Propagate

Last Thursday 30th October Glasgow Local Food Network, Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens and The Project Café organised a local food event aimed at growers and local cafe businesses.

The afternoon kicked off with a free trip to two market gardens – Urban Roots’ growing space in Toryglen and Locavore’s new 2.5 acre site in Neilston.  People had the chance to hear first hand how these market gardens were set up, and ask questions that might be relevant to upscaling their own growing projects. 

This was followed by an evening buffet, which was prepared by The Project Café using ingredients from 7 community gardens in the city:

The Concrete Garden

Northmuir Community Garden

Milton Community Garden

Scottish Fruit Trees

Glasgow Allotment Forum

Bellahouston Garden 

Grow Green at Parkhead CommunityGarden

35 people attended the buffet, and along with a chance to speak to other growers and businesses, there was also a pedal-powered cinema showing short films made by A Moment’s Peace.  Their project - I Could Eat a Horse - is a multi-artform project exploring the diverse relationships that individuals and communities have with food and the food industry.  Cyclists got first pick from a menu of 12 short films. It wasn't an easy task cycling on a full belly!

About 20 people stayed on to take part in the discussion about practical ways to connect local growers with local businesses. There were 4 short talks from the perspective of both producers and cafés: 

Reuben from Locavore

Rachna from Babu Bombay Street Kitchen

Eilidh from The Project Café

Stephen from Cyrenians Farm in Edinburgh

We heard about their aspirations and also the challenges of growing / sourcing local food. Some of the key issues explored in the discussion afterwards were:

• Desire to build honest relationships between producers and catering businesses, and actually get growers and chefs together, but recognising time constraints and business priorities will make this difficult
• Need to understand the challenges faced on both sides, particularly financial pressures.
• Local growers have a brilliant story to tell which will attract customers, need to get that story out there!
• Lack of transport infrastructure – how to get local produce to local businesses.  Kate Shaw spent at least a day co-ordinating produce list, collecting ingredients from the 7 gardens and delivering them to The Project Café for this one meal.
• We talked about setting up a volunteer delivery scheme - with volunteers paid in café meals/veg bags - but there was a big questions mark around whether this is reliable or sustainable. Locavore uses the Oatcake (their own local currency) as a way of paying people to do deliveries, but it's not always possible to retain volunteers.
• Need to overcome perception about high cost of organic local produce by circulating clear price lists to businesses and demonstrating that produce is high quality and tastier.
• Catering businesses could also send wish lists to growers.
• Need to acknowledge that some crops are more financially viable eg. it’s hard for small scale growers to compete with larger farms on the price of potatoes.  But the example of Locavore’s Urban Croft has shown that nano-growers could supply unusual salad and herb crops that are more expensive to buy through normal wholesalers.
• Quality control is essential eg. salads would need to be washed in advance of supplying them to restaurants

Key actions we could take to improve local supply chain and achieve better connection between growers and catering businesses:

• Face to face marketing of local produce to cafes, shops and restaurants
• Weekly updates of produce available and prices
• A reliable delivery scheme - creating a growers co-op might make this more financially viable

There are still many questions about how this would be co-ordinated, what resources are available to support marketing, transport and so on, but it was great to get the conversation started. 

Glasgow Local Food network is an entirely voluntary network with no paid staff, only the good will of various social enterprises, community organisations and volunteers. If you have any free time, resources (eg. a van) or relevant skills (eg. marketing) then get on touch!  

We’re looking for people who can help build a more sustainable local food economy through connecting growers to the retail/restaurant market.  Find us on Facebook or email: 

glasgowlocalfood2012@gmail.com and ask to join the google group. 

We’re also proposing to have regular monthly meet ups at The Project Café to create an open space for discussing local food issues, sharing ideas and designing solutions.  More info to follow.

Propagate

 

- Are you a local business looking at ways to increase the amount of local food that you source? 
- Are you a community garden, allotment or market garden looking to make links with local businesses to sell produce? 

Come along to a day of site visits, networking, talks and films.  Plus a free buffet made using produce from Glasgow's community gardens and allotments.

