Friday 22 August 2014

Easy pickings and Local Veg at Abbey Leys

Whilst Lisa normally does all of the work blogging and promoting the food produced in around Lymm, she is not alone in her love of all things tasty and local. She has kindly let me loose on the blog, so I can tell you about my local food adventures too.

First things first though - Last time she posted, Lisa mentioned the FarmStart Manchester and Manchester Veg People, supplying Abbey Leys Farm. Janet has been on recently to let us know that there are locally grown onions, carrots and courgettes available now at the shop, along with all the normal veg and goodies they sell. I'm thinking rare breed pork sausages (also sold at Abbey Leys) with some of the onions, nicely caramelised. Maybe I'll even go for some buttery carrot mash. The weather we have been having over the last few days is already make me think of hearty winter food!

Very berry!

In the last couple of day I went for a walk with my four year old, a friend and her two young children. My friend (another Lisa!), has an annual tradition of going blackberry picking. Even though I have lived in a house backing on to the TPT for 7 years, I have never noticed the vast quantities of berries. Lisa opened my eyes!

After about half an hour of being waist and shoulder deep in prickly bushes, only a few metres from the Star pub, we had two large boxes of blackberrys between us. We would have had three, had the kids not been eating every other berry! I'm promised that with a few of the cooking apples out of our garden, the berries will make a very tasty crumble.....

There are still plenty of berries out there if you fancy getting some for yourself???

Andy Morris

Friday 15 August 2014

A Quick Update

Good news guys...the Farmstart project that I wrote of in my last blog does have produce for sale locally.  They have some food leftover from supplying the Manchester food network, and it is for sale at the Abbey Leys farm shop (http://www.abbeyleys.co.uk/).  They currently have tomatoes and courgettes.

That is a good excuse for a recipe link, I think!  Of course, there is the popular summer stew - ratatouille to make with those two items.  However, what to create when there are no aubergines?  Have no fear because BBC Good Food has 92 recipes listed which include tomato and courgette! (http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/search/recipes?query=courgette+tomato&=Search)  I'd love to hear how you get on with some of those if I see you out and about in Lymm.  Alas, no photos again on this blog posting I'm afraid.  I'll rectify that next time because my next posting will be about the build up to the Lymm Produce Show on Sunday 7th September...so start planning what you will bring!

Lisa Reid

Wednesday 13 August 2014

A complete circle

It was in somewhat different weather that I posted a blog a couple of Sundays ago to say I was heading off on the walk with the Kindling Trust.  I came home weary after an afternoon spent cycling and walking the rolling Cheshire countryside.  It was well worth it, though, to hear about their amazing work. 

Kindling Trust
They have a range of activities under the general 'Kindling' umbrella, and their overall vision is to have a farm near Manchester which sustainably supplies its community with its own produce (http://www.kindling.org.uk/home).  This is a simple vision, but in practice is difficult to implement.  That has not stopped the people involved giving their seemingly endless drive and enthusiasm to push it forward.  'What has all that got to do with the people of Lymm?'  I hear you cry!  Well as well as being a really interesting concept which we can keep an eye on as a role model for the future of all communities, they are training the next generation of growers on our doorstep as part of their Farmstart initiative.  (http://www.kindling.org.uk/farmstart)  You may aware of some of the barriers of entry to farming such as capital, and the fact that those entry barriers as well as other factors are creating a very high average age for farmers.  Farmstart is basically an incubator where would-be farmers can try it out in a supportive setting. 

Produce
I now share a small allotment with friends and it has been incredibly hard work to start up.  At some times of year growing food is very labour intensive, so Kindling again come to the rescue for the farmers:  they encourage anyone that wants to work outdoors to join their Land Army and help out the growers by giving a day of their time.  That hard work is reaping rewards.  Farmstart now successfully supply Manchester Veg People (http://www.kindling.org.uk/projects/manchester-veg-people) - another Kindling initiave which coordinates the supply and demand of some local food in Manchester. 

So basically, we visited a farming initiative on our doorstep which aims to coordinate and support the full circle of supply and demand for local food in the Manchester area.  It was quite humbling to talk to such enthusiastic people, and certainly made me more passionate about local food than ever.  We can support this work by looking out for their food at the Abbey Leys farm shop or their farmer's market.  The next market is on the first Sunday of the month as usual - Sunday 7th September.  The food you will see to buy will be any gluts they have left over from supplying Manchester Veg People.  Organic food grown just a couple of miles away...I will definitely be first in the queue for that stall!

Lisa Reid