UK shops in York and Scarborough

All our cakes are suitable for vegetarians.

We can also make gluten free sponge and fruit cakes and dairy free cakes. There is usually a small extra charge for this.

Our fruit cakes do not contain nuts. They are made with butter and include cherries sultanas raisins and currants as well as sherry and rum.

Sponge cakes can be plain or chocolate sponge. The cakes are layered with buttercream. Jam can also be added if requested.

Sponge cakes usually keep for up to two weeks once they have been covered with icing.

The portions sizes quoted are 2” x 1” x the depth of the cake. They are a suitable size for sponge cakes. If you are having a fruit cake you may wish to cut finger sized portions which is 1” x 1”. This means you will have more portions.

The cake website.

1000 Piece DeLuxe Jigsaw Puzzle

Excerpt:

“My early years were spent in Stoke on Trent, son of a ceramic pattern and transfer maker, and nephew of a famous aeroplane designer. So, it wasn’t surprising that I went to Art College, gaining my degree in Graphic Design and Illustration, discovering all the materials and methods that were available , investigating how they worked and how other illustrators used them.

My first commercial work involved producing military illustrations for units of the British Army stationed in Germany, soon followed by a long relationship with aviation art and illustration, including book covers and other work for Arms and Armour Press, Sidgwick and Jackson, and Orion Books.

An interest in style and media techniques has led me to develop skills in oils, acrylics, gouache and watercolour – I was fortunate enough to produce early commissioned illustrations for such widely differing clients as the Licensed Victuallers Association, Trend Paints and Waddington’s jigsaws. Among other types of work at this stage, I was producing impressions of proposed developments for architectural companies.

Next came working as a freelance for Mirage Fine Art, producing historical event aviation prints, and then curiously my family background of ceramic transfer manufacture was echoed in my being offered the opportunity to paint commissioned images for the Past Times company, subjects such as sports, trains, cars, animals, historical events and famous people. These were used on such items as mugs and teapots. My aviation designs were used on collectors plates by clients such as Royal Doulton, Coalport China, and I produced the artwork for the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Britain plate , sold jointly by the RAF Museum and the Sunday Express. More recent work has included large amounts of Greeting cards featuring children, atmospheric landscape, architecture and aerial views, Book illustration (including work for the children’s market) children, adults and military, Illustrations for product labels, Commissioned Jig-saw designs, subjects including nostalgia, people, vintage transport and settings and Calendars.”

See more about the artist here.

Buy his jigsaw puzzle here.

This was a very personal picture of John Constable’s back garden and was never sold during his lifetime.

By BBC – A History of the World

This view of Golding Constable’s kitchen garden painted by his son, John Constable, gives us a very personal insight into the internationally famous landscape artist’s own world. It was painted as a pair along with a view of the flower garden in 1815. This was a difficult year for the artist as his mother had just passed away and his father was now ill. The Suffolk home that he knew and loved was going to change. These paintings captured from the upper window of the parental home are his eye witness view of the landscape that has now become known as ‘Constable Country’.

He never sold these paintings during his lifetime. People from all over the world are familiar with the Suffolk landscape that he painted which has been reproduced on everything from tea towels to chocolate boxes.

Link to BBC.

See larger image here.

‘Grandpa’s Allotment’ – jigsaw puzzle, prints

Michael Herring – Born in Hertfordshire in 1944, Michael grew up in post war Watford where there were still fields, woods, farms and rivers where he loved to be, along with visits to his grandparents who lived on a farm in Essex.

Trained in the print industry and studied in life classes at Watford School of Art, he preferred wildlife and the countryside.

Turning professional in 1985, turning his attention to dogs, childhood memories etc. In 1990 Michael moved to the Fens before moving back to his families roots in Norfolk.

Sadly Michael passed away suddenly on 27th August 2010 aged only at 66 years.

His work in now appreciated by collectors as his work appears on plates, mugs, clocks etc from Danbury Mint. Puzzles produced by Gibsons and The House of Puzzles.

See more of his work here.

Card of the print for sale.

Jigsaw puzzle for sale.

Brink City will be a 12-part comic book series when it’s completed.

By Andy Attina
Cleveland.com
January 27, 2012,

Excerpt:

He wrote the first of four comic books, titled “Brink City: Green in the Ghetto.” Brink is used as a generic name for similar cities all around the country.

The comics have dealt mostly with urban farming, as Rid-All runs greenhouses in Cleveland. They were geared toward inner-city youths, but Garcias wanted them to be more versatile and appeal to kids in the suburbs, as well.

Brink City: Green in the Ghetto (Cleveland in disguise) is a city on the brink of destruction if conditions don’t improve. Luckily, a shape-shifting alien has arrived to help local scientists, kids and community groups and others working on the problem. A 12-episode run is planned.

