Stephen Nottingham's Food Blog

Friday, 22 August 2014

Green Man 2014: The Food

Most reviews of festivals like Glastonbury, Latitude or WOMAD focus exclusively on the music. However, the best British festivals offer far more than just music. The Green Man Festival this year, for instance, offered cult cinema, comedy, literature talks, theatre, circus and more. Moreover, the choice of food and drink at festivals is turning them into something approaching local food festivals. It’s all a long way from the limited burger-based diet at festivals a couple of decades ago. This post looks at what food was available to visitors to Green Man 2014.

Approaching the main site near the main (Mountain) stage, you will encounter the volunteer-run Green Man Trust Café selling hot drinks, bacon and sausage rolls with profits benefitting local organizations and projects. The meat is made from animals that roam the Glanusk Estate – the site of the Green Man Festival. Also in this area, the Ethical Chef (the Carmarthenshire vegetarian chef Deri Reed) was making his first Green Man appearance, fresh from winning the People’s Choice and a Sustainable Green Traders Awards at this year’s Glastonbury Festival; his award-winning chilli was served here. Also, in this area, you can visit the fresh fruit and smoothies stall, maple-smoked pulled pork stall (also ribs, frankfurters etc.) and a Vegan and Vegetarian food outlet by the steps over the wall into the main arena.

On entering the site near the Mountain Stage the first food stands you encounter are Soup-a-Juice (say it out loud), Hall’s Dorset Smokery (see link below) and Pasta Pizza; all fairly self-explanatory. Next to these is The Mountain Bar. Up the steps, through the terraces looking down on the main stage, you will some of Green Man’s most popular regular food outlets.

At La Grande Bouffe (or The Big Nosh) this year I had the excellent tartiflette (cheese/cream potatoes) topped by a French sausage with white wine gravy, all cooked in their large pans. We also purchased some tasty food next door at Pura Vida Mexican Vegetarian Restaurant: enchilada and burrito, in its second year at Green Man. Also returning for a second year was Mac’n’Cheese, bringing southern US-style street food to the Mountain’s Foot area.

Shepherd’s offered its usual wide range of Welsh ice cream flavours, though the queues were not as long as during last year’s hotter and drier Green Man weather. Moving along the top terrace, the Chai Shop Organic tent, with its carpets and low tables, again had one of the best ambiences for sitting down and eating; not for the first time, I had some of their handmade falafels. Newcomer Harefield’s Bakery and Roast, with its London street-front façade, offered British carvery baguettes and roast dinners; it’s owned by Davey Chambers, a previous Great British Bake-off contestant. Next door, Joho Soho, operated by the Cinnamon Kitchen, was specialising in slow-roasted lamb and other Indian dishes. The ever-popular Jamon Jamon again offered Valencian and Seafood paellas, and like many stands also did a good line in breakfasts (my best meal of last year’s festival was bought here – see link below).

Across the way, at the top of the hill by the house, is The Table Top, a pop-up Welsh Coffee Co outlet, making its first appearance at Green Man. Walking towards The Courtyard, there are some notable regulars on your left. Poco is a café operated by Bristol-based eco-chef Tom Hunt; with fish grilled outside the tent. Here you have a choice from a distinctive menu that includes mackerel wraps, halloumi, kebabs and salads, with an emphasis on Moroccan cuisine. Next door is the Pieminister van. My Pieminister pie this year was The Free Ranger. Meat was to the fore at the Taste of Wales van, with burgers and breakfasts among the offerings.

Turning into The courtyard, first up is Superstew, with simmering pans of good-looking spicy stews. There also a Coffee and Donut van, before the bar selling 99 Welsh beers and ciders (later).

The Walled Garden, where you can find the Green Man Pub and Walled Garden stage, hosted a good mix of food outlets. First up was the Grilled Cheese Sandwich stall operated by London’s Morty and Bob. Next door was the Pembrokeshire Beach Food Company, specialising in lobster, crab and freshly-made flatbreads. I had a cockle and bacon flatbread with laverbread, a pleasingly different and substantial beach food. The Roaming Patisserie has roamed between different sites at Green Man over the years, but has found its perfect location here; breaking up a whole roast chicken between friends is what it’s all about. The Welsh Venison Centre, based nearby at Beacons Farm (about a mile down the road), does a great job of selling venison as the burger of choice to festival-going foodies. Beyond the Green Man Pub: The Hippy Chippy van, selling chunky chips. Also in the Walled Garden, were vans selling Shepherd’s ice cream and homemade chilled drinks.

Walking towards Babbling Tongues, you pass two of Green Man’s most popular perennial food stalls. The Goan Seafood Company ("Goan recipes, Cornish fish") I have written about previously (see below). Moorish: North African & Arabic Souk Food supplied the best food I ate at Green Man 2012, namely spicy lamb in a deep-fried filo-pastry parcel. You expect to see queues at both of these, festival regulars know what they want.

In the Babbling Tongues area (book-related talks and comedy), The Tea Stop is a converted red double-decker bus selling breakfasts, teas and cake. The Speak-Easy Bar in this area specialises in cocktails and gin.

