Lourish News

Work for Lourish!

Dave — Wed, 04 May 2011 22:00:45 +0000

Lourish is growing and we’re looking for people with passion, skills and enthusiasm to help us create innovative ways of sharing home grown produce through swapping, sharing and building local food networks.

Be part of the Lourish collaborative food revolution

The positions on offer are flexible, voluntary and can suit the time you have available. We can’t pay you but we can help you gain experience, learn new skills, build your CV, make a career change or take a break from the rat race.

For your effort, commitment and enthusiasm we’ll put you at the heart of our collaborative food revolution backed by UnLtd and Channel 4 TV’s 4ip fund.

Think you’ve got what we’re looking for?

These are the current roles:

Interested?

If you’re interested in any of these roles email us at team@lourish.com with some details about yourself, specifically telling us:

which role you’re interested in
why you’re the right person for the role
some details of your previous experience or provide a copy of your relevant CV

(No agencies, please).

No roles for you?

If you’ve got skills you think we need and really want to be a part of the Lourish team, but the roles we’re offering aren’t relevant to you, send us an email to team@lourish.com with some details about yourself, your skills and how you think you can help. We can’t promise we’ll be able to offer you anything, but you don’t know until you ask!

Lourish and Collaborative Consumption – The Big Issue

Dave — Tue, 03 May 2011 21:11:35 +0000

If you pass a Big Issue seller this week you might be interested in the cover story on collaborative consumption turning “the culture of ‘me’ into the culture of ‘we’”.

It covers some of the sites at the forefront of the movement like Ecomodo, Landshare, Swishing and of course Lourish is there too.

Well worth a couple of quid, we think!

Seedling surplus or shortage? Survive it with Lourish

Dave — Mon, 02 May 2011 11:52:58 +0000

A warm April has got the Lourish garden springing into action; potatoes, garlic, broad beans and radish have all shot up in the last couple of weeks.

However we’ve not been quick enough to sow out our early salad so we’ll have to pick up some plug plants to make up for our tardiness while we wait for this weekend’s sowing of micro-greens to appear.

Or has the warm, sunny April left you with an abundance of seedlings? Here at Lourish HQ we swapped our left-over seed tates for some beautiful rhubarb (thanks, Catherine!) and without enough space to plant all our pink fir apple second earlies we’ve still got a few seed tates to give away.

If like us you’ve missed a sowing, or have a surplus of seeds use Lourish to fill in the gaps in your planting by finding some seedlings – it’s not just about your fruit and veg harvest – seeds, seedlings, compost and manure all make perfect swaps on Lourish.

Whatever you’re growing there will always be some plants you can’t use, some seeds which won’t keep another season or some sowings which fail, when this happens get over to lourish.com, share your surplus, survive a shortage and make the most of what you grow!

Lourish Accepts UnLtd Award at London Event

Dave — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 08:30:08 +0000

Following the news earlier in the year that Lourish has won an UnLtd 4ip award from UnLtd and Channel 4 the awards day was last week and here’s a picture of Lourish’s founder, Dave Bower, receiving his award certificate from UnLtd’s Claire Stewart at the event in London.

The event on April 20th was attended by recent UnLtd award winners, all of them with great ideas and projects which UnLtd are helping to fund.

There were some fellow food-network entrepreneurs, such as Paulina Akilah Balogun who has founded Swish Boxes, a community food-box scheme in London and there were also some fellow Web start-ups like Cambridge-based Sobia Hamid whose Datagiving site brings charities and donors closer together, allowing its users to see the impact of their charitable donations.

It was an inspiring event, but there’s no rest for the social entrepreneur, it’s back to work on Lourish ready for those summer gluts…

Lourish wins UnLtd 4ip award to bring you hyperlocal food!

Dave — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 22:00:54 +0000

We’ve won an award! Woo hoo!

We’re very exited to announce that Lourish has won a 4ip award from UnLtd to help continue the development of lourish.com in 2011. The award will provide funding for the next stage of development of lourish.com – going hyperlocal!

The award is funded by 4ip, the digital media innovation fund created by none other than Channel 4 Television, and it’s been given to Lourish by social enterprise gurus UnLtd – UnLtd’s Annalia Lemmo told us “UnLtd is committed to supporting social entrepreneurs – people with vision, drive, commitment and passion who want to change the world for the better, so we are delighted to support Lourish’s work in encouraging local food systems”.

The award brings the experience of UnLtd to help develop Lourish’s vision of creating hyperlocal home-grown food networks. It also provides Lourish with financial support over 12 months to take our innovative lourish.com website from swapping to shopping by enabling local communities to generate their own sustainable food networks.

2011 will see Lourish bringing “collaborative consumption” to local communities – people coming together to grow, share and sell their own fruit and vegetables. We can’t wait!

