Dott Blog - Food

Food Systems and Cities Debate - Speaker Transcript Part Two

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 10:14:00+0100

Part two of the speaker transcripts from the Food Systems and Cities Debate.

John Thackara, programme director Dott 07

When we (Dott) were in Delhi one of the most impactful kind of introductions to the subject of food and cities came from our next speaker, Chris Hardwick, who is an architect from Toronto. Toronto is one of those places that is taking the subject of food and food systems, and carbon and environmental impacts very seriously. This is where I have endlessly repeated the statistic that 30-40% of the carbon footprint of this city comes in one way or another from its food activities, transportation, energy growing, retailing, and so on, which is curiously completely absent when you look at what cities talk about what they are going to do to produce their carbon footprint. So I said ‘We need it to find out more about this curious kind of blind spot, or mislabelling of things. So, that, I think, is what Chris Hardwick is going to talk about this morning. Chris… [More]

On the Menu for 2008

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:07:00+0100

The community of Middlesbrough including last year's New Urban Farmers met at Acklam Grange School, on Thursday afternoon, to discuss the legacy of Dott 07's Urban Farming project. Ian Collingwood, Anthony Kirkbride and Charlotte Rutherford, from Middlesbrough Council, led the meeting to discuss how the project could be improved for 2008.

Students and parents from local cooking groups based in Acklam Grange School and Ormesby School prepared, cooked and served up a delightful snack menu before the meeting. Buttersquash soup, tomato and basil soup, special bread, carrot cake and flapjacks were just some of the treats available. The carrot cake was delicious! [More]

Food Systems and Cities Debate - Speaker Transcript Part One

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 10:40:00+0100

Up to 30% of the ecological footprint of a city can be attributed to the systems which keep it fed and watered. But when the mayors of the world's 40 largest cities met recently to discuss sustainability strategies, food was not on the agenda. Why? This international debate, organised jointly by Dott 07 and Doors of Perception, aimed to connect together food systems and city-region development in policy, and to reframe food systems and social innovation as design opportunities. The debate opened with a review of Dott 07’s Urban Farming project, in Middlesbrough, which has involved more than a thousand citizens and dozens of organisations. [More]

Megacy in Middlesbrough

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:59:00+0100

Since winning the Creative Community Award at the Dott 07 Festival in October, Middlesbrough’s Urban Farming project has taken on a life of its own. Ian Collingwood, Regeneration Consultant and Charlotte Rutherford, Regeneration Officer at Middlesbrough Council have been so busy, I’d need the skills of Phileas Fogg to circumnavigate the terrain they’ve covered in less than 80 days. ‘Legacy’ is a word that is bandied about when attempting to assess the success of large public projects and in the case of urban farming, it looks like they’ll just have to reinvent the word and call it ‘Megacy’ because as Dott 07 lays down its spade, great things are taking off in Middlesbrough. [More]

Who Is Afraid of Local Food?

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 14:05:00+0100

In the October issue of Blueprint its editor Vicky Richardson's accused Designs of the time (Dott 07) of secretly buying 10,000 pounds worth of fruit and vegetables when our Urban Farming project in Middlesbrough "did not generate adequate grub for the guests". Vicky declined to name the greengrocer for whom Christmas came so early - and I hereby confirm that her charge is ridiculous and untrue. But she did give me the space to publish this reply.

"The biggest problem with the porkies in her (Vicky's) story is that you can't eat them. Dott's Urban Farming project was not an aesthetic game, nor a yuppy lifestyle fad. It was a practical response to the urgent necessity to develop alternative food systems from the ground up. [More]

Food Meets Design at the Dott 07 Festival

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 16:05:00+0100

The craze for home-grown produce is spreading and the nation is signing up in droves. Last year, sales of herbs and edible seed was greater than flowers, meanwhile bun fights for allotments is on the rise. Whether for health, economic or eco reasons, the Supermarket Generation is digging for victory on a scale not seen since the Second World War. Get down to the Urban Farming Zone at the Dott 07 Festival and see the results of the urban farming project, where thousands of people living and working in the town of Middlesbrough took part and quite literally, brought new life to their urban landscape. [More]

