Home grown picnic tickles taste buds

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Photo: Laura Wild

The Summer Harvest Picnic 2010

The Summer Harvest Picnic held in the grounds of Partnership House today (Sunday 22 August 2010) gave the people of Rochdale and further afield a chance to enjoy a variety of home grown food.

Visitors with blankets and deck chairs in tow headed to the picnic spot at Sparrow Hill to taste a selection of food and drink brought a long by others.

The picnic is the brain child of Rochdale’s Earth Cafe – Andrew Wastling from the cafe explained that they wanted to bring the community together and show that people can enjoy themselves without going to the supermarket.

Mr Wastling said: “We want to promote sustainability and by sustainability we mean locally produced. Almost everything here today was produced in their own gardens. The coffee and tea is fair-trade and really we just wanted to bring people together on a Sunday afternoon.

“We must thank CVS who have donated this area to us, it is a beautiful space.”

Mr Wastling continued: “What we are doing isn’t new, people have always grown their own food and gone and caught their own fish and so on – it isn’t a new concept we just want to take people back to traditional ways.

Stall holders at the event included the Littleborough Peace Group, the World Development Movement, Sustrans and Rochdale Freegle.

Mr Wastling added: “I am very pleased with the turn out today and I hope this is something we can do every year and build it up bit by bit each year.”

Organiser Helen McCarthy explained that the Earth Cafe is currently raising funds through a jigsaw. The 400 piece jigsaw is a custom made map of Rochdale with the central location being Toad Lane. The pieces of the jigsaw are for sale and the money raised will go back into the cafe.

If this jigsaw is a success the same will be created for the rest of the borough's townships.