Walking up the hill to the Far Out zone you enter the final grouping of food outlets. French & Grace do flatbreads and salad boxes; we were impressed by vegetarian flatbreads here last year. New to us was the wonderfully-named Spanish Stew and the Wild Dogs from Monmouthshire. Chorizo stew with made from local Trealy Farm produce, but on this occasion I had a wild boar hot dog with the hot festival pickle. The silver trailer of The Flaming Cactus was parked next door, serving Mexican dishes. Next up was a vegetarian café. Barnaby Sykes Piemaker had plenty of pies for sale, from traditional steak and ale, more unusual steak and stilton, and the vegetarian spicy butter bean and mature cheddar. Manna was selling Asian street food, with Cambodian chilli pork, Vietnamese lemongrass chicken and beef Osaka tofu among the tempting dishes. The Casa Portuguesa was offering Portuguese-style BBQ, including piri piri chicken, and all-day breakfasts. Turning around the block at The End Up Bar, you will see another Pasta and Pizza outlet in the Chai Wallahs tent. Down the other side of this block, you’ll find hot grilled wraps at Wrappers' Delight, with the accompanying Smoothie Delight next door. The Grazing Shed offered “super tidy burgers”. The Seacow traded in good old-fashioned fish and chips.

I have probably missed a few stalls (apologies), but you get the picture. You can eat your way around the world, but there is a focus on local food suppliers. Early risers will have seen the vans coming in from St Mary Bakery, the dairy, butchers and other local businesses. This is a festival out to support the local economy. See you there next year – I already have an idea of what I want to eat!

My review of the music at Green Man 2014 for newsoundwales:
http://www.newsoundwales.com/live-review/green-man-festival-2014/

See also:

Green Man 2013
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/green-man-festival-2013_20.html

Green Man 2012
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/festival-food-green-man-2012.html

Green Man 2011
http://www.buzzmag.co.uk/uncategorized/green-man-2011-festival-review/
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/green-man-good-food.html

Hall’s Dorset Smokery
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/festival-food-halls-dorset-smokery.html

Goan Seafood Company
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/festival-food-goan-seafood-company.html

Thursday, 24 July 2014

Nightingale Community Garden links with local foodbank

At an open meeting on the morning of Saturday 5 July 2014, Nightingale Community Garden officially linked up with Bethesda Foodbank in Dinas Powys. Part of the Vale Foodbank, and under the Trussell Trust umbrella, the Bethesda Foodbank opened in Sept 2012 (see link below).

Mike Groves of the Vale Foodbank talked at the meeting about the excellent work that the Vale Foodbank does in helping to feed people who suddenly find themselves without sufficient resources (e.g. due to benefit cuts) to feed themselves or their families.

This summer, gardeners are donating surplus produce from their Community Garden plots to the Foodbank. For the past couple of weeks, donated veg placed in a basket in the wooden shed at the back of the garden has been taken over to the Bethesda Chapel around midday on Wednesday.

Rob McGhee of Creative Rural Communities, who played a key role in getting the garden established, talked about the success of the Community Foodie scheme in the Vale of Glamorgan. A network of gardens in the Vale has got people growing more of their own food, while helping to bring communities together. Also in the photo above are Cllr. Keith Hatton and Elizabeth Millard, the co-founders of Nightingale Community Garden (for the full story follow the links below).

There was another good turnout for a garden meeting. Robin Harrison was again present to answer gardeners’ questions. This time, he bought along some fragrant plants – of which I took home a sage and a lemon verbena. The gathering enjoyed free tea, coffee, lemonade and biscuits.

Nightingale Community Garden, though only opened last spring, has been looking mature and productive during this hot July. I’ll let these recent photos speak for themselves.

Wednesday, 23 July 2014

The Hayes, Cardiff

We are in The Hayes just in time for a preview night at Miller & Carter. They officially open this Friday, on the corner of Hills Street and The Hayes, in the building previously inhabited by Habitat (who went into administration in 2011). Enter the new steakhouse from Hills Street, where they have seating outside.

Miller & Carter
9-11 The Hayes CF10 1AH (2037 2344)
It’s bustling at the Tuesday preview night at Miller & Carter Steakhouse. Beef sourced in Britain is the thing here (tagline: ‘for the love of steak’) and so steak it is for us. After a slightly disappointing graze option, involving not-so-crisp home-made tortilla chips and a spinach and mozzarella dip, we are quickly won over when the main courses arrive.

I opted for a ribeye (12oz) and my partner a rump (8oz). At Miller & Carter, the steaks are served with a signature cheesy onion loaf (excellent), ‘seasoned fries’ (i.e. lots of salt) default (or jacket potato if you ask), and an iceberg lettuce wedge; we approved of this no-messing side-salad, literally a quarter of a fresh lettuce with your choice of dressing drizzled on top (bacon and honey mustard for me). In addition, there is a choice of steak sauces (me: peppercorn). Very tasty steaks, cooked medium to our taste (medium is rarer than it used to be, for those who remember Berni Inns).

