London's magazine for ethical eating We do! How wedded are the royals to ethical nosh?
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Food growing universities ❋ Hot cross buns ❋ Turn on to tap G CALLINIRE THE EMP
London Calling the empire at home and overseas. This is Camden Town and at long last we are free to say words of our own. Stop drinking rubbish and begin drinking quality craft beer from your own towns brewery, Camden Town Brewery. Keep up to date with what’s going on at the brewery, and with our latest beer news on offer by signing up on the website or by getting in touch www.camdentownbrewery.com
Camden Town Brewery 55-59 Wilkin Street Mews London NW5 3NN
Telephone: 020 7485 1671
19_CAMDEN AD 270 x 210_6.indd 1 11/01/2011 09:32 Tuck in! 4 Bulletin 6 Around Town Say hello to the 7 Shop Window El's Kitchen 8 To Market Queens Park G What’s in season 8 Jellied Eel 11 Feature Fruit carts 12 Feature Royal Warrant holders IRE s the end of Lent draws Carluccios banning 'red list' fish. With CALLIN 14 Local to London Ronny Liu near, and the time for even the Disney store signing up to ritual gorging comes upon Sustainable Fish City (well, actually, 15 On the Menu Pop up principles? us with Easter, spare a Vacherin who do the catering in one A 16 Taste of London Hot cross buns thought for the less than chocolatey hot of their buildings), it would seem this THE EMP cross bun. Although, sadly, now widely issue is on a roll (or even wave!). See 17 Star Stockist My Coffee Stop available all year round (yes, I do think www.sustainablefishcity.net for what 19 Capital Growth baked goods should be added to all you can do next to help our oceans. seasonality calendars!), the hot cross As you can see by the icon on the 19 Growing Calendar bun, for those of us who can remember, bulletin pages – we’re on twitter. 20 Reader’s Kitchen was once linked with Easter (that there The problem is I’m not sure that I’m being a cross on the top, guv’nor)! following the right people! I’m keen Eliza Flanagan On p16 you can read about why one to tell you about all the wonderful 21 London Food Link Café Crema London pub has such a strong history ethical food goings on around town, What’s on with the aforementioned bun. so let me know if you’re on twitter 22 London Calling the empire at For those of you a little slower off so I can start following you. the starting blocks with picking up a By the time the next issue comes home and overseas. This is copy of this issue of the Jellied Eel, it’s out, we’ll be kicking off what we hope probably as good as summer by now. will be a huge bee campaign (that’s not Camden Town and at long last The Jellied Eel is a quarterly magazine published by No doubt you’ll be overwhelmed by a a campaign for bigger bees! - it’s a big we are free to say words of our London Food Link and BIG Media. It has a circulation plethora of choices of hot new pop- campaign to help support bee-friendly of 20,000 and is distributed to all London Food own. Stop drinking rubbish and up cafes to go to, or rather, should I behaviour) with some very high-profile Link members, as well as food retailers, restaurants say event caterers! While I’m more partners. We’re also going to be looking and entertainment venues. Disclaimer: inclusion begin drinking quality craft excited than most when a derelict shop into the food on offer at the capital’s top of information in the Jellied Eel does not imply the beer from your own towns gets turned over for a week or two tourist attractions. Let us know if you’ve product or service is endorsed by London Food Link into some new concept in dining (see had any hideous or pleasantly surprising or Sustain. We do not condone the consumption of brewery, Camden Town p15) – I think the term is used a little experiences at London’s landmarks. jellied eels, as many eel stocks are currently very low. Brewery. Keep up to date with liberally when applied as an add-on Oh and the royal wedding. What Editor Ben Reynolds to events. Is this year’s Glastonbury royal wedding? I’ve been too busy Deputy Editor Kelly Parsons what’s going on at the brewery, festival going to be rebranded as worrying about my own wedding. BIG Media Director Jamie Ford and with our latest beer news the UKs largest pop-up town? Come on, crack open that Babycham… Art direction and design Becky Joynt More concerning are “pop-up” Contributors Matt Atkinson, Michael Dees, on offer by signing up on the principles. Now you see them, now Anna Fenton, Anna Francis, Clare Hill, website or by getting in touch you don’t. Sadly it seems rather too Ben Benjamin Hunt, Georgie Knight, Tom Moggach many of London’s restaurants (a Editor and Anna Sbuttoni www.camdentownbrewery.com shocking 18 per cent of 'local' claims Cover Julian Winslow are undoubtedly false but not just Editorial enquiries Camden Town Brewery in restaurants) lie to customers, [email protected] or 020 7837 1228 overstating the ethical origins of the www.londonfoodlink.org 55-59 Wilkin Street Mews food they serve. Check out our On The Distribution enquiries to stock the Jellied Eel Menu report at www.thejelliedeel.org London [email protected] or 020 7837 1228 for more details. But, fortunately for NW5 3NN Londoners, one thing that does seem Advertising and sponsorship enquiries to be improving is the fish on offer. [email protected] or phone 07900 496 979 Following the drum beating of Hugh Telephone: 020 7485 1671 and Jamie, the likes of Greenpeace and Printed by the Sustainable Fish City campaign Stones the Printers have been making huge leaps with [email protected] suppliers like Princes, caterers like Sodexo, and restaurants including Photo: Pamela Troni
19_CAMDEN AD 270 x 210_6.indd 1 11/01/2011 09:32 Aerial gardening Grow your own omelette This isn’t some bizarre science experiment, rather a chance A new book charting one for schools to win a wonderful, chicken-friendly prize by Londoner's attempts to entering a home-made omelette into a competition. The transform herself into an rules are that the omelette will have to start with aerial, edible gardener is out eggs from the school’s hens and can include in June. ‘My Garden, the City anything - as long as it has been grown and Me: Rooftop Adventures by the school and is in season and in the Wilds of London’, by ready to harvest in May. However, Helen Babbs is a personal salt and pepper is allowed! The portrait of a rooftop garden final omelettes will be judged and of a city. Find out more at the Real Food Festival on 5 at www.aerialediblegardening.co.uk and read May. www.schoolfoodmatters. Helen’s article about her experiences at www. thejelliedeel.org.
