Moseley goes green for Christmas

• Dec. 22 by Natalie Adcock (0)

Shoppers in Moseley were treated to a Farmers Market, Arts Market and a Green Christmas Fair last Saturday.

All three events were green in nature and came together to give environmentally conscious shoppers in Birmingham a one-stop place to shop for Christmas.

The Moseley Farmers Market, which holds the award for best Certified Urban Farmers’ Market 2009 at the FARMA Local Food Awards, had stalls from farms and other local food producers selling cuisine from fish to fruit and vegetables.

The Arts Market was organised by Jamie Lewis who told Birmingham Recycled that the stallholders make everything from scratch and that nothing you find in the market is manufactured.

Stallholders included Sarah Myatt Glass Design, who was selling flattened recycled bottles such as Magners, and Christ Phillips’s Mischief Bunnies who made rabbits from old gloves.

These events were held on the Village Green on Alcester Road, and the Green Christmas Fair was inside the Post Office Building behind it.

Organised by Birmingham Friends of the Earth, the Christmas Fair saw organisations such as Loaf Online, the Northfield Ecocentre and Oxfam Midlands Group come together to help people have a sustainable Christmas.

The Northfield Ecocentre gave people tips such as don’t use non-recyclable artificial trees, reuse wrapping paper and don’t throw away leftover food.

Tom Baker, founder of Loaf Online, said:

“This is my first time at the Green Christmas fair and it’s going great.

People are showing lots of interest in my new monthly subscription scheme and I wish that I had brought more bread to sell because I sold out by 1:00PM and we still have three hours left!”

Birmingham Friends of the Earth’s stall showcased a way of wrapping presents inspired by a Japanese tradition, which was is using material so that people use the same wrapping each year.

They also had a table dedicated to the fashion of freecycling, where people give away unwanted items such as CDs and phones and others can take them to use for free.

Joe Peacock, Campaigns Support Worker, said:

“It was by far our most successful Xmas Green Fair ever, warmly received by everyone and making us a good amount of money to contribute towards our valuable work to promote better environmental practices in Birmingham next year.

We are even considering putting on another green fair in spring or summer for the first time, as a result of how well it went.”

The Farmers and Arts Market run on the fourth Saturday of every month respectively and it was the second Green Christmas Fair after a successful launch in 2008.