Chefs at the grills serve up the meat on to plates, with wooden boards being reserved for the Chateaubriand (16oz), the most tender cut on offer, which is recommended for sharing. It’s the most expensive steak option (£43.95), but with 50% off the food bill on the night they were in demand. Options 'on-the-bone’ are T-Bone, Porterhouse and barbequed ribs.

Miller & Carter are owned by Mitchells & Butlers. This is the 34th Miller & Carter Steakhouse to open in the UK. There is already one in Cardiff: a unit attached to the Red Dragon development in Cardiff Bay (across the car park near the Futures Inn). However, this prime city centre location puts Miller & Carter centre stage on the Cardiff dining scene.

We drank a rather nice bottle of Rioja from the ample wine list; though my partner thought they needed to work on their coffees that concluded our meal. We remember the Berni Inns of old, when the cream was expertly layered on top of the liquor coffee. Although Berni Inns (1955-1995, then sold to Whitbread and converted to Beefeaters and Brewers Fayre) were not an Mitchells & Butlers brand (though rival Harvester still is), Miller & Carter is what the British Berni Inn-style steakhouse has evolved into. We heartily approve.

Incidentally, the 1937 grade-II listed Hayes Building, which was originally home of the Electricity Board, has been sensitively redeveloped. There's a bar area, main restaurant and an upstairs mezzanine floor with a good view of the kitchen.

Eating steak is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me these days. Beef production has a major environmental impact, in terms of land use, water resources and greenhouse gases; far more so than chicken and pork production. A report published today in PNAS reinforces this. "The biggest intervention people could make towards reducing their carbon footprints would not be to abandon cars, but to eat significantly less red meat", says Prof Tim Benton of the University of Leeds, commenting on the findings in today's The Guardian. It's only occasional steaks for me these days - and those have to be good ones like they serve here!

Hayes Island
Outside, in The Hayes, can we just acknowledge the Hayes Island Snack Bar for taking over the running of the underground Victorian toilets that the Council closed; they are very convenient and of historical interest. You will shortly be able to ask them for a code to visit.

Bailey Carvery
9 -11 The Hayes CF10 1AH (2023 7755)
Part of the same recent redevelopment that has created Miller & Carter, this is the basement restaurant - entered by doors just before St David’s Hall - that was for many years La Fosse restaurant. Bailey Carvery offers breakfast buffet and an all-day carvery. Billed as ‘The Great British Carvery’, you can get traditional Sunday carvery here, every day of the week: slow-roasted beef, pork, turkey and gammon, with steamed fresh veg.

St David’s Hall
Working Street CF10 1SH (2087 8444)
Concert hall and conference centre. The main bar is on Level 3, where you can also catch some excellent Roots concerts. Food is sometimes served here, for example, at the lunchtime series of chamber music concerts. A Pimms bar is currently here for the Welsh Proms. The Art Cafe Celf on Level 4 is usually open during the day for sandwiches, coffee and cake. My next trip to St David's Hall is for some desert blues with Tinariwen from Mali – most appropriate given the current hot weather (Food Hygiene Rating 5: very good. March 2012).

Opposite, in the Old Library building:

Bar 1867
Old Library, 18-19 Trinity Street CF10 1BH
When we passed on the other side of the Old Library in my recent Trinity Street post, this was called the ‘Big Blue Sports Bar’. Then, I wrote that it would most probably have changed its name again by the time we got to it.

There has been a series of food venues in this northern part of the Old Library building, since the actual library moved out. It was once ‘Que Pasa’, and more recently ‘The Exhibition’. The restaurant called ‘The Old Library’ did some notable redecoration, but was also notable for being one of the first businesses in Cardiff to be awarded a zero Food Hygiene Rating, after they were first introduced by the Welsh Assembly Government in 2011.

Bar 1867 goes in for pub classics (meals for £6 and specials for £7.50): steak and ale pie, fish and chips, chicken curry, faggots and peas, burgers, jacket potatoes.

The Old Library building dates from 1881. The main Cardiff Library was located here between 1882 and 1988 (it is now located at the other end of The Hayes). Today, the building also houses the Tourist Information Centre and The Cardiff Story, a museum about the history of the city that is well worth a visit. The Cardiff Story has some interesting information about local food businesses (see link below).

See also:
The Cardiff Story opens
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/cardiff-story.html

Thursday, 26 June 2014

The proposed 'Garden Bridge' in London

The ‘Garden Bridge’ project in London seems to be getting an easy ride in the media. Maybe it’s the involvement of designer Thomas Heatherwick and the actress/campaigner Joanna Lumley, who thought it up, two people who have done much in recent years to deserve our respect; or the support of Boris Johnson, who is inexplicably popular in London.

The proposed pedestrian bridge will cost around £175 million. It will link the South Bank (near the National Theatre) to the north bank (near Temple underground station), a section of the Thames already well served by bridges. It is therefore totally unnecessary. The Garden Bridge Trust have already been promised £30 million by the Government, £30 million from Transport for London, and £30 million from private donors, according to the Evening Standard (below). Current plans aim to have it built by 2018.

What particularly annoys me is when Heatherwick and the Garden Bridge Trust team invoke the spirit of guerrilla and community gardening, and projects like the High Line in New York, as inspiration for and in justification of the project. The ‘garden bridge’ is the opposite of those things, and that’s what this blog post is about.

