On Wednesday, 12th March 2008, I had the great pleasure to attend the Country Living Spring Fair 2008 at the Business Design Center in Islington.I was very well received as a member of Tatchipen Media, representing the Green (Living) Review, as its editor, though also, at the same time, as well as Ethical Living Review and Home & Garden Review, and a number of promising contacts have been made, which will result, hopefully, in some interesting articles in time to come.
This was the first day of the fair and, obviously, being Wednesday, it was, more or less, in the middle of the week, but already well before midday the exhibition floor was heaving with visitors and most exhibitors were doing a brisk trade.
I would have liked to, here, present a couple of pictures of the various live crafts displays, especially the traditional broom making by M Cottrell of Oakwood Sawmill and the masonry work by Laing Traditional Masonry but, alas, yours truly left his camera at home and did not notice that until well into the journey into London.
Yes, folks, if you find an unattended brain around somewhere it may be mine.
This year's official charity of the event is the Field Studies Council and Country Living Magazine is, in conjunction with the FSC, running a campaign to “Bring Back the Nature Table” to reconnect children at schools and elsewhere to the natural world and the environment.
It is ever so important that children and young people got reconnected to the environment out there and nature for too many, and not just those from the inner cities, have no idea as to nature. Children of today are far too disconnected from it. Most do not know where milk or eggs come from. No, milk is not made in a factory, nor are eggs. Many of todays kids, however, believe something along those lines and this is very sad indeed.
I shall be reporting some more on this, in due course, here in the pages of this journal, so I hope.
A couple of interesting products were obtained for review, that is to say some very nice coffee and some cereals and also some very nice hand-made soap and bath products and I shall bring you the detains and findings on those in due course.
Some exhibitors of note, in my opinion, especially as they fit well within the criteria of some of our publications, were:
1./ The Littlecote Soap Company with their lovely hand-made soaps (reviews to follow)
2/. Paul Williams, wood turner, of Woods World Wide: someone who loves working in Horse Chestnut
3./ Union Hand-Roasted Coffee, who source their own coffee directly from the growers, pay the growers a decent price and then, to top it all, hand-roast every batch of beans, and still produce a coffee at a reasonable price. The coffee bears the Fairtrade Mark (important to our readers, I am sure) and is now also stocked at Sainsbury's.
4./ Though last but by no means least, in my list is Gone Rural. Gone Rutral is definitely a company that deserves mentioning and this one also deserves mentioning on “Ethical Living Review”, G(L)R's sibling publication.
Gone Rural sells products such as coasters, place mats, mats, baskets, etc. woven from local grasses by women in Swaziland.
The list above is, but, a small selection of companies that were present at the Country Living Spring Fair 2008, but those were the ones that really stood out in my mind, aside from the environmental charities such as the previously mentioned Field Studies Council, as well as The Wildlife Trusts.
One could, in addition, mention Neil's Yard Remedies, which have come in the years since I used to be around the area of Soho where Neil's Yard is situated, a long way. I remember the company when it started in the 1980's and the way one could come with one's own containers to buy peanut butter in one shop, lovely handmade bread in another and a range of herbal remedies in another. We need more of those kind of stores again that sell in such a way.
© Michael Smith (Veshengro), March 2008
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