Bournville Farmers’ Market is 1 Year Old on the 18^th May

Bournville Farmer’s Market

On Saturday 18^th May,  the Bournville Farmers’ Market  celebrates its 1^st Birthday! Located at Rowheath Pavilion on Heath Road, the market is open from 9am-2pm selling fresh produce right on your doorstep.

From market favourites such as bread, cheese, pies, vegetables and cakes to some special treats ranging from home-made chocolates, South East Asian cuisine and spicy Caribbean sauces the market represents a diverse range of produce.

Phil and Lynn from Hibiscus Grove supply their delicious samosas, pakoras and other South East Asian delights on a monthly basis. They said, “Rowheath Farmers Market is a joy to attend, with its good footfall of enthusiastic and supportive customers and wonderful diversity of stalls. The organisers are efficient, helpful and welcoming. They work hard at publicising the event and often have more than one function on at the same time which is great for awareness of the market. Congratulations on your First Anniversary, we are very proud to have been a part of the market from the beginning and have seen it grow from strength to strength. Long may this continue!!!!”.

Each month the market grows with new and exciting stalls joining the mix. Last month, new producers Lucky 13 Bakehouse, an artisan bakery supplying mouthwatering speciality breads came on board. Amy and Neil from Lucky 13 said, “Bournville Farmers’ Market was incredible exposure for our bakery, it was the first market we had attended in over 12 months and our speciality bread went down a storm with Rowheath ‘s  friendly visitors. Among some other amazing local producers in the beautiful setting of the Pavilion, we were delighted to quickly sell out. We will definitely be coming back!”.

With a children’s playground and beautiful lake and park, Bournville Farmers’ Market offers much more than just a shopping trip. There is a lovely friendly café serving hot drinks and sandwiches  allowing you to sit and enjoy the delicious market food in this gorgeous setting. Andy from Beans and Leaves says. “The market is a good meeting point for the local community with friendly and interesting stallholders selling an excellent range of locally produced products”.

Next market is Saturday 18^th May, then every 3^rd Saturday of the month. The market is open from 9am-2pm and there is free parking.

Date for the dairy; Monday 27^th May is our Bank Holiday Family Fun Day with a farmers’ market, vintage and craft fayre, patio jumble sale, giant inflatable’s, children’s activities and more!

For more information email: info@rowheathpavilion.co.uk

We’re opening the cookery school doors again tomorrow for another Stirchley Brewhouse pop-up cafe. So bring a book/laptop/newspaper and relax for the afternoon.

Deli rye (The New Yorker) and Focaccia (The Sicilian) sandwiches thanks to Dom Clarke, and sweet things courtesy of our new cake baker extraordinaire, Sarah Frost. Here’s the menu… and a sneak peek of one of Sarah’s Pear Almond Slices (clever lady).

Event updates can also be found here

Pear and Almond Slice

Described as a ‘destination for creativity, comedy and exciting cuisine’, it included us at Loaf and celebrated other local community food and arts initiatives such as Stirchley Community Market. Stirchley seems to be making a name for itself – not only in the UK, but now internationally!

To read more visit the be the b there website or download the full magazine as a pdf. We’re on page 74.

Brussels Airlines bthere Magazine – May 2013

Birmingham Post, 2nd May 2013

Veg: Part 4 – vegetable growing diary

Read previous veg blog

It’s not every day you hear someone say that they’re pleased to have a surplus of cardboard boxes. Well we are. For now anyway.

This week Tom and I tried Lasagne gardening at our new allotment in Hazelwell Park. It’s an increasingly well-known method of no-dig gardening that originated in the USA, and is apparently great for reducing weeds. As the name suggests you lay down sheets of cardboard (the pasta) with layers of mulch in between (we’ve got dry grass, homemade compost and leaf mould) and water well. The idea is that instead of digging up all our couch grass and breaking our backs in the process we’ll suppress them and – fingers crossed – kill them, and at the same time add compost and nutrients as the layers rot down.

Loaf’s cardboard box surplus in it’s new home on our allotment

This way we can also avoid further compacting our clay heavy Stirchley soil, and breaking up the natural soil structure by digging into the subsoil. This could inhibit movement of water, air, minerals and biological activity, and we need all the help we can get to grow our veggies. According to Alys Fowler at Urban Veg more water is lost through evaporation than drainage so our mulching will definitely help with conserving water when we plant too.

Genius. Less work, and happier soil. And hopefully happier veggies too.

We’ve also discovered a patch of comfrey – great for making natural fertilizer, so we’re looking for a water drum to make a liquid solution in (1 part comfrey to 10 parts water). I’ve got my eye on nettles too and am hoping to learn to build a wormery. This is one area in which we have let our veggies down in previous years. Watering but rarely feeding. I’m told that new compost contains only has 6 – 8 weeks worth of food, so that’s why our vegetables have rarely grown big and strong in the past. They were hungry. Seems obvious now.

This weeks’s soup is watercress

At the weekend we exchanged garden labour for great home-cooked food and veggie growing tips at Tom’s uncle and aunty’s house in Hampshire. They have a gorgeous old saddler’s cottage which they have rented for over 50 years. It comes with an amazing riverside garden with watercress bed, wooded area and huge veggie garden to die for. However, in even the most cared for garden, diseased soil (honey fungus) has started to kill a treasured old tree. That’s where we came in – to battle with and fell the old tree. We also came home with armfuls of watercress (today’s soup) after clearing their bed of encroaching reeds. A joy to weed on a sunny afternoon. Heaven.

