The StoryIncredible Edible Todmorden aims to increase the amount of localfood grown and eaten in the town. Businesses, schools, farmers

and the community are all involved. Vegetables and fruit arespringing up everywhere. Public flower beds being transformed into

community herb gardens and vegetable patches.

This is a very brief insight into IET

www.incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk

Welcome To Incredible Edible Todmorden

Incredible Edible Todmorden aims to increase the amount of local foodgrown and eaten in the town. Businesses, schools, farmers and thecommunity are all involved. Vegetables and fruit are springing upeverywhere. Public flower beds being transformed into community herbgardens and vegetable patches.

So What is Incredible Edible?There’s no clever pitch for Incredible Edible Todmorden. Just as with theidea of sustainability – it’s a new way of living and of looking at life.Here are some of the cornerstones of what we do.

Creating opportunitiesFinding land, using buildings, micro finance and other tools andresources.InvestmentThe route to training in land skills and to local ways of distributing andbuying food.Enabling actions by public bodiesRemoval of obstacles to local action – e.g. by taking away legalboundaries, soil testing, covering public liability.IET PrinciplesActive engagement of people, around a sense of place and belonging.Shared objectives that are understandable to everyone.A strong belief in ourselves.Intuitively sensing that what we do is urgently needed.Not constrained by rhetoric or fancy words, not dependent on thepermission of others.There is no one solution but a jigsaw of many parts.Reward for labourThe creation of jobs. Families harvesting and keeping and sharing thefruits of their labour.Openness: you tell usWe are an open group. These are our first answers to questions we’rebeing asked a lot. When we’ve more space and time, maybe we can painta very big picture. Or you tell us. Email us with your thoughts:

iet_hothouse@btinternet.com

From the Telegraph

Todmorden turns into a giant vegetable patchPaul Wilkinson on a daring plan to be self-sufficient

Oberon, Shakespeare's King of the Fairies, once confided heknew a bank whereon the wild thyme blows, where oxslips andthe nodding violet grows.

If he and Queen Titania ever wafted over to the Pennine banks onthe Yorkshire-Lancashire border at Todmorden, they would findthem over-canopied with more serious stuff – anything fromrhubarb to artichokes and King Edward spuds.

"Tod", as the locals know it, is being put to the spade. Everysquare inch of available ground in the mill town-turned-dormitory for Leeds and Manchester officeworkers is being dug up and turned into a vegetable plot. Red-ribbed chard decorates the kerbside ofthe busy A646 to Halifax and fruit trees are thriving in dustbins in the backyards of artisans' cottages. Even floral displays, which once helped the town take second place in Britain in Bloom (in the small-town class), are giving way to edible plants.Commuters passing through its tiny station are urged to bring scissors to crop dill, marjoram and fennelfrom planters on the platform. "Why pay the supermarket £1 when you can have it fresh for free?" says Mary Clear, 53, Todmorden'scommunity development worker and one of the two women behind the "Incredible Edible Todmorden"project. She and café owner Pam Warhurst launched it last March, with the aim of making Todmorden'spopulation of 15,000 the first in Britain to be self-sufficient Warhurst, 57, disarmingly describes herself as a local mum, but was once a high-flyer. She ledCalderdale Council, chaired the area's health trust and was the Countryside Agency's deputy nationalchair. Made a CBE in 2005 for services to the environment, she is also a board member of NaturalEngland. Her eureka moment came at a talk by sustainability guru Professor Tim Lang, credited withthe buzz phrase "Food Miles". "Basically he said: 'Forget about growing flowers, grow food'," she explains. "It makes sense, givensoaring costs and concern about where produce is sourced – and it has all sorts of benefits: it'shealthier and reduces food miles. It also encourages a sense of community." At their first public meeting 60 people crammed into her café. "The buzz was phenomenal," sheremembers. She realised that while people were concerned about the big issue of global warming, theyfelt helpless as individuals. "Incredible Edible Todmorden lets everyone just do what they want to doand not worry about the big picture," says Warhurst. "We just make sure it is knitted together andmakes sense for the whole town." Todmorden recently planted its first community orchard of old English varieties of apples and pears,tastefully arranged around the municipal soccer pitch. Their aspirations don't stop at fruit and veg. Theyare about to launch an Every Egg Matters campaign to bring in free-range chickens. "We have calculated how many eggs are eaten locally and how many chickens are required to laythem," says Mary Clear. "Now we are mapping out all the eggs available to the public and by forming a'Chicken Network' we are providing support to people considering keeping hens." Todmorden High School's chef, Tony Mulgrew, has begun sourcing food locally for his 800 pupils."Through Incredible Edible I have made some fantastic contacts with local farmers," he says. "Now wehave free-range chickens and eggs and rare breed pork on the menu, all coming within the normalschool budget." Parents at the area's six primaries have planted tubs and tyres with potatoes and carrots, and even theGPs at Todmorden's new £6 million health centre insisted its landscaped grounds be turned over to fruitand veg. "I find myself walking through town spotting potential planting places, checking if they face the sun,wondering what the soil's like, thinking what would grow there," says Clear. "There are scores of tiny pockets of unregistered land, dotted about all over the place. Normally peoplewould just dump rubbish there, but these days two or three neighbours get together and sort it out. Nowthe council is drawing up a list of spare land to be licensed to us for planting. We are publishing a mapof where you can find free food. And there's no vandalism. Graffiti and damage decline if people takepride in their town."