“I wrote about issues such as the agricultural green movement, anger, unity and life problems humans have to deal with,” he said.

Last summer, Rid-All owner Damien Forshe suggested the books could be made into a play. Forshe sent copies of the comic books to a playwright in Los Angeles, who came out to Cleveland to meet with both men.

Read the complete article here.

Buy the comics here.

Smart Gardener Fund Raising from Smart Gardener on Vimeo.

Using technology in smart ways, we make this easier, and much more personalized, based on your location, household size, tastes, and growing conditions.

Smart Gardener is built with proprietary IP and delivers consumers highly personalized tools and garden plans based on key inputs including geo-location and household size. Our service is also differentiated by a complex weather mapping algorithm, an extremely rich database of over 500 plants, as well as ecommerce to purchase the best organic seeds available online.

Kristee Rosendahl, Founder, CEO and Product Designer

In 2006, Kristee moved to a 300 acre property in Sonoma County to enable her to pursue a more “hands on” lifestyle of sustainable food gardening, reviving an old orchard for hard cider and beekeeping. Her endeavors, Big Dream Ranch LLC, now provide fresh vegetables to local restaurants and honey to retail stores.

All this while trying to run a consulting business meant she wanted to both enjoy her time outdoors while being efficient and successful with the results.

Frustrated every weekend about what to do in the garden, she resorted to reading hundreds of gardening books, designing spreadsheets, and spending hours online. Further frustrated with those results, she began building the first prototype in 2006 of what would become Smart Gardener today. While refining it, she spent time with lots of gardeners and wanna be gardeners who confirmed to her that there was an eager market out there wanting to be successful at growing tasty healthy food.

See funding drive here.

See SmartGardener here.

“People can’t be expected to live more sustainable lives if they don’t even know the most basic terms and principles that define sustainability.”

For the past three years Douglas Gayeton and Laura Howard-Gayeton have crisscrossed the USA to learn this new language of sustainability from its foremost practitioners in food and farming. Alice Waters on edible schoolyards. Wes Jackson on reinventing wheat farming. Joel Salatin on embracing the value of saner farming practices. Vandana Shiva on the global imperative of protecting seeds. Paul Stamets on how mushrooms can save the world. Will Allen on Food Security. Temple Grandin on the humane slaughter of animals. Farmer John on the revolutionary idea of community-supported agriculture.

In all, over one hundred leaders in food and farming from across the country have contributed their valued experiences to this rapidly growing Lexicon of Sustainability. These insights have been translated into large format “information art” photo collages and a series of short films commissioned by ITVS. Study guides, a book, a traveling show, installations, and lastly a website where people can dig deeper into these terms (and even add to our ever-evolving lexicon) are also under development.

See the Lexicon of Sustainability here.

2011 Collection

Excerpt:

The Victory Garden of Tomorrow is an original self-commissioned poster campaign designed to channel the bold energy of historical poster propaganda while building on the idea that there is power in small places. It is committed to civic innovation and social progress– better food, better gardens, better cities. It is artful advocacy for the modern homefront.

The campaign’s distinct style and wit draws from my fascination with World War II-era propaganda posters. Looking at them now, I feel they say so much about America’s core identity. I’ve combined these styles with the NYC World’s Fair of 1939 and its “World of Tomorrow” theme which had its own set of compelling advertising posters. Those exciting graphics spoke for America’s ambition to enter a better future; an ambition that contrasted with the Great Depression of the 1930′s. These two events said so much to me about our current state that I couldn’t help but create a modern campaign that asks to bring to life abilities that have seemed to lay dormant in the American character.

Read the complete article here.

A look at the life-cycle of a rooftop vegetable farm for a Canadian restaurant—complete with hydroponic planters, a hoop house—including the harvest of beautiful vegetables.

By Victoria Taylor and Katie Mathieu
Garden Design
Jan 4, 2012

Excerpts:

In the spring of 2010, Parks & Rec, a rooftop vegetable garden, was established on the roof of downtown Toronto restaurant Parts & Labour. It was designed and operated as a for-profit roof farm by the two of us, landscape architect Victoria Taylor, OALA, and trained chef and permaculturalist Katie Mathieu.

The 1,800-square-foot farm, run free of chemicals, focused on growing produce for use by its primary client—the restaurant downstairs—and to study the feasibility of a for-profit, pop-up farm-restaurant relationship in an urban rooftop setting.

During the garden’s two-year run, from the beginning of 2010 to the end of 2011, we had lots of interaction and feedback from the restaurant and various other collaborators, and we both became acquainted with the challenges of this unique practice for landscape design and urban agriculture. We also learned a lot about how to build a rooftop garden for other businesses who might be interested in a similar venture for expansion, education, and public relations.

