On a bright-ish Monday in March, Todmorden played host to some very special guests. A group of community designers and urban farming pioneers from Japan visited our town to see first-hand the place that helped inspire their own extraordinary work back home.

Fran, Judy and I spent the day showing our visitors around Todmorden (after a delicious lunch in Morning Glory!), walking them through the growing spaces, the story of Incredible Edible, and the philosophy that has guided us from the very beginning: that food is a universal language and that growing together can transform communities.

What made this visit so exciting was learning just how far the ripples of Incredible Edible Todmorden have travelled. Our guests have taken the spirit of community growing and run with it in ways that are ambitious, creative, and deeply inspiring.

Incredible projects, incredible people

Our visitors are involved in a remarkable range of projects across Japan, all rooted in the belief that growing food and building community go hand in hand.

Live Drawing — One of our guests works across more than 60 cities and regions in Japan, using live drawing to create shared visions of the future with residents, local governments, businesses and schools. It’s a beautiful approach to community building and urban design — drawing people into the conversation, quite literally, and helping whole communities imagine what their places could become.

Sasahata Hatsu

This is a major initiative to transform parks in Shibuya, Tokyo, into community farms. Working with the Shibuya local government, the team is building long-term growing spaces and bringing together local residents and officials around the idea of urban farming in the heart of one of the world’s most famous city districts. Imagine food growing in the parks of Shibuya!

anaba

In Sapporo, the team created a temporary farm on a construction site, turning unused urban land into a two-year art and growing space for high school and university students. It’s a brilliant example of how vacant land can become a place of learning, creativity and connection — even if just for a limited time.

LiLiLi

Perhaps the project that resonated most deeply with the Incredible Edible ethos, LiLiLi is a school built in a park for students who, for whatever reason, are unable to attend mainstream schools. There, young people grow focaccia wheat and tend a community farm that serves both social and enterprise purposes. Growing as a route to belonging — it’s something we understand very well here in Todmorden.

PLACE 1

In what might be the most unexpected project of all, the team created a temporary horse farm on a vacant lot right in the centre of Sapporo, a city of 1.9 million people. The aim was to encourage urban residents to reconnect with the environment and think about natural cycles and circulation. Bold, imaginative, and exactly the kind of thinking that gets people talking.

A day to remember

After an afternoon exploring Todmorden and swapping stories about growing, community and the power of food to bring people together, we finished things off in fine style at the Golden Lion (for some local beer!). There’s nothing quite like a proper Todmorden welcome.

The feedback from our guests was incredibly moving:

“Hearing Judy, Chris, and Fran’s thoughts and the philosophy of Incredible Edible was very inspiring and educational. We would also like to thank Chris’s wife Rose for her warm welcome. From now on, we would very much like to plan a project to connect Japan and Todmorden.”

The idea that Incredible Edible Todmorden could be the starting point for a lasting connection between our town and communities in Japan is thrilling. From Todmorden to Tokyo, from Calderdale to Sapporo — the simple act of growing food together continues to open doors and build friendships across the world.

And that connection is already deepening. One of our Japanese friends, Miyu, will be staying right here in Todmorden until August to get to know our community, learn from what we do, and help build an even stronger bond between Japan and our little town in the Calder Valley. Please join me in giving Miyu the warmest of Todmorden welcomes — if you see her around town, at our growing spaces, or at any of our events, do say hello. Let’s show her exactly what Incredible Edible Todmorden is all about.

Watch this space. This feels like the beginning of something very special.