To mark and celebrate Liverpool Black History Month, we are excited to welcome back plant-based chef, writer & African food activist Betty Vandy (aka Bettylicious Cooks) to Squash for 2 autumn evenings of food and ideas.
Betty, founder of Bettylicious Cooks and social enterprise, Gather at the Table, has recently returned from journeying across Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Ivory Coast & Sierra Leone on a culinary adventure.
Come and join her both in person and on-line to hear about her travels and to learn more about West African food and culture.
Both events are free and require booking in advance
African Women, Food & Power
Friday 22nd October 6.30-9pm In person at Squash
Join Betty Vandy as she explores the dynamic arena of African women, food and power in Africa and across the diaspora. Land ownership, farming and the politics of food and who is truly representing it will be at the heart of this discussion. Are women across other cultures affected in the same way?Come and be part of this important discussion. Betty will be preparing food to share during the evening.
The Squash cafe will be open from 6pm serving hot and cold drinks and cakes.
Join Betty, cooking live from the Squash kitchen, for a fun and interactive online cookalong exploring the West African origins of her food practice. Learn how to cook 3 delicious, affordable and nutritious simple dishes at home for yourself, your family and friends.
Cookalong packs for you to follow will be provided in advance and will include an ingredients list, preparation & cooking instructions, utensils and food hygiene and safety requirements.
These events are part of Liverpool Black History Month and are funded by The Mayors Fund and supported by Culture Liverpool.
SQUASH SHOP & CAFE
Squash is a proper community shop & cafe, run by passionate locals, really bothered about your health and happiness.
Our kitchen team produce brilliant seasonal vegetarian food – soups, curries, stews, pies and cakes. And we all have a specialism including producing fresh sourdough, preserves, cream cheese and wild/foraged treats! Come and sample the tastiness – eat in our cafe or garden or take away.
We stock around 150 ingredients (inc. organic, seasonal fruit and veg, dairy, eggs and other staples) – to help you cook brilliant food, offering an alternative shopping experience to supermarkets. Come by and check out our high quality, ethically-sourced and affordable produce!
We also offer a weekly organic veg box and fruit bag service – please get in touch for more info elise@squashliverpool.co.uk
Really looking forward to welcoming you!
CATERING
Squash provide bespoke catering for events, meetings and conferences.
To find out more and to discuss your requirements please get in touch with Elise elise@squashliverpool.co.uk
WEDNESDAY 4-7PM
A great evening to pick up your pre-ordered veg (& fruit) box, your weekly staples and enjoy a delicious evening meal – inside or in our beautiful garden!
THURSDAY 11-4PM & FRIDAY 11-4PM
All day shopping plus come and have a delicious lunch.
SATURDAY 10-4PM
It’s Sourdough Saturday! Come and pick up one of our fresh baked loaves – all sorts of variations await you like focaccia, sourdough cookies and banana bread. Also a great time to pick up your weekly fresh fruit & veg and cupboard staples
Food for Real: AUTUMN
Welcome to our Autumn festival! At this Equinox time of year when day and night are of equal length, we promote balance and celebrate community wellbeing; taking time to work, rest, eat and make, together.
WEDNESDAY 22nd SEPTEMBER COMMUNITY GATHERING / FUNDRAISER 7-9.30pm (Drop in) SQUASH HQ
Come along with your pennies and an open heart ready for some fruity fun at our annual harvest auction! On this magical evening of food, music (DJ Harvest in the house) and comedy, all sorts of wonderful Liverpool-grown produce and artwork will be up for grabs! Help raise money for 2 vital causes; HabibtiLiverpool who support the medical staff and children at Al Sabeen Hospital, Yemen and Squash’s own ‘Box it Forward’ campaign (see below) And if you’re a grower, artist or food producer – get in touch to donate homegrown/made fruit, veg, jams, artwork etc. via rachael@squashliverpool.co.uk
The Harvest Display of lots up for auction will be available for viewing from 3.30-6.30pm on 22nd September. The Squash cafe will be open from 7-9pm for autumn drinks & snacks.