If you want to be part of the hyperlocal food revolution sign up at lourish.com and we’ll keep you informed…

UnLtd is a charitable organisation set up by seven leading organisations that promote social entrepreneurship. 4iP is a digital media innovation fund created by Channel 4; it supports great ideas for websites, games and mobile applications.

Lourish is an UnLtd project, funded by 4ip an initiative of Channel Four Television Corporation.

Mother Lourish’s Marmalade

Dave — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 21:59:09 +0000

January, in addition to seed orders, planting garlic and eating up the last few leeks, means marmalade making here at Lourish central. We can’t resist a generous spoonful of bitter, sweet, lightly set, seville orange marmalade on a slice of home-made wholemeal toast in the morning.

While it might not be possible to grow our own Seville oranges here in Cambridge, on the market enough oranges to make 7lbs of jam can be bought for the price of one jar of the (vastly inferior) supermarket variety. The added bonus of making it is that on a cold day like today a batch of the sticky orange nectar will warm the house up too!

So, while the cellophane tops on the Lourish 2011 supply crackle as they cool and I tuck into a slice of hot toast dripping with butter and the slightly-too-hot-to-eat fruits scraped from the sides of a now-empty preserving pan, here’s mother Lourish’s own recipe for the perfect marmalade.

Nyom, nyom, nyom!

Mother Lourish’s Seville Orange Marmalade

2lbs Seville oranges
2 lemons
4lbs granulated sugar
2pts water

Wash the fruit, halve and juice, reserving the pips in a muslin bag.

Halve the fruit again, place in a pressure cooker with the pip bag, juice and 1pt of water, then cook according to the pressure cooker manufacturer’s instructions (around 12 minutes). Allow the pressure to reduce to room temperature before opening.

When cool enough to handle, slice the fruit to your taste for shred. Use a food processor if you can’t be bothered – it’s not as nice but it is a whole lot quicker!

Add the shredded fruit to a preserving pan with the strained cooking water and the squeezed juice from the pip bag (that’s where all the pectin is to make the marmalade set).

Add the sugar to the preserving pan with 1pt of water and stir over a gentle heat until all the sugar is dissolved (you know when this has happened as there will be no visible grains of sugar when you run the liquid over the back of a spoon).

Turn up the heat and bring to a rolling boil, stirring constantly, else it will catch. Before you do this you might want to put some newspaper on the floor and wrap a damp tea towel around your hand to protect you and your kitchen from ejections of molten orange syrup!

Once at a rolling boil, keep boiling and stirring for 10 to 15 minutes until a set is achieved.

Turn off the heat, stir and allow the hot liquid to settle for a couple of minutes before pouring into sterilised jars and sealing with wax discs.

The marmalade will keep perfectly for at least a year, probably longer, however you’ll find you’ll have eaten it all long before then!

Your Lourish because you’re Lourish!

Dave — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 12:01:33 +0000

From the outside it might look rather quiet here at Lourish but let us assure you it’s anything but – we’re in the middle of planning how Lourish will look in 2011 and there are lots of exciting things that we want to do – the only problem is what to choose!

Instead of just us thinking up features, we thought we should ask you, the Lourishers, what you’d like to see on lourish.com – is there a great feature that you think is missing, does something not work as you think it should or is there part of the site that could be done better – we need to know!

So if you’ve got an opinion we really want to hear it. Drop us a comment on this blog, send us a message via the site or join the conversation on our Facebook page and if your suggestion becomes a feature we’ll credit you on lourish.com!

Autumn swaps and sloe gin for Christmas

Dave — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 10:00:04 +0000

The late summer days of plenty might be over, but that doesn’t mean the swaps should come to a stop – autumn can bring its own gluts of squashes and pumpkins, leeks, apples and pears while the hedgerows are still providing free food for foragers with hawthorn berries for jam and sweet chestnuts for roasting on cold autumn evenings.

However, what I’m most excited about this year is the blackthorn as it looks to have been a good year for sloes and I’m keen to make the most of it. One thing you can’t swap on Lourish is alcohol, but I’m not intending to have a glut of sloe gin, just a bottle (or 3) for Christmas! I’ve left it a bit late but I’m hopeful I’ll have a reasonable brew if I crack on and make it this weekend.

I got in touch with the experts for some advice and Lynda at www.homebrew2u.co.uk very kindly sent me this recipe for making sloe gin – the key thing, she tells me, is to wait for the first frost which makes the berries naturally sweeter, however she does sometimes put the berries into the freezer if the frosts aren’t forthcoming!

Ingredients

Sloes
Granulated Sugar
Gin

Recipe

Prick each sloe with a darning needle and half fill sterilised bottles or jars with the fruit, adding approximately 3oz sugar for each 1lb of sloes.

Cover with the gin, seal firmly, shake well to dissolve the sugar and store in a warm place. Shake the bottles each day for several weeks.

