Today was our final session for 2012. What a year, we’ve grown great crops of sweetcorn, pumpkins and cucumbers, not to mention courgettes, runner beans and rhubarb! We’ve involved dozens of people in growing food, with all the benefits of working outside on the allotments. We’ve run an incredibly successful Harvest Festival community event where visitors enjoyed our Pumpkin Soup and took away fresh vegetables for their tables. We’ve involved schools, hostels, allotment holders and people from the neighbourhood and we’ve created partnerships with organisations like Midland Heart, Edible Eastside and Food Forest Brum. We’ve rounded up stray dogs, led art classes painting flowers and plants, been on canal-side walks and eaten Nettle Soup. And next year we hope to do a lot more, starting the year with a community  litter pick and planting some more fruit trees in partnership with Holy Trinity School.

To celebrate we got out our album of photos, reminding ourselves of the Summer months, and as it was cold and wet we stayed in to eat home-made Pumpkin Soup (this time with chilli and spices) garnished with dry roasted pumpkin seeds and creme fraiche, accompanied by Hula Hoops and French Bread! We also had a home-made Jamaican style dark sponge cake, so moist and delicious! Everyone made decorations with Oranges and Cloves to take home with them and release those lovely aromatic smells all over the Christmas period!

From all of us here at Livingstone Road Community Allotment we wish you all a Happy Christmas and New Year and lets look forward to an abundant 2013.

Lots of people came to our Harvest Festival event on Nov 3rd, including children from Holy Trinity School, local residents, plot holders from the allotment and friends and family –  a really good mix! Luckily the day was bright and stayed dry, despite being a bit cold. To warm us up we had a big pot of Caribbean style Pumpkin Soup, home made pakora and a selection of lovely cakes! Accompanying the soup were dozens of freshly baked bread rolls made in the Earth Oven at Edible Eastside courtesy of Lizzy Bean, who was also running craft workshops.

Pumpkins were the theme of the day and as well as displaying a wheel barrow load from our plot, which we distributed to visitors for donations, we also had a ‘Heaviest Pumpkin Competition’. First, second and third place all won a prize! Next year we are planning a Summer event with more vegetable competitions, so take note if you are a grower!

Our ‘litter pick’ planned for the end of January 2013 attracted lots of interest and we now have a list of people who have signed up to take part. On the day we did tours of our allotment plot, not too much to see as nearly everything has been harvested or  is dormant, but it did give us the chance to get a great photo with Hendrina Quinnen (Lozells & East Handsworth Councillor) and Ashok Patel from Midland Heart (who were a key partner on the event) along with volunteers and visitors.

A great time was had by everyone, many families went home with freshly picked vegetables and the art displays and photos of our year on the allotment were popular. Taking down the bunting and packing up the tables and chairs left us tired but inspired! A bigger event next year with more people and more to see and do is on the horizon! Thanks to everyone who came along and contributed!

We had a fantastic in conversation at Edible Eastside at the beginning of the month, and our time in Brindley place was treated well by the weather. Also whilst we were in Birmingham we enjoyed Artsfest and some educational workshops as well as another in conversation at the Ikon gallery for beyond the pale.

Now Forest is settling into Walsall with events already happening with the community and The New Art Gallery Walsall, so come and see Forest at the Wharf.

It was quite a surprise to see Forest on the 1pm news yesterday, and a repeat in the evening bulletin. Beth did an interview earlier in September, and it was great to see it on the air.

We hope you have enjoyed Forest as we have now reached the half way point in our journey.

L

We invited some new people onto the plot today for a special foraging and cooking session led by cook and urban food advocate Jayne Bradley – who is also the founder of Edible Eastside; a food growing project in Digbeth that we are working with.

The idea was to learn more about the flavours of some of the herbs and plants we are growing and to cook up a hot soup using ingredients we could pick on the day, including wild plants. We started by looking at, smelling and tasting some fresh herbs, leaves and petals, including; Thyme, Sage, Basil, Rocket Flowers, Mint, Oregano, Parsley, Nasturtium, Marigold and Onion flowers.