PLUS! Enter our BEST IN SHOW:
CATEGORIES:
Most magnificent Liverpool-grown fruit or vegetable
Squash sells the freshest, most colourful organic weekly veg boxes & fruit bags – support us by ordering yours via elsie@squashliverpool.co.uk Plus you can support a family in need in Liverpool 8 with a box of fresh organic veg and other vital supplies through our ‘Box it Forward’ scheme in partnership with the Family Refugee Support Project (frsp.org.uk)
Join chef Abraham Ojapah, founder of Yammtree, for a yam cooking and education session. Founded in 2020, Yammtree is a healthy afro fusion plant-based movement designed to elevate the wellbeing of people through greater awareness of African food. More info via @yammtree on insta
In collaboration with BlackFest.
BlackFest is a grassroots Black Arts festival piloted and founded in 2018 by Co-Founder, Artistic Director Jubeda Khatun. The annual combined arts festival platforms, empowers and develops work by Black artists across community spaces and established venues running this year from 20th September – 9th October. The programme includes music, theatre, film, visual arts spoken word and poetry across community spaces and established venues. The Festival answers a crucial need in the city’s cultural offering, celebrating Black arts and bridging the gap between institutions and the marginalised communities they represent. BlackFest encompasses active conversations and collaborations breaking status quo with artists, communities and venues. To cultivate and nurture work from Black Artists and communities. Reflecting the dual identities, multiple experiences and narratives not seen and heard. Putting the lens to stories that are political, social, economically and emotionally charged that simultaneously intertwine to bring together our identities of what it means to being Black and British in the UK today.
THE ART OF SEED SAVING
SATURDAY 25th SEPTEMBER WORKSHOP 11am- 2pm (Drop in) SQUASH HQ
At the heart of food sovereignty lies seeds. Join the Squash Gardeners to sort, clean and pack seeds collected from our gardens to replenish the Toxteth Seed Library and choose a packet to take away to sow next spring.
SEED MANDALAS
SATURDAY 25th SEPTEMBER WORKSHOP 11am- 2pm (Drop in) SQUASH HQ
Join artist Tabitha Moses to design your own circle pattern (mandala) inspired by the seeds we grow on Windsor Street.
Tabitha said:
“A mandala, which means circle in Sanskrit, is a symbolic design used in some spiritual traditions to represent the universe or provide a focus for meditation. They can represent the cyclical nature of life and death, the days and seasons. Marking the seasons by making mandalas connects us to people across time (our farming ancestors whose lives followed a seasonal pattern) and space (followers of the Eastern religions where mandalas originated).
The making of a mandala – whether by drawing or painting shapes or placing objects – is a calming, meditative activity in itself. During this process I don’t worry too much about how the final thing will look; I just enjoy the making. It helps to empty my mind of the background chatter, focussing on the repetitive actions of drawing or arranging. This way I can create some space in my head and in my day – sometimes sacred space.Once the mandala is finished it may be a beautiful thing, providing a focal point for meditation. Or it may not look so pleasing, yet provide inspiration for the next mandalas – the variations are endless. If the mandala is made of sand, leaves or petals it may be swept away – reminding us not to get too attached to the things around us!”
INTRODUCTION TO COMPOSTING
SATURDAY 25th SEPTEMBER WORKSHOP 1-3pm GRAPES GARDEN
Are you keen to start composting but not sure how to start? Come along to this training session that aims to give you the skills and confidence to compost your food waste. You will learn about how to set up and manage a home composting system, what should and should not go in and what to do if things go wrong. We will focus specifically on food waste composting but the principles apply on garden waste also. We will look at different kinds of composting systems but the focus is on affordable and accessible systems.
Trainer Minna Alanko-Falola runs Compost Works, a Liverpool-based social enterprise that aims to divert food waste from incineration and landfill through setting up composting facilities and running educational activities.
