Sustainable gift guide
Tuesday, 3rd December 2024 by Chen
circle of hands showing spoons made in London Green Wood workshop

Did you see our buy-nothing gift guide for ideas that don’t cost a penny?  Well, as promised, here are some other sustainable gift ideas that cost some cash but don’t cost the earth.

A sustainable feast

Of course, we start with shopping at GC’s farmers’ market. Everything is organic. Everything is locally grown or made. And all the money you pay goes straight to person who grew it, cooked it or shaped it.

Why not put together a hamper of your favourite chocolates, cheeses or chutneys? Or honey, candles and lip balms? Choose unique handmade ceramics and turned wood bowls and vases.

And you can find everything you need for your seasonal feast – local organic veggies; goose, duck, turkey and other meats plus all the trimmings; fresh, smoked and chef-prepped fish; raw milk, cream and butter; kombucha and kimchi; mince pies and cakes; and an award-winning cheese board to round off your meal.

selection of cut cheeses on wooden board

Gifts for the gardener or food lover in your life

Buy seeds that support small agroecological seed companies, says Alice. Vital Seeds and Real Seeds are both wonderful and do vegetables and some flowers.

A plantable calendar with seasonal seeds embedded in the paper, says Ashlea. As the month finishes you rip the page out and plant it. 

Liza’s most-used kitchen items this year have been her Japanese mandoline (Benriner is the pro chef’s favourite) and fermenting weights.

 

Experiences for those who don’t need more stuff

Give mindfulness, relaxation and new skills with a pottery course at Claytime CIC.

A woodworking course with the wonderful London Green Wood at Hackney City Farm or Abney Park.

A cooking class at Season in Crouch End or Made in Hackney or Migrateful (various venues).

Any of the courses at Hackney Herbal, e5 Bakehouse or the Fermentarium in Walthamstow.
 

Seaon cookery course

Something to read

We recommend buying from World of Books https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb or, if you’re local to Stokey, the excellent new second-hand shop Abney Books, 213 Stoke Newington High St, London N16 0LH. If you buy new, support your local independent shop.

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

The Man who Planted Trees by Jean Giono – lovely and inspiring, says Alice. 

Of Cabbages and Kimchi: A Practical Guide to the World of Fermented Food by James Read - a lovely book for a want-to-be fermenter! Very accessible and with amazing facts/stories, says Helena.

Other books we’re putting our wishlist include Edible: 70 Sustainable Plants that are Changing How We Eat, Herbarium: Grow Cook Heal by Caz Hildebrand, Anna Jones’ Easy Wins  and Meera Sodha’s latest, Dinner

 

Gifts that give generously

Hackney Migrant Centre Winter Appeal – help provide life-changing assistance for migrants, asylum seekers and refugees and ensure no one is left out. 

One of my favourite gifts was sponsoring a goat called Pookie at Buttercups Goat Sanctuary in Kent, says Amy from Get Loose. I later went to visit her – it was a special day! 

 

And a couple of random ideas…

When I was a broke MSc student, says Jo, I gave my partner an IOU for a different piece of cheese every month for a year. The best present I received at same time was a mini jar of £1 coins from my mum to buy coffee with when I was in the library all day! 

 

two young women feeding goats in a field at Buttercups goat sanctuary