Todmorden sows the seeds for a home grownfood revolution

Yorkshire Post Article 21 May 2008 By Chris Bond

A group of food lovers is trying to turn Todmorden into the country's first self-sufficienttown. Chris Bond found out more.

THE last time Todmorden was meaningfully involved in any kind of revolution, the Napoleonic Warswere raging and Britain was in the process of transforming itself into the greatest industrialpowerhouse the world had ever seen. Back then the currency of change was cotton. Two centurieslater, it is plants and vegetables such as chard and rhubarb.Surrounded on three sides by the Pennines' lush valley walls this pleasant, if unremarkable, town afew miles from the Lancashire border is an unlikely staging post for a foodie revolution, butcampaigners behind the "Incredible Edible Todmorden" initiative believe it can become a catalyst for communities up and down the country.The self-sufficiency drive is the brainchild of café owner Pam Warhurst, who enlisted the help ofher friend Mary Clear to get the ball rolling. It's only been going since February and already they'veset up a website and online forum, and started three community fruit and veg gardens and a seedexchange network. Pam, who has run the Bear Café in Todmorden for the past 20 years, switched on to the idea afterlistening to Professor Tim Lang, the man who coined the term "food miles", speak at a nationalland conference. "He said, 'forget about growing plants, grow vegetables' and it just struck me that with all thepressures we're hearing about regarding food prices and the big changes likely in the future, thebest legacy we could leave our children is to make sure people understand more about whatthey're eating and where it comes from."We're not interested in being anything trendy or making money. We're just a town that recognisesthe need for people to reconnect with good, quality food that's grown locally." With soaring food costs and growing concern about where produce comes from, Pam thinks itmakes sense. "It has all sorts of knock-on effects, it's healthier, it cuts down on air miles and ithelps create a greater sense of community because it encourages people to swap plants, sothere's lots of spin-off's."At first glance, Todmorden is just like any other market town, but dig a little deeper and you noticesomething is stirring here. In just a few months, vegetable patches and herb gardens, witheverything from rhubarb to rosemary, have sprung up, transforming disused land and grass verges."We've got herbs growing up at the railway station so that anybody coming off the trains can pluckwhatever they want, and we've also put recipes up suggesting ideas how to cook things likerosemary or parsley." It's all there to be cooked and eaten, she says. "Some people said they'd betrashed within days, but no one's vandalised them, there's no fag ends or beer cans, it's fantastic."Mary, a Todmorden In Bloom volunteer, believes they are helping safeguard the town's future. "I

have seven grandchildren and I'm very aware that during their lifetime there's likely to be big foodshortages."But I'm a great believer that people are supposed to enjoy eating and growing food, and that'swhat the Incredible Edible campaign is all about, because once you start producing your own foodyou're hooked."She thinks one of the reasons it's proving so popular is down to the place itself. "This is a bordertown and quite often they feel neglected, and Todmorden has a history of getting things done itself,there's a real community spirit here."It's something Pam agrees with. "Tod's got a very strong sense of identity and I believe that if we'regoing to really get people reconnected with the land and the food they eat, it's got to revolvearound somewhere with a sense of place."It can't be some amorphous national project, and what we're trying to show is that by everyone

working together we can create something that's not just a quick fix, and if we can do it inTodmorden, anyone can do it."