Let’s be clear, the ‘garden bridge’ is not a green project. It is a massive concrete engineering construction project, with oversized planters on top. Crucially, the projects is a top-down initiative; exactly the opposite to guerrilla and community gardening, which are bottom-up and community-led initiatives.

In a Guardian article (26 June 2014, link below), Heatherwick says, “It feels like we’re trying to pull off a big crime” and describes the design evolution as a form of “guerrilla gardening”. The team may be pulling off a crime, but not the one they think they’re pulling off. Here is a definition of Guerrilla Gardening (from Richard Reynolds’ book ‘On Guerrilla Gardening: A Handbook for Gardening Without Boundaries’, Bloomsbury, 2008): “THE ILLICIT CULTIVATION OF SOMEONE ELSE’S LAND.”

The most celebrated guerrilla gardens, of course, become legitimate because they are embraced by the communities they spring up in. They become officially recognised and much-loved community gardens and allotments. Nevertheless, people enter into guerrilla gardening knowing they are beautifying or producing food in a temporary neglected space over what is likely to be a relatively short period of time. This is the spirit of guerrilla gardening. So, hardly a corporate construction project.

Let’s look at the specific example of the High Line in Manhattan, a mile-long elevated linear park so beloved of architects like Heatherwick, who invokes it as an inspiration. The important point to get is that the High Line was once a railway viaduct built in the 1930s, which was abandoned in the 1980s. It’s a great example of urban renewal. In the years after the last train used the railway, local residents noticed that drought-resistant grasses, shrubs and trees were thriving. It was urban explorers and guerrilla gardeners who first saw the potential for turning this derelict structure into an elevated garden and park. The High Line was very nearly demolished, but community organisations, in particular the non-profit Friends of the High Line, prevented this from happening. Gardens cultivated with the help of community groups alternate with the native flora sections along this very popular urban park; the first section of which opened in 2006, while the third and final section is due to open later this year.

The High Line itself draws some of its ideas from the Promenade Plantée in Paris, which was the world's first elevated park, and was also built on an abandoned railroad viaduct. A London project truly inspired by these highly successful urban renewal schemes would take an existing London bridge, pedestrianise it, and turn it into a green oasis.

Building something from scratch at vast expense to mimic what others have done on derelict urban infrastructure just does not add up. The spirit of the Olympic Games has been invoked, but the Olympic construction at its best rejuvenated a large contaminated derelict area (At worst, of course, it built a car park over local community allotments).

Allotments and community gardens owe everything to enthusiastic local people who garden them. They fulfil a real community need. What would £175 million (the estimated cost of London’s ‘garden bridge’) buy in terms of grass-roots greening projects?

The desire to garden in an urban environment is very strong. There are waiting lists for allotments in towns all over the UK. In Dinas Powys, we established a Community Garden on an abandoned play area, which had become overgrown and was the focus for anti-social behaviour. This is now a highly productive local food growing area for around 30 families and is a community hub in a very positive sense. Recent plans include promoting pollinating insects in the area and donating food to a local Food Bank.

It cost around £35,000 to create the Nightingale Community Garden in Dinas Powys (£28,000 was obtained from the Welsh Assembly government’s Tidy Towns initiative and £5,000 from the Vale of Glamorgan’s Creative Rural Communities initiative). So, £175 million could alternatively be used to create 5,000 such Community Gardens around the UK. Given that there are 936 towns listed for England, and around 170 in Wales, this could create a veritable network of community-led local food production. Linked to an education programme, it could represent a revolution in terms of food self-sufficiency, environmental and health benefits (better and cheaper food, health benefits arising from active gardening and social interaction, knock-on effects in health-care spending, reduced crime due to urban renewal etc.).

Finally, I suspect that the maintenance costs of the ‘garden bridge’ have been wildly underestimated. Being a top-down corporate project it cannot expect the level of dedication from community groups and volunteers that make grass-roots community gardens so successful.

See also:
Oliver Wainwright in The Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/jun/24/garden-bridge-london-thomas-heatherwick-joanna-lumley

Evening Standard:
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/londoners-support-plans-for-garden-bridge-across-the-river-thames-9237778.html

How the 'garden bridge' intends to redefine 'public space' for the surveillance age (added Nov 2015):
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/nov/06/garden-bridge-mobile-phone-signals-tracking-London

Creating a Community Garden (the Nightingale Community Garden in Dinas Powys) as an example of what could be done around the country instead:
July 2015:
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/the-two-year-old-community-garden-and.html

July 2014
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/nightingale-community-garden-links-up.html

May 2014
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/creating-community-garden-11.html

Sept 2013
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/creating-community-garden-10.html

June 2013
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/creating-community-garden-9.html

April 2013
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/creating-community-garden-8.html

March 2013
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/creating-community-garden-7.html

Feb 2013
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/creating-community-garden-6.html

Jan 2013
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/creating-community-garden-5.html

Oct 2012
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/creating-community-garden-4.html

Aug 2012
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/creating-community-garden-3.html

Feb 2012
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/creating-community-garden-2.html

Jan 2012
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.com/2012/01/creating-community-garden.html

Wednesday, 28 May 2014

Creating a Community Garden 11

In a series of posts, I have outlined the process by which Nightingale Community Garden in Dinas Powys was created and is developing (links below). It was first opened to local resident gardeners on 16 March 2013. On the recent sunny days, people have been getting their plots ready for another busy growing season.

