Before I'd even turned up at the Good Food Swap, organised by Growing Communities, a Hackney-based enterprise dedicated to supplying locally grown food, Kerry Rankin had put the frighteners on me. "There's a slight element of competition" she says. “After all, we want to get people excited and interested in seasonal ingredients.”

I needn’t have worried. The idea behind the swap, which marks the tenth birthday of Growing Communities, is simple – participants turn up with food they’ve made, grown, picked or even bought, register it and are given a number to wear. The food is put on display, like an “urban village fete”, says Rankin. And then - this is where the competition comes in - everyone wanders around with a pad and pencil, noting down what they like the look of.

All is calm until a bell is rung, signalling the beginning of the bartering – no money is allowed to change hands. Pandemonium breaks out as the 160 or so participants try to get their hands on their chosen goods. I’d inadvertently turned up with the only jar of home made marmalade, and was fending off offers. After toying with chutney and some vegetarian pate, I ended up swapping with Andrew Ferguson, a trustee of Growing Communities, who had brought a loaf of home-made wholemeal bread. “This is a brilliant idea,” he says. “It’s a feeding of the 5,000 effect – people are leaving here with big smiles.”

Sloe berries, onion tartlets, home brewed beer, pickles and chutneys were all up for grabs, along with plenty of seasonal produce, like pumpkins, beetroot and a glut of apples and pears. Among the more unusual produce was Nick Perry’s Hackney salami and chorizo-style sausages, inspired he says, after a visit to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and made in his garden shed. And it’s not just food on offer , but advice too. Perry offers recipe tips for those keen on his sausages, and a chutney maker suggests the types of cheese her green tomato chutney would be perfect for.

The Good Food swap will be an annual event, says Rankin. “It’s got people talking to each other,” she points out. The group also runs an organic box scheme, grows food on land that was the first in London to be certified organic nearly ten years ago, and runs a popular weekly farmers market. “We are trying to find alternative ways of people getting food in a way that fosters a sense of community. Our box scheme is a pick-up scheme, not a delivery one, so people can meet and talk,” she says.

Next on the agenda for Growing Communities are celebrations to mark National Apple Day, on October 21st. As well as information sessions and tastings there will be a storyteller telling tales about apples, and that perennial children’s favourite - apple bobbing.

www.growingcommunities.org

Foraging in the city – five more urban food schemes

RESTORE
Cowley Road, Oxford (01865 747 176; www.restore.org.uk/)
As part of its work, this mental health charity owns allotments and a shop selling produce, jam and chutney grown and made by service users.

RIVERSIDE COMMUNITY MARKET ASSOCIATION
Brunel Street, Cardiff (029 2019 0036;www.riversidemarket.org.uk) Provides an outlet for small scale local producers, simultaneously providing the local community with access to healthy food.

THE GATEHOUSE CENTRE
Hareclive Road, Hartcliffe (0117 946 255; chris.eadie@hheag.org.uk)
This project supports local residents to learn how to grow in gardens and community plots, including derelict allotment sites and works with school children to educate them in food growing.

FOOD BANK INITIATIVE
Robinson Street, South Shields, Tyne and Wear (0191 424 5460; istimpson@crtne.org.uk)
Cultivation of a derelict allotment to produce organic vegetables for free distribution to the community., along with a community garden.

LITTLE LONDON VEGETABLE GARDEN PROJECT
Carlton Towers, Leeds (O113 216 1138)
Working with the local community to grow healthy food. The food grown is distributed among the project users, the local community and school.

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