See the photos here.

Productive Neighborhoods

By Magdalena Celinska, Intern
In collaboration with Jason Henry & Rachael Meyer
The Berger Partnership
Summer Internship 2011
Seattle, WA
(Must see report. Mike)

Introduction:

Currently there are 103 urban food production sites in Seattle. These include urban farms, P-Patches, community gardens, and school gardens. From the 103 sites, however, only 10 are functioning as Urban Farms. While P-Patches, community gardens, and school gardens are an important component of Seattle’s food system, urban farms have the potential to make a large impact on the local food supply system. Within this report we focus on existing urban farming case studies to better understand how these farms function.

As designers, we seek to support these functions in our projects because we know the environmental and social values that they can bring to build healthy cities and communities. Through the exploration of these case studies we observed a number of factors that prevent urban farmers from being able to turn a profit despite the large return on community benefit. In order for the urban farming movement to continue to progress it must become more accessible and economically viable for urban farmers.

See the report here.

Moore feels a powerful attachment to the English countryside.

Excerpt from a Guardian article about Inga Moore

I was spellbound by The Secret Garden as a child, and always lingered over Charles Robinson’s colour plates. Looking at that old book now I’m astonished to see that it had only nine illustrations. Moore has provided more than 100.

Again the old house provides inspiration with a real secret garden of its own, just like the one in the story which becomes a sanctuary for Mary, a lonely, unwanted orphan, and her sickly cousin Colin. Thanks to the garden, this story of loss, loneliness and ill-health soon becomes one of physical and spiritual regeneration.

‘The bird alighted near the gardener’s foot’ illustrated by Inga Moore, in The Secret Garden.

‘One o’ the kitchen gardens’ illustrated by Inga Moore, in The Secret Garden.

Moore’s great strength here is in her magical use of garden imagery. We see trees pruned, topiarised, espaliered and clipped to within an inch of their lives, while in the secret garden plants are left to their own devices, roses ramble unchecked, creepers run riot and wildlife flourishes. With high walls and occasional glimpses of the open moor, these illustrations are open to all kinds of imaginative interpretation.

Read the complete article here.

Purchase the Secret Garden here.

Purchase Inga Moore’s illustrations here.

From Brooklyn Industries

Get in on the urban farming movement and Grow Your Own Food in this women’s graphic t-shirt.

Just $12.99 here.

3rd Prize Winner proposal for the Farmer’s Market Competition

By Lidija Grozdanic |
Evolo
December 26, 2011

Excerpt:

“Hop plant (Humulus Lupulus) is vigorous climbing vegetation and hops are used primarily as an important flavoring and stability agent in the beer making process. The proposal creates the sensual experience of a vibrant ‘garden’ where the hops are farmed on hop poles to create the building’s main green facade. The adjustable assembly systems of the modular vending bins are inspired from the natural material properties of hop pods.

The transparent foldable PVC roof canopy acts as a condenser for reclaiming water; for storage that is then used in the brewery and watering for the beer hops farm facade. The technique for this lightweight system is simple and its cost of maintenance is low. The folding geometry of the roof canopy takes inspiration from a plant and maximizes its surface area for heat exchange. It dissipates its heat at night and allows for the condensation of water vapor from the air, as well as directing rain water to the white funnels that channels water down to the brewery at low level.”

Read the complete article here.

“If everyone is responsible for the same communal space, it makes everyone feel safe and we can inspire and encourage each other to take steps towards more sustainable living.”

By Liam Sloan
The Oxford Times
30th November 2011

Excerpt:

Neighbours in East Oxford are being urged to tear down their fences and join their back gardens together to create a communal park.

Six people have been working with Green city councillor Matt Morton to draw up a masterplan for the block of 97 houses on the block surrounded by Hurst Street, Bullingdon Road, St Mary’s Road and Leopold Street.

They believe that if neighbours pool their land to create a single growing area, it could provide fruit, vegetables, eggs, and honey for every household.

Under their plans, householders would keep a small stretch of private garden behind their homes, but the majority of their garden would become part of a landscaped open area used for growing produce.

The group estimate that if the 18,000 sq m area behind the houses is tended collectively, it could produce 15kg of orchard fruit and 21kg of soft fruit per household, plus 40 per cent of seasonal vegetables for every home.

Read the complete article here.

Tuvie design of the future

Designer : Dr.Hakan Gürsu

Pet Tree Vertical eco planting system has won Green Dot Awards and International Design Awards for its ingenious system. It utilizes re-used PET bottles by structuring these bottles into a unique tree-like shape that features an innovative water circulation system that collects rainwater while allowing drop irrigation. This system promotes reusing plastic bottles to reduce plastic waste in our environment and at the same time it’s a great solution for urban organic growers.

