK in search of a welcome, safety and to put down new roots. It’s poignant that they felt comfortable to contribute their own personal invitations so directly to all-comers.

    These benches went on to the pop-up village green of the Tooting Twirl and now they’re in the Community Garden. Come and have a seat!
    ‘Stay with love’ as one young man wrote
    on a bench.

     

    Beetles and Bees 
    Making planters for Hillbrook School:

    Construction was more straightforward than the benches. With carpentry finished quickly, in June we painted the new planters cream.

    In parallel we spent time drawing insects (real and imagined) – offering this in the crowded hall alongside ping pong, pool and games. It was a fun experiment to have youth clubbers drop by the ‘insect table’ to sketch….a new experience for everyone.

    Our plan was to scan these drawings to make laser-cut plaques and cut-out insects to fix  onto the planters as fascinating decoration.
    It worked! Many thanks for patience & persistence to Dermot, the South London Makerspace and Nicola.

    Passing around these 3-D cutouts at the start of the following sessions, everyone could see the young people’s feelings of ownership and achievement.

    The planters were delivered to Hillbrook School this week. In September we’ll have a celebration there with youth club members to ‘cut the ribbon’ to launch children’s growing in the beautiful planters.

    PLUS: We’ve continued to work alongside young people looking after the planting done over 3 years at the CARAS office and the Hall around the corner. Thanks Rose, it’s looking very good!

    Now we’re planning the next steps for the Family Days we’re facilitating in August in the Community Garden.

    We’ve also begun to explore what we can do together with a new CARAS beneficiary group – single adults who don’t join the family days or the youth club.

    If you would like to co-facilitate or contribute your time or materials to the Gardens of Refuge project – please email us, we’d love to discuss it.
    – Charles

  • All welcome at The Tooting Twirl! This Sunday 16th July, 12noon – 4pm

    4 days to go to Tooting’s Pop-Up Village Green comes to life at the Bus Turning Circle, Longmead Road.

    We’d love for everyone in Tooting to come along to the Tooting Twirl on Sunday to celebrate all the cultures of our town, make a grey space green and have a good dose of fun by opening a highway to games, music and food!

    What’s happening when?

    12noon – 1pm: Come join in building the Village Green – hang some bunting, place some benches… give the Bus Turning Circle a beating heart!
    1pm – 2pm: Twirling Street Games and a sharing picnic
    2pm: Parade around the Bus Turning Circle in your Twirly best!
    3pm – 4pm: Meet, mingle and relax on the pop-up village green

    Do you do social media?

    Please do tweet, Facebook and share on the day #TootingTwirl

    We’ll also be joined by the Tooting Bec and Broadway Neighbourhood Plan…

    What is it about Tooting that you love? What might you want to change? What do you think we don’t have that we need? What stories or places from the past do you cherish? The Tooting Twirl is the perfect place to collectively imagine what good change might look like for our town.

    Would you like to take part? It’ll take all of us to make the town green… 

    Bring a colourful potted plant for the Giant Twirly Flowerbed or plant up a wheelbarrow to turn this grey space green…

    Make something Twirly to wear in the ‘What’s your Twirl?’ parade…

    Bring a skipping rope or a street game you’d be happy to share…

    Decorate your wheels to cycle in the ‘What’s your Twirl?’ parade…

    Bring a sharing picnic and a blanket…

    All images: Rachel Miller

    Jeni, Lucy and Rich – Co-Twirlers from TTT!

  • Two local food growing workshops June 4th & June 10th – everyone welcome!

    All the plants shared out through Pollinator Paths Wandsworth are settling into their new homes – a delightful fact to think about when you consider there are 60 participant plots in the borough!

    June 4th: 
    As part of the PPW project we’re offering a diverse set of free monthly workshops at the 4 project hub gardens. (We’ll share the year’s plan.)

    On Sunday 4th June there’s a good-looking event with several practical themes at Bramford Community Garden near Wandsworth Town.

    For a copy of the details, click here. You’ll see the plant feeding and composting session is repeated as we think this will be particularly popular. Plus there’s Old York Road Unplugged happening in parallel, right at the garden gate. The day is open to all – you do not have to be part of the Pollinator Paths project.
    And everyone can join the Pollinator Paths Wandsworth facebook group – click here!

    June 10th:
    On Saturday June 10th there’s the 1st session in a series of monthly classes that will run from June to November. The series is called Grow Your Own at Home and it’s all about growing fruit and vegetables. Offered by our colleagues Be Enriched and facilitated by Martin, it’s highly recommended.
    There’s a small fee, and all are welcome including beginners.
    For a copy of the details, click here.

  • Pollinator Paths Wandsworth project day: the sun shone on a busy garden scene

    We had a fun, busy and instructive Sunday afternoon meeting the local participants in the Pollinator Paths Wandsworth project, and welcoming visitors who found us because we joined in with the Chelsea Fringe and Wandsworth Arts Fringe.

    Getting the new planter home

    People told us they appreciated being able to have a detailed and friendly conversation about how to look after and enjoy the plants they took home to their balcony, patio or garden: thank you Martin & Jo!

    Tooting Community Garden was the fourth of the local gardens to host their event when we share advice and plants. Next steps include a series of seasonal workshops on topics such as composting and making insect habitats. In autumn 2017 there are next spring’s bulbs to plant – and the garden and pollination year will come round again!

    The community garden’s 6th birthday cake

    Conversations with new and old friends, exploring the space and doing new things outdoors were great parts of the day.
    More news when we have it on events that everyone can join alongside the project participants. The PPW project facebook page is here.

    Finishing line of the caterpillar race. We’ll run it again!

  • Pollinator Paths workshops and the Community Garden’s 6th Birthday: Sunday 21st May 12 – 4pm

    On Sunday the Tooting participants in the Pollinator Paths Wandsworth project are collecting their plants to grow on during 2017. 
    Come to the Community Garden at 5 North Road, SW16 1RN between 12:00 midday and 4:00 pm.

    Some of the beautiful plants that project participants can grow on at home

    We’ll advise you on how to plant and look after them, and you can enjoy them all year as well as looking out for the beneficial insects that should be attracted to your balcony, patio or garden. For more info, click here – and everyone can follow progress and join in on facebook.

    We’ve had our first card!

    Plus, on the same afternoon everyone is welcome to the Tooting Community Garden’s 6th Birthday!
    We’ll start celebrating at 3:00 with the caterpillar race (find your food plant!) and
    we’ll cut the birthday cake at 3:30.

    Caterpillar costumes – choose your style
    Food plants our caterpillars race for

    Some caterpillars are very camouflaged, and some are very conspicuous – which kind will you be?

    All welcome on Sunday!