There is a big patch of Nettles down by the shed and that is what we were really interested in! Using protective gloves Jayne harvested a good amount of the tops of the nettle plants, choosing the fresh, young growth. Bringing them back to the Pavillion, they were washed and dried in a spinner and the nettle leaves added to a pan with a lightly fried onion, a courgette, a potato and some garlic. Along with some stock it was all cooked together and then whizzed up with a handheld blender and served. We did a taste test with small amounts of some of the herbs and seasonings.  The Nettle soup was actually really tasty and it seemed to work best with a little bit of Thyme.

When we were on the plot we also found some Rhubarb and Green Plums – the first of which are only just ready on the trees – but we found a few that were ripe enough to use and made them into a quick pudding. They were chopped along with the Rhubarb and cooked in a saucepan, with a sprinkle of sugar and lemon juice and this was a sweet tasting end to the session.

The Rootless Forest is a mobile sculpture that travels along the canals of Birmingham and the Black Country. During its journey the boat will broadcast a soundscape consisting of verbatim stories from people affected by the current Afghan conflict, including UK military personnel and Afghan people who have settled in the Midlands.

There are lots of ways to engage with the project and everything is completely free! We have created free offshoot packs with lots of fun activities you can do at home or in schools. Along side this a series of symposia and talks are being developed with Cathy Wade from Edible Eastside.

Other members of the team are Lizzi, Mac, Graham, Carol and Musfac who are all contributing in different ways. You will hear more about them in posts to come.

If you would like to keep up to date remember to follow us on Twitter and Like us of Facebook, you can also add this blog to your RSS feed as we will now be posting regularly.

More Coming Soon!!

B

Warwick Bar Summer Fete takes place this Saturday to celebrate their first year of activities. The event is absolutely free and will be a hopefully rain free afternoon of arts, music and performance as well as some great freshly cooked and locally produced grub.

Ikon’s Slow Boat will be moored at Warwick Bar, Grand Union will be open and Edible Eastside will also be in attendance. The full programme for the day is now up on their website.

Saturday also sees the return of Birmingham Chilli Festival, so why not head up to Brindleyplace afterwards?

The CBD Festival is back with over 20 venues serving taster options priced from as little as £1.50 to £5 in Birmingham’s Victoria Square.  Visitors will be invited to sample mouth-watering internationally inspired cuisine as well as traditional British options.

Over at Brindleyplace the area will be hotting up with their annual Chilli Festival. A wide range of stalls will offer chilli-related produce and food to eat on the day from across the globe. Expect live cooking and cocktail demonstrations from the restaurants around Brindleyplace, street entertainment and live music as part of the Birmingham International Jazz and Blues Festival.

Here’s a list of the events and there is further info over at www.birminghamfoodfest.com

 
12 July
Culinary Crossroads Dinner, 7pm
Opus Restaurant, 54 Cornwall Street, Birmingham, B3 2DE
£65 per person all inclusive
Come enjoy a taste of one of Chicago’s rising stars at Opus! Opus’s Culinary Crossroads event is a re-match of chef David Colcombe’s visit to Chicago last month where David joined chef Dirk Flanigan at his Henri and The Gage restaurants on the Magnificent Mile, as part of the Délice ‘Great cities of the World’ programme. Dirk is now visiting Opus to join David for a special 5 course dinner with wines on the eve of the Food Festival.

12 – 19 July
Special festival menu: Sweet Native 1lb whole lobster with fries or a summer salad
Opus Restaurant, 54 Cornwall Street, Birmingham, B3 2DE
£15 inclusive
Delicious summer treat for lunch and dinner at Opus In late summer, fishermen along the east coast of Britain catch lobster chicks – lobsters around 4 to 5 years old weighing 1lb each. They are especially tender and slightly sweet in taste. We are taking advantage of this summer treat, buying them daily from the ice cold waters off Scotland (when weather permits), and east of England when the waters are too hazardous up north.
13 July – 14 July

CBD Food Festival 2012, 11am-7pm
Victoria Square, Birmingham, B3
Free (taster dishes from £1.50 – £5)
The CBD Food Festival is back for a second year with even more participants. The event will showcase the excellent food and drink offering in Birmingham’s business quarter, Colmore Business District (CBD) with stalls from over 20 venues, many of who are independent businesses. Visitors can sample mouth-watering internationally inspired cuisine as well as traditional British options. There will be a programme of live cooking demonstrations from top chefs in CBD, including Glynn Purnell (Purnell’s), David Colcombe (Opus restaurant), Sudha Saha (Saffron), Guneet Singh Bindra (Asha’s Restaurant) and Ganesh Shrestha (Jojolapa). Live music will be provided by the Birmingham International Jazz & Blues Festival and fantastic outdoor theatre by Birmingham Hippodrome.