Free to attend, booking essential. Limited places. Email info@compostworks.co.uk with your name and contact details.
More info via Twitter/Facebook @CompostWorksUK
A LATE SUMMER DRAWING OF WINDSOR STREET
ON DISPLAY FROM 22 SEPTEMBER SQUASH HQ
During lockdown last winter and early spring, Jon Barraclough made a drawing of every building (and tree) on Windsor Street from Toxteth Library, to Squash and back again.
As the summer moves into autumn, he has revisited his Windsor Street Drawing to update the street with seasonal change and colour. His latest version will be on display from 22 September at SQUASH.
UPCOMING EVENTS THIS AUTUMN:
THE HEALING GARDEN, for World Mental Health Day – Sunday 10th October
BLACK HISTORY MONTH – Exploring West African food origins with Betty Vandy
MORE INFO SOON!
Food For Real: AUTUMN is being funded by:
And supported by:
We’re Hiring!
Squash is delighted to be recruiting new members to our team. These new jobs are provided through the KICKSTART SCHEME and are subject to the following eligibility criteria:
Applicants must be aged between 16 and 24
Applicants must be currently in receipt of universal credit
Please note that the Community Arts Worker post has now been filled.
Community Food Grower
Number of Hours per week 25
Rate of pay 16-17 year olds rate of pay is £5.20 per hour 18 years and above rate of pay is £9.50 per hour (Real Living Wage)
The Community Food Grower will support the effective operation of the Squash growing spaces. Our gardens are very much integrated into our holistic food offer and the food we grow is at the heart of our café, catering and food services. We are looking for a proactive, inventive person who has a real passion for learning how to sow, grow, harvest, seed-save and compost. You will be working with the whole Squash team on our prosperous and successful community business and exemplar neighbourhood growing project.
Rate of pay 16-17 year olds rate of pay is £5.20 per hour 18 years and above rate of pay is £9.50 per hour (Real Living Wage)
The Community Food Worker will support the effective operation of the Squash food shop, café, takeaway and catering service, working with the whole Squash team. We are looking for a proactive, inventive person who has a real passion for co-producing great tasting, vegetarian food and helping the Squash community food business to run smoothly.
Squash is a community organisation, based on Windsor Street in Toxteth, Liverpool 8.
Since 2010 we have been making positive social change in our neighbourhood through exciting, participatory food and art practices including food-growing and cooking, arts and crafts, and through our affordable food shop and café.
We are a Community Interest Company (CIC) – a not-for-profit membership organisation that is accountable to our community. Squash runs from our community-designed building & kitchen garden which opened in 2018 and from our community food garden that was founded in 2010.
We have a 100-year vision, inspired by nature; we are actively transforming our Windsor Street Neighbourhood into a people-powered place that is known throughout the world for being a playful, resilient and loving community where everybody thrives!
ABOUT OUR CURRENT KICKSTART VACANCIES
All the following vacancies are for a 6 month work placement but Squash is committed to making as many of these training roles as possible lead into continued permanent work with Squash. Kickstart employees will develop skills, discover new passions and gain enriching experiences that support and inspire the next steps into their future careers.
Squash is also part of a kickstart partnership of 26 community businesses and organisations across the country (Hastings, Brighton, Somerset, Birmingham, and Liverpool) Our work placements are supported by a national shared learning programme provided by https://www.koreo.co with opportunities to work and learn and be inspired by community businesses across the country.
HOW TO APPLY FOR THESE ROLES
If you’re interested in applying for any of these jobs, please contact your job coach in your local job centre and quote the following postcode as a reference:
After four seasons of living through a pandemic, it feels so good to welcome in the spring. How strange and difficult this time has been, individually and collectively. At Squash, we thrive on participation and we’ve really missed our regular gatherings, communal meals, and gardening together.