Food and Art Make Peace in Middlesbrough

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 11:24:00+0100

Middlesbrough is on the up and up. Sandwiched between a wet Friday and a wet Monday, the Gods were smiling on Middlesbrough's Centre Square and MIMA gardens on Saturday 22 September. The sun shone and the smell of cooked food mingled with the smell of cooked art to delight the gathered throngs for a Dott 07 Town Meal to remember. Over the past 8 months, Middlesbrough residents have taken part in the Dott 07’s urban farming project. At Saturday’s Town Meal, vegetables which have been sprouting in homes, streets, school yards and community centres were ceremoniously harvested and shared with the community in the town’s impressive new Centre Square. [More]

A Harvest Moon Over Middlesbrough

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 15:32:00+0100

Fresh from the success of their famous Last Night of the Proms celebrations, Middlesbrough’s impressive new Centre Square will host another ‘first’ for the town. On 22 September, the smell of cooked food and home-grown greens will replace any lingering sounds of Elgar’s Jerusalem and provide a fitting dramatic finale of its own to the Dott 07 Urban Farming project.

The urban farming project presented the Middlesbrough community with the challenge of growing vegetables in previously unused green spaces in the city. With the assistance of Groundwork South Tees, grow-boxes were also provided for community centres, homes and businesses to plant and grown their own. The response has been astounding. Harnessing the community to this mammoth task within a given time-frame has been quite a feat. The news is: it has succeeded with many hidden benefits too. Not only has the community taken full ownership of the project by setting up gardening clubs that will live long after Dott 7 has gone but Middlesbrough Council are also working with them to find ways to expand the project long into the future. [More]

Man Of The Cloth Becomes Man Of The Apron

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 08:39:00+0100

Something special took place on Thursday morning at Saint Timothy's Church Cafe in Hemlington, Middlesbrough. Father Robert Desicks and Sarah Ross, from Middlesbrough Council, embraced Dott's Urban Farming project and ran a Kitchen Playground in the Lake View Community Cafe - which adjoins Saint Timothy's Church. Father Robert and Sarah prepared a delicious lunch with ingredients grown in and around Middlesbrough for the local community and members of the passing public. Anyone was free to come along, three courses for £2.50. The divine menu included carrot and coriander soup, cheese and ham salad with new potatoes and meringues with fresh cream to finish.

When I arrived sleeves were rolled up and everyone was busy chopping, slicing, peeling and podding all keen to help in the preparation. The Swalwell family (Rose, Mavis, Paul and Sophie), who had only popped in for a coffee before a day trip to Barnard Castle, were asked to help by shelling a huge bag of peas. [More]

Grow Zones Take Over Middlesbrough

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 16:13:00+0100

With the countdown to the Dott 07 Festival well under way (see clock on the homepage) we also have a countdown to the biggest outside town meal Middlesbrough has ever experienced. In late September, weeks before the Dott 07 Festival, hundreds of people who have taken part in the Urban Farming project will sit down to enjoy a town meal with lots of delicious produce grown locally by themselves! Food will be prepared, cooked and shared in the open-air.

Community groups, school children and people all over Middlesbrough started planting fruit and vegetables, in usual and unusual places, at the end of May. You can now spot lots of Dott containers at various locations across the region filled with interesting greenery. Some groups have also taken part in Dott's Kitchen Playgrounds. The first one took place in Ormesby School last month, with local chef Andreas Korovessis leading the class. The next one is due to take place next week with a community group at Saint Timothy's Church Hall. [More]

Magic Realism and The Grocery Store

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 14:32:00+0100

A subject for a short story: A hungry chap, who happens to be a designer, goes into his local Muslim-owned grocery store on the Chillingham Road to buy bananas. Nothing so special about that – yet! While in the queue for the checkout, our chap happens to overhear the crestfallen shopkeeper complain to another chap - not a designer - about how his business has been badly hit since Somerfield opened up next door. A hungry designer with a bunch of bananas; a dispirited shopkeeper and some poor lighting leads to a conversation about how redesigning his entire shop will turn his business around and give Somerfield a run for their money. Much discussion, doubt and deliberation ensues when finally the deal is done and a local shop gets the facelift it needs that triples profits overnight... and they all lived happily ever after. The End... not! There’s always more to a good story than meets the eye and in this case it has to do with enhancing community relations, globalisation and the nonce to subvert an old saying and make it your own: ‘if you can’t beat ‘em…. DON’T join ‘em’! [More]

Food, Glorious Food!

