A day to inspire people to grow and buy local food – PEDAL’s Local Food Shindig on Saturday 12th August was certainly all this!
A local produce stall was lush with donated vegetables, fruit, jams and chutneys. Food kept arriving. Whilst the blue potatoes were a talking point, the Rosefield organic apple juice took the biscuit for being snapped up without a minutes’ delay – all four bottles! The stall was mobbed with excited customers and raised £120 for Maggie’s Centre.
Delicious locally grown and baked food — including fruit and honey scones, salads, stuffed summer squash and rhubarb cake — was shared and consumed with relish.
Poster for local food shindig
At the food miles stall, run by the children, people guessed how far exotic fruits had travelled (that chilli was grown right here in Portobello!). Most people were shocked at the thousands of food miles travelled by some of our commonest foods – oranges apples and bananas. One local councillor with a good knowledge of apple varieties correctly tracked down the three apples from New Zealand, Brazil and Scotland.
Kids, young and old charged up and down the beach with the giant inflatable earth ball, faces were painted and Dr Bike was busy giving bikes a free check over.
Our eco-raffle generated quite a buzz, with the greenest prizes yet to be raffled in Portobello and a top prize of a year’s gold membership of the City Car Club.
We handed out drafts of the Portobello Energy Descent Plan, and information on all aspects of sustainable living. If you would like to get involved in any way, please contact us: info [at] pedal-porty [dot] org.uk.
Many thanks to Graham Kitchener for the video of the event!
Here are more photos of the event to get your taste buds watering!