So, as outdoors is the new indoors, we decided to make an on-street gallery in and around Windsor Street. This first exhibition, Signs of the Times, is a group show that celebrates spring growth, community action and the importance of togetherness in our neighbourhood. Now more than ever, we need to reach out and support each other.
This is a collection of newly commissioned artworks, sketches and photos from last year’s street mapping project and images from the Squash archive. Please come and have a look and let us know what you think!
There are 3 gallery sites; on the front of the Squash building, at what we call the Wild Site behind Squash on the brick wall corner of Upper Warwick St and Luke St and on the fence of the Grapes Community Food Garden next door to Toxteth TV.
We’re excited to share this new gallery and hope it will become a place for more showing and sharing of creative work this year and beyond, on Windsor Street.
And if spring inspires you to draw a picture, take a photo or write a poem we’d love see them! Please share by texting 07864 087 926 or emailing to clare@squashliverpool.co.uk.
This exhibition is dedicated to our dear friend, the photographer and baker Mark Loudon, whose work features in this exhibition.
Sign of the Times is curated by Becky Vipond, Clare Owens, Jackie Swanson and Jon Barraclough.
Writer Anita Welsh, artist Jon Barraclough, artist Mairead McCormack, photographer Mark Loudon and artist Nina Edge.
ABOUT THIS SPACE
The garden has been developed over the last 10 years by local gardeners and cooks and enjoyed by many. It is a much loved place. Here, in 2010 we planted the apple trees whose lifespan has inspired our 100-year vision.
Squash staff and volunteers have run weekly open drop-ins in the garden for the last decade. Once covid restrictions allow, we look forward to welcoming you back to the garden for some growing, cooking and sitting around chatting – just being!
This spring we remember with gratitude the great gardener Esiah Levy who visited the Squash spring festival in 2018 to teach seed-saving. We also remember Mr Mian, our neighbour and friend who brought so much to this garden.
Mark LoudonSpring Food for Real Festival March 2018Nina EdgeHope Springs Eternal 2021Mairead McCormackCulinary Herbs 2020 WatercolourAnita WelshApple Blossom Tree 2021Jon BarracloughApple Blossom 2020
SQUASH HQ
THE ARTISTS
Photographer Mark Loudon, photographer Mina Bihi, artist Tabitha Moses, drawings by many workshop participants and a message offered by 5 lovely women who visited Squash on the Winter Solstice last year.
Mina BihiSquash team portraits Spring 2021Drawings from workshop participants 100-Year Street Imaginings 2020Mark LoudonQuince Jelly 2019Community message shared by five women at Squash’s Winter Solstice celebration 21/12/20Abdelrahman HassounaWindsor Street 2020
WILD SITE
THE ARTISTS
Angelica Vanasse, Jon Barraclough, Marlene and Tabitha Moses.
ABOUT THIS SPACE
We call this undeveloped space behind the Squash building, on the corner of Upper Warwick and Luke Street, the Wild Site. It’s currently like a big empty field. Squash owns a part of it and this summer we will be running design sessions outdoors to consider what could grow here. If you are interested in taking part, please get in touch!
Jon BarracloughA Walk on The Wild Site 2020MarleneSeeds 2020 & Tabitha MosesMagic Bean 2008Jon BarracloughA Spring (lockdown) drawing of Windsor Street Liverpool, showing every building from Upper Warwick Street to Upper Parliament Street and back again 2021
Thankyou…
…to everyone who has taken part in the Signs of The Times exhibition, and to all who supported Squash during this last year:
Exhibition curated by Becky Vipond, Clare Owens, Jackie Swanson and Jon Barraclough
Winter at Squash!
Winter Solstice Wellbeing Drop-In
Monday 21 December 4-7pm
Wrap up warm and drop by to this sharing of light and warmth on the shortest day, longest night. Sip a tasty soup or a spiced apple punch, release your thoughts of 2020 into the solstice fire, hear Hope St Harmonies sing, and take home a beeswax candle to light up your midwinter’s eve!
