7pm: An evening with Smoke: a London Peculiar. Smoke, the much missed little magazine about London returns in proper posh book form.

Join us for readings from  From the Slopes of Olympus to the Banks of the Lea, along with a chat/Q&A with editors Matt and Jude about the book and Smoke and the world of independent publishing more generally.
Guest readers: Juno Baker, Jacqueline Downs

Admission (pay on the door – includes drink!): £3.

Bookseller Crow 50 Westow Street Upper Norwood SE19 (by zebra crossing)

SATURDAY OCTOBER 26TH

Halloween  Free ghoulish lolly crafts and apple munching competitions for kids, facepainting by DoXa with her special Halloween kit complete with wounds and scars (!) & a spooky action adventure story for kids by Brooke Laing of Little Supernovas.  We would like to encourage kids, adults, stallholders – everyone –  to get into the Halloween spirit by dressing up in spooky attire!  Now, where’s my witches hat?  If you want to get in the mood early, Demi Pastisser will have eyeball cake pops and bat & pumpkin biscuits for kids (and big kids!)..

TUESDAY OCTOBER 29th

UPPER NORWOOD IMPROVEMENT TEAM (UNIT) meeting, Upper Norwood library Westow Hill SE19 (corner of Beardell Street) 7p

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EXCELLENT!
An excellent start to the morning yesterday. Very insightful information from Denis. Would recommend to any other small business owner in the area.
Jaytag Computer & IT Services
 
WAKEY WAKEY!
This morning I was like  at the early morning start. Then, after a combination of coffee, cake and Denis I was like  When I left the business clinic I was  and ready to start my day. Thanks Denis such an inspiration.
AMBER PR SERVICES
 
GREAT START TO THE DAY
It was a really good start to my day. For the first one this ‘season’ it was well worth getting up for. I shall come to all of them as it cements in my head I’m OK and its all going to be bloody marvelous x
Catherine – Albone & Trimmit

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CRYSTAL PALACE FOOD MARKET 10 am to 3pm.
MEAT • VEGETABLES • FRUIT • EGGS • HONEY • BREAD • CAKES • SALADS • HOT FOODS • THE CAFE THING • COFFEE • TEA • PASTRIES • CHEESE • DAIRY and munch munch more.

Don’t miss Rachel de Thample’s recipe suggestions using produce from the stalls.
Come and try out the Ty Jannick stall with their delicious crepes and gallettes and meet our local resident Demi, of Demi Patisserie, the grandson of a famous Catalan cake maker, with his fantastic range of cakes and chocolates. We invite you to try the amazing sauces of Mad Ass Chillies, maybe on one of their delicious veggie burgers. We’ve also got lots on the Patchwork Farm stall – grown or made in Crystal Palace – and all the lovely regulars. Jacob’s Ladder Farms are dropping their minced organic beef price to £8.00/kg this week – so don’t miss out – that is a bargain!

Patchwork Farm stall
Herbs – mint, thyme, rosemary, chives, bay, sage
Salads – pea shoots and mixed leaves
Seedlings – broad bean, tomato, borlotti bean, courgette, sweet pea
Palace Preserves – locally made jams/chutneys/honey
Produce Stalls
Jacob’s Ladder Farms beef, lamb, pork, chickens
Perry Court vegetables, fruit, yoghurt, fruit juices, eggs
Brambletye Fruit (seasonal), apple juice, eggs, mushrooms
Bread Bread Oven baked bread including Brockwell Bake loaves
Mootown Range of delicious cheeses, quince and Welsh cakes
Prepared Food Stalls
Ty Janick – Traditional crepes & gallettes NEW – this week only
Demi Patisserie Catalan styles cakes & chocolate NEW
Mad Ass Chili British chili sauces & delicious Veggie Burgers NEW
Comfort and Joy Ghanaian treats with a twist
Owl Kitchen Gluten free goodies
Jacob Ladder Burgers cooked on site in Brockwell Bake buns

(Bottom of Haynes Lane off Westow Street – and the Haynes Lane second hand and collectables market will also be opening at 10 am)

www.crystalpalacefoodmarket.co.uk

TIM’S TOURS: A second tour of Crystal Palace park led by Tim Bellenger of the Crystal Palace park community stakeholder group.
“After the success of his first tour, Tim Bellenger is conducting another walk around our great local park. It will start at Crystal Palace Station outside the Brown and Green Cafe at 10.30 am and will take about 90 minutes finishing back at the cafe (for lunch).
Tim said “I would also like to encourage others to come who might be interested in volunteering to lead such walks on a regular basis”.
“A nice way of finding out more about the history of the park and sharing your knowledge too” say the group.