What's refreshing about the scheme is it's being driven by the local population, not by faceless, ifwell-meaning, quangos. "We don't want committees and strategists or rhetoric, we want people

who will roll their sleeves up," says Pam.The response has been remarkable. "People are literally stopping us in the street now and asking

what they can do. It's really got people interested because something like climate change canseem too big, but food they can relate to, and it cuts across class and age."

Several local schools have set up allotments so that youngsters can grow their own fruit and veg,which can be sold at nearby markets, with any profits ploughed back into buying seeds and plants.

There are also plans to hold cookery classes and introduce land management and horticulturecourses. "A lot of kids at school don't want to be a brain surgeon or get into IT, but to be an

apprentice to a local farmer, or to have a bakery business, that's quite attractive," says Pam.Local firms are getting involved, too, with ambitious plans in

the pipeline for a lottery bid to help fund an organic fish farm. Other ideas are smaller, but no lessclever. "We've got local cafés that instead of having loyalty cards that you can swap for a cup of

coffee, you collect 'x' number of stamps and they then plant a tree instead."Sceptics might dismiss what's happening here as little more than a fad, but Pam disagrees. "If wedon't link farmers into it and if we don't get consumers and producers working together and buying

into the Todmorden brand, then it's not sustainable, and these hillsides will fall back into non-production," she says. "But because more people are starting to buy local eggs, farmers are

coming to us and saying they've never sold so many, and now they're talking about getting morefree-range hens and pigs."

She believes the self-sufficiency drive can underpin the local economy. "The proof of the pudding isin the eating, and if

we have a brand of sustainable tourism then that's going to interest a heck of a lot of people whowill come here, which means you have more B&B's and more jobs on farms and in cafés."

Pam denies it's an attempt to undermine the big supermarket chains. "We're not doing this to fightthe multi-nationals and I'm certainly not going to picket supermarkets. We want to show people

there is a commercial value in growing and producing locally, and if we can reduce the need to goto a supermarket then that's got to be part of the solution," she says.

"But we recognise that supermarkets employ local people, so we're not trying toput them out ofbusiness here, we're just saying we

don't have to fly food halfway across the planet."Campaigners admit they're unlikely to get everyone in the town eating local food, but they're

adamant they can make a difference. "We're not unrealistic about what we can do, but we don'thave to produce animals in Yorkshire and take them down to Cornwall to be slaughtered only to

bring them back again."Ultimately, year on year, we want to raise the amount of food locally grown and locally consumedand if, in turn, we can create more local dairies and abattoirs, then that would re-invigorate farming

communities and have a knock-on effect," she says."For me this town in the middle of the south Pennines can start a bit of a revolution, because if we

get this right we can be reaping the rewards for generations to come."

Description

Incredible Edible Todmorden is a loose coalition of local people, businesses and schools who are workingtogether to increase the production and consumption of local food in the town. The movement began with a vision for the future of Todmorden as a town that cared about its food andenvironment. It has developed into a town-wide initiative supported by local people, businesses, farmers,

schools, health services, the probation service and the local authority.

Public spaceLeeks, broccoli and cabbages grow side by side with ornamental plants and flowers in public flower beds andplanters. Herb planters line the railway stations platforms and signs encourage commuters to helpthemselves. A herb garden has been established along the main road and a community orchard whichincludes over 200 fruit trees and bushes has been planted on public land in the town centre.

Public landowners

The project has begun to attract public landowners, Northern Rail has donated land for vegetable plots,the council has allocated land for a community orchard and funding for 500 fruit trees and berry busheshas been granted.

SchoolsThe local church has collaborated with children from the local primary school to cultivate raised beds in thecemetery. All schools in Todmorden have also planted up a growing boat, using disused pleasure boats, togrow vegetables in schools. Ferney Lee primary has a small orchard and 26 raised beds for community use.

The local secondary school has invested in two commercial size poly tunnels and has integrated growing intothe curriculum; they are currently applying for specialist status for agriculture and land-based industries. Atthe back of the high school dedicated workers look after an orchard and bee hives

HealthThe local health centre is transforming their flowerbeds into allotments so that patients with long term mentalhealth problems can participate in gardening as part of their treatment. The health centre also operates a‘pick your own’ scheme for local people.

HousingPennine Housing, the local registered social landlord, provides tenants with land to grow food and offergardening packs, including plants, seeds and grow sacks to encourage tenants to grow their own.

Local businessLocal cafés are starting to supply local produce and market stalls are now advertising their local produce.There are also plans to start a local eggs coop to be launched in spring 2009.

