Golden conkers and champion chutneys

Sunday saw the crowning of Rachel as the Golden Conker Champion, but not without a fiercely fought competition. Whilst the tournament took place in the spectacular conker platform, the sun was shining and pungent smells of delicious apple chutney wafted through the greenhouses.

Thirty people enjoyed a day of chutney and jam making from fruit scrumped from the Heathrow villages a couple of weeks before. An amazing apple press made by Dai and Oscar provided us all with the most scrumptious juice, as we all shared recipes and ideas about storing the fruit for the winter. It was wonderful to see lots of new faces in Grow Heathrow, all getting stuck in and directly taking action on food security by growing food for surrounding communities.

The tension mounted as conkers were selected, knots tied tightly and safety goggles adorned for the start of the Heathrow Villages Conker Championships 2010. Ringmaster Rob got the tournament going and provided endless entertainment with his compering. Conkers were obliterated and some of the games dragged out to sudden death. But as competitors were knocked out, it was down to Juan Stan (aka Joe) and Mexican Day Of The Dead (aka Rachel) in the final. Stampsies was the word of the day, but even so Rachel was the winner and took home the golden conker for the girls.

Overall everyone had a fabulous day of learning, laughing, tasting, playing and sharing. Now is the time to build communities as we are doing in Heathrow; learning about food security and sharing skills for a post-oil future. To see what real community resilience in action looks like, David Cameron should come down to Sipson.