The first Calderdale Festival of Food took place between September 7th and 20th 2026, celebrating local food culture throughout the valley.

We’re passionate about the power of growing and sharing food, and we’d have been remiss not to join in the celebrations. So, our Gardening Sunday session on September 20th was an extra special one, with gardening happening as usual and an ‘extra local’ lunch provided for volunteers and guests.

We teamed up with the good people at Pennine Cropshare for this event, after a few months of chatting about collaborating on a project together.

This wonderful not-for-profit organisation provides super local agroecological produce and organic food via its friendly veg bag scheme based in Hebden Bridge.

They also campaign for a better food system, delivering ethical, sustainable veg, fruit and other food items to convenient collection points in Calderdale and East Lancashire and supporting local growers and organic farmers by providing a reliable market to sell their produce.

Volunteers headed down to the police station, train station, St Mary’s church, and the space outside the college entrance to tidy and weed, and, the most exciting bit, plant out a load of new vegetables that had been grown for our Seeds of Hope garden.

Melanie from Pennine Cropshare and Will from The Long Causeway Market Garden hosted a stall outside the college, sharing information on their work and selling some lovely locally grown vegetables to attendees and passers-by.

Pennine Cropshare supplied a big mix of delicious locally- and British-grown produce for lunch, including crown prince squash, leeks, kale, chard, spring greens, carrots, beetroot, and garlic from The Long Causeway Market Garden near Todmorden; delicious British-grown carlin peas from Hodmedod’s; and Alouette new potatoes from Organic Pantry in Tadcaster.

Incredible Edible Todmorden provided chives, basil, marjoram, garlic, rosemary, lovage, and other herbs from our own growing areas right here in central Todmorden.

Lunch was a colourful mix of vegan food from Chris and David, with Tod Tagine, pesto potatoes, carrot and beetroot slaw, and cinnamon rice pudding for dessert.

We had a full hall including our regular volunteers, friends, visitors, and folks who were new to IET. It was a fabulous morning of good food, community, and making a difference in our town – absolutely the kind of thing we’d like to do more of.