Our Land Festival: Soil City Bike Tour

As part of Our Land Festival 2016, we invite you to join us for a free bike tour of the East End of Glasgow, where we’ll be asking the questions: Who owns the land? Who uses the land? Who benefits from the land? Explore the city’s industrial past, the connections between dereliction and people’s health, and the potential of plants to remediate contaminated soils. Join us for drawing, writing, visioning and conversation about the kind of Glasgow we’d like to see. Soil City is a long term project initiated by Open Jar Collective, to reimagine the city as if soil matters. For more info go to www.soilcity.org.uk

Meeting outside the People’s Palace at 11am, the tour will involve a gentle cycle on roads and riverside paths, with a number of stops along the way, covering a total distance of approximately 8 miles, returning to Glasgow Green by 3pm. All participants must be proficient at cycling, bring their own bike and helmet. Children 12 years and over who are confident cyclists are welcome to join too. You’ll also need to bring a packed lunch, suitable clothing and waterproofs. Hot refreshments provided. Further details of the cycle route coming soon.

Book your free place on eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/soil-city-bike-tour-tickets-26680002606

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Soil City at Glasgow International, April 2016

Our new Soil City website is now live – check it out for some of our programme highlights during Glasgow Internationa! Just a month to go until the Soil City Lab opens its doors on 8 April, at 3 Osborne Street, Glasgow G1 5QN.  We’re excited.

Communal cooking at The Concrete Garden

Back in September when the sun was shining, Open Jar spent a few days cooking with the lovely growers and local families at the Concrete Garden and Back Garden in Possil Park.  We were exploring what you can make with different types of flour, learning from different cultural traditions.  Using the freshest seasonal produce from the garden we made steamed Chinese dumplings, pasta with nasturtium pesto, empanadas baked in the wood oven, not to mention bannocks and corn on the cob cooked on a fire at the Harvest Celebration.  It was all pretty delicious and we’re really excited about starting our weekly Global Canteen Cookery Group that will be running on Fridays from 23rd October.

      

Global Canteen Cookery Group

Fridays, 23 October – 11 December, 12.30-2.30pm at The Concrete Garden

Each week we will harvest fresh produce from the garden, share recipes, learn new cooking skills and enjoy a tasty lunch together.

To book your free place contact Emma on: 0141 237 9144 / workshops@concretegarden.org.uk

Photos by Clementine Sandison, Design by Josie Vallely

Our programme for Broth Mix at Kinning Park Complex is now available on our website and via this link:

http://tinyurl.com/p3w2pqb

***CALLOUT*** For our series of Broth Mix events at Kinning Park, we’re gonna need some help. Please pass on.
Please read the poster and see if you can help us make this event special.

Open Jar Collective call for new members

We are seeking new members to join the collective for our next project ‘Broth Mix’, which is part of the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art supported programme.

http://glasgowinternational.org/events/broth-mix-open-jar-collective/

Open Jar will be resident in the Kinning Park Complex for the two weeks of the Glasgow International Festival of Art, creating ‘Broth Mix’, a space for conversations and action with both the local community and the wider creative community in Glasgow and the festival audience, and curating a series of events that bring people together through the common connection of food.

Open Jar is a collective of socially engaged artists and designers who use food as a lens through which to view the world. The group produce collaborative art work, host communal meals and stage unique pop-up events that stimulate and inspire new ways of thinking about our food culture, trade, economics, and the environment. Open Jar aim to contribute to the growing debate about how we can develop a more equitable and sustainable food system in Scotland. Find out more about us at www.openjarcollective.co.uk

Skills that would be great to add to the team are graphic design, web design, construction and film-making. Membership is open to all creative disciplines and you can be an associate member, joining us on an ad hoc basis for individual projects or a full member, taking part in the running of the collective.

If you think your interests and skills fit our objectives and you are passionate about food and want to find out more contact us for details on applying at:
contact@openjarcollective.co.uk

Open Jar Collective members are currently Clem Sandison, Alex Wilde, Hannah Brackston, Daniele Sambo and Emily Chappell.

A new collection of zines are now available to buy here.

Two hand-stitched zines documenting the Glasgow Subway Grub Crawl – Book 1 (North) and Book 2 (South).

Detailing local food establishments, cafes, grocery shops, chippies, (and the people who run them), at each of Glasgow’s Subway stops.

Illustrated with descriptions by Emily Chappell, member of Open Jar Collective.

Last month we were delighted to secure a spot at Glasgow’s Glad Cafe to host an Open Jar Collective ‘Pop-Up Kitchen’.

Those that were there were treated to a 6 course taster menu inspired by food in the city. Foraged salad, soda bread starter stories, a fish dish and a song, Grub Crawl Gumbo, surplus ingredient soup, and to top it all…the story of Glasgow’s sugar trade presented with a hearty slice of Victoria Sponge.

It was a lot of work, but we had a lot of fun responding creatively to the theme and hunting down the ingredients and stories from various locations.

Thanks to those that came to our first event as a collective. It was special.

The Glasgow Subway ‘Grub Crawl’ map from our recent #popupkitchen event. 

It will be available to buy as a print on our website soon.

Here’s an idea – take Glasgow’s popular Subway ‘Pub Crawl’, shake it up a bit, et voila – The Glasgow Subway ‘Grub Crawl’.

Buy an All Day ticket from the Subway, and instead of pubs, see what local food establishments you can find at each stop. It take’s 2-3 days, depending on how hungry and energetic you’re feeling. There’s no rules, but I tended to avoid supermarkets and restaurants and visited local retailers and cafes instead.

You get a real sense of the current state of play culturally and food-wise in Glasgow. Some places focus on the artisan approach, with the food being the focus. Others act as community hubs, building on friendships and caring for individuals.

So, load up on coffees, cakes, Scottish breakfasts, currys and banter. Chat with the owners and the regulars, and take your time doing it.

Enjoy!

Emily

Come along to our Pop-Up Kitchen at Glad Cafe (July 10th, 7pm) to see the final map, and find out what the rest of Open Jar Collective’s contributions are.