s r e t t a M d o o l F o o Real Food Book ch S to: We have two copies of the Real Food Festival’s wonderful new book to be won. The pho Real Food Book was launched at the start of April and features loads of great recipes from producers and people linked with the events the festival organisers run. To enter this prize draw, please send in a picture of yourself reading the Jellied Eel in one of our stockists – see www.sustainweb.org/jelliedeel/stockists. If they’ve run out let us (and the shop) know. Send your entries by the end of May to [email protected] Bulletin s w ne ood Rating the coffee chains inable f A spread of the latest susta According to the latest investigation by Ethical Consumer magazine, the next best place to buy your coffee, if there's Knead to Know: no independent coffee shop nearby, is the Real Bread starter AMT, which uses 100 per cent Fairtrade coffee and 100 per cent organic milk, Knead to Know from the Real Bread Campaign is the only book dedicated to helping you succeed in bringing Real making it streets ahead of the other Bread back to the heart of your local community. Whether chains. For more information visit baking at home once a month for a local producers’ www.ethicalconsumer.org. market, joining together with neighbours to set up a Community Supported Bakery, or in a traditional high street bakery, this practical guide will inform and inspire both start-up and existing bakers. This 140 page handbook contains not only cornerstone recipes, but also information on business models, legislation, money matters, equipment, ingredients, techniques, marketing, media relations, courses, suppliers, and much more. Knead to Know is available as a limited edition book or PDF download from www.realbreadcampaign.org
4 The Jellied Eel www.thejelliedeel.org Tap water springs in London Shopping We’re very lucky to live in a country where we have drinking water available on tap. But with drinking fountains in short supply it’s not always easy to get hold of free h2o when out and about. Now Tapwater – an organisation that encourages people to choose tap basket water over its bottled counterpart – is signing up cafés, shops and Camden Town Brewery pubs to be refilling stations, where anyone can pop in with a re- It is almost one year since Jasper useable container and fill up with free tap water. Over 500 stations Cuppaidge established the Camden can be identified by a tapwater refilling sticker in the window, and Town Brewery. Today, he has four core Tapwater has also developed a map which shows all the participating beers: Camden Hells businesses on it, and an app for your smartphone. www.tapwater.org Lager, Camden Pale Ale, Camden Wheat Beer and Camden Bitter, and his eco- friendly business now supplies to
s r over 50 bars and e t t a pubs in London. M d o The British bitter is o l F o kept traditional, so o ch S everything in the to: pho beer is native. www.camdentownbrewery.com
Roots and Wings Following on from their first forays with jams and biscuits, this new organic company is now launching a range of chocolate leaves. These come in milk chocolate (with aromatic spanish Twitter orange oil), bittersweet dark chocolate, s us on ew Follow and peppermint dark chocolate. If od n twitter.com/ you're interested in finding some able fo thejelliedeel1 e latest sustain of these goodies (even after Easter A spread of th indulgences), they are available in a range of London independents or through its online shop. Check online Farm Academy for distribution. Farmers’ markets may be www.rootsandwingsorganic.com coming to a school near you, Jamie does...independents as part of the Farm Academy Jamie Oliver has developed a new food project. London schools have range for independent food stores. the opportunity to get involved The products, which include jams, in food and farming, as well dressings, condiments and biscuits, as hosting their own markets. are made by artisan producers like The schools will first go on Yorkshire's Steenbergs Organic herbs and spices, organic chocolatiers Cocoa residential visits to organic Loco from West Sussex, and Cumbria farms where they will take part pudding-makers Cartmel, and will be in a variety of farming activities. On returning to officially launched school they will be able to set up school farmers at this year's Real markets, at which they can sell their own school- Food Festival in May. It's early days, grown produce. The markets will also support but London stockists small, local producers, as well as enabling already on board members of the school and wider community to include Union Food buy local, fresh and seasonal produce and meet the Market in Fulham. farmers. [email protected] www.jamieoliver.com
The Jellied Eel www.thejelliedeel.org 5 around town Get into what’s happening in your area
Ramble your way to dinner W1 The Ethical Eats ‘Restaurant Ramble’ 2011 is a foodie crawl to three veggie restaurants, equalling one spectacular dinner. Stops will inclue veggie institution Mildreds, and two other venues to be revealed nearer the time. There will be two sittings of 12 people during the course of the evening, so 24 in total, and Ethical Eats is asking veggies who come along to bring a meat-eater with them so they can experience the great meat-free dining options available in London. The date is likely to be 26 May and tickets, at around £40 each, will go on sale in the next few weeks. Go to www.ethicaleats.org for more details or email [email protected]. www.ethicaleats.org
Get your hands dirty NW1, W12, W6, N16, SE15 Ever fancied learning from the pros how to turn your unloved patch into an urban paradise? Capital Growth has teamed up with a number of local organisations to extend the training it ran successfully over the last year in Regents Park. As well as the Regents Park (NW1) site, training will also be run in: West London, at Hammersmith Community Gardens Association Phoneix Farm W12 & Ravenscourt Park Greenhouses W6; East London, at Growing Communities, Allen Gardens, N16; and South London, at The London Wildlife Trust - Centre for Wildlife Gardening in Peckham SE15. Discounts available for London Food Link members. www.capitalgrowth.org/training From the Ground Up KT3 From the Ground Up, the fortnightly organic fruit and veg box scheme is celebrating its one year anniversary. Based in Kingston-upon-Thames it is marking the occasion by running a series of speaker events. Founded in March 2010 by members of the Transition Town Kingston Food Group, the group aims to make fresh organic food more affordable and available to the community. All fresh food is bought from certified organic suppliers, produce is sold at or near wholesale prices and is seasonal and ‘local when possible’, and preference is given to UK suppliers. Additional offerings include organic bread from one of London’s few organic bakeries, plus jams, cheese and dry goods from Suma. www.ttkingston.org/groups-and-projects/ ground-up/
6 The Jellied Eel www.thejelliedeel.org Into the Wild WD6 Chris Herald started Wild Forest Foods on a half-acre patch SHOp of rented land near Mill Hill in North West London, and since window 2007 has been supplying small quantities of vegetable and salad crops to local restaurants and shops in the capital. Faced with increasing demand, Chris has now moved to a new, larger site near Borehamwood, a couple of miles outside the M25. Besides the usual European crops he plans to grow Japanese, Thai and other oriental produce to supply the Far East communities and restaurants in London. www.wildforestfoods.co.uk
Wine of the times SE1 Borough Market will be hosting the UK’s first Clare Hill discovers a thriving local grocery store Natural Wine Fair on Sunday 15 May. that’s bucking all the trends. Natural wines are made with little or no sulphur and no pesticides – the The high street in Ladywell is unremarkable and short – little aim being to produce wine in a way more than a couple of hairdressers, off licences and a few that doesn’t abuse the soil or the kebab shops. So a corner store painted top to toe in burgundy, environment. The fair is the highlight with crates of fruit and vegetables out the front, sticks out of Natural Wine Fortnight, from like the proverbial. Also noticeable is the stream of customers 9-22 May, and will bring together coming in and out of the shop – unusual for Sunday mid- producers from all over Europe, as morning in a suburban pocket of south east London. well as a small selection from the El’s Kitchen is run by Eleanor Thompson, a long-term New World. It will feature wine tasting Ladywell local, who opened the shop simply because she classes, and a chance to sample “just got frustrated with not being able to buy decent food.” a variety of wines and meet the The shop is a delicatessen in the true sense of the word, with producers. bowls of self-serve olives, nearly 30 kinds of cheese (much of it British), salamis, homemade dips, fresh bread, and a small www.thenaturalwinefair.com selection of cakes and pastries. There’s an encyclopaedic range
