Since my moment of sustainable 'revelation' around 6 months ago, I've realised that there is in fact quite a lot going on in London when it comes to sustainability. Though its status as a metropolis might seem to defy all and any attempts at living more responsibly, I have discovered that there is plenty happening if you know where to look.
A case in point is this year's Urban Food Fortnight, a two-week celebration of London-based growers, producers and sellers, all working towards the promotion of urban food production. Coordinated by organisation Sustain, it includes a variety of events, such as beekeeping workshops, tasting sessions, markets, and community garden open days. I found out about it from TimeOut magazine, where it featured as a tiny little advert at the back. Lucky I saw it!
Having already missed one week of the UFF, I decided to get my act together this weekend and visit one of the market gardens planted and maintained as part of the Growing Communities initiative. Based around Hackney, Growing Communities various market gardens are used to grow food to sell to Londoners, either as part of their organic veg box scheme or at the near by Stoke Newington farmer's market. The idea is to be able to provide food grown locally and without the use of artificial substances, which is not only good from a sustainability point of view but also for the communities and people involved in the growing. Under the tutelage of head gardeners, volunteers learn to tend and pick the produce grown in the gardens, pack it up and distribute it to markets and to a small number of cafes and restaurants.
I visited the Allens Gardens market garden near Abney Park, a small plot surrounded by quiet houses and tall trees.
The garden is mostly made up of raised beds planted with a variety of salads and leafy vegetables such as spinach, lettuce, kale, chives, and herbs. To foster biodiversity on the site, there are also brambles, nettles, fruit trees, a grape vine, rhubarb and gooseberry bushes. When I was there I saw ladybirds, wasps, bees, and all other manner of insect life. As one of the apprentice volunteer gardeners explained, the more types of bug there are the less likely they are to eat the plants, as they are too busy eating or being eaten by each other.
As it's now autumn, the growing beds weren't at full steam, but there was still produce being grown. When it's ready to be eaten, it is packed in bags, then placed in chiller boxes that are delivered by volunteers on bicycles, which keeps costs as well as carbon-expenditure minimal. A pretty admirable way of doing things, in my opinion. The site is also home to a specially-built eco-shed and composting toilet! Didn't have the courage to look at that, but I did take a picture of the sedum roof on the shed:
I hope that market gardens will become more common around London as people become increasingly aware of the economic and environmental benefits of "insourcing" our food production, as opposed to outsourcing it as we have been doing for so long. It is also good to know that modern society includes people with the knowledge and skills needed for low-level, organic and sustainable farming; we will probably end up relying on these individuals to teach us how to provide for ourselves if "Peak Oil" scenarios do come to pass.
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