13 July – 14 July
Birmingham Chilli Festival, 11am-7pm
Brindleyplace, Brunswick Street, Birmingham, B1
Free
Brindleyplace supported by Broad Street BID will be bringing all things hot and spicy to the city with the second annual Birmingham Chilli Festival. The festival returns as part of Food Fest and is guaranteed to get temperatures rising with a wide range of stalls offering chilli-related produce and food to eat on the day from across the globe. The popular festival will also feature live cooking and cocktail demonstrations from the restaurants around Brindleyplace, street entertainment, tempestuous tango performances, and live music as part of the Festival. The much anticipated chilli eating competition is the festival finale and will see contestants battle it out to be crowned the 2012 Chilli Conqueror and win a hot prize!

13 July – 15 July
Edible Eastside Pop-Up Cafe, 12-5pm
Rear of 122 Fazeley Street, Digbeth, Birmingham B5 5RS
Free
The freshest food in the city can be found at Edible Eastside Café, Birmingham’s first ‘urban garden’, where they serve their own fruit, vegetables and salads grown in their own pop-up garden, which is based by the picturesque canal at Warwick Bar. The café also serves wild food foraged from alongside the canals of Birmingham. Visit the garden and enjoy lunch by the canal.

13 July
Food and Wine matching workshop, 7-9pm
The Old Joint Stock, 4 Temple Row West, Birmingham, B2 5NY
£29
A fascinating introduction to food and wine matching, led by Birmingham Wine School. Learn why certain foods work well with certain wines in this practical hands on evening, tasting a selection of foods to match (or not!) with a selection of wines. Find out what affect acidity, tannin, sweetness in wines have on food. This is an excellent fun, very practical introduction to appreciating the wonderful world of food and wine. Have you heard of Umami? This is a savory taste that is not widely understood, but tonight all will be revealed, really enhancing your appreciation of wine with food.

13 July
Fish & Chip Friday, 12pm – 9.30pm
Chamberlains Quality Fish & Chips, 8 Wolverhampton Road, Oldbury, B68 0LH
Join Chamberlains for Fish & chip Friday (available 12noon-9,30pm in the restaurant only). Choose Cod or Haddock with chips, choice of side order, bread & butter and a choice of a pot of tea or cup of coffee.

13 July & 14 July
The Red Lemons, live band from 11pm, restaurant & bars open from 6pm
The Jam House, 3-5 St Pauls Square Birmingham, B3 1QU
£5-£10
A band of superbly accomplished and very individual musicians come together to perform a vast range of soul & funk favourites from the likes of Aretha Franklin, The Temptations, and Stevie Wonder to Alicia Keys, Duffy, and Plan B. Support is provided boogie woogie style by our resident piano & drums duo. The Jam House is offering 20.12% of its menu in celebration of Birmingham Food Fest and the Olympic year.

 14 July
Warwick Bar Fete, 12-5pm
Rear of 122 Fazeley Street, Digbeth, B5 5RS
Free
Edible Eastside, Ikon Gallery’s Slow Boat and Grand Union Studios are hosting a day of events, games, art projects and food stalls to celebrate one year of cultural activity and work at Warwick Bar. Food stalls with artisan food producers and Edible Eastside Wild Picnic, serving a  selection of foraged food, are amongst the many food events during the day.

14 July
Edible Eastside Bread-making, 1pm
Rear of 122 Fazeley Street, Digbeth, B5 5RS
Free but pre-booking is required
Ever wanted to eat home baked wood-fired bread hot from the oven? On July 14, as part of Birmingham Food Fest, Edible Eastside is firing up its earth oven and making hot delicious bread for its picnic by the canal. Come along at 1pm and watch the baker at work. Loaves can be purchased following the demonstration.

14 July
Edible Eastside Family Forage Walk, 3pm
Rear of 122 Fazeley Street, Digbeth, B5 5RS
£5 per person or £15 for a family ticket
Edible Eastside’s well-established foraging walk will again be a feature of this year’s Food Fest. This walk will be a family event with children welcome. Search for wild foods alongside Digbeth’s canals and find out what you can eat and the history and folklore attached to our native weeds.

