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crops NOT shops – reshaping communities – LOCKDOWN SPECIAL

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crops NOT shops – reshaping communities – LOCKDOWN SPECIAL

Throughout our work in Networking RBE (resource based economy), a huge foundation of system change lies in what we eat, where we get it, how to ensure it is in permanent supply, and, costs as little financially as possible.

When it comes to Food, the values are built around:

Shared Food

Ethical growing

Chemical and cruelty free

Shared Knowledge

Community Support Network

It’s all very well talking about it, or looking at stand alone sites, no matter how community focused, how though to make this relevant and available to you the subscriber, reader, researcher, interested party or just web surfer ?

Networking RBE ideology successfully lies in getting the above in its entirety, and engaging with the community on the ground.

As people open the door to ethical reclaim community action programs, the question that always needs to be answered is: What is an RBE Network ? Check out the links below for a more info on the peoples movement for a genuine system change:

https://www.fishinaboxrecords.com/rbelegacies-michaelgreen/

https://www.fishinaboxrecords.com/rbe-goals-journeys-with-michael-green/

The Southend Group:

Enter Chay Godfree, community activist, vegan, earth warrior behind the crops NOT shops movement based out of Southend. Chay is well know in the Southend Area for his free food / meals nettle soup distribution group and the Know your Roots festival events, well know for great music, alternative lifestyle and ethical living choices.

crops NOT Shops is a guerrilla gardening project that is made up of a fast growing community of people stepping away from the unsatisfactory and unreliable retail food supply supermarket cash removal machines to taking control of their own living spaces, food and diet, by investing in growing and managing their own food supply.

Mission Statement and Introduction:

The project has been running just a couple of months but has already unifyied 800 active community members and is growing by the day. They have just started their 14th community site since January 2020, there is a vibrant seed, seedling, knowledge and work team sharing group that are also establishing contacts with other similar and related groups such as “Food Communities” , “Foraging UK” and “Grow Cheshunt”

Let’s take a look at some of what’s been happening on the ground:

Growing from the seed to sharing the seedlings is a foundation step. Getting as many people in the group to start seeds early in the season “under glass” allows for a strong supply of ground ready seedlings for planting as the garden spaces, wast lands areas and allotments are made ready to then get them all in the ground.

The more sites that are well stocked with seedlings means the more fully planted community sites, and the more fully planted community sites means more overages in each site, which in turns means surplus can become free food to be made available throughout the community .

By linking similar ethical permaculture and sustainability groups up and down the country, there is the foundation of a whole new food chain system, that can grow, bring together, unite and sustain communities free from monetarist, retail slavery, simply by just engaging in growing food.

Want to join ?

Want to set up your own sister group driving the change in your area ?

Here is the group page link for crops NOT shops: https://www.facebook.com/groups/824963631333587/

  

The more free food available in the community also means less cash clogging up checkout registers in your supermarkets. In line with the obvious we can take from this being that food, power, fuel, shelter are the core components to life that tie us to work , school, education, taxation slavery has not gone unnoticed by the powers that be,.

Going back as far as the English Civil war , the Diggers and the Levellers, self sustainability movements that draw authority from their own community and its needs have been targeted, legislated against and undermined to keep the population in the money game.

Food is the foundation of the freedom movement and being able to feed ourselves challenges the need for us to trade our divine human energy, our life force for material Monetarism , unfit Governments and complex social control that has us jumping through hoops for fines, taxes, bills, loans , fees and all other punitive unnecessary paper admin charges to burn out hard grafted income on. All of these ridiculous “controls” are over and above the basics of common law needed to run a safe , fair country and we should rightfully reject them.

Does anyone get excited over a parking ticket ? or a bank charge for bounced DD ? no… so check this link below and get up to speed on why we should adhere only to Common law, and at all times, question Government and know our rights to do so:

Most recently, media headlines have run with the same story over and over through Brexit and into the Covid-19 situation, a story of supposed degenerate greed and hoarding of supplies in supermarkets, food, toilet paper, you name it leaving shortages on the shelves and an absolute immediate need for the Government to legislate the Coronavirus Act. or that’s the story anyway. a story that has people turning against each other, watching reporting judging each other over what ? Toilet rolls….

What I see is that during the shortages, port information and French port delays were not being reported in the UK. though they were in France (why is that ?) The UK Government agreed a trade extension in late February for goods and transports to free up supply blockages and delays,  this again was reported in the French press but not the UK press (why is that ?)..

We hit Brexit in January, traffic through the ports slowed and failed to complete their journeys, port delays, Dover and Calais were on full stop from January 16th doe to port blockages even and still we are experiencing delays into mid May. Perishables were not making their delivery window, and, permit transport papers were not stamped. Highways England were tasked with managing the back log of traffic through the ports on this side of the channel. Yet the British press reported the reason for shelves running bare was due to pandemic hoarding and greed, seriously ?, How many times did you see that same photo of the overweight guy with two trolleys of toilet roll at Costco be used in the papers  up and down the country ?

