What is a Healthy City?

This week I was horrified to read that Bristol City Council have proposed to cut the street tree budget that is managed by the highways department, from £243,000 to £53,000. This 78% cut will effectively see all pollarding and cultural work by skilled arboriculturists stopped, will mean any trees felled will not be replaced and there will be no new plantings, despite often planting trees is cost neutral as community groups and organisations often fund tree plantings. You can read more about this here on the Bristol Tree Forum's blog.

Beautiful trees in Bristol's Broadmead shopping centre.

Here I must say that there is a promise to revisit this decision by the city council after the general election, but I am going to add my own, possibly cynical thoughts on that. Firstly the promise to revisit could just be a good political move. Could it also be that revisiting this decision may mean that a contracted business could be given the remaining budget, or perhaps slightly more, to carry out the work for Bristol City Council. Usually that might not be seen as an issue, but knowing the horror of what is going on in the beautiful city of Sheffield with their trees, having had tree work contracted out to Amey, who are dealing with trees as a health and safety issue rather than looking at them as part of our natural capital, and planning on felling 6,000 trees over 5 years, i think my cynicism is totally understandable. If you'd like to know more about the Sheffield situation, here is the Sheffield Tree Action Group website.

According to the WHO a healthy city is one that 'continually creates and improves its physical and social environments and expands the community resources that enable people to mutually support each other in performing all the functions of life and developing to their maximum potential.'

So with that in mind surely it's physical environments include looking after the trees within the city and the biodiversity that those trees support. Here in Bristol we have already seen Parks budgets slashed so hard that we no longer see park keepers or park teams working in parks, but instead have a small, central team that is working across the cities more than 400 green spaces. Friends of Parks groups and volunteer organisations such as my own Incredible Edible Bristol are beginning to be relied on to manage areas of parks, and take on the funding of their own projects. Whilst this is an exciting prospect for many, it is also often completely financially unsustainable, relying on volunteers and the ever decreasing amounts of public funding available. Anyway, back to the trees.......

We take trees for granted in the city often but they are a vital and rare green lung in areas of the city. They turn busy, concrete and tarmacadam rich areas into areas that appear green, with all the pluses that trees bring. Outside Bristol's Royal Infirmary is a typical place. Traffic heavy, busy with both pedestrians and cyclists, and regularly with the sight of the air ambulance overhead, the space is loud, busy and quite frightening in many ways. Ambulances scream around with their sirens blaring and there are a lot of people everywhere. Across the road is a short avenue of trees. Not enough but enough to add some shade and greenery to the area. Enough to allow you to stand underneath them and feel calmed.  Behind the BRI has been made a beautiful, tree rich walk, which, as I walk through it regularly on my way to and from events and meetings, calms the soul, supports re-energising and is a safe space in one of chaos. There are avenues of trees all across the city that do exactly the same thing. They are a part of our natural capital, supporting biodiversity, flood and temperature control and the health of the city and the people living and working therein.

Beautiful spring blossom!

According to the last citizen survey in the UK there are over 80% of the population living in urban areas. By 2050 it is estimated that world wide 70% of the planet's population will live in urban areas. We know that health, both mental and physical, is improved if people have access to nature. But what does that mean is a question I constantly ask. We can't bus people out into nature every weekend can we? We can't flood the Somerset levels every weekend with 455,000 people from the city in order to ensure that hit of nature happens, can we? Well no. Of course we can't so surely bringing nature into, and looking after nature within the city is a vital piece of keeping any city healthy. And surely that means being serious about looking after that natural capital within the city? Those parks and avenues of trees are important spaces for the health of the city, and it's populations. For cities that are battling rising mental health issues, and according to Bristol Mental Health that is estimated to be 15% of the population each year, approx 60,000 people, the benefits of sitting under a tree or visiting a park are huge, and important, particularly for people living in the less wealthy parts of the city who often feel as if they are the forgotten population, and rarely visit the central areas of the city for a whole raft of social and economic issues.

So how do we change this? Well I would suggest that we need a campaign. A national campaign on the importance of natural capital, of healthy cities in the true sense of the phrase, and a campaign run by real people who care about their individual cities and it's health and wellbeing. Living in a city like Bristol is amazing but it has to be said that the shortsightedness of this particular policy change leaves me both flabbergasted and sad. Not only must we ensure healthy cities for our current populations, but also for the generations to come so we ensure we never return to the unhealthy cities of less than 100 years ago. With air pollution levels rising and mental and physical health, particularly obesity issues on the rise, we need forward thinking local politicians who put the health of the population first. Prosperity needs to be seen as more than just wealth, taking statistics of health and well being into account just as much as development and business, and looking after the natural capital of a city surely must be a good way to begin this change? 

I'm interested in your thoughts so please do comment below. I expect this will be an ongoing them on this blog so please do get involved in any way you can!

Beautiful Ginkgo a stones throw from Cabot Circus!

Happiness Championing....

Recently Bristol organisation Happy City, published a list of 25 people working in the city who they describe as their Happiness Champions. It's an extraordinary list, filled with people who are making change within communities in the city and I feel a bit of a fraud being in it, albeit thrilled that I am. 

