Grown in Totnes' crowdfunding campaign went live on the 1st May and we've already raised £2000 in 12 days. Grown in Totnes is challenging the realms of local food and broadening the range to include nutritious staples such as grains and pulses. The vision for the project is to provide small-scale processing infrastructure for crops grown by local farmers. Totnes shoppers will then be able to buy goods that are locally grown, locally processed and locally packaged and reduce the food miles of some of the imported products found in the town's food shops.
We have had a fantastic week, and have sown the oat message across the town. Here's a quick summary of what we have been up to so far:
On May 5th four of us were on the station platforms enticing bleary-eyed, early morning commuters to a sample of porridge, (it was the talk of Plymouth-bound commuters, according to our sources). We will be at the station every Tuesday morning throughout May between 7am – 9am.
The following day the TTT Food Group welcomed over 25 people to the New Lion Brewery to sample various home-made oaty delights and the brewery's new beer Black Oat Mild, made with Grown in Totnes Black Oats, grown at a local organic farm near Churchstow. Jac from the brewery gave a fascinating tour of the workings of the Brewery.
The team were out in force at the Friday and Saturday markets talking to people about our Crowdfunding campaign and encouraging them to pledge money, we will have a presence at all of the markets during May, including The Good Food Market this Sunday.
This Saturday 6 volunteers from the crowdfunding team created a four-course Oat Cuisine dinner for 30 people, the menu was haggis with porridge bread, made by the creative baker Dan from The Almond Thief Bakery, for starter with caramelised carrots and leek veloute, followed by oat risotto; rhubarb cranachan for dessert and finishing up with local cheeses and oat cakes. All washed down with Black Oat Mild, it was a great evening.
Sunday saw Wendy Cook, author of the Biodynamic Food and cookbook give a talk about the role of grains in the diet and in their nutritional value, historically and currently and she explained how it is that the Scots don't need to wear and clothing under their kilts; all to do with the power of oats!
What's next?
The oat fun and frivolities are set to continue with us providing breakfast at the Local Entrepreneur's Forum this Thursday; Food in Community's Pay What you Can Cafe has a distinctly oaty feel this Saturday between 12.30-2.30pm and towards the end of the month we have a Magic Porridge Pot competition where you can enter your finest porridge, a porridge jousting competition and a BBQ at the Bay Horse, details of all of our events can be found here.
We've already raised £2000, so we're 1/3 of the way to our £6000 'tipping point' (at which we get to keep all the money pledged, and we'll receive £6000 of match funding from the A Team Challenge fund!). We are hoping to raise another £23,000 in the next 23 days, pound for pound by , all pledges will be used to purchase processing equipment. If you can support the project in any way by pledging large or small, or sharing information about the campaign to your networks of potentially interested people I would be enormously grateful. If you pledge you'll receive a range of oat related rewards, details of these and the campaign can be found at https://buzzbnk.org/grownintotnes where you can also our promotional video.
If you are able to help out at any of our events we would love to hear from you, please contact Julian Harrison - julian.harrison5@gmail.com
Transition Town Totnes 