What a week

Lymm Produce Show
It has been the most amazing week.  Last Sunday we hosted another successful Lymm Produce Show at Oughtrington Community Orchard (http://www.oughtrington.co.uk/orchard/).  I felt it was a significant show this year.  The previous shows have been great: people who make or grow food and drink locally getting together to celebrate their efforts.  This year was different in that it had an even bigger feel-good factor than normal.  Everyone registering in the morning 9-11 slot was incredibly enthusiastic about their entries even if they had a go at a loaf of bread for the first time that morning.  In the afternoon, we saw lots more community groups gathered in gazebos on the field.  All that additional zeal gladdens the heart, but my favourite part of the day is seeing people walking home with the produce they have bid for in the auction chatting about what they will make for tea with it.

A revelation!
We were lucky to host a stall with Farmstart produce at the Produce Show.  Regular readers of the blog will have seen mentions of their wonderful work growing organic produce a couple of miles from Lymm.  I brought home a goody bag of their great veg.  I'm such a veggie lover (not a bonefide veggie, but just love great vegetables) that when I find great veg, I just buy a selection and then have fun googling what to do with it all when I return home.  I also love to buy a random item which I haven't experienced.  This time the random item was radicchio.  What a revelation that has been!  I braised it on top of flaky pastry (I didn't get to eat any as the kids wolfed the lot!!).  I have simmered it then added to a vegetable pasta dish, and lastly my son added it to his school food technology recipe for vegetable soup.  It is also good as a salad leaf.  Overall, I found it to be quite bitter, but if used with sweeter vegetables or finely chopped in salads it is great.  The braising would have been better if I'd tossed in some oil, I feel.

Runner Beans in a Thali
The last picture is the Indian thali meal we created to use up a mountain of runner beans harvested from my allotment.  We use Madhur Jaffrey's spicy green bean recipe (http://dinnercoop.cs.cmu.edu/dinnercoop/Recipes/sanjiv/MasaledarSem.html) with anything like beans or okra.  On this occasion, the beans were quite big so we simmered them until quite soft.  Delicious.  The chicken was cooked up using Pattak's tikka paste.  I used Hugh's dhal recipe for the puy lentils(http://www.welovethisbook.com/features/hugh-fearnley-whittingstalls-dahl), just cooking them for longer than the recipe, which uses red lentils. 

A big thank you to all those that supported the 2014 Produce Show.  Not least Lymm.me who wrote a lovely article (http://www.lymm.me/grown-lymm/) in support of our efforts.

Lisa Reid

Abbey Leys Farmers Market

We've mentioned Farmstart a couple of times in this blog, but last weekend at the Abbey Leys Farmers Market was the first time I had seen their stall: and what a bountiful supply of locally grown veg it was. They had some beautiful disc shaped courgettes, beans, tomatoes, onions and peppers - along with everything else you can see on the picture. The stall looked so fresh and appealing!

I picked up quite a bit, including some of the long finger shaped peppers - which I took home and stuffed with a variety of things, including cheese, before roasting off in the oven.

All the fruit and veg that they sell is grown on local farms by local people, and I felt the prices were really cheap when compared to the supermarkets. Everything was priced in pence not pounds - so it was pleasing to only have to hand over a couple of quid for a bag full of veg.

You can also pick up amazing pies, cakes, chocolate, natural juices, meat - in fact you could easily do a weekly food shop there....

Abbey Leys Farmers Market is the first sunday of the month, so the next one is 5th October. Why don't you take 20 mins out of your day to pop down and have a look at the stalls? Let us know what your favourite buy was!

Just showing off?

2014 Produce Show
It's here at last: this year's Lymm Produce Show is on Sunday!  Do you remember last year how fabulously funky the orchard looked decked out in the Guerilla knitting?  Well here is a picture of it hanging up after I had washed it.  There were metres and metres of it.  The other picture is of the 3rd Lymm Scouts helping maintain the orchard in July.  The cubs and scouts needed a temporary meeting space while their hut was being rebuilt.  They offered to help at the orchard in exchange for us hosting them for a couple of meetings.  It was a win-win situation!  They did a great job cutting the hedge and creating some new habitats for bugs.  The craftwork they also did will be on display in the orchard on Sunday.  I hope it will be as eye-catching as the knitting was, and it will be a relief not to have to wash it afterwards!

Why not enter?
The show is run by a team of volunteers from the Oughtrington Community Orchard.  While there are rules and classes to ensure everything is run fairly, it is a relaxed day which celebrates all that is great about growing or making your own produce.  I enjoy marvelling at the monster vegetables which appear in the bigger county shows, but growing a metre long carrot isn't really my thing.  Even if you haven't got a garden, there are some categories such as baking which you can have a go at, and some great categories just for children.  Click on this link to browse the categories: http://www.oughtrington.co.uk/orchard/produce_show_2014.html

Or just come down and eat cake?
If you don't fancy entering, then pop down between 2-4pm when there will be all sorts going on.  There are all the usual favourites such as 'Ask the Expert', but new activities too, such as the Farmstart project selling their locally grown produce.

I hope to see you there...I'll be the one struggling in with a 2 metre tall sunflower!

Lisa Reid

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

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

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

A Silver Lining to the Clouds?

Bumper crops
I think it is fair to say that we have been having a beautiful summer this year.  I am so pleased that is has also meant lots of successful harvests so far, unless you are one of the unfortunate growers who have had their home-grown food eaten by a bumper year for slugs.  I'm afraid that I have been so overwhelmed with my small land share plot and helping a friend get her new allotment in shape, that I took my eye off some of my plants.  As a result, I have found aphids a problem.  I tried a spraying with soap solution, but they were too well established for it to make much difference.  I have had a visit from loads of caterpillars on my rocket.  I didn't mind at all since I had a rocket glut, and they have to live somewhere!  When giving away my rocket surplus it has been fun informing friends to watch out for the caterpillars hitching a ride. 

Silver lining
I took this picture a few days ago.  The other adults in the house had gone to work and the kids were still asleep, so I sneaked outside to breakfast in peace.  Bliss!  I was hoping to blog about my intentions to repeat this over the summer whenever my working hours allow, but the weather has other plans.  It will rain, rain, rain until next week at least.  Those who grow food on a larger scale will be glad of the rain but I am happy with an Indian summer because I can water my small plots by hand.  So if I don't need rain for my garden, what will the silver lining be to poor weather?  Well, I guess the aphids will have a hard time clinging on to my sweet peas in downpours[cue evil laugh]!

Lisa Reid