Autumn horizons
Planned Raybel restoration site at Lloyd Wharf
After a summer promoting sail cargo in London, we’ve raised our sights to more distant horizons this autumn, from the north of Kent to northern Portugal.
Summer saw us experimenting, finding ways to distribute olive oil and wine, by connecting with like-minded communities. The vision is to create new patterns of distribution. Not just “selling”, but getting together with customers to tell the story of the products, of the producers who care for the land and their methods of growing, and of the sailors and traders pioneering these (re)newed trade routes.
With help from the Kings Cross Food Assembly (you'll be sadly missed), OrganicLea, and some pioneering individual customers, we've sold nearly all our summer shipment. Thanks to all for your part in our first trade. We’re looking to expand on it when the next shipment arrives – more on that below.
To Kent…
Where in September we started talking in earnest with local heritage and arts groups, and with Swale BC, about the activities we’ll be running once the Raybel restoration gets underway. We’re still looking at summer 2019 for that. We had a fab response to the survey we put around online. A special mention for those who came forward wanting to volunteer – we will be in touch with you soon.
We were always sure we’d be tapping into a rich seam of enthusiasm and energy about barge restorations coming back to Milton Creek and Sittingbourne, and the survey response has been v encouraging. With Oakmere Solutions we’ve got more local conversations going on right now. We especially want to find out where local interest is keenest for us to join up. Should we be concentrating on adding to the local primary education offer, or with secondary schools? Or maybe with those out of education now but looking for a new purpose and direction? We’d love to do some work in elder care settings as well. Then there’s the way that working on the restoration could give a real lift for local young people and adults, facing some of the challenges life can throw at us.
We’re getting lots of ideas for activities and events that will take place at the restoration site at Lloyd Wharf, alongside the rebuilt Dolphin Barge Museum. Restoration tours, open days, conservation workshops, community theatre, sailing trips and an online archive of the Raybel’s history were amongst the most popular activities in the survey. We’ll have a more detailed update on those plans soon.
Reaching the source…
Meanwhile, we’ve also headed to northern Portugal, to get a deeper understanding of the sail cargo journey. This has been a great chance to meet some of the new generation of producers working in the north of the country - Passeite, Reigado, Caixeiro - whose products are going on the next sail journey being organised by New Dawn Traders and Xisto Wines. And to help prep for our sail cargo operations on the Thames (we’re planning for the first of those next Spring), we’ll be on the Bessie Ellen leaving Porto this week as she sets sail from Porto with a hold full of wine, oil and berries. Bessie Ellen is scheduled to arriving in Bristol at the October where New Dawn Traders and Xisto Wines will be hosting a landing party at Underfall Yard. Porto’ Bristol has been a dream for them both for a long, long time – inspiration, intuition and determination gets them there this month.
And back to London…
For the next London distribution of sail cargo we’re taking bookings for all these products NOW, through our very latest new partnership. Along with New Dawn Traders, Xisto Wines and Sail Boat Project we’re launching sail cargo products on the Open Food Network. This is a great match for all of us all – it’s an open source platform that lets YOU order sail cargo products in advance. We’ll be organising a distribution time and place in London once these are in.
With enough orders, we can turn it into a celebration of the autumn harvest and sail season. Heritage, environment, community – the passions that come together in Raybel Charters.