It seems Gordon Ramsay is getting all hot and bothered again, this time it is not over the cleanliness of commercial kitchens but about seasonal produce. Ramsey is speaking out about the benefits of restaurants serving in-season and locally sourced produce over out of season fruit and veg that is flown in from other countries.

Here at welovelocal.com are all for supporting local seasonal produce, buying locally always has fantastic benefits to the local economy, and buying seasonal produce really does help globally as air miles are reduced, thus lowering our countries carbon footprint.

However after reading the BBC article and watching the clip of a very fired up Gordon I can’t help but wonder if what he is suggesting is possibly taking it a little to the extreme? Fining chefs who do not have seasonal produce on their menus, outlawing out- of -season produce from restaurants and creating government legislation to make it all happen!

Whilst it’s true that seasonal produce is far tastier, sustainable and imaginative we need to be educating both consumers and chefs alike about the importance of this produce as opposed to outwardly banning the use of anything else. The National Farmers Union pushes this point further - that education is key as so much of farming is already tied up in legislation.The suggestion is that we need to focus on educating consumers about menu transparency and its benefits in order to move forward.

There certainly seems to be a huge move towards menu transparency today with restaurants priding themselves on their local offerings. It seems now, more than ever eating establishments are using their local and seasonal credentials as a unique selling point.

So it seems as a nation we are taking the steps in the right direction, but I suppose Ramsay wants us to take the final leap. It certain is understandable, but is such government action necessary, can we not make the right decision alone?

What do you think?

Tip: in season at the moment are; tomatoes, salad leaves, courgettes, berries and yummy apricots!

Photo by Becca G over on Flickr

Received this awesome picture yesterday. We’ve had welovelocal.com cakes (made with my own fair hands) , stickers and signs but the pizza tops them all!

John W, uploaded this marvelous creation to welovelocal.com when reviewing his local Kebab shop - Turkish Delight. Now, seeing that kebabs are usually consumed when under the influence of alcohol I’m not entirely sure if John modified this Turkish Delight pizza himself, or the kind ‘kebab man‘ whipped it up for him?

Anyway we think it’s awesome - cheers John!

With InterNational Downshifting Week 2008 starting this Saturday It got me thinking about some of the work life balance ideas around at the moment. The idea of InterNational Downshifing week is nothing to do with changing gears on your bike, or your car - it is about about taking one week of your life and slowing the pace right down, and hopefully leading a greener simpler life.

In essence, if you re-address your work/life balance in favour of ‘life’ then you will inevitably slow down, enjoy the simpler and often greener things in life more. I know many people love work etc, I am just putting the idea out there. The principle, in a nutshell is that working less will mean you will probably earn less (boo), therefore become thriftier and greener naturally (yay). Your overall consumption should decrease - and this will have a positive effect on the environment. Failing this the website has list of other things you can do to downshift - even if it is just a little, like shopping locally for a week.

This may well be a wee bit extreme for most of us but there are less radical measures you can take to get back in touch with your creative side, balance your life and possibly become a little greener. Back in December the Carsonified team took a step back from their computers and took a week out to do something creative (idea week). They came up with the fabulous hugmymac.com, they made fabric cases (hugs) for Mac Books and iPhones – the results were pretty impressive and I think they even surprised themselves.

I think the main point here is downshifting doesn’t have to mean re-arranging your entire life, it can be as simple as changing one or two things, it could make a big difference – who knows you might surprise yourself!

Photo supplied by hAdamsky’s over on Flickr.

We have a wealth of fantastic recommendations on welovelocal.com and with it being the hottest day of the year so far (and all I can think about is outside) I thought I’d pull out some of the recommendations that we have for great places for the weekend.

Kicking off with Komedia in Brighton, this little south coast gem has had some cracking reviews, and as a once resident of Brighton I tend to agree. Saturday is kids’ comedy day so this place really is a family affair. Don’t worry the comedy gets ramped back up to adult level by the evening and with an upstairs and down you are bound to find something you enjoy to make your evening pass.

Or if you fancy something a bit more outdoors and less related to alcohol then you could try Bristol Zoo, another attraction that has pulled in some pretty good reviews. Every weekend throughout April they have free puppet shows and entertainment – fun for all the family!

Now, Tropical World Leeds is another one that has some very nice words written about it. This place sounds quite exciting and according to Ruth H cost only a measly £3 for adults to get in! Tropical World is an indoor rain forest with tropical plants, animals and fish to go with it – what more could you want for £3?

Going up the country further, Gibside in Newcastle has made its self a good name on welovelocal.com. This is another good one if you fancy getting outside in the good weather (though Sunday is meant to snow, so best to go Saturday). This National Trust spot is pretty stunning and you could do a lot worse than to take the air here.

Don’t fear if you are staying in the capital this weekend, if you want to try something different then Friday Night Ride Cycle is looking good. Join group of cyclists and beginners as they cruise around London for fun. There is some drinking involved, so if you’re not steady on a bike without a drink probably not your best option.