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 16:57:00+0100

Last week, some of the herbs and vegetables grown in Ormesby School, Middlesbrough as part of the Dott 07 Urban Farming project, reached their final resting place - the kitchen! Onions, butternut squash and lettuce, lovingly watered by the students, over the previous weeks, were sliced and diced in style as part of Dott 07’s first Kitchen Playgrounds. The concept, ‘Kitchen Playgrounds’, have been inspired by Meal Assembly Centres (MACS) or walk-in kitchens already up and running in the USA, where 700 already exist and 40 new ones open up every month. Basically, you go into a ‘kitchen’, take your pick from assembled raw dinners that have been pre-peeled, pre-chopped and prepared for you to bag, take home and…eh, what about the cooking bit? Ah… to cook or not to cook: that is the question! For the team behind Dott 07’s urban farming project, (David Barrie, Nina Belk from Zest Innovation and Debra Solomon from Culiblog) cooking seemed like the answer for the Dott 07 urban vegetables. To help them on their way, they invited local chef Andreas Korovessis to assist the students from Ormesby School and their mums to make the most of a bunch of garlic and a few leaves in a manner that would have made any vegetable proud to give up its roots! [More]

Organic Matter and Fairy Godmothers

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 12:17:00+0100

Lists of things-to-do keep me awake at night. Most of them involve sending things to other people like 'thank you' cards, belated birthday presents and letters to my accountant. In my wildest dreams, I never thought that 'forgot to water the vegetables' would keep me from the land of slumber. Firstly, I have never successfully grown a single member of the plant family. There was the time I murdered that Cheese Plant, then there was the cactus that committed Hara-kiri and of course the unforgettable Bonsai that plain upped and died. With its demise, all hopes of my green fingered self bit the dust. That was until Dott 07's urban farming project got me rubbing shoulders with New Urban Farmers in Middlesbrough. I am happy to report that since witnessing the good people of Middlesbrough plant vegetables and herbs in allotments, shop windows, and back yards across the town, I've been inspired to have a stab at creating a vegetable haven of my own. [More]

Nature has its way at BBC Radio Cleveland

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:31:00+0100

One of the best-loved naturalists of his generations, Edwin Way Teale once said 'all things seem possible in May'. After planting peppers, tomatoes and nasturtiums in the reception area of BBC Radio Cleveland in the middle of that fair month, the children of Marton Grove Primary School in Middlesbrough could hardly argue with that sentiment! When they arrived, the class of year 3s were introduced to a variety of potted plants and herbs including mint, chives and sage by Mike Dent, youth worker from Groundworks South Tees as part of Dott 07's Urban Farming project. The eager young gardeners then got their hands dirty as they planted the latest BBC residents into window boxes where they will be on display over the coming weeks. [More]

New Concepts from Middlesbrough

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 12:33:00+0100

Wags and hoodies have made their official entrance into the English Language after being included in the 9th edition of the Collins English Dictionary. Advances in technology might have given us 'wiki' (a web programme that allows visitors to edit content) and 'vlog' (an internet video journal) but what about advances in urban farming and new urban farming in Middlesbrough in particular? I am surprised that those keen Collins word monitors have missed a buzzword that's certain to be in the 10th Collin's edition. The word? 'Nufbrough' and it means a new urban farmer from Middlesbrough who, like the contents of their potted plants, are growing in numbers. Think 'Middlesbrough' and you don't necessarily think 'regeneration', 'strong community spirit', let alone 'urban farming'. One would be easily forgiven for thinking 'urban depravation', 'post-industrial poverty' and 'poor health'. A member of the council recently described Middlesbrough as 'a needy town' and I reckon that there is something in the River Tees because in a spirit that can only be described as remarkable, the residents, community groups and council are taking this 'neediness' and turning it into 'speediness' quicker than Lewis Hamilton can say 'pit stop.' [More]