Had lunch at Riverford’s travelling field kitchen. I travelled 40 minutes from Brockley, South East London to Islington in North London where the restaurant is currently pitched up on Freightliners City Farm. The restaurant travelled from a forest in Devon to this site at the end of the Holloway Road. About 8 hours in the slow lane. The restaurant is a yurt. Hand-made using ash from Tor Hill woods it is broken down and carried on a truck to be rebuilt at a different destination every month or so. The yurt travels with its own community of chefs, waiters, washer-uppers and a whole load of organic veg. Once up and running it provides the most beautiful space to enjoy delicious seasonal food cooked to perfection by Jane Baxter and served up to a load of once-strangers who now sit next to each other on wooden benches, around eight huge tables talking about lunch and life.

So community… Well on this sweaty, sticky, city day in June I couldn’t feel more hot and bothered walking up the Holloway Road. The only sounds I hear are coming from machines – beeping horns, spluttering engines, deafening drills. I don’t hear any human sounds at all let alone any conversation. People are too busy and too cross to look at each other let alone talk and to be honest I feel a little bit like crying. Yes I’m an emotional person but also, thinking about community, this ten minutes out of the tube just reminds me what a lonely place London can be.

And then I arrive. The city farm in itself is always a joy. I’ve never been to this one before but the simple reality of a little bit of countryside in the centre of town is always a wonderful escape. So the perfect place for Riverford to pitch up.

Founder Guy is here today and so I say hello and sit down in time to hear him stand up and say a few words – about Riverford, their farm in Devon, organic vegetables, their box delivery scheme, about his community of growers and cooks and about crazy ideas. Like this one. Riverford have been growing and delivery organic vegetables for over 12 years. They’ve got an amazing restaurant on their farm in Devon – the original Field Kitchen – but this is the brand’s latest adventure. And it really must be an incredible effort. Much easier to open another restaurant outside Devon – and surely more profitable. But then Guy doesn’t often take the easy option, he doesn’t go for the quick cash.

This is about making connections between one community and another – between the country and the city; between those who grow and cook and those who eat; between Riverford and their consumers and between 10 strangers sitting around a table.

Sitting here for an hour I find that despite living very different lives, common interest has brought us all here together to share a unique experience. The food was amazing – but that goes without saying and sounds better coming from Gordon Ramsey. But the experience itself was somehow at the same time challenging and yet comforting – cocooned away from the hustle and bustle deep in quiet conversation with strangers. Really quite special. I was sitting next to a guy who helps Jo Wood run a restaurant out of her own home on one side and Ted from innocent – web genius and blogger, on my other. We walked around the farm afterwards. So after discovering the best way to prepare and present vegetables on the table I could discover how best to grow them in small spaces – like the idea of combining beans, squash and corn in the same space. Good tip.

It’s really hard to genuinely find ways to connect with those who consume what we produce. For the Riverford customer, the box of muddy and sometimes mysterious vegetables that magically arrives on the urban doorstep is always a lovely discovery. The letter that includes tips and recipes offers a helping hand in your own kitchen. But to bring the Field Kitchen to the heart of an urban community like Riverford did this month really made that connection real for me.

If you are in the U.K. you can discover the Travelling Field Kitchen for yourself. It’ll be on Mole End Farm in Kent from 19-29th August and Bristol from 2-12th September.

http://www.riverford.co.uk/news/by:latest/riverfords-travelling-field-kitchen/

I’ve asked Guy to write a piece for us about his personal experience of community building over the last 10 years. It’ll be on The Challenger Project soon. If you want to sign up we’ll let you know when.