Since my last dispatch, on the official opening in Sept 2013, compost bins have been built (by Stuart Hockley), a second tap installed, the few plots becoming vacant have been reassigned from the waiting list, and I have registered the garden as part of a Nectar Point Network (more on this later in the year).

This blog post is mainly photographs to show you how the garden is looking as it starts its second year. Not so long ago this was derelict land – an abandoned play area that was a focus for litter and anti-social behaviour – and now it is a community hub and a very productive growing area.

Below is my plot, with the runner beans going in a couple of days ago:

It will soon be time to pick some strawberries.

Wednesday, 5 March 2014

Nectar Point Networks 2

In a previous post (15 Jan 2014), I introduced the concept of a Nectar Point Network (NPN). The driving force for the establishment of NPN hubs in the Cardiff area is Professor Denis Bellamy, who is the Chairman of the Conservation Management System Consortium (CMSC) and a former head of the Zoology Department at University College Cardiff. He has put together an informative website on NPNs (see link below). The Cardiff NPN is taking shape through a ‘bottom up’ approach. In an email in February, Prof Bellamy explained that, “it is envisaged that each hub organises itself as a self-sustaining community nectar point with its own action plan and local funding”.

The Nightingale Community Garden in Dinas Powys was established last year, a process I outlined in a series of posts (see links below). At the start of this year, I registered the Community Garden as a potential Nectar Point Network hub. As a first step into making this happen, I applied for and got an award (£100 of garden vouchers) from Keep Wales Tidy’s Wild Weekend Voucher Application, which this year aims to improve food sources for pollinators and is aimed at community groups. One stipulation is that plants purchased should be on the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Perfect for Pollinators Plant List.

I spent the voucher on two bee nesting boxes; five large pots; four bags of peat-free organic compost; a bee-friendly Escallonia ‘Apple blossom’ bush; and packets of nectar-rich plant seed, including lavender, foxglove, borage, cornflower, marigold, marjoram and 'wild flower honey bee mix'. I intend to add a winter-flowering honeysuckle at a later date, along with some surplus rosemary, primrose and heather from my garden. The idea is to establish a border of nectar-rich plants at one end of Nightingale Community Garden, with five pots of bee-friendly flowers in other areas of the garden. This will be our starting point, from which other activities will flow.

There are numerous nectar-rich plants that can be grown for pollinating insects. The consensus is that variety is more important than focusing on any one plant species. This is for several reasons. A range of different species can be grown that produce nectar at different times of the year, for instance, to feed pollinating insects active in different seasons. Furthermore, different pollinators are adapted to different flower structures, for example, long-faced bumblebees with long feeding parts (e.g. Bombus hortorum) are specialised to get the nectar from flowers with long corolla, such as foxgloves. Another factor is flower colour, with different pollinating insects homing in on different colours (e.g. Bombus lapidarius has a fondness for yellow flowers); so the more colourful the pollinator border the better!

A recent study, conducted by Mikhail Garbuzov and Francis Ratnieks at the University of Sussex with 32 popular summer flowering plants over a two-year period, identified which were the most attractive to insect pollinators. Borage (Borago officinalis), lavender (Lavandula) and marjoram (Origanum majorana) scored highly. However, not all lavenders were attractive to bees, only the wild types, with highly-bred ones such as those with novel colours not proving very attractive. Borage flowers were the most attractive to honey bees. Perennial lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantina) was the most popular plant with more unusual bees, such as the solitary wool-carder bee (Anthidium manicatum). The authors concluded that choosing the plants you grow carefully can make a big difference to pollinators. The least attractive plant in this study was the widely-planted pelargonium.

A previous study, conducted at the University of Cambridge in 1999, of 24 plant species (not the same plants as in the Sussex study) also revealed large differences in terms of insect pollinator visits. The most visited plants by honey bees in this study were Malva moschata, Salvia pratensis, Malva sylvestris, Scabiosa columbaria, Centaurea pratensis, Knautia arvensis, Trifolium repens, Salvia verbenaca, Lythrum salicaria and Saponaria officinalis. The bumblebee most recorded was Bombus pascuorum, which preferred Trifolium pratense, Salvia pratense, Trifolium repens, Laminium album and Stachys sylvatica.

The references to both these papers are below. They provide a good entry point into the scientific literature on this subject.

I will post more on NPNs and pollinating insects later in the spring, along with an update on progress in the Nightingale Community Garden as it enters its second year.