The Government cannot be trusted manage retail food supply for the people.

Here is a little more reading to check out:

https://www.resilience.org/stories/2020-04-20/anarchist-farm-a-revolutionary-feast/

The explosion, up and down the country, through January and February of interest in home Growing, community food action groups and self sustainability movements has also flagged on the Government radar and the Coronavirus Act of March 23rd which now specifically targets the food supply chain with powers of control, and inspection.

Sections 25 – 29 of the act now makes anyone involved in the raising or the sharing of food supply to others, a target for inspection.

Reading the legislation and understanding the important of our community freedoms to support each other over and above being forced to accept a retail option not only makes common sense, it makes for a common good, a foundation of Unity among people to come together .

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2020/7/section/25

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2020/7/section/26

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2020/7/section/27

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2020/7/section/28

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2020/7/section/29

The Common Good:

Let’s take one last look on how progress is going on the sites at crops NOT shops, the next step is to get involved and start working on your own.

UNITY is COMMUNITY

The message of Unity, is the message Chay Godfree has been putting out there ever since I met him on the festival circuit, but unlike politicians, of every party, on the stand who “call for unity”, with false promises, lies and then back track with a gaggle of cameras and the tabloid press re printing the story ,. Chay’s unity is through community action. he bends his back, he offers food, knowledge and his time, he knocks on doors and he asks us to join him, to bring us all together and literally build a better world.

This is our opportunity to be involved in a movement for change that is meaningful. it only begins with growing your own food,. where it leads depends on how you embrace it..

Join us here at crops NOT shops : https://www.facebook.com/groups/824963631333587/

Can’t get involved in your area ? No time? Busy working but still want to project to flourish for the community ?

We are constantly needing supplies, materials, fuel to get sites up and running as quickly as possible, if you are able to help financially in investing in the project please do so using the below link: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/cropsnotshops?utm_term=dZv57Pm8J

NOTE:

photographs and video footage have been submitted from all corners of the crops NOT shops group and we all hope you will share this post as far and wide as you can, as well as connect with the group to support your self and your community for a better world.

BLESS.

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VEGAN KITCHEN – Dandelion HONEY & TOFFEE – LOCK DOWN SPECIAL

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VEGAN KITCHEN – Dandelion HONEY & TOFFEE – LOCK DOWN SPECIAL

Foraging and home growing networks have exploded all over the UK since the Coronavirus Lock down. top of the list in the headline must try go to’s is Dandelion Honey (miel de pissenlit) and its spin off’s, Dandelion root, dandelion tea, dandelion jam (camaillotte) dandelion toffee and even cough syrup.

Dandelion Honey is another great Vegan alternative to Honey, and properly done has a negligible environmental impact. Other great things about Dandelion’s are that hopefully they will impact business away from Bee exploitation and slavery.

If you don’t know about the issue around “Save the bees” / beeswax and bee Honey check out this link here: https://www.fishinaboxrecords.com/no-money-no-honey-the-supersize-me-bee-project-in-every-store-near-you/

We took a deep dive into the good and bad, the pro’s and cons of Vegan Dandelion Honey:

The main area of concern that was being aired was to NOT harvest the dandelions as they were food for bees to make honey for themselves and therefore still part of the problem. we took a look..

Our steps to manage this concern:

For the dandelions that we harvested, we identified council roadside verges and edge ways that were thick with dandelion though scheduled for cutting so the dandelions were being taken anyway, we then harvested in these areas the day before cutting.

If you can’t check this with your local council, or, are not living in a suburban area that has council management the next step is to apply a 1/3 harvesting rule. Only take 1/3 of the dandelion heads in any specific area to ensure there are sufficient supply for insects or all shapes and sizes.

In any area where there are dandelions, some will be ready for seeding, ensure you blow all seed heads in the immediate area where you are harvesting to boost flower numbers.

When you have taken the heads, lay them out to allow any insects to crawl out if any. In our batch of 200+ heads we had two black ants who we returned to the dandelion patch where we harvested the flowers from.

Dandelions are pointed out in most circles of thinking, though not all, as the first food for bees in February so delay your dandelion honey making until end of March April when fruit tress are in bloom and other flowers are available for the bees.

further argument on Bees / Dandelions here: https://www.gardenmyths.com/dandelions-important-bees/?fbclid=IwAR3Gf-gkUYtD25WmQwEafJqwEYiLAJRKP_-3MRYt4J0Qiqa5TsP1gvlyEsI

Some studies actually push to harvest as many heads as possible from March on as they point out behavioral patterns around Bees change with dandelions, if there are dandelions the bees ignore flower and fruit blossom and focus on dandelions. in this argument the recommendation is to seed wild flowers early in the area and harvest up and remove as many dandelion as possible, basically the point is ensure you leave blossom food and flower behind you.

