Member Article

Treat your taste buds at Toffee Factory local produce launch

There will be pre-Halloween treats aplenty at the iconic Toffee Factory in the vibrant area of Ouseburn, Newcastle, at an event to promote a new food and drink initiative that gives local people the chance to pick up weekly baskets of high-quality, yet affordable local produce.

The launch event will be held at Toffee Factory on the evening of October 29 between 5pm and 8pm, providing an opportunity for the Ouseburn community to get together to sample some of the finest local produce on offer in the area, while having a chat and a drink at the bar.

The Artisan Baking Community will be on site, and there will be thirst-quenching beer from Newcastle Brewing Ltd, alongside a packed stall of carefully-chosen fruit, veg, meat, fish, olive oil and milk from new social enterprise Clean Fifteen.

These companies are launching a scheme that hinges on the idea of local people making a weekly visit to Toffee Factory to pick up baskets of affordable local produce, with the hope that, as more people move into the up-and-coming Ouseburn Valley, the venue will become a hub for locally-produced food and drink.

This project puts Toffee Factory at the heart of the community as a weekly collection point for locally-produced items of food and drink, at sensible prices – a basket of bread and bottles of beer from Artisan Baking Community and Newcastle Brewing Ltd, and in the case of Clean Fifteen, a basket of the healthiest fruit, veg and other items.

Toby Hyam, Managing Director of multi-award winning Creative Space Management, sees the event as an opportunity for residents, businesses and entrepreneurs to meet up in one of Newcastle’s iconic new buildings, he said: “Not only is the Toffee Factory a great place for our businesses to flourish in, it’s also a space for residents and Ouseburn organisations to get together and this will be one of many events we have planned here.”

Toffee Factory’s new relationships with these companies will build on existing partnerships with other local independent suppliers which cater for event hires and the weekly food pop-ups, such as Sugar Down Bakery, Storm Tea, Ouseburn Coffee Company and Boldon Farmhouse.

One notable feature of the evening will be the chance to sample pumpkin bread and pumpkin-spiced beer. This reflects the fact that the the event will be taking place as part of Newcastle and Gateshead’s first-ever Pumpkin Festival, a celebration of sustainable food, which runs from October 23 to November 1.

The festival is being run by Food Newcastle with a series of events aimed at highlighting food waste and improving cooking skills.

There will be an outdoor mass participation community cooking class at East End Pool with esteemed chef Genarro Contaldo (of Jamie Oliver fame) using entirely pumpkin-based recipes.

During the week building up to Halloween, community centres across the city will be cooking up pumpkin soup, baking bread and carving pumpkin lanterns with the leftovers.

BALTIC is staging a Happy Halloween pumpkin-carving event, while on Friday, October 30, there’s an evening of talks and debate on food waste and cooking skills at Ernest accompanied with pumpkin canapés and a pumpkin beer brewed in the heart of the city especially for the festival.

The finale on Sunday, November 1, will see Newcastle’s renowned Pay As You Feel organisation, Magic Hat Café, lead a mass participation ‘disco soup’ event in Newcastle city centre, where as many leftover pumpkins as possible will be used up.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Jon Corbett .