16 August 2010, 20:21 PM
  • Speciality retailer Cookie in Glasgow is to run free jam-making sessions to encourage consumers to make the most of seasonal, local fruits

The next session – due to be held this Sunday (22nd) at 6.30pm – is running in collaboration with Glasgow Harvest, a programme set up to celebrate the ‘social gardening’ movement and promote the appeal of urban farming.

“We’re issuing an open invitation to everyone with access to a fruit tree to bring their fruit along to Cookie and participate in a mass jam session,” says Domenico Del Priore, co-owner of Cookie. “Whether you grow apples, pears, plums, gooseberries, blueberries, blackcurrants or strawberries, now is the perfect time of year to pick the fruit from your trees, pop down to the shop and turn them into jam as part of Glasgow Harvest,” he adds.

Cookie incorporates a restaurant, catering service and delicatessen, with a strong focus on seasonal, locally-sourced food. The store has also been a vanguard of the urban farming movement since opening late last year. Indeed, last month its Urban Gardener Barter Food Exchange launched a summer fruit and veg collection service. The concept behind the scheme is for allotment or kitchen-garden growers to produce food for the store or swap their excess with other growers through a barter system.

Mr Del Priore draws parallels with the groundbreaking urban food programme in Cuba, where political and economic change forced the population to attempt an ‘organic revolution’ as the country struggled to produce enough food to survive. One way of doing this was to grow more food in urban areas – a strategy that has been supported by London’s mayor Boris Johnson, who wants to free up more urban land in the city so people can produce their own crops.

For more information about Glasgow Harvest visit www.nva.org.uk/new-projects