Nectar Point Network website:
https://www.sites.google.com/site/nectarpointnetwork/

Previous post on Nectar Point Networks:
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/nectar-point-networks.html

Previous posts on Nightingale Community Garden:
Sept 2013
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/creating-community-garden-10.html
June 2013
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/creating-community-garden-9.html
April 2013
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/creating-community-garden-8.html
March 2013
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/creating-community-garden-7.html
Feb 2013
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/creating-community-garden-6.html
Jan 2013
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/creating-community-garden-5.html
Oct 2012
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/creating-community-garden-4.html
Aug 2012
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/creating-community-garden-3.html
Feb 2012
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/creating-community-garden-2.html
Jan 2012
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.com/2012/01/creating-community-garden.html

References:
Livio Comba, Sarah A. Corbet, Lynn Hunt & Ben Warren (1999), Flowers, nectar and insect visits: Evaluating British plant species for pollinator-friendly gardens’, Annals of Botany 83: 369-383. Online: http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/83/4/369.full.pdf

Mikhail Garbuzov & Francis L.W. Ratnieks (2013), Quantifying variation among garden plants in attractiveness to bees and other flower-visiting insects’, Functional Ecology (Oct 2013): http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.12178/full

Wednesday, 15 January 2014

Nectar Point Networks

Most fruit and vegetable plants require pollination, yet the honeybees, bumblebees, hoverflies and other insects that carry out the pollination are having a tough time. Habitats are being degraded, reducing the number of nectar-rich plants in built-up areas; while disease, varroa mite and insecticides have taken their toll on honeybee numbers.

The situation can be improved by individuals planting nectar-rich plant species for feeding insects on an ad hoc basis. However, an initiative to improve insect pollination services through public participation has just been launched: the Nectar Point Network.

A nectar point is a location that has been augmented with plants that produce nectar for insects. It could be in a community garden, residential garden, school grounds, park, roadside verge, or even a large window-box. A nectar point network is a coordinated series of such nectar points in a given area. The network rests on a group of local activists in a growers hub, such as a community garden, who use their skills and resources to propagate nectar-rich plants to supply to their neighbours.

The main considerations in establishing nectar points are to select nectar-rich plants to grow in soil or containers, and to keep a record of the outcomes of planting and any monitoring of pollinators that is done. There is therefore an element of citizen science involved in nectar point networks, with participants encouraged to learn about different pollinator species (e.g., bumblebees) and to communicate their findings to other groups (e.g., via websites and blogs).

Networks of nectar points can be planned to create ecological corridors through built-up areas for pollinating insects, and to generally enhance local biodiversity and wildlife in gardens and streets. Networks can also, of course, encompass apiaries, and the strategic location of bee tubes or hotels for solitary bees species.

Here are some bee-friendly plants for gardens: heathers, rosemary, dead nettles, pussy willow, thyme, cotoneaster, wallflower, sage, honeysuckle, comfrey, cornflower, buddleia, delphinium, hollyhock, and lavender.

The Nectar Point Network website suggests several local actions for groups. ‘Linking with Lavender’ is one example of a neighbourhood growing scheme with the objective of establishing nectar-rich plants for pollinators in an urban setting. It relies on a local community garden acting as a hub for propagating and distributing plants in pots to its neighbours. The pots can be returned to the hub annually or purchased. Costs could be met by local sponsorship. The pots, containing lavender or any other nectar-rich plants, can be used on patios or paved front garden.

A Welsh Government draft Action Plan for Pollinating Insects was launched in July 2013 (see below), in recognition of the major economic importance of natural pollination services. Also, a new Welsh Government initiative called Cynefin (meaning ‘habitat’) aims to help individuals and groups throughout Wales mount community-led environmental action plans. Cynefin Cardiff is already working with four community gardens in Cardiff with a view to starting a city-wide Nectar Point Network.

This should be the first of a series of posts on Nectar Point Networks on this blog, as I help get a network hub started here in Dinas Powys. I will report on what is involved, and write more about schemes to improve the pollination of fruit and vegetable plants, during the year.

Nectar Point Network website:
https://www.sites.google.com/site/nectarpointnetwork/home

Nightingale Community Garden, Dinas Powys:
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/creating-community-garden-10.html

Welsh Government Action Plan for Pollinators (links to draft documents here):
http://wales.gov.uk/topics/environmentcountryside/consmanagement/conservationbiodiversity/action-plan-for-pollinators/?lang=en

Friends of the Earth ‘The Bee Cause’ campaign:
http://www.foe.co.uk/bees

Wednesday, 8 January 2014

Cardiff Market

Cardiff Market, also known as Cardiff Central Market and Cardiff Indoor Market, opened in 1891. It was designed by William Harpur and consists of a large wrought iron shed running from the back of the Market Buildings on St Mary Street through to Trinity Street.

There are currently seven butchers (around the outer walls), six fruit & vegetable stalls, several bread and cake retailers, along with a fishmonger, a cheese stall, and imported food and spice stalls. There are also seven cafés and snack bars. If you want fresh local produce in Cardiff from independent retailers, look no further. You also know that you will be buying from stallholders who have expert knowledge of their subject and produce. It is difficult to do all the food stalls in Cardiff Market justice here, but I offer this as an introductory guide to the market.

The present layout divides the Market into 265 units; though these are typically occupied as units of 2 or 4 by today’s larger stalls (originally there were 349 stalls). On the ground floor there are around 60 businesses arranged along both side walls and on both sides of four aisles, while an upstairs balcony that runs all around the building houses around 10 businesses. Each of the three central areas between the aisles is split into three blocks. The Manager’s office (2087 1214) is in the clock tower at the centre of the building. The market is open 8.00am to 5.30pm Monday to Saturday.