This is a socially-distanced event. It is free/by donation. Please wrap up warm and bring your mask. Looking forward to seeing you!
Christmas Day Opening
Friday 25th December 12-3pm
Come by our annual Christmas Day lunch for a hearty Squash welcome, tunes from DJ Sprout, piping hot Sprout Curry and seasonal hot drinks & sweet festive treats.
This is a socially-distanced event. It is free/by donation. Please wrap up warm and bring your mask. Looking forward to seeing you!
All free or by donation if you’re able. All socially-sensitive, slow-paced, heart-warming.
As well as being a food & arts-focused community organisation, Squash is also a Community Business – which means all of your contributions have social value. Squash members and customers have been absolutely amazing in their support and generosity throughout 2020.
Some ways you can continue to support us this season include…
Doing your Christmas shop with us – we have great organic veg, baking ingredients, cheeses and our own lovely Squash products
Buying your festive gifts in the shop inc.; Squash-made delights, beautiful hand-thrown pottery, wreaths, handmade chocolate, candles and veggie-print baby clothes! Plus – make your own hamper or buy a voucher!
Telling a friend about Squash and inviting them along to the Winter Solstice or Christmas Day drop-ins
Sharing our stories on social media @squashliverpool
Donating to feed folks in need and to keep our educational programmes free! You can donate online to Squash here. For neighbours in need £10 pays for a Christmas Day meal and £16 covers a special Christmas veg & supplies box. £25 supports our year round growing & cooking work with volunteers.
Opening Hours
Our shop opening hours over Christmas week are:
Monday 21st (Winter Solstice)
4-7pm
Tuesday 22nd
10am-4pm
Wednesday 23rd (Sourdough Special)
10am-4pm
Friday 25th (Christmas Day lunch drop-in) – shop closed
12-3pm
Windsor Street Chakra Rituals
Summer Solstice, June 20th & 21st 2020
On the longest day of the year, six artists & healers; Catherine, Clare, Jackie, Kate, Maxine and Nina travelled from St. James gardens up Windsor Street, to Princes Park. during the covid pandemic lockdown, travelling in a socially-distanced way, they visited the seven chakras (or energy points) along the street. At each place they stopped to bless the spaces offering food, colour, movement, sound healing, song and the planting of wild garlic.
In spring of 2018 Kate devised the Windsor street chakras idea of special spaces of energy in our street, like those found in the body. In the summer of 2020 we revisited these considering:
Sustainable transformation of our community
Systemic racism
The impacts of lockdown
This work was generously supported through the Culture Arts Investment Fund, Culture Liverpool, Liverpool City Council and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.
10 Years into the 100 year plan: Mapping the future street.
In 2020 we worked on a visual arts and mapping initiative to mark the first decade of our 100 Year Vision, funded through the Arts Council, UKRI, Manchester School of Architecture and in collaboration with community designers, mappers, artists and URBED.
Autumn Fest
Hello and welcome to FOOD FOR REAL: AUTUMN
We are SQUASH, an L8-based collective, passionate about food, art and community, and we invite you to our home on Windsor Street for a weekend celebrating the harvest.
In AUTUMN, the third of four seasonal events, we focus on local talent; the great people, produce, and ideas in our neighbourhood. At this Equinox time when day and night are of equal length, Food for Real: Autumn also explores balance and community wellbeing; taking time to work, rest, make and play, together.
FRIDAY 21ST SEPTEMBER
The Art of Seed-Saving WORKSHOP 10 am – 12 noon | Drop-in Grapes Community Food Garden, next door to Toxteth TV, Windsor Street
Join the Grapes Growers to sort, clean and pack seeds collected from our gardens for the Toxteth Seed Library and choose a packet to take away to sow next spring!
The Hundred Year Harvest DRAWING & DISPLAY 21st Sep – 28th Oct | Drop-in OPENING PARTY 21st Sep 5 pm – 7.30 pm Throughout Squash building.