SATURDAY 18th and SUNDAY 19th

Artists’ Open House 2013 Saturday 18th & Sunday 19th May 11 am – 6pm. Now in its ninth year. www.dulwichfestival.co.uk/content/artists-open-house-3‎

SUNDAY MAY 19th

SAVE THE SPHINXES……AND MORE
Following on from the hugely successful ‘Save the Sphinxes’, this project will look to stabilise this small part of the terraces. “We’ll be cutting back the ivy, buddleia and trees as much as possible to stop further damage taking place.
“Unfortunately, the site is not suitable for children. The clearance will take at least three sessions. Please bring suitable shoes and clothing and bring tools, perhaps some sarnies too. Be a worker, not a lurker and have some fun & meet new people too. 11.30am – 2.30pm. Meet at Crystal Palace museum
“Lots to do and volunteering is fun; it also helps generate financial investment from funding bodies. Volunteer involvement on the ‘Save the Sphinxes’ Project was crucial and resulted in English Heritage approving a very substantial grant to conduct condition surveys and establish the works needed for the conservation of the six remaining Crystal Palace Sphinxes and the South Wing steps, which is great news. We hope this will lead to funding for conservation works to start later this year.

SUNDAY MAY 19th

NATIONAL GARDENS SCHEME OPEN DAY

Stoney Hill House, Rock Hill, London, London, SE26 6SW

Garden and woodland of approx one acre providing a secluded green oasis in the city. Paths meander through a woodland of mature rhododendron, oak, yew and holly trees, offset by pieces of contemporary sculpture. The planting in the top part of the garden is fluid and informal. 2pm to 6pm

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By 1.15pm – just over three hours after the market opened – local bakers Brett and Bailey only had crumbs left on their stall.
“Absolutely overwhelmed” was Joe Brett’s reaction. “I had absolutely no idea it would be this busy, that we’d get so much support from the local community – which means a huge amount to both of us.
“Some items such as our cheese buns were sold out by 11.15 am. “Our lime and coconut squares, which we didn’t think people would dive into, also went.
“We started off at the winter market at the Alma pub. “We wrote to a lot of places in south London and a little bit further afield about stalls and didn’t get anywhere. “Either they didn’t get back to us or had too many people doing home baking. “We learned about this market quite by accident and thought ‘that’s the one we’ve got to pursue – that’s our dream pitch.’ “We’re just really, really grateful to everyone who has shown an interest.”
Matt Bailey said: “This shows a really big demand for nice quality, locally sourced food. “This market is on our doorstep and there’s nowhere we would rather sell. “Hopefully it will run and run” he added.
Brett and Bailey, one of a number of rotating bakers at the market, will be back at the market on the second and fifth Saturdays of each month with their next visits on June 8th and 29th.
Other stalls doing a roaring trade – and not put off by either the rain or one poster for the market announcing soiled goods were on sale (soiled goods – goods from the soil – geddit?) – included one selling orchard eggs and A G Brockman’s vegetable stall where manager Amy McWeeney said the energy which organisers Crystal Palace Transition Town had put in had “transformed it into an amazing first market. By 11.30 am their stall had sold out of cauliflowers, radishes, nettles, mixed salad, bags of carrots and bio dynamic yogurts. “I’ve just moved here – to Penge – so I can share the excitement” added Amy.
Other stalls at the market included Owl Kitchen (home made gluten-free baking); Jacob’s Ladder which sold meat and organic beefburgers; Bread Bread whose loaves included walnut and rye; Bees ‘n’ Beans; and Mootown cheese (Leicesterme, Leicesteryou, Leicesterday?).*
Transition Town’s Karen Jones, whose idea the market was, said: “We have had an incredible turnout from the community. “It’s just been an amazing success. “All the stallholders felt it was such a friendly and lively place to trade. “They told us there was such a community spirit – and that it felt like an established market.”
Spa Hill allotment society donated seedlings and other people turned up with plants to give to the market to sell.
Joe Duggan, who co-chairs Transition Town said: “There’s obviously a desire by the sheer amount of people and the positive feedback. “People also liked the way we supported start-up businesses.”
The market is in Haynes Lane (off Westow Street) every Saturday from 10 am to 3pm, past the entrance to Haynes Lane second-hand and collectables market you carry on to the bottom and to the left. Coming from the Harold Road side it is at the top of Bedwardine Road.

http://www.crystalpalacetransition.org.uk/

www.brettandbailey.co.uk

www.mootown.co.uk

*Other items on the (Tamla) Mootown label: I was made to Gloucester (also by Stevie Wonder); Let’s get Stilton by Marvin Gaye; I’ll say Forcheddar my love (Jimmy Ruffin);

And on other labels: Churn to Stone by ELO (Electric Light Orchestra); It don’t come cheesy by Ringo Starr and the Three Degrees classic Wensleydale see you again (on the Philadelphia label – honest).

