Louise Taylor’s lovely flowers
Friday 25th October was our first Blue Patch ‘drop by and say hi’ for pioneer members. We had scrumptious food from Mean Green, Jamaican patties, ‘no-fish’ fish cakes and quinoa fritters served with red onion marmalade and hot sauce – fresh from Yvette’s oven and all washed down by wine, supplied by our curly haired wine merchant Thomas from Bacchus on Half Moon Lane in Herne Hill (he stocks The Kernel Pale Ale as well as great wines).
Chantelle and Sharon protect the patty table from invaders
Early birds were able to relax and enjoy the sunset, baby Amity met Mole (our dog), Louise Taylor who provided the flowers, her son Luca and assistant Zara, Flatfoot Johnny, partner Rachel and baby Emmett and photographers Anna and Alice ( In the Right Light – if we had asked them to bring cameras we would have had amazing photos in this blog!).
Tom playing peek-a-boo
Michael from Start flew by with Johnny, our sustainability ‘check list’ expert and Tom (see photo above). Harry of the famous Olley’s Fish Experience in Herne Hill also joined us. Harry is committed to serving sustainable fish in his award winning restaurant and the discussion revolved around how we could make sustainability more widely understood and valued. Harry is also the head of the Herne Hill Traders Association and cares deeply about the independent businesses as do the Herne Hill Forum – Charlotte came along from the Forum and we are looking forward to building a strong relationship with the Traders and Forum, complimenting all the great work they are doing for the area.
Michael and Harry listen carefully to Jane
Suzanne our favourite copy editor and sister Sharon, a gardening journalist (and Blue Patch shot gun blogger) swept in in a flurry of autumn leaves with artist Linda Skoglund, there are some lovely ideas for gifts on her website.
Linda Skoglund’s pretty wine glass ‘stay-on socks’
Home Cooking SE 24 chef Giuseppina managed to get away from her stove too, it was great to discover they use local seasonal food and with Toto delivering by bicycle, they have a microscopic carbon footprint (Toto must have strong thighs too). Chantelle will be exploring what they get up to at home in ‘Tasty Tidbits’. We were all keen to do some sampling of Sarah’s pies (she needs help to find a name for them – ‘Pie in the Sky’? Sarah works with Thomas in Bacchus, so discovering she was a pastry cook was an added bonus.
SE 24 Home Cooking in action!
More pioneers arrived, the pile of patties shrunk and the message was clearly getting out – Blue Patch is all about being a community who value each other, love having a chat, are keen to support sustainability and want to be part of the movement to bring a new energy and independence to boost the local economy.
All in all it was a very relaxed way to tell people about Blue Patch, show the site off and explain the theory behind the project. Many of our pioneer businesses participated in focus groups, helping to form Blue Patch. They have, we hope, a genuine sense of Blue Patch as a collaborative project and a new way for all of us to do business.
Emma Kirby from the Blue Patch team chats to Ben, Linda and Lee.
Blue Patch friends, Vic, Roy and Jim
