Grow, Cook, Eat’s Jam-Packed Summer

Our summer has been jam-packed with so many fun events, and we’ve met some amazing people from across Northamptonshire. Here is a summary of everything your Grow, Cook, Eat team has been up to this summer.

Smoothie Bike Pop Up

For 4 weeks over the Summer, we supported Kettering By The Sea, in partnership with Kettering Town Council. Freyja took along our smoothie bike and was sharing some yummy treats.

Making around 150 smoothies each day, the bike was well used and the people of Kettering seemed delighted with their healthy and delicious smoothie drinks.

We also took our smoothie bike to Kettfest. We’ve certainly clocked up a few miles!

Active Family Fun Days

We attended the Active Family Fun Days in Rushden, Corby, Kettering and Wellingborough, in partnership with North Northants Council. There were more than 500 attendees at each location, meaning we were able to meet with and talk to so many of you across the area.

One of our main attractions was teaching people how to make DIY seed bombs. Around 1kg of wildflower seeds was used across the fun days, helping to give back to nature as well as being fun!

Love Food Festival  

The sun was shining, the bands were playing, and Wicksteed park was host to Northamptonshire’s finest food purveyors, celebrating the incredible talent across the county.

From ‘Good Polish Food’ to Indian street food, there was a fantastic array of food and drink to taste, and great music to accompany it.

Grow, Cook, Eat ran a cookery demonstration making DIY vegan marshmallows.

Using aquafaba – the liquid from a tin of chickpeas – this makes for a super fun recipe, and it’s super cheap too. Everyone got involved as we whisked the aquafaba into a light and fluffy meringue, creating an amazing transformation from chickpea to marshmallow.

It was a great way to showcase one of our favourite DIY, cost effective and healthy alternatives for an indulgent treat.  

We served the marshmallows to the eager viewers in the form of s’mores, and everyone left happy and excited to try more aquafaba recipes at home.

View the recipe here to try it out for yourself

Finally to the Jam…

We couldn’t write a blog about a jam-packed summer without mentioned the jam-making.

Earlier in the Summer, we held a Jamming & Preserving session at Green Patch, teaching people how to make wild berry jams and preserves, using berries grown at Green Patch itself. This was a great session, with funded places being offered to ensure that everyone got a chance to attend.

Coming Up…

A lot of energy has been drummed up around the Grow, Cook, Eat project this Summer and we’re really excited to take this to the next level this Autumn as we develop new plans and ideas for more workshops in a community near you. Keep following our social media to get all the latest news.