Urban Harvest Fest – Transition Kentish Town

The health centre on Bartholomew Road will be turned into a festival space celebrating local food. It’s an event organised by us folk here at Transition Kentish Town.

It was a really joyous experience connecting with locals and businesses who are really passionate about local food: martinis made from local gin and herbs grown on-site in the ‘Well-beeing’ garden, for example, or mushrooms from guys who plan to rent a garage in Gospel Oak and turn their passion into a business.

There were local chicken keepers (not forgetting to mention the hensioners – pensioners with, er, chicks) and the hedgerow jams and jellies made by local blogger Marmaduke Scarlet.

There was Gill Jacob’s fermentation fabulosity, and Pestival, a talk on pests and insects as future protein. And, as part of our campaign to bring back the ‘cuppa soup’, mugs of hot organic veg broth will be served courtesy of the local veg box scheme

We have been able to persuade truly local hero, Therasa, who manages Flapjacks café – the social enterprise, and her team of special needs and often disabled folk, to come and provide the catering. They’ll be serving their mouthwatering selection of quiches and of course flapjacks. A lot to see kids used our apple press and squishing some of the many thousand of unwanted apples that lay fallen on the streets, turning them into delicious juice. Come and have a go and taste the juice – it’s all for free.

Of course there’s the other side of the local food story, the whole topic of food waste. Come along to get some tips on how to cut down on waste, and take home some portion-serving gadgets to help you do so. As outside green food-growing space is a problem for so many of us in north London, there’ll be a stall where folk will be shown how to make a herb window box out of a recycled pallet, and take it away with them.