 14 July & 15 July
City of 1000 Tastes Walking Tour by Midlands Discovery Tours
Meet between Council House & Town Hall Victoria Square
Adult ticket £8, child ticket £5
With such a rich cultural mix it is no surprise that Birmingham could be referred to as “The City of 1000 Tastes”. Our 90-minute walk will follow a culinary trail, discovering the origins of great Birmingham brands: Cadbury’s, Typhoo Tea, HP Sauce and Bird’s Custard. We will also find more about Birmingham’s Chinese Quarter, the Balti Triangle, the 3 Michelin Star restaurants in the city and the numerous award winning restaurants and food producers that have made Birmingham their home. As the walk will be taking place during the Birmingham Food Fest, we will visit both the Colmore Food Fest and the Chilli Festival in Brindley Place.

14 July
Eat, Drink and Be Healthy, 4.30pm-6.00pm
The Club & Spa, The Cube, Birmingham, B1
Free
Free healthy food and drink tasters provided by the Lounge at the Club and Spa plus a  healthy eating workshop led by registered nutritionist and director of Healthy Futures, Shaleen Meelu. During the workshop participants will learn how to achieve a balanced diet for overall health and wellbeing.

14-15 July
Let the Games Begin Weekend, 10am-4pm
Cadbury World, Linden Rd, Bournville, Birmingham, B30 2LU
Daily ticket prices
Visit Cadbury World on 14th and 15th July and combine a whole world of chocolatey fun with a variety of games led activities with the chance to win a chocolate gold medal!  Sports activities will include sugar sack races, egg and spoon races and a space-hopper bounce-along.

14-15  July
Special festival menu from VMF Restaurant Food Fest
Aston Villa Football Club, Villa Park, Birmingham, B6 6HE
£14.95 for 2 courses of £19.95 for 3 courses (Friday and Saturday)£19.95 for 3 courses on Sundays

15 July
Children’s Cupcake Decorating Experience, 10.30am-11.30am
Del Villaggio Bullring, Bullring Shopping Centre, Birmingham B5 4BU
£5 per child
A creative family experience to enjoy cupcake decorating with your children, Del Villaggio will provide all the equipment and ingredients for children to be taught how to top two cupcakes using two different piping techniques. Using lots of sprinkles and sweets to decorate their cupcakes, they can take home their designed cupcakes at the end of the session.

17 July
Introduction to Wine course, 7pm – 9pm
Old Joint Stock, 4 Temple Row West, Birmingham, B2 5NY
£22.50
Want to know more about wine? This evening, led by Birmingham Wine School, will guide you through how to choose better wine, and will start you on your journey of wine discovery. If you know what you like but want to understand why – then this evening is for you. Taste six wines from around the world, and pick up pointers that will enhance your appreciation of wine. You will learn how to taste wine like a professional and look at all the major wine regions in a lighthearted and interesting way.

17 July
Tenner Tuesday, 12.00pm-9.00pm
Chamberlains Quality Fish & Chips
Join Chamberlains Quality Fish & Chips for Tenner Tuesday. Choose  any two main courses from the menu and pay just £10.

17 July
Kevin Figes and the Four Sided Triangle, live music from 8.30pm, doors open 6pm
The Jam House, 3-5 St Pauls Square Birmingham, B3 1QU
Free
Kevin Figes leads this new quartet – Four Sided Triangle – with Mike Outram on guitar, Dan Moore from Phantom Limb on keys and Daisy Palmer from Goldfrapp on drums. The Jam House is offering 20.12% of its menu in celebration of Birmingham Food Fest and the Olympic year.

19 July
Kitchen Food School Discovery Day, 1-4pm
Marketing Birmingham Conference Room, Baskerville House, Centenary Square, Broad Street, B1 2ND
Free, but booking essential
Birmingham’s newest food venture is currently being developed and will be ready to open in 2013. Kitchen is a brand new school of food and cookery –dubbed ‘the place for food lovers’, it will be at the heart of the new food quarter in Harborne which will see the former Clock Tower transformed into a culinary hub by Edg Property and designed by k4 architects. The school is a not-for profit organisation that will have sustainable, ethical and healthy eating at its heart.