Photo: Mohamed Aly Mohamed Photo: of larder ingredients, some quite niche, like Shipton Mill chestnut flour and jars of asparagus pâté. But you can also pick up essentials like milk, eggs and butter. Oh, and wine. All crammed into a space the size of an average living room. Eleanor’s approach is to sell quality foods not carried in nearby supermarkets or convenience stores, with priority given to small, independent, local, seasonal, fairly traded and organic. She gets bacon from Dring’s Butchers and the bread from Paul Rhodes Bakery – both high-end Greenwich-based businesses. The emphasis is on fine food, which means that a lot of the Say goodbye to suspect meats SE1 items, while no doubt delicious, are pricey. However Eleanor A food revolution is underway: greasy sausages and counters this with reasonably priced basics such as six free range dubious burgers are being replaced by cheap, delicious and eggs for £1.40, and a litre of Rachel’s Organic milk for £1.15. fresh alternatives. The Real Food Festival team is bringing Although the shop has only been open since November together a new generation of street vendors to Southbank last year, it’s no case of overnight success, as Eleanor devoted Centre for the first Real Street Food Festival. Taking place five years of meticulous planning to ensure the business’ over the weekend of the Royal Wedding (29 April), visitors viability. She put her marketing background to good use – will be able to taste a wide variety of foods from specially surveying people in the street to find out what they wanted. selected vendors. The Royal Wedding will be shown on a They wanted fresh fruit and vegetables: “We’re pretty much big screen too, so there’s no excuse not to head along. Their the only fresh fruit and veg seller around here.” she says. regular market at the Southbank centre is also now going Eleanor has also fine-tuned trading hours, so the shop is open weekly, so no excuses for not making it part of your regular from 8am to 8pm Tuesday to Friday (and 8am to 6pm Saturdays). shop. And the main festival at Olympia is on 5th – 8th May. This means hungry commuters returning from Zone 1 can pick Be there! up something to cook for the evening meal when they arrive at Ladywell station across the road. And opening at 9am – 4pm www.realfoodfestival.co.uk on Sundays – that’s a rarity in London and devotion indeed. El’s Kitchen, 71 Ladywell Road SE13 7JA www.elskitchen.co.uk
The Jellied Eel www.thejelliedeel.org 7 To market what’s in Food markets around London APRIL season Queens Park Purple Sprouting Broccoli Salusbury Road Early crops were wiped farmers’ market London NW6 6RG out by our freezing winter. Every Sunday 10am – 2pm Enjoy these fresh supplies, www.lfm.org.uk/markets/ lightly steamed with butter queens-park or hollandaise sauce. Or stir fry the steamed florets Bring with red chilli, finishing with a your own sprinkle of lemon juice. bags! Wild Garlic Found a patch? Wild garlic is free to the forager; rare and pricey in the shops. The fragrant leaves thrive in damp woodland, just follow their garlicky which are delicious simply scent. Stir through pasta, yoghurt, egg boiled and finished off with dishes or stir fries, or whizz into a pesto. salt, pepper and butter. Jersey Royal Potatoes These classy He also stocks free-range spuds are the first of the year, famous eggs and other vegetables for their creamy texture. Don’t peel - just when in season, such as wash under the tap, boil and serve as sweetcorn, tomatoes, simply as possible. Also in season peppers, and asparagus. morel mushrooms, radishes, rhubarb The growing demand for (outdoor), spinach, spring onions. really fresh and seasonal food is what inspires David MAY to bring his produce to Asparagus Gorge while you can – our urban markets such as this season is swift; imports best avoided. one. He sells at a number Look for freshly-cut, firm spears with tight of different markets, buds. For a twist, try shaving into salads but sticks to north and or roasting until crispy on the barbecue. alking into Queens Park Sorrel A gift for the cook, with its farmers’ market, you are west London to keep food miles low. And the stalls are not all raw ingredients refreshing acidity. Toss small leaves into Wouldn’t it be great if the immediately struck by the salads, wilt into risottos, or rustle up a range of produce available. either. A terrific soup stall run by The W Mouthfull Food Company, sells home- tart sauce to complement fish. One customer summed it up nicely as cooked, organic soup in tubs to take home. Also in season artichokes,early offering ‘everyday food, with something for carrots, courgettes, fennel, samphire, best local shops delivered? the weekend too’. strawberries. While it may appear a little rough around ❋ Featured stallholder Well now they do. At www.hubbub.co.uk you can shop online at the finest independent the edges, that’s probably because Queen’s Wild Country Organics.co.uk JUNE Park concentrates more on good quality local Owned by Adrian Izzard, Wild Country Cherries Cherry orchards used to liven up shops at no extra cost and receive your order all in one delivery. Visit our website, our landscape; now we import nearly 95 produce than the fancy cakes and coffees Organics offers a wide range of organically- use the postcode-checker to see if we deliver in your area yet, then start shopping. which feature strongly at some markets. grown salads and vegetables. ‘A lovely salad’ per cent of the fruit that we eat. So support It is run by London Farmers’ Markets, our remaining growers - farmers’ markets shouted a customer to me, when they noticed Hubbub helps you get hold of, and cook with, the very best quality seasonal fruit which means - among other things - that me examining the produce. I left with some are your best bet to buy their fruit. National each stall is run directly by the producer delicious cavolo nero, which made a lovely, Cherry Day is celebrated on 16 July. and veg, meat, bread, fish, and more. Plus you’ll save time, avoid over-enthusiastic Gooseberries A quintessential and that the producers are local, all warming Tuscan-style ‘Ribollita’ traffic wardens and support independent shops without even leaving your home. having travelled less than 100 miles. soup when I got home. Exciting British crop. Preserve as a This also means knowledgeable sellers, varieties such as komatsuna relish, simmer for a sauce or You can’t shop much more local than that. who are genuinely interested in their and landcress are grown all add to a classic sponge products. Seeing a sparkle in their eye year round in more than pudding. Look out for red We’ll also give you FREE DELIVERY on your first order whenYour localyou quote shops ‘the delivered Jellied Eel’. and dessert varieties, when you ask how to get the best from five acres of glasshouses, Order before midday and we can deliver to you the same day. their ingredients is what it is all about. heated naturally by the sweet enough to be eaten out of your hand. David Emmett of Rockwell End Farm sun. The vibrant, green www.hubbub.co.uk Shop, from Hambleden, Oxfordshire, is a leaves make a refreshing Also in season good example. David clearly knows his aubergine, broad beans, contrast to the packaged or Who do we deliver from in your area? onions, or rather his potatoes, which are sometimes wilted offerings damsons, elderflower, grown on his farm in Henley-on-Thames. of supermarket salad shelves. peas, watercress. La Fromagerie * Frank Godfrey Family Butcher On offer when we visited were some fine Tom Moggach Earth Natural Foods * The Barnsbury Grocer potatoes, such as Franceline, a salad variety By Benjamin Hunt Saponara Italian Delicatessen * Fin & Flounder Paul A Young Fine Chocolates * Ottolenghi www.hubbub.co.uk
8 The Jellied Eel www.thejelliedeel.org season
Wouldn’t it be great if the best local shops delivered?
Well now they do. At www.hubbub.co.uk you can shop online at the finest independent shops at no extra cost and receive your order all in one delivery. Visit our website, use the postcode-checker to see if we deliver in your area yet, then start shopping.
Hubbub helps you get hold of, and cook with, the very best quality seasonal fruit and veg, meat, bread, fish, and more. Plus you’ll save time, avoid over-enthusiastic traffic wardens and support independent shops without even leaving your home. You can’t shop much more local than that.
We’ll also give you FREE DELIVERY on your first order whenYour localyou quote shops ‘the delivered Jellied Eel’. Order before midday and we can deliver to you the same day.