Either way a responsible harvesting rule leaves nature to work out the rest. A pot of Dandelion Honey takes 100 head of flowers, two hundred head is a bowlful and two jars lasts months so your harvest rate is very low overall.

The other main area of concern was around the amount of sugar involved in making flower honey:

It is indeed true, recipes are looking at up to 5 and in some even 7 bags of sugar to make a couple of jars of flower honey which though is ethical in the sense that no animals are factory farmed for it, it is a bit of a health nightmare and on a par with golden syrup .

White granulated sugar is what keeps the dandelion honey looking like “Bee” Honey. Messing with the sugar changes the colour of the Honey, and to an extent the taste. We just couldn’t do it to our bodies on a full sugar hit.

To get a healthier more “bee honey” like flower honey we looked at sugar alternatives and settled on Organic Coconut Sugar, its a Lidl staple in the baking section so easy to find and has, like Bee Honey, a lower glycemic index coupled with lower amounts of fructose making coconut sugar a better alternative to granulated white table sugar.

Regular table sugar and synthetic high-fructose corn syrup don’t contain any vital nutrients and therefore supply “empty” calories. whereas coconut sugar retains, in part, the nutrients found in the coconut palm most notable of these are being iron, zinc, calcium and potassium, along with some short-chain fatty acids like polyphenols and antioxidants and  a fiber called inulin, which slows glucose absorption and explains why coconut sugar has a lower glycemic index than regular table sugar.

Coconut Sugar – What is and where does it come from ? it is made using a natural 2-step process: A cut is made on the flower of the coconut palm and the liquid sap is collected into containers. Then the sap is placed under heat until most of the water has evaporated leaving a brown and granulated product. Its color is similar to that of raw sugar, but the particle size is typically smaller or more variable. Coconut sugar is the dehydrated sap of the coconut palm.

Using Coconut sugar looses that golden Bee Honey colour and gives a very dark treacle colour to the flower honey. In the end its all down to personal taste, if you are someone who eats branded sweets such as Nestle , Cadbury’s, sugar syrups or shop bought desserts etc then amazingly the amount of white sugar used in the recipe is nothing more than these branded products. If you, like us don’t buy into branded junk food then use a fruit sugar or even fruit pectin’s etc and take some of the “load” off the final product though regardless of all that remember that whether it is unethical Bee Honey or the ethical other alternatives, such as Syrup, Coconut sugar, whatever  !!! it is ALL still Sugar people no matter what option you take.!!!

Want to know more about types of sugar ?

Click on the link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

anyway all that being done and dusted,. lets get on with making this dandelion flower honey stuff:

STAGE ONE:

This is the base recipe we used and then adapted,. this will give you the golden “Bee” style Dandelion Honey

https://plantepusherne.dk/the-best-vegan-dandelion-honey-tastes-like-honey/?fbclid=IwAR2xFWW5xTEBjSKoGI9_SBt6z0VBOGgK9aBwZC-uwdEnnwNiif5dsEB3KKc

The recipe is for 100 head / 1 jar.  As we used 200+ dandelions that we picked from road sidings  (before the local council came the next day to mow down!) and some from our own area using the 1/3 harvesting rule.

We doubled the quantities in the recipe with a couple of of replacements, firstly, thanks to lock down, we were unable to source fresh lemons (WTF ! right)  and so went with the bottled squeezed lemon juice, and second, 7 cups of white processed sugar seemed excessive for us so we went with the coconut nectar sugar instead.

Other than that we followed the recipe and tips pretty much as is..

STAGE TWO:

Add the sugar and start the extremely long low heat simmer, this was the deciding factor in getting the texture of the flower honey right. too much heat it burns, too little it has too much water..etc

The colour changes at this point depending on what sugar you use.

NOTEWORTHY:

The ‘simmer for several hours’ is a bit unclear but after adding the sugar in the second part of the recipe we simmered for approx 3 hours then left to cool over night.

In the morning the mixture was still not thick enough so we popped it back on the hob for another hour which resulted in a good honey texture but after we cooled a bit on a spoon it set solid so we added some boiling water and stirred it in until we got the consistency we were after.

The coconut sugar took the colour of the flower water from a beautiful honey yellow colour to a dark treacle colour so you should expect a much more yellow honey if you are using only white sugar.

All in all we are happy with it and oh my is it amazeballs on toast!! 😋

Once the Dandelion Honey was all transferred into jars we had some left overs which went back on the heat to make the toffee for a coupe of toffee apples.

making the toffee apples was extremely trick and messy, you need a few things… a chop stick, an apple, the toffee and some clingfilm. First we tried to do it by pouring out the toffee, off the boil into cling film bags around the apples…

failed.. lol

…next was to heat up the toffee until a bubbling black liquid, flip off the heat and tip the pan , as the toffee solidified we rolled the apple on the chop stick in the mixture, and, as its cooled it stuck evenly to the body of the apple then stand in cling film and wrap.

This worked out perfectly