Hertford Foodswap

02/05/2026

Many eggs, enormous tarragon and other herbs plus seedlings seeds, jams, chutneys, marmalades and rhubarb today.

A good summer swap!

🍍🥚🥚🥚🥖🫜🫜🫜

04/04/2026

Great this morning BEAM Hertford with various edibles including purple sprouting broccoli, kale, rhubarb, herbs, soda bread, apple jelly, flower tea chutney and marmalade plus non edible houseplants and lily of the valley.

Great to see everyone. Any members who want to join the What's App please DM me!

07/03/2026

Sourdough bread and pizza bases, kimchi, forced rhubarb, eggs, marmalade, brown sauce, chives and some superb sour dough sticky buns on offer today at

And wild flower seed balls (not edible!)

22/02/2026

Today I bottled up the Damson Gin and we have a luxurious pud of gin soaked damsons and cream for later. I have had to sample several and let's just say I am looking forward to dessert but may need a little nap first 😀

07/02/2026

A slightly unusual as our normal spot had been taken over by Fatmod Records but the great BEAM Hertford team had relocated us and we enjoyed grooving to tunes while .

As we are at midwinter mainly preserves and a fabulous sour dough

31/01/2026

Second batch of marmalade this week. Trying a new recipe for Seville and blood orange from Abel and Cole.

Seville oranges from East Herts Council along with the blood oranges with a few extra of the latter sliced and in the dehydrator. Dried blood oranges make a lovely orange 'crisp' for a little snack in a negroni or orange G and T.

25/01/2026

made although I think there might be more on and around the jars than in them. Once cool there will need to be a full kitchen de sticking!

Two shots of the 'in progress' showing the pre sugar mix and the pectin gleanings from the extra pith, lemon peel and pips.

Btw - it is delish. I will do the first cook on the second batch this week and then freeze it for a spring second batch.

Been looking for kumquats as my first ever marmalade was a half kumquat/half Seville Orange marmalade because I for a half kilo of Seville oranges and the fruit and veg market stall had kumquats at a good price and no Seville oranges (as a forager who normally has too much rather than too little fruit I don't make anything with less than a kilo of fruit!)

24/01/2026

Marmalade making season!

First batch on for the first cook this afternoon. Seville oranges from the fruit and veg stall on and (mostly) using the recipe from Delia Smith's Kitchen except I boil up the spare pith, seeds etc in a separate saucepan and then sieve after a disaster with a poorly tied bit of muslin that took a long while to separate!

Will fridge it overnight and then add sugar tomorrow for rolling boil and potting up 😀

What recipe do you use?

30/12/2025

Veggies going spare and a batch of fresh veggie soup sounds like just the ticket.

Or, if you fancy something a tad more exotic carrot is a great substitute for green papaya if you want to make Thai green papaya salad!

Extra session Today at Sele Community Hub!! 🥕🥔

A huge thank you to our incredible community for the generous food donations we've received over the last couple of days!

We've got so much, especially carrots, potatoes and other fresh vegetables! That we’ve decided to open for a last-minute session TODAY, to ensure nothing goes to waste and that everyone who needs food can get some!

So if you fancy cooking up a big batch of
soup to last the week , or maybe just want to add some fresh ingredients to your meals, please come by.

📍 Where: Sele Community Hub
⏰ When: 12:00pm - 1:00pm

Please share this post to let others know, and to make sure nothing goes to waste!

Don't forget to bring your bags.

31/10/2025

Ooh not only Foodswap tomorrow but also an opportunity for a stuffed cookie! Nom nom!

30/10/2025

One of the things we are asked by the uninitiated Foodswapper is 'how does it all work?'. So, a bit of a guide:

We meet the first Sat of the month, between 1030 and 1130 at BEAM Hertford.

People generally arrive between 1030 and 1045. There is coffee and chat; mainly about what someone has to swap but also food/recipes/fermenting/growing/sour dough/weird veggies or forageables or something somebody hasn't eaten/made etc (1). Scoobies/sourdough starters etc are regularly offered accepted.

Around 1115 we swap, the only way to do it is to shed any British reserve and stake your claim. There is occasionally a '3 way swap' where (say) person 1 has chilli's and wants person 2's beetroot, but person 2 wants person 3's jam. Luckily when this happened at the Oct swap person 3 wanted chilli's.

There is the odd 'swap it forward' particularly when people have a glut. Where someone will promise a future swap if they don't have anything at that moment to swap or that the swappee wants.

That's it. We do sometimes stay on as chat became too interesting or haven't quite got enough info about something.

People do come along for a chat, particularly in the winder months where there is less to swap.

There is a What's App group for informal swaps between the monthly meet up which tends to be more of a thing in summer/autumn than in winter/spring.

NOTES!

1. eg at the Oct swap somebody mentioned they had an outdoor, wood fired pizza oven but had never used it which prompted another swapper to offer to re-home it at which point, entirely randomly, a pasta maker with ravioli attachment was offered in return. Which turned out to be exactly what the pizza oven owner was after as she had decided to learn how to make pasta