The Food Assembly offers the people of Glasgow and surrounding areas a new way to shop for local and fresh produce.  Currently Six producers from Glasgow are gathering to offer fresh and local food to their customers.

The Food Assembly is the British version of a French network of communities known as ‘La Ruche qui dit Oui!’ which offers fresh food from local farmers and was launched in the UK in July 2014.

The network is now spreading all across Glasgow to offer high quality food and support small local producers.

In order to shop with the Glasgow Food Assembly, the customers first need to create an account on their website. Then, they have to select the products they want and finally, pick them up on the day of the assembly. The Glasgow Food Assembly gathered for the first time on 8 February 2016 at the Drygate, the UK’s first experimental craft brewery, to deliver the orders that customers had made on the online shop a few before the event.

The network is now preparing its fifth assembly and discussing about future ones in Glasgow.
The popularity of ethical and local producers is growing steadily in Glasgow and the network is gaining new members. Geraldine Pitt, Food Assembly’s host, started organizing the gatherings in the UK in November of last year. She said: “The whole initiative takes about 12 weeks: finding producers, organizing venues, growing members, etc.”

The concept of the Food Assembly is widening and will from now on welcome not only food producers but any ethical local producers to take part in the process. One of the new participants is Carishea, a business that will be selling cosmetics for the network.

A lot of people from the city and beyond gathered on 8 February at Drygate in the desire to meet local farmers and food makers and enjoy fresh products grown within a radius of less than 150 miles from Glasgow.

The Food Assembly is also a way to help small-scale producers to promote their business all around the city while reducing food waste thanks to the online process the customers are going through to order their products.

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Last Wednesday I placed my first order, trying not to get too carried away as I viewed some amazing produce and vegetables that I never even knew existed, like rainbow carrots and beetroots!

I was absolutely excited today to go to the Drygate and pick up my goodies, a very good system too, all the producers were there ready with your order, all numbered so they knew exactly what was yours. They answered any questions very professionally and passionately and spoke about why their produce is the best and their procedures.

So here is what I picked up today, I am currently working on some new recipes to try with these, so watch this space!