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Who do we deliver from in your area? La Fromagerie * Frank Godfrey Family Butcher Earth Natural Foods * The Barnsbury Grocer Saponara Italian Delicatessen * Fin & Flounder Paul A Young Fine Chocolates * Ottolenghi www.hubbub.co.uk rude health rants The proudly outspoken Rude Health gang are passionate about real food, the way it should be. Rude Health take their Rants on the road to food festivals across the country, where they’re joined by producers, celebrated chefs and food writers as they too step up to the microphone to rant. Listen to the Rude Health Rants on their website, including...
Steve of Hook & Sons on raw milk Jane Mason of Virtuous Bread on real loaves
Paul A. Young, chocolatier, on Orangutans
Come and hear the Rude Health Rants live at Foodies Festival in Battersea Park on 29th-31st July 2011.
Rant Competition Rude Health are giving away 20 packs of their new healthy organic snacks. Answer the question below and send with your name and address to: [email protected] Q: Who is Rude Health’s Chief ranter? www.rudehealth.com The street vendor strikes back
Anna Fenton uncovers a new scheme hoping to revolutionise the way Londoners buy their fruit and veg.
aul Smith is a second-generation fruit and vegetable wholesaler. Despite a short stint in the city “trading people’s futures”, fruit and veg P is what he knows. His two partners are third generation greengrocers and, together, they aim to change the way you get your greens. Starting in Kensington, and then – literally! – rolling out to the rest of London, Fresh Carts is an innovative project which will supply fresh, sustainable produce from mobile street carts. It all began when Paul heard about the Green Carts project in New York. Green Carts was introduced as a part of a city strategy to put fresh local fruits and vegetables on street corners. The aim was to make healthy food accessible to the estimated 750,000 New Yorkers who live in food deserts. Paul Smith saw a great opportunity for our own capital city, and so hopped straight on a plane to New York on a fact- finding mission with his business partners: “What we found out in New York was that the scheme has to be centralised. There’s no point in giving out individual licenses to stallholders than from France, and people like to buy locally.” because there’s not very much profit in fruit and veg,” he says. Even the kiosks themselves are being made within 50 Fresh Carts is a business, and therefore profit is obviously miles of London, explains Paul, and the packaging is going important. However, Paul says, this doesn’t have to be a to be made predominantly from bamboo. “I can’t find it any dirty word. The ethos behind Fresh Carts blends business greener,” he says. “Although it does have to be imported, it and sustainability, profit with social conscience, and it is biodegradable, and I am using a London based company.” seems to be an easy marriage. From the produce, to the The produce itself will be bought on a ‘grow-to-ripe’ transport, the packaging, to the cart itself, Fresh Carts has basis, negating the need for expensive and energy– lofty ambitions of being “good for you – better for everyone”. intensive preservation processes. Where produce is As well as providing convenient access to healthy produce, from outside the 50-mile area, Fresh Carts will only buy the project aims to provide benefits to the producer, to from suppliers who meet strict production criteria. local communities and to the greater environment. Making fresh, ripe, sustainable fruit and vegetables So how exactly does he hope to achieve all of this, least of readily available on the streets in communities could strike all rolling out 200 carts to the Greater London Area in three a blow at the control supermarkets have over our buying years? Careful planning, consultation and partnerships have habits, something that Paul feels passionately about. “The played a key part in getting the ball (and cart!) rolling. As supermarkets have such a grip in our country. We want to well as his involvement with the National Farmers Union, give people the confidence to buy from street sellers again.” which helps to create a network between sellers and local If Fresh Carts goes to plan, it will demonstrate that growers, Fresh Carts is also entering a working partnership being sustainable and making a profit do not have to with the government’s Change4Life project. It seems like a be mutually exclusive. “There’s such an incentive to natural union for Paul: “We all want people to eat as properly be green and sustainable,” Paul says. “It makes good as possible, and do as little damage as possible - it’s not rocket business sense to fill your lorries as full as possible, and science. People have got to eat, and if we can find a good get your produce locally, as you have to pay less for way for them to do that, then that’s great news for us too.” delivery. But the other benefits really make it pay off.” Fresh Carts’ main approach to sustainability is to focus on local produce. “Within a year we want 22 per cent of produce on the kiosks locally sourced - within For more information contact [email protected] a 50 mile radius. It’s cheaper to buy apples from Kent www.freshcarts.co.uk
The Jellied Eel www.thejelliedeel.org 11 E RO H Y What’s the T A H
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The royal family has been criticised for giving its regal stamp of approval to some rather dubious products over the years, but a new emphasis on more environmentally and socially responsible practices is about to spread across all the royal warrants. By Kelly Parsons.
here's been much speculation in recent months about what William and Kate might be eating for their wedding breakfast. Certainly if their father T (in law) had anything to do with it, the food would be likely to score pretty highly in the sustainability stakes. After all, the green credentials of HRH Prince of Wales can't be disputed. When he’s not founding a pioneering organic food and farming company, he’s attacking climate change sceptics, or declaring that organic allotments can save the environment. But do those same principles stretch to the sustainability of the food companies he and his own parents endorse with a royal warrant? There are now over 850 warrants in use, issued either by the Queen, Prince Philip or Prince Charles as a mark of recognition for regularly supplying goods or services to them for at least five years. Around 80 of these are held by food companies, ranging from the likes of global giants Unilever, Kellogg’s and Nestlé, to specialist or local suppliers such as 200 year- old St James’s cheese maker Paxton & Whitfield, or speciality miller of organic flour Shipton Mill, in Gloucestershire. The presence of Nestlé on the list of royally-approved suppliers has, unsurprisingly, raised a few eyebrows over the years. Back in 2008, campaigning group the Food Commission called on the Queen to use her warrant more selectively. Its presence on high-sugar breakfast cereals, mayonnaise, sugary soft drinks such as Robinson’s Fruit Shoots, and on the packaging of Tate & Lyle and British Sugar, the campaigners argued, was completely at odds with government nutrition advice. Elevated ethics Three years on, and over at the royal households there’s change in the air, as sustainability is likely to take a more prominent role in who receives - and potentially who loses - the warrant in the
12 The Jellied Eel www.thejelliedeel.org E R future. And the Jellied Eel’s investigations Natalie. “Our warrant holder status “In a couple of cases where we felt H O into some of the London-based royally- has certainly influenced our level of companies weren’t pushing hard enough Y appointed food companies have revealed commitment in terms of ensuring we we have extended the warrant for only a T A that, for every Nestlé, there’s a warrant are always the most up to date with one year period, rather than the typical holder with ethical principles closer to its any developments in the field.” five years, and monitored progress and
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Companies such as the royal family’s can just stick above the door,” echoes time,” says Maria, adding that some of T