Artist and local resident Nina Edge uses large drawings and maps to start conversations about planning, resources and food with L8 residents and visiting audiences. This autumn she’ll make colourful drawings of a ‘Hundred Year Harvest’ on the windows of the new Squash building, inspired by Squash’s ground breaking Hundred Year Street Plan.
Plus – join us to draw your own paper crops on Saturday from 11 am – 2pm in the shop.
Part of Independents Biennial 2018.
Fruit and Veg Auction FUNDRAISER 6.30pm | Drop-in Squash Action Room
Bid on a banana, compete for a clementine… this autumnal auction is set to be a very fruitful (& veg-full) evening! All proceeds going to L8-based Hope Relief International for food aid for families in Yemen.
Get in touch to donate homegrown/made fruit, veg, jams and chutneys!
Part of Nina Edge’s ‘The Hundred Year Harvest’ Opening Party.
SATURDAY 22ND SEPTEMBER
Intro to Sourdough WORKSHOP 10 am – 12 noon | Booking required Squash Action Room CLICK TO BOOK NOW!
To celebrate the Real Bread Campaign’s Sourdough September initiative, join Julie from Squash and Mark from Homebaked to learn more about how this delicious and healthy staple is made!
With support from Pat LB and also from Owen at Kensington Bread Company CIC.
(Participants to also be available intermittently throughout the afternoon for bread folding and early Sunday morning for the sourdough bake-off 8.30 am – 10 am)
Drawing the Harvest WORKSHOP 11 am – 2 pm | Drop-in Squash Shop
Join artist Nina Edge to draw your own paper crops!
Magic Miso WORKSHOP 1 pm – 3 pm | Booking required Squash Action Room CLICK TO BOOK NOW!
FFR: Spring participants made miso (traditional Japanese soybean seasoning) and after half a year of fermentation, it’s time to join local cook Kate and visiting cook Dee to taste it and make a miso soup!
SUNDAY 23RD SEPTEMBER
Family Hive Harvest Celebration GATHERING 10.30 am – 1.30 pm | Drop-in Squash Action Room & Garden
Bring the kids along to celebrate this beautiful, colourful autumn season with the Family Hive team. Together we’ll explore this special time of harvest by making pictures, telling stories, playing games, dancing, singing and eating tasty food!
Open to families with children 10yrs and under.
Plus…
Molecular Fizz Flavour Lab
Join us for taste tests, ingredients picking, flavour mixing and making some great autumn drinks!
Lead by art project ‘Company Drinks’
Taking Root; The Vision of Wangari Maathai USA, 2008, dir. Lisa Merton, Alan Dater, 81 minutes DOCUMENTARY FILM 4 pm | Booking required Squash Action Room CLICK TO BOOK NOW!
Discover the story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai whose simple act of planting trees grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, protect human rights and defend democracy.
Part of Scalarama Liverpool’s Uprising theme, exploring black activism across the world.
Followed by discussion lead by food and environmental actionist Deidre Dee Woods.
And short film: Hack the Root UK, 2018, dir. Monika Koeck
See how Squash members worked with architectural scientist Mae-ling Lokko to make building blocks from mushrooms this summer. Full exhibition at RIBA North, Mann Island until 28th October.
FOOD FOR REAL: AUTUMN TAKES PLACE AT…
SQUASH
112 – 114 Windsor Street
Liverpool
L8 8EQ
Accessibility
Step free access. Disabled toilet.
Cafe and Shop
Opening times during the festival:
Friday 21st: 9 am – 7.30 pm
Saturday 22nd: 9 am – 4 pm
Sunday 23rd: 10 am – 4 pm
AND AT…
Grapes Community Food Garden
Next-door to Toxteth TV
Windsor Street
BOOKING
Food for Real activities are free / pay as you feel.
Visit the following links, or phone us on 0151 707 7897 to book your place, where required.
Taking Root; The Vision of Wangari Maathai