Village Raw - ISSUE 15
Village Raw is a magazine that explores cultural stories from Crouch End, East Finchley, Highgate, Muswell Hill and the surrounding areas. The magazine is created by the community, for the community. If you like this issue you can support the project through a subscription or donation. See the links below. The fifteenth issue of Village Raw includes: UPSTAIRS AT THE GATEHOUSE - A look at Highgate’s fringe theatre. GETTING TO KNOW - The poetry and music of rapper and artist TaliaBle. FROM PAINT TO PRINT - How lockdown closures led an 81-year-old to a new career. SPACE TO THROW - Local ceramics studios offering courses. INSIDE THE SHEPHERD’S COTTAGE - Inside a 17th century Highgate house. RIGHT UP MY STREET - How to set up a community street party. UPON MEETING A FOX (OR TWO) - Launching the On Local Nature community. FILL ’ER UP - Exploring the local zero waste refill scene. ASK OLA - Refocusing the mind and dealing with hay fever. AND MORE…
Village Raw is a magazine that explores cultural stories from Crouch End, East Finchley, Highgate, Muswell Hill and the surrounding areas. The magazine is created by the community, for the community. If you like this issue you can support the project through a subscription or donation. See the links below. The fifteenth issue of Village Raw includes:
UPSTAIRS AT THE GATEHOUSE - A look at Highgate’s fringe theatre.
GETTING TO KNOW - The poetry and music of rapper and artist TaliaBle.
FROM PAINT TO PRINT - How lockdown closures led an 81-year-old to a new career.
SPACE TO THROW - Local ceramics studios offering courses.
INSIDE THE SHEPHERD’S COTTAGE - Inside a 17th century Highgate house.
RIGHT UP MY STREET - How to set up a community street party.
UPON MEETING A FOX (OR TWO) - Launching the On Local Nature community.
FILL ’ER UP - Exploring the local zero waste refill scene.
ASK OLA - Refocusing the mind and dealing with hay fever.
AND MORE…
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VILLAGE RAW<br />
FOOD & DRINK<br />
small social enterprise called SESI, based in Oxfordshire. Their ethos<br />
is to work towards a closed-loop economy - recycling, repairing and<br />
regenerating as much as possible.<br />
Just up the road from Harmless is Nicola Glantz, the woman<br />
behind WeFil in Friern Barnet. She is equally careful about choosing<br />
the most sustainable options possible. Like many zero waste<br />
shops, WeFil started as a personal journey. Nikki wanted to use<br />
less plastic. When she started making her own hummus she was<br />
getting chickpeas still in plastic. “It was ridiculous,” she tells me<br />
over coffee.<br />
A friend sent her a link to English refill shops, and she hasn’t looked<br />
back. “We need one of these on every high street,” she reasons.<br />
“The tricky thing is how you have one on every high street without<br />
it encroaching on the next one.” Nikki used to shop as far away as St<br />
Albans and would visit Harmless, before launching WeFil in 2018.<br />
The business started as a pop up that would tour the local<br />
neighbourhood. It was doing a swift trade and expanding when the<br />
pandemic hit. She quickly pivoted to providing her products online<br />
and delivering to specific postcodes. She now runs a WhatsApp<br />
group and has gone back to doing pop ups once a month at<br />
Myddleton Road Market and at her home.<br />
Everything she sources is vegan and many of the products are<br />
organic. One supplier is the Zero Waste Club, a UK-based company<br />
that sources eco-friendly, affordable products with a very clear<br />
supply chain. “You can’t compete with supermarkets when you<br />
have a product from a company like that,” Nikki argues. “It’s not only<br />
about quality, but how little impact they have on the environment.”<br />
Without physical premises Nikki has low overheads, allowing her to<br />
stay competitive and offer the occasional small perk.<br />
The People’s Pantry, launched in Muswell Hill over the summer,<br />
is also mobile. It uses a repurposed 1970s milk float to deliver to<br />
north London postcodes and can be booked to appear on your<br />
street. Lisa Jones and her husband Stephen Thomas explain that<br />
the business has been “a gradual build”, with new products added<br />
weekly. They are now showing up at local venues on fixed dates and<br />
have had a good response. Business is roughly where they hoped.<br />
For those on the high street, it’s a slightly different picture.<br />
Alessandro at The Source says the pandemic has been “scary”<br />
for business. He’s hoping for more predictability, as trade has<br />
suffered from lockdowns, staffing issues, sickness and other<br />
hard-to-control factors. He’s also looking to collaborate with local<br />
businesses and have events that’ll appeal to the community. A<br />
local vegan chef, for example, recently demonstrated how to cook<br />
one of her recipes using ingredients in the store.<br />
A few doors down is Michael Plastiras, who has run Broadway<br />
Fruiterers in Crouch End for 24 years and is retiring this March. He<br />
opened his refill space at the back of his fruit and veg shop on the<br />
day the first lockdown was announced. Everything in the refill shop<br />
is available packaged but it will cost 20% less if you buy it loose.<br />
“I wanted to give customers better value for money,” he explains.<br />
Back at Harmless, Tami believes that more people need to<br />
adopt this lifestyle for prices to come down on some of the<br />
premium items. She wants to make it easier to make the switch<br />
and is responsive on Instagram where she can sometimes be<br />
found dancing with her tight-knit team. Tami vows to keep going,<br />
if only for those who have supported her including her customers.<br />
“They are the soul of our shop and we wouldn’t still be here if it<br />
wasn’t for them.”•<br />
This page: Lisa Jones,<br />
of The People’s Pantry,<br />
serving customers from their<br />
repurposed milk float at a<br />
street pop-up.<br />
Opposite page: Alessandro<br />
Iovino with chef Rachel<br />
Ama, during a vegan cooking<br />
demonstration, at Crouch<br />
End’s The Source Bulk Foods.<br />
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SOURCE BULK FOODS.<br />
MORE INFO:<br />
• Harmless, 79 Tottenham Ln, N8 * Insta @harmless_store<br />
• The Source Bulk Foods, 3 The Broadway, N8 * Insta @thesourcecrouchend<br />
• WeFil, deliveries to N2, N3, N8, N10, N11, N12, N22 and NW11. Pop-ups: Myddleton Rd<br />
Market (1st Sunday) and 2 Goldsmith Rd, N11 (1st Friday) * Insta @wefil_you_up<br />
• The People’s Pantry, deliveries to N2, N3, N8, N10, N11, N13 and N22 *<br />
Insta @peoples_pantry<br />
• The Broadway Fruiterers, <strong>15</strong> The Broadway, N8<br />
NOTABLE OTHERS:<br />
• The Cottage in Town (opening soon, N22), Unpackaged at Planet Organic (various<br />
locations), The Deli at 80 (N4), Tony’s Continental (N2), Organic Alley (N10), Greens on<br />
the Hill (N10), Halcyon (I can’t find this one!)<br />
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