Of course people who know me are seeing an irony in this!! My main reasons for doing what I do are fury, disappointment and sadness at the state of all sorts of things.

Why don't schools offer horticulture as a viable career?

Why are we allowing the skills of growing and gardening to disappear?

Social injustice.

Food poverty and food waste.

Climate change.

Etc, etc, etc. The list is endless.

 

Most of my days are spent in conversations around change and inevitably where change is needed there is an issue in the first place. Be it anti social behaviour, poor design or use of public space, communities feeling they are voiceless, these are real issues that we are tackling through making positive change by making gardens. And it's working.

And it's this positive, gentle change that tackles lost and unloved spaces and turns them from embarrassing eyesore to a place of community pride, and in turn leads to increased community cohesion, resilience and eventually happiness.

 

So I guess being a champion for happiness means also being a champion for people, for communities, for gardens, for social justice, food and wealth equality, for the environment, for horticulture and more. And that, I think, means continuing to be furious, to demand change and to support people, gardens and horticulture in the city and beyond. 

My own feeling is that what we need is a kinder future that acknowledges the small changes and the power of those changes across communities both in Bristol and the UK. Happiness needs to be at the centre of all of this, rather than wealth or growth, and is made through grassroots action rather than government decision making, be that local or national. So I'm going to carry on supporting that change to kindness......

If you'd like to know more about the other Hapoiness Champions here's a link......

http://www.happycity.org.uk/campaigns/happy-list/bristols-happylist-2016/

 

The Final Pumpkin Recipe.......#itmightjustwork

It's Halloween and there have been children trick or treating for the last few hours and now there are fireworks going crazy all around us and I am about to give you the final, very special recipe.

 

But first a bit about how I got this recipe.

This year has been amazing, incredible and beyond belief. I have met some extraordinary people and done some extraordinary things. I have met and been humbled by people, amazed at their generosity of spirit and by how excited they are when they hear about Incredible Edible Bristol and how keen they are to get involved. I have been bowled over by kindness and moved to tears by stories of personal change. and i have spent a lot of the year wondering how this is where I am, whilst thoroughly appreciating that place.

So imagine that earlier this year I saw that Pete Lawrence, an allotment holder in Bristol, had just published a book and I cheekily asked for a review copy. Which he duly sent and I duly reviewed. It's a great book and the review is here. Of course at that point I had no idea of his background at the BBC or that he was setting up a production company or that we would end up doing any work together. But that is what has happened and you will be able to see the results the week before Christmas when it goes out on BBC1!!
 He's going to kill me but here's Ross!!

Without wanting to give the plot away, it highlights the work of our amazing volunteer gardeners, what volunteering with Incredible Edible has meant for them and how it has changed their lives, and it creates a stunning new garden in a community space for a community that will really appreciate it and use it for positive change.

 

Whilst working on this project I met Dave Myers, one half of the Hairy Bikers and a genuinely nice bloke who has been amazingly supportive and kind ever since we met. Cheekily on the last day we chatted about my pumpkin recipes and he promised me a recipe which, as yet is unpublished, but will be coming to a Hairy Bikers recipe book in a store near you soon!!

So cheers Dave! It's a pleasure to have worked with you. And cheers also to the lovely Pete, who is struggling to edit the programme as I type and who without lots of these opportunities this year would never have happened. I look forward to working with you more!!

 

But more than that, a huge thanks here goes out to Ross, volunter and pal extraordinaire, with whom this experience and others have been shared this year. A great guy who's story will touch you and who we will, I know, make a great gardener out of.

And here is the recipe!!

CHAPTER 8 SPICY CHICKEN 

Caribbean Chicken and Pumpkin Curry

This curry is very English Caribbean – no coriander, just Mediterranean herbs, so if you want a herb garnish, parsley is traditional. Traditionally this recipe is made with potato but we have found pumpkin and squash make great  additions to the recipe instead!!

A mixture of drumsticks and thighs, skinned BUT ON the bone

Juice of 1 lime

1 scotch bonnet, deseeded and finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed or grated

3 cm piece of ginger, grated

3 sprigs of thyme or 1 tbsp dried thyme

2 bay leaves, crumbled

1 tbsp spice mix or medium curry powder

2 tbsp olive or coconut oil

1 large onion, sliced

300ml chicken stock

50g creamed coconut (the sort in a block)

1 tbsp rum or brandy

500 gms pumpkin in 2 cm cubes

For the spice mix:

2 tbsp coriander seed

1 tbsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp mustard seeds

2 tsp fenugreek seeds

1cm piece cinnamon

1 clove

½ tsp allspice berries

2 tbsp turmeric

1 tbsp garlic powder

Put the chicken in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Add the scotch bonnet, garlic cloves, ginger, thyme, bay leaves and spice mix. Stir to coat – if you are brave, you will get much better results if you rub it in with your hands, but be careful because of the scotch bonnet. Leave for at least an hour, but preferably over night.

