The church and chutneys.

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Once the North London YMCA residents took on the challenge of raising their own money for an exhibition of their creative work and decided that making and selling chutneys would be the answer, we needed to find a kitchen that would allow us weekly access and be supportive of what we wanted to do.

The Holy Innocents Church on Tottenham Lane in Crouch End came up trumps.

We used their kitchen on Fridays and, even though it was small, it became the epicentre of our chutney empire and many a good chutney was concocted there! The YMCA staff and church employees that work at the church would pop their heads round the kitchen door and ask us about the week’s recipe and what we were cooking. The place was full of the spicy and sweet smells of Accumul8’s chutneys and it was the start of the Accumul8 chutney journey.

This morning, it came full circle and I went to sell the Accumul8 chutneys at the church. Father Tim and the Holy Innocents community loved the chutneys and most of all, what was great was to get such a positive response to the project and the work it does.

Thankyou Holy Innocents Church for being so supportive and enthusiastic about Accumul8 and we hope you enjoy your chutneys!

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…..

Our first jar of chutney

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Please welcome to the world the first, fully labelled, lid covered Accumul8 jar of chutney!

 

 

 

We have a logo!

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Print

and we’re very excited by it! Labels are now being printed and we are ready to go go go for our first selling opportunity at Blink Pop Up on 16 and 17 November at Hornsey Parish Church, Cranley Gardens N10. Many thanks to the wonderful James from Silverleaf Designs who has designed the logos and the labels. Indeed, he will go to heaven!

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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.

The Earl Haig Hall comes up trumps!

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Twitter is a strange beast sometimes, and sometimes you get that little asterisk on that little blue birdy and it turns into something lovely.

The Earl Haig Hall on Elder Avenue, Crouch End, is about to reopen as a social club and they want to sell Accumul8 chutneys and jams. What’s more they have brilliantly offered to be the Accumul8 Jam Jar Drop Off Point.

So please bring your empty jam jars  (we’d love it more is they are washed and without labels) to the Earl Haig Hall Jam Jar Drop Off Point any day from 31.10 (which is their grand opening) from 4pm.

Thanks,

Marice

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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!

Guess what we’re making on Friday…..

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I think it will be pear and lemon jam, sounds good. Fingers crossed

Yippee – we’re in chutney-making business!

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Yesterday, Daniel, Garfield and I spent the afternoon making green tomato, apple and ginger chutney. It was a mammoth adventure of chopping, weighing, cooking, stirring and potting. All done in a military (ish) fashion, with a few jokes and no major disasters.

Daniel has become an expert in chopping (but not onions) and Garfield has excelled in his washing and clearing up skills, really, he has an exceptional, and much admired, skill in making the kitchen look spik and span after our cooking escapades.

But, what’s more exciting, (is there anything more exciting than chutney?, I hear you ask…) is that today we sold our first two jars of chutney! Yippee!! My Crouch End Festival friend, Amanda, came over for coffee and came away with a jar of spicy apple chutney and a jar of green tomato and ginger chutney.

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Congratulations Amanda – you are Accumul8’s first ever customer! (Let’s hope the first of very many!)

 

Pear and Vanilla Cake

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With some of the left-over pears from last week’s session I made a pear and vanilla cake. There was a slight experimental edge to it and, with anticipation, I shared it with the YMCA residents today as we chatted about Accumul8 and its future.

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