Ecological writer Satish Kumar once wrote that ‘unless you know Nature, you cannot love her’. Likewise, if we wish to protect England’s green and pleasant land, it’s important to get to know why. People who drop fast food litter, pollute our seas with oil and hunt our precious wildlife, obviously were never taught all about why our land is so beautiful and precious.
Bristol is a vibrant maritime city, with a strong history. Just 13 miles from Bath, you can walk or cycle it on a traffic-free old railway path. It’s also one of England’s greenest cities, with a strong veggie and indie shop culture.
Totterdown is a hip and funky area of Bristol, though bring your walking shoes as it’s hilly with one of the steepest streets in England (Vale Street). Known for its colourful houses and quirky art, many local artists open their homes up to visitors each year, and people even paint the drainpipes!
home of the original local currency
Although it has since folded, The Bristol Pound was one of England’s most successful local currencies. Local currencies work a bit like gift vouchers. You visit the shops to buy them, then use them to support indie shops and businesses, receiving your change in sterling (coins or bank notes). As well as offering a way to support local communities, most present local currencies retain the charm of using ‘paper money’ but without the plastic and animal fat content of Bank of England notes. Other local pounds (Stroud, Totnes, Lake District) have all gone to the wall, despite great fanfare on launch. Yet for some reason they are thriving abroad.
canned wines (from a Bristol allotment garden)
Nania’s Vineyard offers canned wines (unfiltered) that take inspiration from the founder’s Persian-Indian grandfather. This vineyard is on a Bristol allotment, cuttings taken from an inherited grapevine (kind of ‘rewilded wines’). The range includes The Badger (a summer red from Somerset grapes) and The Fox (an orange amber wine made from grapes grown in the Malvern Hills).
a zero waste shop (with edible coffee cups!)
Zero Green (Bristol) not only sells zero waste staples. But if you have a coffee at their shop, you can eat the cup as it’s edible! It tastes a bit like a thick ice-cream cone and the drink will keep for around 40 minutes, before the ‘cup goes soggy’ (the paper sleeve holder is then recycled).
a locally-owned chain of organic grocery shops
Better Food is a chain of locally-owned food shops and cafes, the difference being that everything is organic. The shops are not all vegetarian, but mostly they sell organic fresh produce, fair trade organic groceries plus organic beer and wine, and ethical beauty and household goods. The shops are also designed to be walkable or near public transport links. This is what supermarkets should be like.
a Bristol (vegan) alternative to McDonald’s
Oowee (also offers home delivery) is one of the new breeds of vegan fast food restaurants. All Chick’n is handmade using a secret recipe, buns are made to order by a local baker and hero sauces are made each day fresh by chefs. This ambitious company plans to open a branch in every city. The range includes Big Bacon Double Smashburger, The Big VG and Sneaky Cluckers! It also has branches in London and Brighton.
affordable organic sweatshirts from Bristol
Yes Friends (Bristol) is a fashion brand that pays excellent wages to workers in Vietnam and and India (to help end modern slavery) then passes the savings onto you. Wanting to end the risk of modern slavery (the 2nd highest risk is in the fashion trade), the brand was launched so that you could ‘buy an organic t-shirt for the price of a pint’. At the proper scale, you can buy ethically without much added expense. Avoiding toxic chemicals, most dyes are eco-friendly.