On this Walking Tour of Cardiff, we enter Cardiff Market from Trinity Street (though the main postal address for the market is St Mary Street where the other main entrance is located). There are two stalls in the Trinity Street entrance hall. To your left:

E. Ashton (Fishmongers)
200 Cardiff Central Market CF10 1AU (2022 9201)
This fishmonger’s stall has been here since the market first opened in 1891. It was originally owned by the Adams family. The Ashton family have been selling fish for five generations, originally from a shop in Penarth and since the 1950s from this stall in Cardiff Market. Ashton’s sell a large variety of fish and shellfish on their marble slabs, including fish species you don’t often see. There’s also rabbit, poultry and a range of more unusual meats. This morning I bought some Welsh bass, which is currently being promoted. This stall is part of Ashton’s large local business operation, which supplies many restaurants in the region with fish and shellfish (Food Hygiene Rating 2: improvement necessary. July 2013).

Opposite:

Seymore Fruit and Vegetables
197-201 Cardiff Central Market CF10 1AU
Although called ‘Sullivan’s Fruit & Veg’ over the stall, this fresh fruit and vegetable stall is currently owned by M. Seymore, who also operates another stall in the Market (138-142). Lively sales banter and seasonal bargains are the order of the day.

Go through the inner doors, past the stairs on both sides to the gallery. Turn right to the stalls on the outer edge:

The Celtic Corner
41-43a Cardiff Market CF10 1AU
This café in the corner, owned by C. Carroll, has seating across the aisle (unit 93) and is always busy when I’m in Cardiff Market. Apparently, ‘Bovril is back’ (Food Hygiene Rating 4: good. Jan 2013).

Continue down this far side, past pots and pans, tools and wool:

A&S Griffiths
19 and 21 Central Market CF10 1AU (2039 7669)
A&S Griffiths (also known as A.W. Griffiths) Butcher and Danish Bacon Specialists. Also has a stall on the opposite side of the market (18-20 and 22-24), both locations selling a range of meat and poultry, including Welsh lamb, burgers, hams and faggots (Food Hygiene Rating 3: generally satisfactory. Sept 2013).

Perkins and Sons
15 and 17 Central Market CF10 1AU (2022 4494)
Also known as R.T. Perkins butcher. Range of meats, again with a focus on local produce (Food Hygiene Rating 5: very good. June 2013).

You can exit the market here via a side door that takes you toward Church Street.

Walk around the bottom end of the first aisle, past all the wigs, and start walking up the second aisle. On your right at the end, at the start of the central row of stalls opposite the entrance to St Mary Street:

The Market Munch Box
145 and 148 Central Market CF10 1AU
Take-away serving coffee/teas, sandwiches and hot baguettes. Today’s specials included roast pork, stuffing and apple sauce filled baguettes and bologna pasta (Food Hygiene Rating 4: good. Oct 2013).

On your left:

The Continental
49, 51, 99 and 101 Central Market CF10 1AU
This snack bar and take-away lunch was formerly called Cose Cosi (Food Hygiene Rating 1: major improvement necessary. June 2013).

Fresh and Simple (Market Deli)
53, 55, 57, 59, 103, 105, 107 and 109 Central Market CF10 1AU (2034 5165)
Fresh fruit and vegetables counters on both sides at the end of this first block of stalls, including a section of more exotic fruit and vegetables (Food Hygiene Rating 5: very good. Oct 2011).

The other side of the aisle, at the end of this first block of stalls:

The Bread Stall
155-156 and 158 Cardiff Market CF10 1AU (2022 6941)
Fresh bread (cobs and bloomers), sandwiches, Welsh cakes, and other cakes (Food Hygiene Rating 4: good. Feb 2013).

On the very central block of the ground floor:

Cardiff Bakestones
163 and 165 Cardiff Market CF10 1AU
Welsh cakes and offer traditional cakes freshly-cooked on their large bakestone (Food Hygiene Rating 5: very good. June 2013).

At the end of this central block, which is underneath the clock tower:

Clancy’s
167 and 170 Central Market CF10 1AU
Clancy’s is a recent addition to Cardiff Market, opening in Jan 2013. Impressive range of chilli peppers and spices in glass jars, alongside herbs. Vegetarian and vegan street-food and cakes, including halloumi and spicy snacks; today’s special is lentil daal.

Mark’s Foods
171, 169, 174, 172 Central Market CF10 1AU
This ‘world food stall’ established in 2009 moved to this bigger location (from the stall now occupied by Clancy’s) about a year ago. It sells a wide range of imported foodstuffs, including olives, sundried-tomatoes, vine leaves, nuts, berries and dried fruit, alongside Mediterranean sweets (e.g., Turkish delight and licorice) and honey-drenched baklavas.

Opposite the Trinity Street entrance:

Yeates Confectionary
179 and 182 Central Market CF10 1AU
Yeates Confectionary, formerly R. Litton, sells pick-and-mix sweets (Food Hygiene Rating 5: very good. Jan 2012).