We are off for an office curry now!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Photo supplied by Zenera over on Flickr

Hope everyone is feeling the Easter vibe this year, I for one am, but that may have something to do with large sugary chunk of Carluccio’s Easter Dove cake I consumed at 9.30 am this morning (thanks Lucy)!

Anyway, Easter weekend seems to bring out some very strange antics in Britain. If you are looking for something a little different to sitting around stuffing chocolate eggs, at home in your dressing gown - well then depending on what part of the country you are located in, you could be in for a real treat. Some of the super cool traditions that take place across the UK make London seem a little tame, with its Easter egg hunts and other such controlled fun!

If you are anywhere near Lancashire then it would be advisable to check out the annual ‘egg rolling’ competition. The tradition sees people rolling hard boiled eggs down a hill, and the winner is the lucky person with enough skill to roll their egg the furthest and with minimal breakage. Or if you can’t get to Lancashire Primrose Hill, London is holding its own ‘Easter Egg Roll’ amongst other egg related activities this year.

In County Durham you could partake in some ‘egg jarping’ – not too sure what that is? Don’t worry I don’t think you’re alone. Basically it is a game similar to conkers but played with hard boiled eggs. The competition covers lots of different round and the winner is the contestant with their egg left unbroken.

Fancy something away from all the eggs? Yorkshire is the place; the annual coal carrying championships take place at this time every year since 1963. The town of Gawthorpe sees contestants competing in the mile race carrying a 50kg bag of coal. It all started when two local men challenged each other to a race and today the record stands at 1min 6 seconds for men and 5mins 5 seconds for women.

And for something a little more grown up, head along to Guanabara in the capital for their ‘Chocolate Shot Ball’. You will get a delicious shot of some seriously strong Sagatiba cachaça chocolate that will keep you buzzing along to the samba- rock all evening.

If you’re not into chocolate (I feel for you) you could always try cheese rolling in Chester and Gloucester?

Have fun!

photo by The G-tastic 7 over on flickr 

We thought we’d try something new -

We wanted to get to know a bit more about all the fantastic communities out there - find out what really makes them tick! So, we’ve handed over the reigns and let someone else fill our blog space, and our first community has done a fine job of just that. We caught up with the very fabulous crafter, designer and blogger Clare Nicolson, she chairs Glasgow Craft Mafia - the indie community that is stitching up a storm on the Scottish craft scene! Here’s what she had to tell us about her community.

Hi Clare, please could you explain to welovelocal.com who you are and tell us a little bit about your community?

I am the chairperson of the Glasgow Craft Mafia. The Mafia is interesting in that it’s a very local, grassroots organisation that celebrates DIY ethics, but it is also part of a wider international community! A community within a community, within a community if you like! The Craft Mafia is an international collective of independent business owners. It was founded in Austin, Texas in 2003, and now has branches operating across 42 cities and across multiple creative disciplines to promote new-wave craft. The Glasgow branch is the first of its kind to open in Scotland!

What type of things does your community get involved with, both online and offline?

The Glasgow Craft Mafia has a pretty strong online presence. We use our website as a tool to share info such as our market events, our social gatherings and our craft tutorials etc. The site also functions as an introduction to our members and to their respective businesses. The site is developing all the time. During the course of 2008 you’ll see the blog taking on a more prominent role, you’ll see how-to guides appear on there and we’ll be sharing many more stories and snaps of our adventures! We use social networking sites to keep in touch with each other, other crafters, Mafia fans and local people interested in what we’re up to. We have profile pages on Myspace, Bebo, Facebook and indie craft site Indie Public.

Offline we’re equally as active! The members of the GCM are dedicated to spreading the creative word via craft tutorials, sociable craft-alongs, public crafting outings, themed parties and of course, the seasonal Glasgow Craft Mafia Indie Market! Our craft tutorials will kick off this spring with sessions on knitting, cross-stitch and embroidery and we have a couple of exciting outings planned for the coming months too! We’re organising a vintage clothing shopping trip to Edinburgh and we’re off to visit the UKs quirkiest jumble sale in Sheffield once the weather has brightened up! We might even pop in on our extended mafia familia in Leeds and Manchester at some point! A big event in our ‘real world’ diary is our Indie Market. Our Spring event takes place on Saturday 15^th March at Hillhead Library (Byres Road, Glasgow), with another scheduled for 26th April. We’ll also be enjoying social afternoons at crafty country music event, [We Are] Fuzzy Felt Folk on the first Sunday of every month at Macsorleys, Glasgow!

What do you think is the secret to the success of your community?

The Glasgow Craft Mafia is great in that the success of the organisation is in the hands of each and every member. Everyone involved has a role to play in promoting the Mafia and everyone is itching to promote the concept of new-wave craft in our city and beyond! We have over twenty members now. With all those people comes a whole range of talent and expertise that’s crucial to the operation of the collective.

How is Craft Mafia received in Glasgow, does the wider community appreciate your work - does the city have a strong independent scene?

Glasgow already has a vibrant indie music and indie arts scene, so really it was crying out for someone to address the gap for a groovy craft scene! The Glasgow Craft Mafia seems to be fitting into the alternative community here very comfortably and as was our intention, our knitters and sewers and makers are working along side the city’s musicians, photographers and artists and they are operating in the same indie network of venues and businesses.It’s great! There’s set to be a lot of cross-over between disciplines I think.