Propagate

Thursday 30th October.
1.30 - 5.30 - Site visits to Locavore's market garden in Neilston, and Urban Roots' market garden in Toryglen.  Transport is free, but must be booked in advance.
5.30 - 8.30 - Talks (from Babu's Kitchen, Locavore, the Project Cafe, Cyrenians Farm), discussions, pedal powered films and free buffet at the Project Cafe

Please contact roz@farmgarden.org.uk to register, or kate@concretegarden.org.uk if you've got produce you'd like to sell to us to add to the buffet!

Please circulate the flier to anyone who might be interested.

Grow Local, Shop Local, Love Local!

*****A Glasgow Local Food Network Market at the Empire Cafe*****

Join us for Food Sovereignty Day from midday to 5pm on Sunday 27 July at The Briggait: An afternoon of workshops, cookery demonstrations and tasters.

Browse and buy at stalls from local Glasgow growers selling fresh vegetables, herbs, fruit and other delights, all made from locally sourced ingredients!

The Empire Café is an exploration of Scotland’s relationship with the North Atlantic slave trade through coffee, sugar, tea, cotton, music, visual art, academic lectures, poetry, debate, workshops, historical walks, film and literature. The café will be based in the Briggait (home of the Merchant’s Steeple) in Glasgow’s Merchant City from 24th July - 1st August 2014

Permaculture Scotland Gathering 2014

Permaculture Scotland Gathering 2014

The next Permaculture Scotland Gathering will take place at one of our new ScotLAND Centres – Urban Roots, in the South-East of Glasgow – on Saturday 7th June from 10am to midnight.

With workshops, kids activities, general meeting, networking, a pot luck lunch, meeting old friends and new, and a delicious local, organic evening meal put on by Urban Roots, it's going to be a great day! After some delicious Cairn o Mohr wine you'll be wanting a dance or a song, so our illustrious permaculture ceilidh band will delight your ears and your dancing shoes, and you can even take a turn on the stage too.

All the info is at www.permaculture.org.uk/scotland/gathering14

Food growing: a tool to engage your community!

FEVA Forum Exchanges - Food growing: a tool to engage your community 

Free event, lunch provided

May FEVA Forum Exchange will be held in Glasgow on Wednesday, 21 May 2014. The event will be co-hosted by Federation of City Farms & Community Gardens and the Glasgow Local Food Network and will be held at the Concrete Garden. This event aims to bring together people who would like to use food as a tool to bring people together and engage communities. The Forum will highlight a range of different ways this can be done by showcasing and sharing the stories of particular examples of good practice.

The programme will include the following themes which demonstrate how food can be used creatively to achieve a different aim or outcome:

The
• Foolproof food! How to grow food that works! ie the really easy stuff.
• Food as sustenance - eating what you cook on outdoor projects – experimenting and making food fun
• Food for celebration - learning about mixed communities and how you can organise events using food as focus
• Food as an educational resource – learning about new fruit and veg and how to grow them
• Food as skills share – building literacy and numeracy skills around food growing
• Growing food in small places - sprouting, windowbox food and herb growing

To book the May Forum Exchange please contact Tricia Burden on 01786 476170 or t.burden@tcv.org.uk. Places are filling up so book your place now by clicking here

Feva Forum Exchanges are free half day events facilitated by TCV Scotland for people working and volunteering in environmental and related sectors. Funded by SNH, each themed event provide opportunities for participants (30-40) to learn from each other, share experiences, network and overcome barriers to developing new areas of work. Feva Forums are free and lunch is provided.