Walk down the third and final aisle, from the Trinity Street end:

The Cheese Stall
94, 96, 144 and 146 Central Market CF10 1AU (2066 6603)
Cheese and Deli stall owned by K. Kemble, selling a good range of Welsh cheeses, and is also a sandwich shop. Eggs for sale.

M. Seymore
138, 140 and 142 Central Market CF10 1AU (2038 2020)
Fruit and vegetables.

At the end of this first block:

Coffee Central
82, 84, 132, 134 and 136 Central Market CF10 1AU
Formerly Jazzy Jackets, this is a modern-looking take-away for coffee/teas and snacks (Food Hygiene Rating 5: very good. June 2013).

Judy Griffin
76, 78, 80, 126, 128, 130 Central Market CF10 1AU
Judy Griffin’s fruit and vegetables stall, which may be operated by Yeates (Food Hygiene Rating 5: very good. Oct 2011).

Yeates
60, 62, 74, 110 and 112 Central Market CF10 1AU
M. Yeates sell a wide range fruit and vegetables, including exotic fruits. In fact, Cardiff Market is generally the first stop for fruit and veg that are a little out of the ordinary (Food Hygiene Rating 5: very good. Oct 2011).

Market Deli
54, 56, 58, 104, 106 and 108 Central Market CF10 1AU (2066 6603)
Range of delicatessen produce, including hams and corned beef, pies and pasties, Scotch eggs (Food Hygiene Rating 5: very good. June 2013).

Turn at the St Mary Street end and come back down the fourth and final aisle. On the outer side:

K. Blackmore & Sons
Stalls 2, 4 and 6 Central Market CF10 1AU (2039 0401)
Someone was ordering three whole pig heads when I walked past this morning. Great hunks of steak, also venison, wild rabbit and a range of marinated meats, such as goat curry, Greek-style lamb shanks, Singapore chicken, spicy pork and one just labelled ‘bloody hot’ (Food Hygiene Rating 3: generally satisfactory. Oct 2010).

Market Deli
8, 10 and 12 Central Market CF10 1AU
Range of meats produces including sausages, across the aisle from the other Market Deli stall location. Indian and other ready meals are made at this stall (Food Hygiene Rating 5: very good. June 2013).

Along the outer row of stalls:

Gary Anthony
14 and 16 Central Market CF10 1AU (2038 7900)
Butcher. Gary Anthony also has a stall on the opposite side of the market. Good range of meats on offer (Food Hygiene Rating 4: good. June 2013).

A&S Griffiths
18, 20, 22 and 24 Central Market CF10 1AU (2039 7669)
Also known as A.W. Griffiths. Butcher with good range of hams, bacon and other meats (Food Hygiene Rating 2: improvement necessary. Sept 2013).

A. Morgan
26 and 28 Central Market CF10 1AU
Also known as A.J. Morgan: Butcher (Food Hygiene Rating 3: generally satisfactory. March 2011).

Gary Anthony
30, 32 and 34 Central Market CF10 1AU (2038 7900)
Another traditional butcher with excellent range of produce (Food Hygiene Rating 4: good. June 2013).

J. T. Morgan
36, 38, 40, 42, 44 and 46 Central Market CF10 1AU (2038 8434)
Butcher, focussing more on pre-packed meat products (Food Hygiene Rating 4: good. Jan 2013).

Take the steps up to the balcony by the Trinity Street entrance. Once you are facing into the market, go around anti-clockwise, past the toy shop, aquarium suppliers and electrical goods stalls to:

Woody’s
237, 239 and 241 The Balcony, Central Market CF10 1AU
Woody’s Café has seats along the balcony and in the unit next to the counter. Breakfast and lunches, mainly burgers and other fry-ups. A giant panda walks along the balcony edge (Food Hygiene Rating 2: improvement necessary. June 2013).

Around past The Pet Supermarket, and between the two sets of stairs down to the St Mary Street entrance:

The Gallery Café
213, 215 and 217 The Balcony, Central Market CF10 1AU
The Gallery Café, with Donnelly’s Café on the signage, serves breakfast and lunch, including burgers, hot dogs and pies. Seating along the balcony and in a unit by the counter (Food Hygiene Rating 3: generally satisfactory. June 2013).

Keep walking around, past the life-size plastic Elvis Presley (he’s still for sale):

Kelly’s Records
212-232 The Balcony, Central Market CF10 1AU (2037 7355)
This record business, established in 1969 by Ed Kelly and still in the family, is a terrific place to browse through second-hand vinyl, CDs and DVDs. Kelly’s Barbers is within this block of stalls (218, 220).

Next door:

The Bull Terrier Café
234, 236, 238, 240, 242 and 244 The Balcony, Central Market CF10 1AU
This is the largest café in the market, with seating on both sides of the counter and along the balcony. Big on breakfasts (as are all the market cafés). Lunches include faggots, chips, and a range of other snacks and fry-ups. Today’s specials included roast pork and turkey, chicken curry, and meatballs on pasta (Food Hygiene Rating 4: good. June 2013).

Carry on past Petworld, go down the stairs, and exit to Trinity Street.