19 July
The SUBS, Live music at 9.30, followed by The Subs after 10pm
3-5 St Pauls Square Birmingham, B3 1QU
£5
A great chance to see one of our most popular of weekend bands play not only some of their rock anthem set, but a few of their own material! The Jam House is offering 20.12% of its menu in celebration of Birmingham Food Fest and the Olympic year.

19 July
Mellow Peaches performing and a Peachy Special Offer
mac birmingham, Cannon Hill Park, B12
£10
mac birmingham presents Mellow Peaches, purveyors of rootsy stomps and gutsy grooves. The unassuming Peaches have long immersed themselves into traditional, organic and freshly sourced American blues and roots, mixing it up with their own gumbo of exotic flavours to create a wholesome dish that aids digestion. Feed your soul and your stomach with our peachy special meal deal: a Classic Bellini & Burger for only £10.00.

20 July
Gastro Card Charity Event, from 1pm
Cucina Rustica, 24 Ludgate Hill, Birmingham, B3 1DX
£39.50
Join Cucina Rustica for some fabulous Italian food, raise money for charity and enjoy a lovely afternoon with friends or colleagues. Cucina Rustica is a beautiful Italian restaurant set in the heart of Birmingham offering the very best in Italian cuisine. This is a chance for you to experience an explosion of flavour, whilst relaxing with friends or business colleagues over lunch including accompanying wines for a special price of £39.50.

Eloise started her durational performance on Sunday 1st April (presented as part of the Fierce festival) and she continued walking around the mound of chalk, circling the crate each day for five hours, in an incredible act of dedication. It seemed entirely appropriate that the fire took hold very slowly, smouldering for what seemed like ages, as a small orange glow in the base of the box.

Eventually it overwhelmed the strong wooden crate, which then went up rapidly and dramatically to reveal a mythical sculpture with wings on its head. This image of a human body, consumed in flames, was a powerfully symbolic end to the work, particularly at Easter time. Witnessing the poetry of everybody’s messages being released into the night and a still figure left standing in the embers, were the rewards for those who waited. An incredible start to many more adventures and cultural experiences at Edible Eastside.

Edible Eastside, a new urban garden in Digbeth opens this weekend. The garden covers a quarter of an acre beside the canal and has been converted from a derelict canal-side space into a ‘pop-up edible park’.

Raised beds are available to rent for those who wish to grow their own food or plants.  A pop-up cafe will open on the site at the beginning of June using some of the produce grown and eggs from the chickens kept on the site.

Edible Eastside opens on Sunday 1 April from 12-5pm with a BBQ from 2pm. Let’s hope the sun continues! The opening also coincides with the start of a durational performance by Eloise Fornieles as part of Fierce Festival.

Edible Eastside can be found at Warwick Wharf, 122 Fazeley Street, Digbeth, Birmingham. B5 5RS.

We took a group to Edible Eastside in Digbeth to see another kind of community food growing project, everything is grown in raised beds and the site is surrounded by industry, with the Grand Union Canal running alongside. We had a tour of the gardens before meeting up with artist and chef Lizzy Bean who led a session on outdoor cooking. We had brought some bounty from the allotment, most of which was harvested that morning; Red Onion, Courgette, Runner Beans, Tarragon, Purple Spouting Broccoli, Sorrel and some Thyme.

Everyone helped to chop the ingredients which were put into a big metal  Serbian Cooking Pot along with some stock cubes, it was then suspended on a metal tripod above a small fire, right next to the canal. While we waited for the pot to heat through and everything to cook we took a stroll along the canal. We covered about a kilometer, following a short loop along the Typhoo canal arm, past the back of Edible Eastside and crossing over the River Rea before returning along Floodgate St. It was nice to get out and catch a bit of Autumn Sun and to spend some time close to the water.

When we got back we all tucked into our Allotment Soup, with bread rolls and a salad made using Nasturtium leaves and flowers and some tangy Sorrel leaves – a surprising and rare taste, but one that seems to grow really easily. For one of the group it was their first time eating Brocolli and another’s first time cooking outdoors. Once everyone was packed off in their taxis we did the washing up and reflected on the sense of freedom you get when cooking in the open air.