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? the UK, the closest being the bees on its Charles warrant, which we hold. It’s not next year. Richard Peck, secretary of the * Piccadilly roof. It is also often the sole easy maintaining it – the review process is Royal Warrant Association, says that remaining stockist of a producer, and stricter than those of the other houses, and companies only given a short extension claims to do its utmost to keep local you are expected to provide hard evidence period for the warrant should view this traditions alive and profitable, and uses of your ethical policy – so we find the as a ‘warning shot’ to address any issues. bicycles and electric vehicles for London warrant definitely has a positive influence With the royal warrant providing clear deliveries (though it loses some of those on the ethics of the business. It leads to marketing benefits for companies, it’s brownie points for selling foie gras). more internal reviews, more searching unsurprising that the possibility of failing Know your plaice questions.” Like the Prince himself, the audit can have a powerful influence. Community Foods was one of the pioneers The warrant seems to ensure sustainability Wholesale and retail fishmonger James of organic food in the 1980s. It’s also been is supported by all stakeholders in the Knight of Mayfair, meanwhile, has just a longstanding supporter of fair trading, business, even commercial departments, signed up to the Sustainable Fish City and its brand, Crazy Jack Organic, was which may not traditionally have had campaign. Its fish purchase policy aims responsible for launching the first Fairtrade a direct interest, and suppliers too. to buy all wild-capture and farmed fish Himalayan basmati rice in the UK in 2005. “Some companies, particularly from only sustainably and responsibly- The royal audit smaller ones, may not have time to managed sources. It also uses fish boxes consider all the ethical issues, so having made from recycled compostable card, Maria Gray works for Business in the support of the Prince of Wales’ and LPG-powered vans. the Community (BITC), the not-for- office behind them can make internal The fishmonger holds warrants to profit organisation that has been conversations easier, and provide an extra supply both the Queen and the Prince of environmentally auditing royal warrant- lever if, for example, they are looking Wales. “It’s clear from the reviews that holding businesses for the past fifteen to change suppliers,” says Maria. supplier adherence to ethical, sustainable, years. She explains that while there are Paul from Community Foods confirms and environmentally-friendly policies requirements the Prince has always been her assessment. “My job is to keep is of paramount importance,” says the very passionate about - like sustainable the ethical policy going, but there are fishmonger’s sales director Natalie Hudd. fishing, animal welfare and rainforest lots of different people with differing In addition to the strict qualifying destruction - the criteria has expanded priorities in the business, and they criteria for achieving ‘royal appointment’, significantly over the past few years, and is might not be the same as the Prince of since 1990, applicants for Prince Charles’ about to be extended further. Wales’. If we hold the warrant everyone warrant have been required to meet “We are now working with the knows they have to sign up to those additional and increasingly stringent Association to align the approaches of the environmental and social principles.” criteria covering good environmental royal households, and apply the Prince of practice. The criteria, which come Wales’ environmental and ethical criteria direct from the Prince of Wales’ office, across all the warrants,” says Maria. “It Some royal warrant cover eleven main issues: climate was felt that consumers viewing the holding food companies, change; animal welfare and endangered warrant should be able to assume certain based in the capital species; sustainable fishing; GMOs and standards, and that as the Prince of Wales James Knight of Mayfair – Fishmonger chemicals; organic; local sourcing; peat has been concerned about a number Fortnum & Mason – Food Emporium use; timber and rainforests; generic of issues for some time they should be Paxton & Whitfield – Cheesemonger waste management; human rights; rolled out to all the royal houses.” Charbonnel et Walker – Chocolatier and labour standards. Applicants are While, to date, no warrants have Community Foods – Dried Fruit, required to provide a statement on their been reversed as a direct result of the Nut and Seed importer environmental and social policy, with environmental and ethical audit, there Prestat – Chocolatier a supporting statement on what action is always the possibility that companies Selfridges & Co – Department Store they are taking or how they are tackling not satisfying the criteria will find their Jeroboams - Cheesemonger relationships with suppliers. They are then warrant is not extended on reapplication, Daily Bread - Caterer required to set targets and annually update which happens on average every five the Royal Warrant Association on progress. years. Between 20 and 40 warrants are “Being a royal warrant holder has thought to be lost each year, most often encouraged us to ensure we are at the because the quality is not up to the mark, forefront of promoting the importance the product is no longer required, or of trading sustainably,” confirms the houses are rationalising suppliers.
The Jellied Eel www.thejelliedeel.org 13 local to london One good apple…
Adam and Eve wouldn’t have got into the bad books for a bite of an apple or a sip of its juice, if New Spitalfields Market trader Ronny Liu had anything to do with it. Anna Sbuttoni talks to the man who is bringing Herefordshire-grown apples and their premium juice to the Chinese community in the capital, and raising money in the process.
onny Liu is a responsible man. The he has also supported a number of fund-raising owner of New Spitalfields Market-based events for Great Ormond Street Hospital, the Sunnyfield Veg and Cook’s Delight, he Islington Chinese Association and the rebuilding R works behind the scenes of independent of the Sichuan earthquake region to name a few. restaurants and retailers to provide fresh fruit and “We are always motivated by charity and vegetables alongside ingredients that you might not to help the elderly and children in particular have even heard of. – if we can do something to give back to the Red bullet chillies, banana flowers and holy community, we will,” says Liu. “At the same time, basil are just some of the unusual lines on offer if we can do good for the fruit and vegetable at his busy spot in East London’s twilight food industry, it’s win-win for everyone.” hub, which feeds the capital’s busy outlets. But beneath the whirlwind of everyday trading, Liu is on a long-standing mission to give www.sunnyfield328.com something back to the community. He has never www.mannings-juice.co.uk lost sight of the fact that his son was born with a heart condition that was treated at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Eighteen years on, Christopher is “very healthy and very handsome”, says Liu, but the scare made it a priority to support both children and the elderly in any way he could. His latest project has seen him team up with third- generation Herefordshire apple grower James Manning to supply Jonagold apples and their juice, as part of a deal that will see 50p from every box sold donated to the Lord Mayor’s Appeal. Mannings Jonagold apple juice is now available in Chinese restaurants across London, specialist supermarkets including Wing Yip, and will launch in Spar stores nationwide in March. This year’s appeal, launched by Lord Mayor Michael Bear and named Bear Necessities – Building Better Lives, has the simultaneous aims to give children in London better opportunities and to support international disaster relief. The project unites Coram, the UK’s first ever children’s charity, with RedR, which trains and provides engineers and relief workers to respond to worldwide emergencies. Ronny has so far raised nearly £1,000 for the cause Photo: Adela Nistora through his partnership with Mannings alone. And
14 The Jellied Eel www.thejelliedeel.org on the menu
To find out how to book at table at Pop up one of our featured supper clubs see: http://marmitelover.blogspot.com http://veganpeasantcatering.com http://ramblingrestaurant.com
Principles? And don’t forget that sustainability can be a priority for other kinds of for pop-ups, not just supper clubs Barely a week goes by without hearing of yet another intriguing new - see our article on Street Kitchen at supper club or pop-up restaurant concept in London. But, Clare Hill www.sustainweb.org/jelliedeel/ articles/142/ asks, are these unregulated eateries also cutting corners with their food ethics?