Job Opportunities - Urban Roots and Drumchapel LIFE

The following job opportunities are currently available:

Urban Roots Manager - Urban Roots is looking for a highly motivated and experienced individual to take the organisation forward into its next exciting phase. Salary is £25,173 for a full time position (35 hours/week). Closing date: Friday 16 May 2014 More details on Good Moves website

Urban Roots Market Garden Coordinator - Urban Roots is looking for a motivated and experienced Coordinator to develop Polmadie Plots as a community food hub and social enterprise. Salary is £21,500 pro-rata for 21 hours/week (£12,900). Closing date is Friday 9 May 2014 More details on Good Moves website


Drumchapel LIFE Volunteer Coordinator (part time) - this is a short term project which aims to develop a core team of regular volunteers to the stage where they will have the capacity to run the Fruit and Veg Barra themselves. 224 hours in total, at a freelance rate of £12 per hour (roughly 8-14 hours per week). Closing date Monday 12 May 2014, 5pm.Interviews scheduled for Wednesday 14 May. Email
Veginout.drumchapel@gmail.com for more info.

Job Opportunity - Concrete Garden

The Concrete Garden are seeking to employ an Urban Growing and Community Development worker. The position is full Time - 35 hours per week and the salary is £25, 500. The closing date is 9am on Monday 10th March with interviews on Thursday 20th March. This post is initially for 1 year, with the aim to extend beyond depending on funding. The working hours are flexible including evenings and weekend work.

This post will support the community of Possilpark and transform the area behind the new Health and Care Center on Saracen St into a community growing space, urban meadow and gym wall in partnership with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board and the Forestry Commission - the Green Exercise Partnership; Jobs and Business Glasgow; and Friends of Possilpark Greenspace

This is a ‘stalled space’ project which means that in the future if there is application to develop and build on this land all the main elements and investment can be move to another vacant ‘stalled space’ site in the Possilpark area.

Applications can be emailed to mo@concretegarden.org.uk or posted to Concrete Garden, The St Matthews Center, 200 Balmore Road, Glasgow G22 6LJ.

More info here.

Next GLFN meeting

Next meeting:

6.00 – 7.45

Tuesday 4^th March

The Boilerhouse, Hidden Gardens, Albert Drive

All welcome! Come along for a quick pancake from 5.30 – 6, before the main meeting starts.  Bring a filling.

Agenda includes:

- Glasgow Sustainable Food City update

- Planning for Empire Cafe event in July

- Planning for FEVA event in May

- GLFN film update

- Feedback from GLFN structure survey

Job Opportunity - Nourish Scotland

Come and join the Nourish office! Nourish Scotland is reconnecting producers, growers, retailers, consumers and all who care for local, sustainable food in Scotland. It is working to create a stronger food culture to make healthy, local, seasonal, and organic food available everywhere in Scotland.

Nourish has vacancies for a Communications Manager & the Edible Edinburgh Development Officer, both posts are part time for a year, closing date Monday 3rd March. Full details are on their website.

They are also looking for a student to join us through the Third Sector Internship scheme, to help us plan this year's conference, over the summer.  Closing date Friday February 21st. Full details on their website

Spring Get Together, Seed Swap and GAF Potato Day - Sun 23 Feb 2014

Once again the Glasgow Local Food Network are teaming up with the Glasgow Allotments Forum to run the Potato Day and Seed Swap which will take place from 11am to 3pm on Sunday 23 February at the Pearce Institute in Govan.

GAF will order in sackloads by the tonne of loads of different varieties, from the household names to the uber-obscure.

GLFN will host a seed swap table, starting with donations from kosher seed companies - but really we want you to bring your locally saved good seed stocks to swap and share with other local growers across glasgow.
 
There will also be a programme of workshops throughout the day for sharing skills and knowledge.

You can find out more about the Potato Day including a wee bit of background, details of the suppliers who will be coming along and a full price list of seed potatoes and other things that will be available on the Glasgow Allotment Forum website. See-d you there!

Job opportunities

There are a couple of job opportunities on the go at the moment...

Partick Housing Association currently have an opportunity for a part time Horticultural Support Officer. The post is for 21 hours per week and is funded by the Big Lottery Fund until October 2014. The deadline for receiving applications is 12 noon on Friday 17th January 2014.  Interviews will be held on Tuesday 28th January 2014. More info on their website.

Lambhill Stables  are looking for a Community Gardener to work hands on and manage volunteers in the 1 acre community garden on a daily basis. The post is full time and the deadline for applications is 5pm on Friday 31st January. More details on their website.