…thanks to our weed clearing skills

Whilst we’ve done nothing in our back garden this week, we’ve had a lot of fresh air in exchange for food growing knowledge and trial and error no-dig gardening. Last week at Urban Veg to come.

Read previous veg blog

Friday 10 May, £30. Booking: www.bayleaf-restaurant.co.uk e-mail: info@bayleaf-restaurant.co.uk Mobile: 07861 310802

Read previous veg blog

Tom and I spent the Easter weekend down south at my parents. They are enviously ahead of us with the growing season with their dusting of snow now long gone. Whilst ours is still lingering, we started preparing the garden anticipating warmer days.

Last weeks ideas have come to fruition and we have moved the chooks to new ground, pruned our side of the hedge (it’s not ours to remove), created a second compost heap, and used the hedge clippings and dry beech leaves to start a ‘dead hedge’ for insects, and an extra leaf mould compost bin. Very rewarding. Thanks to the chickens the fertile patch we moved them from has become an extra veggie patch – lucky veggies.

Our new leaf mould bin and dead hedge

Our garden feels like it’s getting closer to becoming more of closed little ecosystem, with the intention of bringing as little in from outside our garden as possible. Making our own compost, collecting water, relying on chicken manure and building welcoming habitats for helpful insects and wildlife is a good start. We’re yet to test our soil for pH so that we can understand how to give our plants the best start, but it’s up there on the to do list.

Week four at Urban Veg and we’re one step closer to growing outdoors, understanding techniques for sowing seeds in the gorgeous warmth of the poly-tunnel. Being honest I often fall at this first hurdle so i’ve picked up some new tips. Fingers crossed.

At Urban Veg – transplanting seedlings by supporting the roots, and holding the first leaves.

Here’s some reasons why my seedlings may not have made it in the past:

• Over-watering once germinated – poor things may have drowned, lacked enough oxygen or developed ‘damp off’ from bacteria growth.
• Surface watering – the roots don’t grow deep enough and became susceptible to temperature change.
• Damaging on transplanting – handling the fragile parts of the seeding (stem and secondary true leaves) instead of the first leaves that grow (cotyledons). Not supporting the roots on transplanting.
• Not enough light – causing seedlings to become ‘leggy’ (searching for more light). I’m re-potting them up to their necks in compost to encourage the stem to become a root.
• Too much light – scorched! I’m currently searching for the right windowsill for the job.
• There’s plenty more reasons… and the experts like Alys could tell you more.

I’m also starting to mix my compost with garden soil as i’ve discovered seeds don’t need such rich food to start, saved for later when transplanting hungry seedlings. It always baffled me why you could buy various different types of compost. Now I know why.

And as disgusting as it is (I hate this bit), i’ve come to terms with the fact that culling slugs has to be done or my veggies will have no chance. After last year, I have less sympathy for them so boiling water and burying it is.

Warming the soil before growing with old compost bags in our little back garden

Maintaining consistent warmth for our seedlings is still an issue for us as we’re growing on windowsills with sporadic central heating, dependent on when we’re at home. Must be confusing for a seedling. Oh to have a poly-tunnel or greenhouse. We can only dream of a bigger garden (and more time). Given the cold weather, i’m giving the first seedlings a helping hand by warming the veg patch a few weeks ahead of planting outdoors. It’s a hotch-potch of old plastic bags, but should keep some of the anticipated Midlands rain from adding to the snow melt too.

And we’ve even seen a glimpse of some sun. Maybe there will be a rainbow next week.

Read previous veg blog

Three profiles of three brilliant courses coming up in a couple of weeks at Loaf

Kitchen Essentials Three: Eggs
23rd April 2013

Eggs are one of natures most simple yet beautiful foods, incredibly versatile but surprisingly difficult to cook right. On this two-hour workshop we’ll separate, whisk, scramble, omelette, poach, and turn into a classic egg-based sauce. The egg is a delicate soul, but with a few basic rules and some nifty new skills you’ll be able to cook it with confidence and flair, and learn how to use it’s unique properties in many great dishes from eggs benedict to poached meringues. Kitchen Essentials: Eggs is a great stand-alone workshop but also compliments the rest of the Kitchen Essentials series beautifully, especially the Stocks and Sauces workshop. More about Kitchen Essentials, course costs, and how to book here.

Forage and Cook
25th April 2013

Foraging isn’t just a countryside past-time, it can be an urban adventure too! Join us for a delightful evening wandering the urban wilds of south Birmingham in search of edible treats, before returning to Loaf HQ to turn them into some fabulous seasonal dishes. This course is aimed at those with little or no experience of foraging, and covers all the practicalities, legalities, and safety aspects of picking wild plants to eat. By the end of the evening you will be able to confidently identify several readily available wild foods, know how to properly prepare them, and be eager to get out there on your own adventure… read more about our Foraging course, course costs and how to book here.

Kitchen Essentials Four: Cooking Vegetables
29th April 2013

Vegetables are the delicious encapsulation of sunshine. For too many years they have played second fiddle to meat, but no more!! On this fantastic Kitchen Essentials: Cooking Vegetables workshop you’ll learn how to bring out those fantastic flavours locked up inside veg, and put them out front on a pedestal, where they belong. Chef and baker Dom Clarke will teach you that it’s not always about steaming and al-dente cooking: roasting, pan-roasting, and braising can give fantastic results and sometimes just a simple drizzle of olive oil will bring out the natural flavours in raw vegetables. Kitchen Essentials: Cooking Vegetables is a great stand-alone workshop but also compliments the rest of the Kitchen Essentials series well, especially the Knife Skills workshop. More about Kitchen Essentials, course costs, and how to book here.

For our full range of courses, check out our ‘shop’ section of the website.