he phenomenon of the supper explains, “you can store food without with the sources she currently buys from, club or pop-up embodies refrigeration and stock up seasonal gluts organic produce needn’t cost much more. austerity chic and is easy to use at other times of the year.” The Underground Restaurant and Tto grasp: amateur chefs can Ms Marmite Lover’s restaurant also others are embracing alternative supply ‘have a go’ without committing to a full eschews meat (but not fish), for ethical and chains, utilising freelance buyers who scale business and diners get a relatively environmental reasons. The Vegan Peasant, know the producers well and can do affordable meal with a measure of urban as the name suggests, leaves out dairy all the legwork. Another well-known and culinary adventure thrown in. and eggs too. Started by Diana Pinkett supper club, the Rambling Restaurant, But as the scene matures, isn’t it and chef Adrian Smith late last year, the buys its fruit and veg from the People’s time to ask how sustainable the food supper club serves a seven-course plant- Supermarket, the high-profile co-operative is? Some progress has been made with based menu in a Hackney living room for shop that aims to form supply relationships mainstream restaurants and even fast- six people. The menu has a naturally lower with farmers whose produce fails the food chains serving up free-range eggs, environmental impact, and it may be the perfection test of the big supermarkets. reducing food waste and cutting food only regular vegan supper club in the UK. The general approach in this new world miles. But are ‘guerilla restaurants’ Fruit and veg is bought from an all- of guerrilla chefs and guerrilla buyers – virtually unregulated and run on a organic farmers’ market. “We use as much seems pragmatic above all: buying produce shoestring – more pushed to cut corners organic as possible, but you can’t do it that is as seasonal, British, and sustainably and so give priority to cheap produce with everything,” explains Diana, “we’re caught or reared ‘as possible’. It’s a good rather than environmental credentials? having another Caribbean-inspired menu place to start. For some supper clubs, it It’s hard to make any generalisations soon, but the plantains won’t be organic.” will be an additional challenge to ensure about the 80-odd supper clubs and pop-ups Like most supper clubs, the Vegan Peasant theatricality and experimentation work in London. Some are all about theatricality runs on tight margins, but Diana believes with, and not against, sustainability. and novelty, while a few others obsess over produce freshness and provenance. However, if we focus just on supper clubs for the moment, which are tiny and home- based, aren’t they well-placed to be more sustainable? With the number of diners known in advance and a fixed menu, an exact quantity of food can be bought, so almost there should be almost zero waste – provided the resulting dish is not so avant- garde that everyone returns it half-eaten! Sometimes experimentation and sustainability can happily coalesce. Ms Marmite Lover, veritable godmother of the London supper club scene, declares: “Eco-extremism is boring…there’s too much guilt-tripping about sustainability.” But she has just put on a ‘jar meal’ at her Underground Restaurant – a menu of pickled and potted delicacies. “Canning is quite energy efficient,” she
‘Rambling HQ’ prepares to open its doors for another secret supper. Photo: Rambling Restaurant The Jellied Eel www.thejelliedeel.org 15 Hot cross buns on display in The Widdow's Son pub, East London. a taste of london Photo: Adela Nistora
Hot Cross Buns Ingredients The ferment: hese delicious Easter buns have 140g strong white flour a colourful history of religious 20g fresh yeast (or 10g dried and superstitious tales, but none active yeast) T are more heartbreaking than the the dough and 150ml water story of The Widow’s Son. Legend has it that then fold the The dough: during the early 19th Century, a widow lived Hot cross buns! bottom third 310g stoneground strong in a cottage with her only son on what is now Hot cross buns! over, followed white flour Devons Road in the East London area of Bow. One a penny, by the top third. 1 tsp salt Her sailor son left for the sea but promised to two a penny, Give the dough 3 tsp mixed spice be back on the Good Friday of 1824. Awaiting a quarter turn hot cross buns! 55g light muscovado sugar his return, his mother baked him a hot cross and stretch it out 55g butter, melted bun, but he never arrived. Every year until her again. This time 1 egg, beaten death she baked a bun on Good Friday, hoping scatter with the 125ml milk to welcome her son home, but she never saw sultanas and repeat the folding process. 85g hand chopped candied him again. Put the dough into a large bowl, cover with lemon peel In the 1840s, a pub replaced the cottage and cling film and leave in a warm place, such 85g sultanas has been named The Widow’s Son ever since. as an airing cupboard, until the dough has The pub holds a service every Easter for the lost doubled in size. This will take about two hours. The crosses: mariner, where a member of the Royal Naval Briefly knead the dough to knock out 50g plain white household presents a hot cross bun to be hung at the bar. the air and then divide it into four pieces, flour There’s nothing like a hot cross bun with then divide each quarter into four and Pinch of baking powder melted butter and a cup of tea, so whether shape each piece into a ball. Place these 40 - 50ml water you’re commemorating the widow’s son, a onto greased baking sheets allowing a gap 1 tsp vegetable oil religious event or just fancy a tasty treat, approximately the same size as each ball The glaze: why not use our good old-fashioned recipe between them for the dough to rise. 1 egg with a few modern, sustainable updates. Cover and put back in a warm place for 2 tbsp sugar Recipe (makes 16 buns) the dough to rise again - about 45 minutes. 2 tbsp boiling water Meanwhile, mix together the ingredients 140g butter Mix up the ferment 12-18 hours before you to make the crosses. Put the mixture 140g caster sugar want to make the hot cross buns. Heat the into a piping bag fitted with a broad 28g yeast creamed with 1 tsp water until it feels lukewarm to the touch then plain nozzle. Pre-heat the oven to 210ºC of sugar stir into the fresh yeast until it is smoothly (190ºC in a fan oven)/gas mark 5. 4 eggs blended. Mix this liquid into the flour, cover Pipe a cross over each bun. Put the buns ½ cup tepid milk the bowl with cling film and leave in a cool into the oven and turn the heat up to 220ºC 1 tsp mixed spice place to rise and drop again. (200ºC in a fan oven)/gas mark 6. Bake for 1 cup currants For the dough, mix together the flours, salt, 12-15 minutes until lightly golden in colour. Pinch of salt sugar and spice. Melt the butter, pour it onto Whilst the buns are baking mix together the Syrup for glazing: ¼ cup of the dry ingredients together with the beaten ingredients for the glaze and brush over the sugar boiled with 2 tbsp water egg and milk. Stir the liquid with your hand, buns as soon as they are removed from the gradually drawing in some of flour mixture. oven. Enjoy! See www.thejelliedeel.org When the centre is no longer liquid add the By Gaby De Sena for details of where to shop ferment from the day before and mix together. ethically for these ingredients. Cover the dough and let it rest for 30 minutes or so before kneading in earnest. Recipe kindly submitted by Suzanne Wynn for Whilst the dough is resting, chop the peel. The Real Bread Campaign. For tips about this Knead the dough until it is smooth and and other recipes, more information on Real elastic then stretch out into a rectangular shape Bread or to join the Campaign, please without tearing. Scatter the chopped peel over visit www.realbreadcampaign.org
16 The Jellied Eel www.thejelliedeel.org jellied eel starstockist
My Coffee Stop An 'ethicool' area’s informed coffee shop-hunters come here specially. coffee joint... Head barista Gunther, a champion of Fairtrade, has been described by devoted customers as a ‘coffee genius’. A charity book swap scheme means that, for a small donation, visitors can support the nearby Chickenshed theatre while enjoying a constant supply of low-cost and diverse literature. And this is just one example of how owners Karen and Gunther are dedicated to their local community. They also enthusiastically encourage other businesses to support Fairtrade, and even took it upon themselves to compile a Fairtrade directory for the area. By Matt Atkinson
The Jellied Eel would like to thank London's magazine for ethical eating My Coffee Stop and its staff for their We do! How continued support. wedded www.mycoffeestop.co.uk are the royals to ethical n London, finding your local coffee shop is a popular nosh? I pursuit. A coffee shop good enough for people to call their own obviously has to sell great coffee and have a good vibe. Are you a shop, restaurant, café, trader It needs to be comfortable, but also ‘cool’. And for us at the or community centre with sustainable Jellied Eel that means it definitely has to be socially aware food at its heart that wants to help us in spreading the word around SPRING and uphold ethical business practices! Top of the pop-ups 2 0 1 1 Fruit carts roll out in London Free Sound a bit idealistic? Well My Coffee London? Then get in touch with magazine I S Food growing unive SU E 32 rsities [email protected] Stop fits the bill on all counts. ❋ Hot cross buns ❋ Turn on to tap Although situated on Platform One of Enfield Chase about stocking the Jellied Eel. station, this cafe is not only popular with commuters - the
Gourmet experiences from field to fork Food Safari gives you behind-the-scenes access to some of Suffolk’s best loved food and drink producers. We specialise in www.foodsafari.co.uk Field to Fork days: farm walks, fishing trips, [email protected] and wild food forays; cookery and butchery workshops; and fabulous feasts. 01728 621380 You can now buy all your fresh food straight from local farms
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No obligatory boxes, no commitments, no minimum www.farm-direct.com order value: what you want, when you want! 0845 519 2415 capital growth Learning your ABSeeds Universities are catching the food growing bug, with more and more edible gardens appearing on campuses. Now the ABSeed competition is offering them yet another incentive to get growing, explains Michael Dees.
