Each year we like to mark the end of the summer with our feast, and this year was no different. For the second time in a row we made the feast a ‘car free celebration’ and on the 24th September brought community organisations together to celebrate the year’s harvest.
Preparing for the feast
We start thinking about the feast as soon as our Common People event has finished. Thinking about the menu, the community organisations that’ll join us and of course, the raffle prizes. More unusual preparations include the test run for scarecrow building at our community garden the week before…
Putting the fun and food into feast
This year we chose to showcase the produce from our garden with a vegan chilli and cous cous as well as a selection of different salads. As with every year, it’s wonderful to be able to use our field kitchen to feed all the visitors who join us at our garden.
Following lunch, we had a range of cakes made by our volunteers as well as some delicious brownies kindly donated by Pear Tree Cafe. Safe to say they went down a treat!
A hive of activity
We were pleased to be joined my lots of members of the community this year including:
- Clapham Common Management Advisory Committee (CCMAC) shared about their role in the community, advocating for the common.
- Froglife shared information about the amphibians they work to protect.
- The Clapham Society held a history walk and shared information about the Common’s past.
- Wheels for Wellbeing shared with visitors their bikes that remove barriers to cycling for those with limited mobility.
- Heathbrook Primary shared seeds they’d collected in their garden.
- Dr Bike fixed and checked the bikes of those who had cycled to our event.
As well as the community groups and their individual stands, we had a range of activities for the children that came along. They could start by building a scarecrow to guard the garden for the next year.
Then they could go to our storytelling session to learn about the day of a scarecrow in our garden, how he looks after our plants – including his prize pumpkin, Penelope – and interacts with wildlife. After this, children could take part in our free-to-enter guess the weight of Penelope Pumpkin competition, with the chance of winning a fabulous prize – including delicious ice cream from Oddono’s!
At the end of the day, everyone gathered around to hear the results of this year’s raffle! We’re so grateful to all the local businesses who donated raffle prizes – everyone was so excited to hear who won. Especially our top prize of a £100 voucher from Neal’s Nurseries in Wandsworth.
And before we knew it, the feast was over for another year!
Thank you to all the local community groups & businesses who got involved, our volunteers and of course everyone who came along and joined in the fun!
Written by Daisy Everingham
For more information about taking part at Bandstand Beds click on this link to our website, email ccbandstandbeds@gmail.com or stop by our produce table on Saturdays between 10am and midday to chat to one of our members.