Do you have a local for any great places in Glasgow?

If you’re looking to shop for the perfect handmade one-off – you must visit the Glasgow Craft Mafia Indie Market (obviously!) If you’re on the look out for some swish vintage clothes, time your visit to co-incide with the very lovely Pop Boutique event. However, if you’ve shopped till you’ve dropped and are really just after some sustenance, you might want to pop by Macsorley’s Music Bar on Jamaica Street for the best fish n chips in town! Mono also does a mean veggie burger and the tastiest hand-cut spicy fries! For a night on the town you might enjoy the country swing of [We Are] Fuzzy Felt Folk (seasonal, @ Nice n Sleazy) or the sizzling hot tunes at monthly club night, El Rancho Picante at the very cool Flying Duck (Renfrew Street).

So, what three tips would you give to other community leaders, or community websites starting out?

1. First of all I think it’s important when getting started to allow some time for ideas, structures and roles to develop organically, allow people the space to find their place within the group. It’s taken us a little time to strike the perfect balance, but now that we have, we’re set to craft up a storm!
2. Develop relationships with other organisations and be open to collaborative ideas. We’ve been lucky in that we’ve made some really wonderful contacts and now have some interesting opportunities to get our message out there in some interesting ways!
3. Bake cookies for group meetings!

Super big thanks to Clare and her awesome Mafia for talking to us, being so enthusiastic and sharing their lovely photos (to see more pics from the group checkout their flickr).

Keane Ingram has done two things I have regularly protested that I myself would one day do. One, he has visited every Sam Smith’s Pub in London, and two, he has made a Google Maps Mashup with the data, so you’ll never have a reason to pay more than £1.99 for a pint again.

Thanks to the McCallion brothers for the heads up.

Once you used to reach for the paper business directory to find a good driving school or electrician, but now it would appear that trends are changing. We recently commissioned a poll carried out by YouGov that aimed to investigate this very thing, the findings were really interesting and at the same time quite environmentally shocking.

It highlighted that people really are making a technological leap of faith and are increasingly using the Internet to find local businesses. 51% of people asked, reported that they used the Internet most to find a local business, and a whopping 67% said that they trusted word of mouth more than an advert when finding local businesses. This is good news for welovelocal.com as we endeavor to bring word of mouth and all its quality online.

It is not a case of just looking at the technological benefits of people migrating their local search to the Internet; this could go a long way in reducing waste. Over 17.5 million unwanted directories are delivered to homes in Britain every year this is a staggering amount of waste especially seeing as our poll showed that 35% of Brits no longer want to receive printed business directories. We did some calculations and if you placed all the unwanted directories end to end they would stretch 2,833 miles, and if stacked on top of each other they would be 50 times the height of Mount Everest – crazy!

Check out the rest of our results here.

The Rubbish Game

The resolutions were not just a flash in the pan for us and since coming up with our 2008 objectives ways of achieving them just keep catching my eye. Now correct me if I am wrong but I think ‘The Rubbish Game’ may have just made recycling sound fun? We are all guilty, well most of us, for not recycling as much as we could due to reasons related to laziness. More often than not the glass bank is too far away to walk all the heavy wine bottles to, or the council don’t collect it from your door so you can’t be bothered to recycle etc.

Fret not; this new Green House initiative hosted at the Dana Centre in the Science Museum might change your mind. It takes place on the 16^th of January 2008 and you could win a prize. The challenge includes answering the question ‘what stops you recycling?’ You can use any medium of your choice to tackle the question including; photos, videos, drawings, collages etc. The event is promising a night of ‘filthy fun’, games and the chance to get some education in reducing household waste.

Overall it looks like good stuff, the website is really fun, and shows some of the ‘What Stops you Recycling’ entries so far….

So click along for some inspiration, or if you just want to be amongst like-minded, non-recycling and waiting to be reformed people.

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had happy holidays and celebrated the start of the new year in style. More importantly I hope everyone is adhering to their new year’s resolutions, whatever they are?

welovelocal.com has a few of its own resolutions it will be aiming to stick to over the coming year - well, four to be exact, a pretty manageable amount. This is the definitive list that the team will be trying to achieve in 2008:

1. Recycle more, much more! Cut down on packaging and take more trips to Unpackaged, they truly are an inspirational company.
2. Keep trying new places. We are based in London, a city with an abundance of great bars and pubs so we have no excuse to keep going to the same watering hole for our after work drinks every time (shame on us).
3. Keep shopping locally. I know we go on about it, and at times it is hard, but every penny spent in the local economy really is a penny well spent.
4. To review more. To document every great place we sample - bi it a pet shop or a hair dressers we must remember to tell others about it. Some of the welovelocal team are guiltier than others - Dan and Max you know who you are!

Hopefully by publishing them publicly on the blog we will be more inclined to keep them.

Good luck everyone, I’ll keep my fingers crossed for all of us!

Photo by Happysnapper over on flickr