Knowle West people start their own smallholding with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall...

I've blogged before on how 'There are few ways to become greener better than changing attitudes towards food, so much of our footprint is food-related - grow your own, cook your own, go local, go fresh and unprocessed, go organic, go high fruit and veg'. No surprise then that I'll be tuning in to watch River Cottage Spring, the new series with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall tonight at 9pm, Channel 4. I've generally enjoyed his programs in the past and generally agree with a lot of what he's had to say about food and knowing where it comes from (see RiverCottage.net for more). There is added interest for me tonight because, according to the Radio Times website Hugh '...challenges five Bristol families to turn an acre of derelict city land into their very own smallholding - and food doesn't get much more local.'

It turns out that the people concerned live in Knowle West, not far from me, and like me are part of the Knowle West Carbon Makeover Project (which I will blog more about in the coming months - its an award-winning project). Perhaps I'll try to have a chat with the local people involved in the program to find out exactly what the whole experience has been like so far (the food production and involvement with tv production and personalities...). One thing I'm fascinated by is Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's statement in his Radio Times magazine interview that 'We've found an obscure law that suggests that if six or more households from an area request land to grow food, their local council has to respond.'. Will more be revealed in tonight's program?