he School of Oriental and African Studies was one of the first Universities to join the Capital Growth campaign to create 2012 new T food growing spaces by 2012. Its Good Food Society aims to introduce students to sustainable food, raise awareness of where food comes from, how it is produced and Now supporting how it is used,and food growing is one of the main activities. over 850 In 2008, a group of students got permission to turn a GROWING CALENDAR spaces littered and overgrown piece of land into an edible garden. A grant from Capital Growth funded top soil, seeds, plants and april tools, and open days on Saturdays were held for volunteers ❋ to help out in return for a share of the harvest. They now ❋ Sowing season is now in full swing. Most can be done outdoors, intend to expand the growing space to include a small forest but start more tender crops indoors - squashes, courgettes and garden, a soft fruit cage and on-site water harvesting. cucumbers. SOAS is just one of a number of universities that have ❋❋ It can be a wise investment to buy seedling plants of crops such as taken up the spade in the past few years, with other tomatoes and chillies, as they are best started off early and require food-growing spaces at Roehampton, Birkbeck, LSE, extra heat to germinate. Westminster, City and UCL. Now schools, nurseries, ❋❋ If you start plants off indoors, brush them with your hand colleges and universities could win a range of prizes whenever you pass – this helps to ‘harden them off’, mimicking including tools, raised beds, fruit trees, seeds and gift the action of the wind. cards as part of Capital Growth’s ABSeed competition. There is even the opportunity for two people from may secondary schools or universities to spend a day shadowing ❋❋ Prepare for planting out your squashes and courgettes. Ideally top chefs at Fifteen London, the restaurant founded by add well-rotted manure or compost. Jamie Oliver to instil in staff and apprentices a passion ❋❋ Don’t forget the edible flowers, especially the wonderful for great food and a respect for the environment. nasturtium. It thrives on neglect and you can eat both the leaves One of the winners of last year’s competition, which and flowers. was open to primary schools, was South Haringey Infant School where pupils created a bug hotel to encourage ❋❋ For bushy plants, pinch out the growing tips. This works well for insects. “This project has demonstrated how much can basil and chillies. be achieved in a garden and provides an engaging and june healthy environment for pupils who may not have access to the outdoors at home,” says headteacher Raj Rotbcha. ❋❋ Take your time when watering – a deep soak, less often, is “They also got to taste the delicious produce, with enough far better than regular rushed sprinklings. potatoes being harvested to feed all of the 180 pupils.” ❋❋ If salad or herb crops are starting to flower, pinch them off to prolong their use-able life. To register for the competition, visit www.capitalgrowth.org/ ❋❋ Apply netting over ripening soft fruits. A barrier will deter abseed or contact Paola Guzman at [email protected] or at birds from feasting on forbidden fruit! Pick fruit to eat fresh, 020 7837 1228. The deadline to register is 3 June 2011. or for juicing, jellies and jams. Capital Growth is supported by the Mayor of London and the Tom Moggach of City Leaf* Big Lottery’s Local Food Fund. * City Leaf provides food-growing training to groups and schools. For more information, call 020 7485 9262 or see www.cityleaf.co.uk
The Jellied Eel www.thejelliedeel.org 19 Reader’s kitchen From larder to Lardo
Anna Francis visits a reader who has been inspired to take her culinary ambitions to a new level
liza Flanagan jogs across the courtyard in bare feet to greet me and whisks me up the hessian covered stairs to her mezzanine apartment. As we drink tea and talk, e a pot of rainbow chard and chives sways in the breeze on the windowsill. She explains how after a road trip around America, Photos: Anna Francis where she experienced first hand the ‘farm to fork’ movement-taking in dinner parties in fields, mobile farmers markets, and cafés celebrating local produce “In both my kitchen and the restaurant I want to eat as – she returned inspired and determined to integrate seasonally as possible,” she says. Instead of buying imported this philosophy into her kitchen and her work. peppers and chillies over the winter Eliza plans to pickle them. “I realised a while ago that one of the greatest A gleaming jar of preserved lemons on the side in her kitchen powers we have is through our wallets, so I try to be testifies to these ambitions. She even considered replacing as conscious as possible about the things I purchase. I imported capers with local geranium buds but decided that buy most of my food from farmers' markets and local might be a step too far. shops; even the nearby off licence has started to see the With all this emphasis on local organic food, there must potential and is buying in organic produce” she adds. be some guilty secrets? “Well, I do love eating out - which Now she’s going one step further, and setting up a local can mean it’s harder to know where the food has come from, pizza restaurant, because, she says, “it’s a food everyone although more and more restaurants are starting to celebrate loves”. Along with a range of ‘red, white and green pizzas’, the provenance of the food they serve; and I do have a soft the restaurant will also serve quality charcuteries, from small spot for fresh herbs, sometimes more than I can use.” producers in the UK, including mangalitza pork, a rare breed As I get ready to leave, Eliza begins chopping onions in the only reintroduced into Britain a few years ago. However, kitchen. ‘So what’s for dinner tonight?’ I ask: “White wine, her ambitions don’t stop there. In the long term she plans barley and beef stew” – organic and local of course...! to start curing in-house and making her own ricotta. www.lardo.co.uk “Food and hospitality have always been in my blood,” she says. “In Australia my parents ran restaurants and my dad still owns a vineyard there.” He was disappointed when Eliza Eliza gets a free goody bag from the splendid ladies at Happy told him she couldn’t sell his wine in her new restaurant. Due Kitchen as a thank you for letting us through her door. to open in Hackney in September, Lardo – named after the If you would like us to consider putting your kitchen under Italian cold cut – will specialise in produce where the majority our microscope, please contact [email protected] has come from the UK, and nothing from beyond Europe.
