Tag Archive for: Lynne Featherstone

We have lift off!

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This weekend was the culmination of alot of hard work, preparation and organisation – it was the first selling of Accumul8 chutneys and jams. So, off to market we went (well, a church hall actually). With the car all packed up with the fruits of our labours we were ready to face the world of commerce, start telling people about Accumul8, get them to taste our work and actually begin to sell our chutneys and jams.

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– You can fit alot into an electric car!

And here is the Accumul8 stand at the point when it is about to stop being a plan and start being a commercial product that is on sale to the public.

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Residents from the NLYMCA came to help and there was a real sense of pride in seeing their hard work turned into a desirable product that people wanted to buy.

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It was really a very rewarding experience for everyone- the NLYMCA residents, the customers and myself! The local Lib Dem MP, Lynne Featherstone, came to visit and make a purchase (she was very taken with Shawn’s selling and promotion of Accumul8!),

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and, to balance this, Catherine West, the Labour candidate for the area, also came along to support us. And lots of members of the public, apple givers, jam jar givers and lovers of chutney came to visit and purchase, united in helping Accumul8 to prosper and grow!

Thankyou to everyone who showed their enthusiasm, wanted to know more about Accumul8 and made a purchase. Every single penny goes to help the Accumul8 attendees fund the materials and equipment for an exhibition of their creative work at The Crouch End Festival in June 2014.

And, so, even though, it has been a tiring weekend, it has been a brilliant one for everyone involved with Accumul8. From little acorns…..

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Apples, seed funding and goodness.

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This week was a good week for Accumul8 (there’s no stopping the goodness of this project) because

1. The lovely people from Tikkun Olam (which means “Healing the World” in Hebrew) have provided seed funding for Accumul8 (the puns are endless here!). This support means that Accumul8 can plan ahead into the new year – thankyou! Tikkun Olam is based at the New North London Synagogue.

2. Architecture students from Ravensbourne will be designing the display stands for Accumul8’s stalls at the craft fairs we will be doing. These are second year students who have taken on this project as one of their college projects – thankyou!

3. Our local MP, Lynne Featherstone, will be visiting Accumul8 when we are at Blink Pop Up exhibition. So, the final thankyou goes to Lynne for making the time to vist.

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Branding, MP’s in a pub and an apple education.

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On Thursday evening, the wonderful James Bridgman, who is a fellow co-director of The Crouch End Festival, came and met with Accumul8 attendees at the YMCA to help work out the branding and identity for the project. It was really interesting to discuss the “personality” of Accumul8, the message we wanted to convey and how we wanted to communicate that visually with our audience.

So, after an evening of looking and comparing various looks for the Accumul8 brand, we can now tick off the typeface, colours, text and image for our labels and, eventual, website. Accumul8 even has a strapline now – “Preserves With A Purpose”, which is pretty neat I think! More work to do, but we are definitely on our way!

Friday was cook, cook, cook with 24 jars of apple. pear and lemon chutney being made. One of which was given to Lynne Featherstone, the local MP, who asked to meet with me to find out more about Accumul8 and how it is helping the YMCA residents gain skills, confidence and routes back into employment. As she said, “It’s a win, win, win project”. Indeed it is, thankyou to the ever supportive David Winskill who made this meeting happen. And most importantly, I found out that our local MP’s office is above The Three Compasses pub on Hornsey High Street – pints and politics for all?

And another great big thank you must go to Transition Crouch End and Urban Harvest who organised a really inspiring celebration of all things Apple at their Apple Day –  whoever thought I’d be so interested and obsessed with the number of things that you can do with apples… I came away from The Apple Day with a bounty of cooking apples and the opportunity to sell Accumul8’s chutneys and jams at their Green Christmas Fair on Saturday 30th November at Hornsey Vale Community Centre, Mayfield Road (as well as witnessing people attempting to peel the longest apple peel). Bumper bonus!