Wild food walk and boiler

We all had a fab time this evening on a guided wild food hunt at Lee Moor Farm (thanks to Ian for the loan of the farm and Anna for the guiding.) Anna gave us a short introduction and a cautionary tale about foraging for wild food - there are plants that look very similar to ones that are beneficial that can harm people, so there is a real need to be careful. If you are as knowledgeable as Anna, though, this is no problem and she shared her vast knowledge with us and even cooked some of it afterwards! We were all able to try some nettle soup made from ingredients entirely sourced in Northumberland - the nettles were picked during the walk.

While Anna cooked, the rest of us took a look at Ian's biomass boiler which heats both domestic and commercial property at Lee Moor. The wood for the fuel is also grown at the farm. Ian gave us a fascinating insight into the pros and cons of what is actually a very simple technology in it's basic form, vastly improved with the boiler at Lee Moor. Ian is in the process of tooling up for a factory to manufacture biomass boilers in the North East, so if you're in the market for one you know where to go!

The Plinth!

Paul, Rachael and Imogen were on the Alnwick plinth yesterday (1st May) to talk about Transition Alnwick. We lured people over with the promise of free scones made with local ingredients (which I'd bought from Grannies the day before) to illustrate what we were all about. The scones enabled us to talk about food (obviously), waste, transport, energy and learning and tasted pretty good too (even though I say so myself). They were also a good ice-breaker for the few people who came over after we'd finished and took leaflets from us. A big thank-you to the organisers who are also putting up pictures here: www.alnwickmarkets.co.uk
Imogen did a great job of helping me make a board with the packet labels on and held it during the talk so people could see where the ingredients and electricity had come from.

On Wednesday the 14th April the Transition Alnwick Food Group met for the first time. After a last minute change of location 13 enthusiastic people got together to discuss various food related issues.

Rachael welcomed everyone to the meeting and a few rules were accepted by everyone, namely that the chair will be changed for each meeting and that meetings would generally have no agenda. In addition, open discussion was to be allowed and encouraged.

Everyone then had a chance to introduce themselves and tell the group what their food-related interests were. There were a lot of common interests - not surprisingly everyone enjoyed eating food! Also, there were concerns about where our food came from, how far it had come, whether it was organic. More widely there was much discussion about the availability of land both for growing and for leisure. Biofuels were also discussed along with a large number of other concerns.

After the offer of another cup of tea/ glass of wine ideas started flowing which ranged from having a food stall at Alnwick Food Festival to educating both the group and a wider audience on growing, preserving and cooking food and a lot of other ideas in between.

Rather excitingly Anna Corbett has offered to guide a food scavenging walk for the next meeting on the 12th may at 1800. Ian Brown has generously offered to let us all roam across Lee Moor Farm (guided by Anna) in our quest to find wild food.