The main body will be made out of recycled plastic materials while the protective membrane will be produced by the extrusion and welding of cellulose acetate. Its main support body will be made out of 1mm thick of stainless steel. Pet Tree Vertical eco planting system offers a new way for urban farming with minimum resource use while provides maximum efficiency. It cuts back manpower, save more time, growing more plants (horizontal area), and reduces the amount of carbondioxide oscillation by using the waste PET bottles.

Read the complete article here.

“We wanted to make a model for urban farmers to build it themselves.”

By Lucia Suarez
Rutland Herald
December 13, 2011

Excerpt:

POULTNEY — Students from professor Lucas Brown’s environmental build and design course at Green Mountain College had the challenge to build a replicable and transportable urban farm shed during the fall semester. They unveiled the 8-foot by 14 foot Occupy Vacant Lots, or OVaL, shed on Monday.

“I really challenged the students with the idea of a farmer with a pickup truck and a circular saw building this,” Brown said.

The shed includes two greenhouse polygal back walls with 10 shelves for seed germination, a butterfly roof and five teracotta water barrels for water collection, and a solar panel. The framing is designed with a hollow grid system which allows for greater flexibility to fit a customer’s needs.

“It’s made by 2-by-4, 2-by-6 pieces, totally affordable material,” Brown said.

Read the complete article here.

A Food project in Manhattan, NY by Juliette LaMontagne

BREAKER is a 12-week program that mobilizes interdisciplinary teams of young, creative collaborators to design solutions to big challenges – in this case, Urban Micro Agriculture. Community gardens, local organic farming, and rooftop farms are a more prevalent part of our lives as we become more conscious of the food industry’s impact on our health, the economy, and the environment. So far, these gardens and farms have been wonderful sources for connecting people to food and to each other, but their impact remains small-scale, benefiting those who can afford to pay a premium for fresh food.

Beginning in January, our team of fifteen 18-24 year-olds will collaborate with Majora Carter and a variety of industry experts to create a product or service that envisions a scalable, affordable role for urban micro agriculture within a broader ecosystem of food and agricultural consumption. In the process, the team will learn about design as a creative problem-solving method and apply the entrepreneurial skills necessary to transform ideas into businesses.

See their Kickstarter page here.

Hanayui’ by Takaya Hanayuishi is Eccentrically Grandiose

By Ana Lo
Trend Hunter
Nov 14, 2011

Eccentric headwear is never out of style, especially if this fashion is eco-friendly like the pieces from the collection titled ‘Hanayui’ by Takaya Hanayuishi. The Japanese artist Takaya Harayuishi used flowers and raw fruits to create beautiful adornments for the head.

Link to story.

Link to Takaya Hanayuishi’s website.

Urban Farm Urban Barn – Return Farming to the City

Holcim Awards Silver 2011 Asia Pacific
Isavaret Tamonut, TTH Trading Co., Ltd, Thailand
March 2012

Project description
Located in a mixed use urban zone in central Bangkok, the Urban Farm Urban Barn aims to return green areas to the booming city. A former textile factory and abandoned farmland on an adjacent block shall be transformed into a 1.4ha agricultural production site and retail outlet. The atrophying rural economy is reactivated in the context of modern urbanity, and elaborated in a remarkable way. The factory building is converted into an eco-supermarket, additional buildings, such as a restaurant and marketplace are integrated into the crop production by becoming agricultural structures themselves.

Crops and their sequences are carefully selected and balanced, aiming to maximize harvest without exploiting the resources, while providing a habitat for local fauna. In a larger context, this concept aims to counterbalance the ongoing spatial separation of food production and consumption. A number of such units are intended to be established in the metropolitan area, reintroducing elements of self-sufficiency and reconnecting food production and consumption.

See the complete project design here.

L’agence IND nous propose un nouvel outil de développement urbain pour Casablanca

By Mohamed Achraf Sehnoun
aMush
Nov 22, 2011

Excerpt:

Par le biais d’un concept original “Agriculture urbaine”, les architectes tentent de doter les habitants des douars de Casablanca ( population mixte issue de la campagne) d’une boîte à outils leurs permettant de diminuer leurs dépenses, d’améliorer leurs train de vie et de les responsabiliser vis à vis de leurs devoirs de citoyen.

L’approche adoptée par cette équipe vise à mettre en place des techniques adéquates pour une agriculture in situ dans un contexte particulier marqué par une urbanisation progressive du paysage rural. Comment adapter des techniques spécifiques compatibles avec ce type d’environnement fragile et très fragmenté? La pression foncière menace les habitants de se déplacer à des zones encore plus éloignées.

Read the complete article here.