Heat the oil in a large casserole. Add the onion and cook for several minutes until starting to soften. Add the chicken and stir until the chicken is lightly browned. Sprinkle over the spice mix or curry powder and stir.

Pour over the chicken stock and add the pumkin. Stir in the creamed coconut. Leave to cook, covered, on a low heat for around 45 minutes, until the chicken is falling off the bone. Add a little more water if necessary.

When the chicken is cooked through, stir in the rum and simmer for a few more minutes.

To make the spice mix, toast all the whole spices in a frying pan until they smell aromatic. Immediately transfer them to a plate to cool, then to a fine powder. Mix with the turmeric and garlic powder. Makes more than you need, but it will store in a jar for a few months.

 

Living in a food desert......

There's so much talk about food deserts but mainly we hear it from large, deprived areas of cities in the US and there's often some debate about whether they exist here in the UK. Inevitably the situation is not as dire here as our cities are smaller, and it would be rare to have to drive for half an hour to buy an apple in a city, although in areas in the countryside not so rare. However I'm going to talk cities as that's my experience and where I'm working.

Any city, as Bristol does, that has 16 working food banks, obviously has people living in crisis and food poverty. However, food poverty isn't just related to food deserts and, sadly, with access to food banks being quite difficult to attain, it's also questionable as to whether everyone in food poverty can even get to that food when needed. Far from it for me to criticise the food banks as they do amazing work, but the system to get to that food is long and complicated, usually including doctors and/or social services, which often is uncomfortable or even impossible for people due to personal circumstances. 

People are often very surprised to hear of food banks in Bristol. With its reputation as a foodie city, and its status in 2015 as European Green Capital, its reputation is somewhat different to its reality. For sure Bristol is full of amazing restaurants and has an abundance of community supported agriculture projects, city farms and community gardens, but it also has areas where people struggle to access fresh and most importantly affordable food for themselves and their families. Little did I know when I moved out of the city centre, that this would be something I would find out about first hand.

Where I live, in South Bristol, unless you have a car, which I don't as I don't drive, the closest supermarket other than the convenience store at the garage or the corner shop that sells sugary snacks and noodles in pots but not a pint of milk, is over 2 miles away. For sure there are buses, but buses no longer have the place to put your shopping at the front, as it's been utilised for free newspapers, so it's really important only to carry onto the bus the amount you can hold within your seat area. The buses in our area are really well used and are often packed so more than 3/4 bags is impossible, and in reality 2 bags for life is your limit. I've seen drivers refuse people entry to the bus with more. 

For me this is hard. I want a diet full of fresh, locally grown where possible, food that's good for me. The reality of the supermarkets that are accessible by bus most easily is that they are fairly small stores and their range is limited. A lot of the food isn't ingredients, but ready meals, pizzas, and their vegetarian options are limited to say the very least! 

Fizzy pop, crisps, biscuits, pastries and cakes are given far, far more space than fruit, veg or fresh meat and fish, with all the offers on snacks rather than good food. But of course I have options and choice, and although it means being more organised, I am lucky that I can fairly easily access the Bristol food scene that we all know of, and that with an allotment and garden I can grow a lot of our food myself.

But what about those people with limited choices, or no choice at all? What about parents juggling jobs, often with unsociable hours, and often more than 2 in order to pay the bills? What about families with no car? Or even with a car, but with several jobs that car always being out with the working parent? What about single parents struggling on one income? All these people are time poor as well as living somewhere that has been designed as a dormer suburb, with little thought to the logistics of life. Over and again I attend community consultations about food where I hear the clear message that what the community wants is a supermarket. And over and over I see middle class choice not understanding need. For sure community shops, box schemes and deliveries from local suppliers are wonderful but for many they are just not affordable, or what they want. Many of us take for granted the ease of a supermarket, or the expectation of having weekends and evenings free, but for many families this just isn't the case.

I have an understanding of this, as my husband is a prison officer who specialises in mental health and suicide prevention in a hectic women's prison. He works long hours, and does a job where he can't just leave when it's his allotted time. He also works every other weekend. Due to his work, for obvious reasons, we don't live too close to his workplace, so he has to take the car as public transport simply doesn't exist. Family life for us has always meant juggling his work commitments around everything else that has to be done. Easy when you live in a small town with two supermarkets and nigh on impossible when you don't.

So what is the answer? Well the answer is design. The answer is to stop building housing estates without thinking about food provision and stopping the expectation that everyone has  use of a car to visit out of town supermarkets. 

But what's also  important is finding communities that are struggling and empowering them to help themselves by creating positivity around the issues and looking at exciting, engaging ways to get people to look at how they connect with food.

But, and here's the crux of the point, whilst our government is happy to give control of our food provision to the supermarkets, effectively giving them a green light to behave in any way they want, it is going to be people power that changes things. Generally food deserts in the UK appear because the big guns know that people will have to visit them, however hard it is to do so, because there is no option and once in through the doors, their clever marketing has you in its hold. We need to demand that this changes, through both urban planning, local and national government but most importantly through people power.....

And with that ladies and gentlemen, I say...... 

'Watch this space'

Guerilla gardening or good use of a lost poiece of land?