Feedback Global has been awarded a grant by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to document, save and celebrate the food and farming heritage of the borough of Knowsley, Merseyside.

Feedback Global is pleased to announce a £237,522 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to explore and record the food and farming heritage of Knowsley and secure it for future generations with a permanent home at the Knowsley Archives in Kirkby.

We want to create a better food future in Knowsley by using inspiration from the past. We will engage diverse resident groups about the area’s food and farming heritage using education, participation, research and activities. We want to celebrate the area’s distinct farming and food heritage from 50+ years ago. This heritage is at risk of disappearing, so preserving it and bringing it to life for residents of all ages will enable everyone to access it in the future.

A group of young people take a break from potato picking on an unidentified farm in Kirkby, 1910, Image courtesy of Knowsley Archives Service

Our legacy will be the educational process, community engagement, materials created and future project work. Inspired by Knowsley’s heritage, it will help to highlight today’s unmet nutrition, horticulture and nature connection needs, offering inspiration from the past to solve them. With new connections and common references, Knowsley will be a better place to live, with stronger communities suffused with a sense of place and heritage.

Our focus will be the lost agriculture; how residents grew, produced, and ate local, seasonal food. We will work with former agricultural workers and residents, exploring Knowsley’s Archives to understand changes in land use, employment and lifestyle. Some of the residents we will engage in this project are in their later years, and time is running out to capture their stories, risking their permanent disappearance. Without the funding from The National Heritage Lottery Fund, those stories would likely remain unheard.

This National Lottery funded project will enable us to identify the hidden heritage of agriculture, which is all around us in the names of roads, memories of older residents and the unexplored archive ephemera which includes oral recordings of farming families; the internment records of prisoners of war who were sent to work on the land; as well as the poetry of Annie Harrison, who grew up in a farming family.

One of the main outcomes we hope to see from this project is a kindling of interest in building environmental and sustainable food economies and using the learning from the past to create a new future for the Knowsley communities. The agricultural and food production history of Knowsley will be a way to link up disparate age groups and life experiences within the borough. Our project will serve as a powerful tool for community development, education and cultural preservation, enriching the lives of residents and strengthening the community.

Volunteers, local groups, college students and schools will be able to take part in the project through creative, celebratory and investigative activities and events led by expert practitioners, allowing people from across Knowsley to enjoy and play a part in recording the farming heritage.

We will be actively recruiting for volunteers to work with us, please go to our website for more details and to connect with our community team.

Carina Millstone, Executive Director from Feedback Global said:
“We are thrilled and honoured to have been awarded a grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for an exciting new project in Knowsley. Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players we will be working with the community to capture and celebrate Knowsley’s lost agricultural heritage, and to revitalise the area’s rich food and farming traditions. We look forward to working with partners Knowsley Archives, Culture Knowsley and Knowsley College as well as individuals from across the community to make this happen.”

If you’d like to volunteer with us, fill in the form below and we’ll be in touch

Don’t worry, this is not another official statement about how Alchemic Kitchen is dealing with Covid-
19, it is an unofficial one.
As a team we put our heads together and decided on how we could best utilise our resources to help
our community; which resulted in putting the marmalade making to one side to focus on tackling
potential food shortages in the region. We have been overwhelmed at the support we have received
from chefs and restaurants over the last couple of weeks, their response has been fantastic and has
aided the work we are doing to ensure people are being fed. We have received donations of food
from places that have been forced to close as a result of government advice and have been turning it
into hearty soups. We are working with partner organisations to then get the food to where it needs
to be.
We have figured that we have the capacity to feed up to 250 people per week, providing there is an
appetite for it, and we can get enough community partners involved to run the operation safely and
within the guidelines set out by Govt.
That is a lot of soup to make over the coming weeks and months and so far we have either made or
had donated:
Celeriac, Apple & Wild Garlic
Leek, Carrot & Fava Bean
Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato
Spiced Tomato
Thai Corn & Sweet Potato
Potato, Mushroom & Basil
However, this is just the beginning. We have received a fresh delivery of lentils, fava beans and split
peas from Hodmedod and I am still working through a mountain of produce that has been donated
to the cause.
My life isn’t just all soup now, though. I am also writing recipes that might be useful for people at
home who are leaning on their store cupboard a little more than usual (see the bottom of the page
for the first little taster) and we are also running a kitchen diagnostic on social media so if you need a
little inspiration get in touch with us on Thursday's by tweeting @AlchemicKitchen with the hashtag
#AlchemicKitchen with your cooking quandary and we will reply between 5pm-7pm.

Stay well,
Keenan Humble
Alchemic Kitchen.

Spiced Tomato Relish

This recipe is perfect for any overly squishy tomatoes you have, great to top burgers with, serve with
cheese on toast or just spread over crusty bread.

500g overripe tomatoes
1 tsp malt vinegar
1 tsp sugar (soft brown, preferably)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp salt
1 clove garlic, finely grated
1 tsp chilli flakes

1) Chop tomatoes, so that they become a fine slush, then put into a heat proof bowl. Add the salt, sugar,
vinegar and black pepper into the tomatoes and leave to sit at room temperature. Any soft herbs you have
would be great in this too, particularly oregano and/or basil.
2) In a saucepan gently heat the oil, garlic, coriander and chilli flakes until the garlic is slightly golden.
3) pour the hot oil over the tomatoes and stir through. Leave the relish to sit at room temperature for at
least half an hour to allow the flavours to permeate.