It’s been a mad old summer with me darting back and forth to Manchester to rescue fruit and veg from the wholesale market. Thanks to FareShare I’ve managed to give out free fruit and veg to hundreds of people.

Miranda, Derek and Eric at the market have restored my faith in people working to alleviate food poverty. Not all the people I have met this summer have had the best interests of the poor at heart. It’s been very upsetting to find that there is greed and corruption within the food poverty business. You’ll hear more about this in September.

Two very special friends of ours, George and Celia have been there every Friday to sort through tons of fruit and veg. Without them we couldn’t have done it and they have only taken payment in vegetables. Truly special people.

The families we’ve met out there have humbled us with their stories of survival within this dreadful, shameful ‘Big Society’ created by our government.

Mum’s have made apple pies, apple and blackberry crumbles, vegetable lasagnes, fresh tomato sauce, cauliflower cheese. So much good cooking with all this wonderful produce.

I don’t want to stop and it kills me to think that the piggies will be eating those delicious vegetables at the end of the summer when I have to stop.

Even though I’ve had my bum bitten by a dog and managed to get myself locked inside a room for two hours without food or wine I wouldn’t have missed this experience for the world.

No more for now as I have a massive event coming up next week where I have agreed to create an edible landscape for a zillion people. Even Ged is having nightmares about it.

Until then, please check out my Facebook page for updates.