Evaluation

The most visible sign of change in the town is the transformation of public and green space into herbgardens, vegetable patches and orchards for use by the whole community. Ornamental planting has beenreplaced by edible fruit and vegetables by local people who are engaged in the growing, picking and cookingof local food.

Derelict sites and once neglected road side verges have been cultivated for community use. The result hasbeen a visual improvement which adds to a sense of community pride and ownership and has reduced anti-social land uses. The town has started to consider derelict and previously unsightly land as a resource andan asset, rather than as a liability

The growing, picking and cooking of local food connect and engage local people with their public spaces.The crop belongs to the whole community and everyone is encouraged to pick vegetables and take themhome. Picking a vegetable is an act of ownership and responsibility, it involves recognition of the source offood and it is the first step in the development of skills and awareness of its cultivation.

Incredible Edible Todmorden is an inclusive project because it recognises that there are benefits of everyonein the town having access to local, healthy produce, even if they didn’t participate in its planting.

“at first we were a bit disappointed that everyone was taking the rhubarb but then we realised it was a lesson… that next year we should just grow more of it” Nick

Incredible Edible Todmorden hopes to engage a broad membership by breaking down jargon that peoplemay not know or find difficult to relate to such as carbon footprints or food miles. Incredible EdibleTodmorden work hard to avoid single group dominance in their work. Excluded groups are engaged as partof the solution rather than seen as a problem, for example young offenders worked with other local people toplant a community orchard

“The project is not a membership group but a project for everyone and anyone who wants to eat better andcares about the future.” Pam

Incredible Edible Todmorden succeeds because it connects people in the town through the shared growing,picking and eating of food:

it questions the way people think about public green space and empowers them to take responsibility for it

it is based upon local action, it is about changing behaviour through strong local leadership

it represents a bottom up approach to tackling wider issues of climate change which is truly inclusive – it

involves everyone in the community from every background

it breaks down barriers between people by focusing on something that we all love and need - food - because it

is inclusive

it is some truly joined up thinking –it makes connections in the town so local growing is embedded into

education, health and local business

Incredible Edible Todmorden will succeed if it is able to embed local food production in the economic, socialand political life of the town. It is a useful example of the development of a sustainable community thatdepends on small donations of time and land, knowledge, resources and hand graft from public, private andvoluntary stakeholders in the town. It represents a different way to address overarching global and localenvironmental concerns while also creating less tangible by-products such as social involvement, integration,civic pride and an investment in the built environment.

Big Issue Article February 2009

A Day In the Life Of IET

Incredible Edible and Pennine Housing at LongfieldEstate

The wind was blowing across the hill but that didn’t keep people away from the incrediblegathering.

The Cooking

Good tasty food was cooked andserved by Tony Mulgrew, the cateringmanager and chef from Todmordenhigh school. Tony brought the mobile “pulp Kitchen”with gas rings and pots and pans to thewindy hill top. With butter-nut squash and sweetpotato soup. Pasta, with pesto or Tomato and herb saucewith roasted sweet peppers, there wassomething for everyone. With freshpressed apple juice to drink it was allyummy.

There were also recipe sheetsof all the dishes made, andcookery classes, to showeveryone in detail how to makethese healthy dishes at home,from peeling preparing andchopping veg, and sampling rawsweet potato, to the a quick easyway to get that roasted peppertaste with just a frying pan.Questions were answered andadvice given.So many useful tips including howto make tasty sweet potato chips,and all demonstrated and sharedfree what a bargain.

The Plant Sharing

Pennine Housing broughtcompost, seeds, planters and potsto share, with advice from Carol,folk planted herbs and beans totake home and grow on. Thetomato plants were popular. Caroland Mark took the mobile plantunit (a wheel barrow) around theestate, this was a great hit witheveryone. People came out oftheir doors to see what was goingon and chose some herbs ortomato plants from the barrow.Carol gave a few pointers on howto look after the plants, to somevery young growers of the future.

We also met two young menwho were especially keen to growtheir own veg. Theyexamined the plants carefullyand with Carols help chose agood strong healthy tomatoplant each.These were immediatelynamed by them, “CrazyTomato” and “CrookedTomato”.They paid close attention asCarol showed them how topinch out new shoots so theplants wouldn’t grow stragglybut stay trim and strong.They are now looking forwardto some yummy freshtomatoes, and I bet mum willenjoy them too. This is real community growing.

To learn more about Incredible Edible Todmorden

visit the IET website

www.incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk