The idea for the fair came after I realised that there are actually quite a lot of people interested in veganism in this area, but the hope wasn't just to make an event for vegans, but also for people interested in learning more about veganism, and to hopefully serve as a good outreach opportunity!

I got in touch with one of my facebook contacts, Chris Moore, who I knew through donating cakes to a charity fundraiser that he had organised.  Chris and his girlfriend Abbi (who are both vegan) both agreed to come on board to co-organise the fair.

We wanted the fair to be a celebration of all things vegan!

 As it was our first fair it was a little tricky to convince some companies to travel to Colchester have a stall, especially since we couldn't tell them how successful or how popular it would be!   However we managed to get some great local businesses on board, including local curry stall "The Chickpea",  local health food shop "Natural Foods", a couple of raw food stalls, two breweries and of course myself selling cakes!

From further afield we had London based “Kizzy’s Cookies” and also Hodmedods beans who are from Norfolk.  We were also really thrilled to have elite vegan athlete and marathoner Fiona Oakes offer to come to the fair to speak to people about all she has achieved on a plant based diet.

We took a lot of effort  promoting the fair via social media, and also a leaflet drop.

As the fair approached I had to think carefully about how many people to cater for with my cakes!

I was hoping for at least a couple of hundred visitors, as our facebook event had 235 people marked as “attending”, so I decided to make just over 300 cakes, and hoped it wouldn't be too many, especially with another bakery stall in attendance.

The fair (which was free to visit) was held on 10^th May at Colchester Arts Centre, and started at 11am.

Chris manned the door to count people in, and counted 80 people in the first 10 minutes!  He had to stop counting at 300 when we noticed people had been coming through another door!

My cake stall had a non-stop queue of people for two hours, and after that all the cakes had sold out!  In fact all of the stalls selling fresh food sold out by 1pm!

I felt a bit bad to have sold out two hours before the end of the fair, especially when some people had travelled quite some way to get a cake.  We had a pop up tea room selling their own cakes too, and they also sold out early, as did the cookie stall, the raw food stalls, and the curry stall!

We estimate that at least 600 people visited, which we were obviously thrilled with, as it was more than we could ever have hoped for!

My advice to anyone thinking of planning a vegan fair in their own town is to just go out and do it!

Aside from the hire costs of the venue and the leafleting costs there weren't really any other expenses.  The money from the stall holder’s pitches covered our costs, and what was left over we donated to the charity Vegfam.

(We also held a charity raffle in aid of Vegfam, with prizes of 3 hampers of vegan goodies donated by various companies, and over £400 was raised in total!)

It was a great sense of accomplishment to see all of our efforts being appreciated by people in the local community.  Everyone we spoke to was very complimentary and said they can’t wait for the next one!

More photo's from the day can be found on my facebook page here:https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?

set=a.856977370982951.1073741835.153401984673830&type=3

and on the website of photographer and designer Jack Burley, here: http://www.jackburley.co.uk/colchester-vegan-fair-2014/

Let’s make MINCE PIES!

(ps..they’re vegan!)

You will need:

·         11/4 cups (7 oz/ 200g)  plain flour

·         1/4 teaspoon salt

·         1.5 tablespoon sugar

·         4 tablespoons (2oz/50g) cold dairy free margarine (recommend “Vitalite” or sunflower “Pure”)

·         4 tablespoons (2oz/50g) cold vegetable fat (ie Trex)

·         3 tablespoons ice water

·         1/2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

·         1 jar readymade mincemeat

·         3 tbsp soya or almond milk

·         Icing sugar for dusting

·         Rolling pin or wine bottle for rolling out pastry, muffin tin, round pastry cutters, or a glass

To make your pastry: This is an all-purpose, flaky, roll-out pie crust, perfect for any pies. It's great for cutting shapes, or making lattices. Double the recipe and use it to make apple pie!

1. In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour and salt. Mix in the sugar. Add half the margarine and vegetable fat by about half tablespoonfuls, and rub into the flour with your fingertips, until the flour appears pebbly. Add the remaining margarine and shortening, and rub in.
2. In a small bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons of ice water with the apple cider vinegar. Drizzle the water and vinegar mixture into the flour by the tablespoonful, gently mixing it after each addition. Knead the dough a few times, adding more water until it holds together. You may need only the 2 tablespoons, but add up to 1 more tablespoon if needed. 
3. Divide the dough in two, roll each half into a ball, then press them into disks and wrap each in cling film. Refrigerate for half an hour. (Refrigerate your rolling pin too!)

To assemble you pies:

Preheat oven to 200 C.

·         Dust a clean work surface and rolling pin with flour. Roll out one ball of pastry to about 1/8 inch thick.

·          Using a glass or pastry cutter cut out circles approx 3.5 inch wide, and press carefully into the muffin pan to make the base of your pies. 

·         Spoon 2 teaspoons of mincemeat into each pie.  Roll out the other ball of pastry to 1/8 inch thick. Use a star cutter (if you have one) or a smaller glass to cut out the lids of your pies.  Press the lids on. Make a small hole in the surface of each pie with a small sharp knife to allow the steam to escape (no need if using star shaped lids).  Brush each pie with a little soya or almond milk.

·         Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 mins or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 5 mins before moving to a cooling rack. 

·         When cooled sprinkle the tops with icing sugar.

·         They will keep well if placed in an airtight tin. If you like you can warm them in the oven before serving.

Hello all!

I am afraid I am bearer of bad news this evening! (You may have already read this on Facebook..)

Unfortunately the Treehouse café are having to call time on their vegan market stall, for the time being at least…

 Here is a message that they posted on facebook earlier today…

“Dear lovely people of Colchester, we've got some good news and some bad news for you.

First off the bad news - due to full time day jobs, essays, studies and other things we'd rather avoid (but can't) we're going to be taking a break from our regular Saturday stall. It turns out the pressure of moving, starting studies and full time xmas work means we can't spend all our time working on or at the stall, as much as we love it.

We know this means some of you will miss out on your weekend fix of vegan treats, BUT - and now for the better news- we still want to prepare food for you.

We'll be taking orders which can be delivered in town centre at weekends, for which we'll be posting a menu up soon, so if you do want to order anything, all you have to do is let us know by Thursday evening!

Also, we're still available for catering, so get in touch if you have any parties or events coming up.

Lastly, it's not all over for the stall - there's a possible (and exciting) opportunity for us to expand soon - though we can't say too much about it - and the stall will be back in the new year!

Thank you all for your support so far, it's been great to meet you all and we hope to see you all again soon!”

 So there we are!

 I’d like to extend my thanks too to everyone that supported the stall and bought my cakes; I was really blown away by the response, and I’m really sorry that I won’t be able to make you any more for the time being.

Don’t forget that cakes/cupcakes are still available for private order, and can be collected from my address (down East hill) -Just email!

(I know it’s not as convenient as stopping by the stall, but at least an option is there..)

 I’ll keep you informed on here of any other places that I may end up selling in the future (I’ll have sent some of you around the whole town looking for vegan cakes soon! -Sorry about that!), and I’ll also email my mailing list with any developments regarding The Treehouse.  -Don’t forget you can also follow them on their facebook page where they will post any updates.

Also..just a little update..in case anyone is wondering what is happening with Guntons…reluctantly I think I will have to stop supplying them on Saturdays for the foreseeable future..as 1, it’s not overly practical for me to be selling in two places on a Saturday…and 2, I am guessing that most of my customer base probably head to the market stall on Saturdays anyway, since there are more vegan goodies on offer! (Hence they are selling much better!)  But thank you if you did buy cakes from there in the past..perhaps one day in the future I will return! (if they would have me!)