20 The Jellied Eel www.thejelliedeel.org London food link Featured London iri Lewin has been running Café Crema in the heart of New Cross for Ksix years, together with her partner Chris Boddington. Food Link member The café, with its Burford Brown hens in the garden, sells Fairtrade tea and coffee, hot food and homemade cakes. The Café Crema mostly organic vegetables and free-range eggs are supplied by a Lincolnshire farmer, food waste is composted, packaging recycled, and the café is starting to grow some of its own produce. Kiri has always loved orchards. As a young child she accidentally planted a white peach tree, just by throwing away a stone in the garden. In her twenties, late summers were spent fruit-picking in Kent. Today, two thirds of the UK’s traditional orchards have been lost, so Kiri is starting a project called The Secret Orchard; a small urban orchard of mainly heritage maiden trees, including pears, apples and quinces. It will be planned and planted by volunteers. Kiri attended the Co-operative’s ‘Plan Bee’ urban beekeeping scheme at Camley Street, gaining experience and her own hive of Carniolan honeybees. The hive is in Peckham, in a community apiary close to the café. She plans to sell their and other local beekeepers’ honey as part of a social enterprise, putting funds back into beekeeping training and planting a bee-friendly garden. Café Crema hosts many events, including an annual summer benefit festival (last year’s raised £500 for Hope not Hate), film nights and ‘make do and mend’ knitting and sewing classes. Two sewing machines are available to use on a drop-in basis. For café and event details please visit www.cafecremaevents.co.uk
London Food Link Membership form London Food Link Name Love the Jellied Eel? Join us! Business/organisation Join London Food Link and have a copy delivered to your door Address every quarter. London Food Link is a network of organisations and individuals: farmers and food writers, caterers and Postcode community food projects, restaurants and reviewers. We work on increasing the availability of sustainable food in London Tel through training, advice and campaigning. The Jellied Eel is Email a free magazine we publish to raise awareness of ethical food issues in London and London’s growing local and sustainable Your website/Facebook/Twitter address food movement. We are a charity. Member benefits ❋❋ get our magazine the Jellied Eel with London news and Please write a brief summary of who you are/your interest in local food articles delivered to your door ❋❋ make useful London food contacts ❋❋ find out what’s going on around London with our regular email updates including local food news and funding info £20 – individual or not-for-profit community project ❋❋ invites and discounted entry to our regular London Food Link £40 – charity, social enterprise or company with less than soirées and affiliated training/events – great for networking and accessing expertise £100,000 annual turnover £70 – public body, or company with £100,000–£1,000,000 How to join annual turnover Online: Go to www.sustainweb.org/londonfoodlink/membership, £100 – company with more than £1,000,000 annual turnover complete the form and send it to [email protected], then click the ‘make a payment’ link. Post: Complete this form and Rate If the fee is not, for whatever reason, a fair reflection of your ability to send it with a cheque made payable to ‘Sustain’, to 94 White Lion pay membership, then please get in touch. If you are a community project, food business or local authority, contact [email protected] for more Street, London N1 9PF. information on how you can be involved with London Food Link.
The Jellied Eel www.thejelliedeel.org 21 what’s on Farmers’ market plant fairs The Natural Wine Fair From April onwards London wide 15 May Borough Market Plant fairs at most farmers’ markets around London selling unusual An opportunity to taste and buy naturally produced wine, as well perennials, vegetable plants, herbs, fruit trees and much more. as attend tasting classes and meet the suppliers. The fair is part of www.lfm.org.uk Natural Wine Fortnight, which runs from 9-22 May. See p7. Pruning workshop www.thenaturalwinefair.com 10 April Dukes Meadows West London How to start and run a supper club Workshop for pruning stone fruit trees. Contact for places. 21 May www.abundancelondon.com Several of the most celebrated supper club hosts will be Plant sale, open day and drop-in event holding a conference on how to run a good club. Such leading 16 April – 10-1pm Hammersmith Community Gardens lights as Ms Marmite Lover from the Underground Restaurant, Free entry, Ravenscourt Park Greenhouses. For full Lynn of the Secret Tea Room and James from The Secret programme of training and events at this site see Larder will be sharing their secrets. www.capitalgrowth.org/training http://marmitelover.blogspot.com Wildlife friendly food growing Restaurant Ramble 17 April – 10:30-1:30pm Peckham 26 May Held at London Wildlife Trust’s Centre for Wildlife Gardening, Join this ramble around the best vegetarian restaurants in this workshop is an introduction on growing fruit and veg town on Thursday 26 May. See p6. whilst helping wildlife. £20 (£10 for LFL members). For full www.ethicaleats.org programme of training and events at this site see ABSeed competition www.capitalgrowth.org/training 3 June Melvita bee event Deadline for registration for food-growing competition, open 22 April St Martin’s Courtyard, Covent Garden to nurseries through to higher/further education. See p19. Organic company Melvita is organising a bee awareness event, www.capitalgrowth.org/schools/abseed including free honey tastings, bee advice and much more. London Green Fair www.Melvita.co.uk 4 – 5 June Regents Park Real Street Food Festival Building on the success and popularity of the Camden Green 29 April – 2 May Southbank Centre Fair, this event in Regent’s Park ‘will be an interactive See p7. www.realfoodfestival.co.uk smorgasbord of both serious and suggestive takes on the Real Food Festival environmental issues that affect Londoners’. 5 – 8 May Earls Court www.londongreenfair.org The 4th Real Food Festival will showcase a huge variety of the Big Lunch talent, skill and initiative from the world of ‘extraordinary’ food. 5 June Nationwide Demonstrations like the Allen’s Of Mayfair Butchery Theatre, The Big Lunch will be kicking off on food from Real Food producers and the best street food vendors. hundreds, maybe thousands, of streets www.realfoodfestival.co.uk around the country. The Eden Project Introductory bee keeping training initiated this annual event two course years ago to bring neighbourhoods 7 May Hackney City Farm together. Find your nearest street This one-day introductory course is designed to give a general party here, or set up your own! understanding of the role of bees in supporting wildlife and www.thebiglunch.com agricultural production and a taster of what it would be like to Open Garden Squares look after bees. Weekend www.lowimpact.org/hackney_course_outline_beekeeping.htm 11 – 12 June Growing in Small Spaces This year there will be lots of food growing-spaces opening 7 May – 10-1pm Hammersmith Community Gardens their doors to the public, including 21 Capital Growth spaces, Ravenscourt Park Greenhouses. £20 (£10 for LFL members). most of which haven’t been part of this annual event before. For full programme of training and events at this site see www.opensquares.org www.capitalgrowth.org/training Organic pest and disease control Soil: how to work with the life under our feet 18 June – 10.30-1pm (or Wednesday 22 June 5.30-8pm) 11 May – 6-9pm Growing Communities - Allens Gardens Regents Park Discover the life in the soil we walk on, and how we can work Learn about what the common diseases and pests that attack most effectively with it to produce healthy vegetables. £20 your fruit and vegetables, and look at alternatives and natural (£10 for LFL members). For full programme of training and methods for dealing with them. £20 (£10 for LFL members). events at this site see For full programme of training and events at this site, see www.capitalgrowth.org/training www.capitalgrowth.org/training
For more events go to www.sustainweb.org/ londonfoodlink/events_calendar/ 22 The Jellied Eel www.thejelliedeel.org
Jellied Eel.indd 1 24/3/11 14:48:49 Jellied Eel.indd 1 24/3/11 14:48:49 is isnot not about about making making big profitsprofits for for shareholders shareholders but butcreating creating value for its members. value for its members.