After 3 months, strain the liqueur through coffee filter papers or muslin into clean sterilised bottles, seal well and leave to mature.

More sugar can be added later if the liqueur is too sour for personal taste.

Sloe gin improves with age so it’s probably worth making a few bottles to see you through the year!

Thanks to Lynda at www.homebrew2u.co.uk for this recipe.

Seasonal French Recipe Jam (and a 25% book discount!)

Dave — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 09:39:36 +0000

If you’re lucky enough to be a Lourish member in the Cambridge area you might have noticed Jane Phillips’ “French Recipe Jams” being swapped – http://louri.sh/ex/137.

Being a man with a sweet tooth I jumped at the opportunity to try some of the exciting flavours like pear and star anise, plum and gin or rhubarb and ginger. I made an offer and swapped a kilo of green tomatoes for a jar of green tomato, lemon and orange jam. It was delicious!

Jane explained that the recipe was from a book she had written, “Jam in the Cupboard”, full of similar, authentically French jam recipes for all seasons and she very kindly agreed to share one of her recipes here.

So if you have a glut of pears, or if you can find some on lourish.com, here’s a great jam recipe from Jane. If you like it and want to try other seasonal recipes you can buy her book “Jam in the Cupboard” from www.jaminthecupboard.com. Even better, if you quote “Lourish” you’ll receive a 25% discount!

Pear and vanilla jam

French jam is less set than English, but it does have a better flavour. After opening it must be kept in the fridge.

1kg pears with firm flesh
700g granulated sugar
200ml water
Juice of 2 lemons
1 vanilla pod

Some terms

Macerate - place prepared fruit and sugar in a stainless container and leave in a cool – not cold – place for the prescribed time. This extracts the juice and softens the fruit, so reducing cooking time and producing a better flavour.

Skim - remove any scum which does not quickly disperse. It is within this scum that many pollutants reside.

Upside down method - when jars are securely sealed, turn the hot jars upside down for half an hour. This assists the seal and disinfects the lid.

Method

Peel and core pears, cut into quarters then very thin slices, cover with lemon juice to prevent discolouration, add sugar, water and vanilla pod and macerate for 24 hours maximum (see above).

Once macerated, cook on a high heat for 15 to 20 minutes stirring frequently, then skim.

The jam is cooked when the fruit has become translucent and a drop of syrup placed on a very cold plate sets immediately. It is better to under- than over-cook – if too runny, you can always pour it back for a second cooking.

Retrieve the vanilla pod, extract the seeds and add them to the jam.

Pour into sterilised jars and cover and seal using the upside down method (see above).

You can vary the flavour of this jam by replacing the vanilla with a mixture of spices (cloves, cinnamon, anise, nutmeg), a little grated root ginger or a little orange flower water – added five minutes before the end of cooking – or you could add a little rum at the end of cooking.

Recipe copyright Laurent Dutheil, Jane and Glyn Phillips. Reproduced courtesy of Jane Phillips, from “Jam in the Cupboard”, available from www.jaminthecupboard.com. Quote “Lourish” for a 25% discount.

Spread the lourishment

Dave — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 13:50:37 +0000

lourish.com exists because we felt there should be a way to connect with grow-your-own gardeners locally to make the most of what you grow. Now lourish.com is up and running it’s the people who use and support it who will determine its success. That’s why it’s always touching when people get in contact to say what they like (or even dislike) about the site, to wish us well or, as sometimes happens, to ask if they can do anything to help support Lourish and spread the word in their neighbourhood.

Micro promotion

Lourish works best when there are lots of people near each other, all swapping and offering within 5 miles or so and this only happens when people do something wonderful and tell others about Lourish. Some invite their friends, some blog about Lourish, others write articles for magazines and newsletters, put up posters, hand out flyers or just hit the “Like” button on the homepage to tell their Facebook friends they like what happens here at Lourish.

Having people all over the country talking about Lourish is a great thing and we’re really grateful to all those who are helping to get people talking about swapping their surplus. We understand that it takes time and effort to write articles and print flyers so we thought we’d do our best to help out.

The Lourish promo pack

We’ve put together a downloadable Lourish promo pack which will help anyone wanting to write an article, put up a poster or hand out a flyer at their harvest fair. The pack contains:

A short article about Lourish which you can copy or quote
Lourish logos, banners and ads to use in print
Posters and flyers to print

To get the pack all you need to do is head over to http://lourish.com, log in or register and click the promote link at the side or in the bottom bar and follow the instructions, then you too can help us tell the world about swapping, reducing waste, cutting food miles and making the most of what you grow!

So, if you’re doing something this food fortnight why not put up a poster and spread the lourishment!

Let us know how you get on

If you do decide to promote Lourish, or have done already don’t forget to let us know so we can say thank you and give you the recognition you deserve.

And if you can’t help, don’t worry, by just being a member of the Lourish swapping community you’re already doing a great thing!