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Crystal Palace Transition Town are looking to establish a co-operative and inviting local people and others to invest money which will be used to buy a solar panel as part of a community energy project.
The panel – which generates electricity – would then be put on a large south-facing roof with the electricity it produces then sold to the building’s owner.
“We want the project to be commercially sustainable so the panel might go on a commercial building” Esther Stoakes of the Transition Town’s Palace Power group told the TT’s annual meeting at the Salvation Army Centre, Westow Street on Wednesday.
“Money comes back into the co-operative to pay back the investors who have put money into the project. “That financial return is absolutely key to making these projects successful.
“We do have some roof owners around Crystal Palace that are potentially interested. “We’re talking about setting up an electricity company – but it’s perfectly possible.”
In a review highlighting the past year, Transition Town activities have included gardening at the Crystal Palace museum, building bat boxes, creating the Tipsy Garden at the Grape and Grain pub on Anerley Hill, setting up a ‘bugs club’ for kids in Westow Park; initiating the ‘Palace Pick-Up’ which cleared rubbish from a site in Auckland Road, making bicycle-powered smoothies and buying hops to grow for the ‘Palace pint’.
EDIBLE GARDEN: Rachel de Thample said a ‘bring a plant’ day at the garden in Westow Park had resulted in people who had brought plants along coming back and looking after them. The garden was a “really engaging space” which had won a Capital Growth award and was one of 15 gardens to become part of that organisation’s pilot to grow 1 million London meals this year.
Shortly after the edible garden group had started the idea of ‘edible Crystal Palace’ had followed and there were now around 10 mini-food projects that had come out of the garden growing group.
The aim is to get more food produced in the Crystal Palace area and engage with local restaurants and food suppliers. “We’ve farmers wanting to buy our rocket” she added.
PERMACULTURE GARDEN: Clare Goff outlined the work the permaculture garden group had done on a residential garden in Central Hill where the aim was to grow more in line with nature and in a low-maintenance way and not dig the soil up every year. A Hugel (hugelkultur) building, a semi circular mound which holds moisture much better, had been built and was being planted. Garlic. raspberries, hops and grapes were already growing there.
BUGS CLUB: Youngsters had helped create bee and bug habitats and a hedgehog hideaway at the edible garden in Westow Park, said Laura Earle. Bird feeders had been made from wellies, a bird bath from terracotta pots. Bee-friendly edible flowers and butterfly-friendly flowers had been planted.
CRYSTAL PALACE MUSEUM GARDEN: Planting outside the museum has included a dwarf cherry tree, fig tree and grapevine said Lucy Hopkins.
JAMMING: Another spin-off from the edible garden has been jam-making. Proudly declaring: “We are the jam ladies” Laura Marchant-Short told the meeting 50 jars of jam had been sold to The Secret Garden behind Sainsbury’s and 80 jars to Local Greens in Herne Hill. “We’ve learned a lot and we have forged a lot of links with local businesses who are buying our jam.” It had also been “quite a training ground” for the forthcoming food market. Jams can be tried at Bambino on Church Road and at Casa Cuba on the corner of Belvedere and Church Roads.
‘LOCAL AND FAIR’ Lynette Aitken said they were working with local businesses to raise the awareness of consumers around fair trade, enabling farmers in poorer countries to produce things in a more sustainable way.A special meal at Domali on Westow Street had raised funds for Norwood Foodbank. A guide to sustainable shopping and eating in Crystal Palace had been produced and which is on the TT website. Last year they had won an award from the Fairtrade Foundation.
But she cautioned: “A lot of our chocolate brands are still using slave labour.”
PALACE PINTS AND BEER GROWING: More than 100 packs of hops have been sold to local people who will grow them on and then return them to get turned into beer in a partnership with the Late Knights brewery in Penge. Joe Duggan, on behalf of Karolina Walicka, added:”It’s also a really great project for people who don’t get Transition Town but do like beer.”
PALACE PICK-UP: Anna Kostyrina had found some derelict sites in the area that were really neglected. covered in rubbish which she felt should be cleared up and items recycled or ‘upcycled’, Robbie Gibson told the meeting. Ideas for upcycling included making crocodiles out of dumped tyres. “It was a lot of fun and very sociable” he added. The meeting heard that after the first pick-up in Auckland Road a ‘thank you’ note had been left.
FUTURE PLANS: include an outreach project and a new transport group. Sylvia Gurr said they were in the very early stages of forming an outreach group aimed at people living in the YMCA on Sylvan Hill. Ideas for residents there to become engaged in the community rather than excluded from it included music production. Joe Duggan said a spoken word person was also interested in working with them.
During the meeting Joe Duggan, who co-chairs CPTT, said: “We are a do-ocracy. “Decisions are made by the people that do. “We are not guided by ‘should’ or ‘hopes’,.” He said that when CPTT started and they told people who they were the response was: “Eh?”. Now they say “We know who you are.”

http://www.crystalpalacetransition.org.uk/

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