OZ TUCKER: True Food Co-op, Reading, England

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

True Food Co-op, Reading, England

I bumped into my friend Catherine in the street in Toorak last week and we adjourned to a sit down place so we cold converse more comfortably. Catherine and her husband Brendan are in Melbourne for twelve months. They (and me) are Quakers and Catherine and Brendan are Resident Friends at Friends House in Toorak where they look after the comings and goings of this sort of Quaker HQ in Melbourne. Catherine and Brendan are from Reading in England and Catherine and I discussed food and where to get it. Catherine told me about the True Food Community Co-operative and so I have been having a tour of it courtesy of the intertubes .

As a bread lover and bread baker, I latched on to this story about local loaves for Lammas. I didn't know about Lammas but soon discovered what it was about - the wheat harvest. Let me do a little lament here. I love the old fasts and feast of the Christian tradition. There is a rhythm of life to them when practised consistently and prayerfully. However, as an Australian immersed deeply in her country, I am saddened by the fact that all the religious/spiritual practices of the post-1788 settlers come from somewhere else and have never become truly indigenised on this continent and have never become fully responsive to the land, the environment, and its original nations. This is one of the reasons for our making such a mess of things. We have thought ourselves superior and having all sorts of knowledge. A lot of this "knowledge" has salinated our soils, polluted our rivers and streams, given us the dubious record of the greatest extinguishers of species on the planet and we are nearly as good at extinguishing our forests. I am not suggesting a co-option of Aboriginal spirituality but a listening to it. What I am suggesting is that our spirituality needs to be embedded in and arise from this land. Here endeth the sermon!

Back to the bread. Phillipa's is my joy, luxury and delight.

One of Melbourne's treasured gifts.

Another treasured Victorian gift,

comes from the Mornington Peninsula town of Flinders.

These breads are part of the mainstream market. I am thankful for this because, if you chose your supermarket or deli or breadshop carefully you can buy these breads any day of the week across Melbourne.

The True Food Co-op is part of the campaign for Real Bread. On the Real Bread site there is a petition that can be signed for transparency in bread labelling. How I wish! Anyone for an Australian campaign?

Sign our petition for transparency in bread labelling
Did you know that there are dozens of artificial enzymes

that can be used in bread production

and legally not declared on the label?

To read more and sign our petition to The Federation of Bakers,

calling for an end to their use and

labelling transparency in the meantime click here.

But back to the True Food Co-op in Reading, England. This looks like a highly organised venture - a moveable feast as you will note from the trading days, times and places. Clearly, well supported or it could not be so organised - but which comes first? The chicken or the egg?