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shopping for local food along the Leeds Liverpool Canal


Rosemary

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Being new to this site and having been assured of the friendliness of boating folk I am a bit surprised at the tone of some of the replies. I was recommended to open a discussion on the forum as I was told I would get lots of help and advice so to those who offered that - thanks.

 

I'm a green issues obsessed boater of hippy persuasion, but I'm under no illusion as to how unenvironmentally friendly boating is - using a litre of fossil fuel an hour to shift 20 tons of steel (with all the air and water pollution from its manufacture) around is hardly green. A pushbike with a tent on the back might be more green but may not be half as fun. :lol:

 

 

Just to add - if we haven't put you off with our moaning (yes we are friendly but we love to moan), do what I do - use Google. Farmers markets are listed online, also I use upmystreet.com to find local services. It's handy for launderettes so I'm sure it would work for fair trade etc...

 

Did you also consider joining freecycle for the towns the L and L goes through, many of them have a 'cafe' forum where you can find out about wholefood collectives.

 

http://www.farmersmarkets.net/

 

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q...yUK%7CcountryGB

 

http://www.uk.freecycle.org/

 

http://www.upmystreet.com/

Edited by Lady Muck
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I think they emptied or lowered the water levels right down at a big resevior up the top of l&l for maintenence a while ago , but why they have not refilled it since is anyone,s guess.

not had an excactly dry winter period.

shopping , well we called at what i think is a morrisons supermarket near burnley and as it was getting late all the hot cooked meat was going dirt cheap , breasts of lamb £1 , had to buy the lot along with barbacued ribs ,boiled ribs and roast ham shanks.

we saved the lot from landfill and recycled the lot in the best possible way , they had cases off beer at not to be refused prices as well , dont know if the enviroment was happy about it but we were.

edit to add

please keep a record of what you find out and post it , we do the canal to leeds each year and all extra info comes in handy.

Edited by gaggle
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They need to doing the L&L now, rumour is that we only have 3 weeks water left.

 

The top two pounds of the Bank newton flight run off every night so this is where a significant amount of the L&L water goes! the fields are dry so the ground paddles are my best bet. Waterways send staff in at 7am to fill these pounds every morning. My best estimate is 35 lockfulls plus an odd top upduring the day. More than enough water for a busy days locking on this stretch.

 

Sorry I havent sorted how to insert a picture yet :lol:

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Having been a bit surprised at the response to my post I am now enjoying the two discussions going on at once - one about water - which to a newby is really interesting and a bit scarey - and the other about shops and food. Thanks for suggestions about shops and food- esp web links. We use most of those sites at home - hadn't thought of using them for the trip.

 

We hope to keep some sort of diary of the trip - where would I post the info about shops etc?

 

Thought we would also look at our carbon footprint for the trip- in view of comments about diesel and environment - although it is a circle no-one can square unless you go off grid entirely and live in the woods with your own water supply.

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  • 2 weeks later...

My knowledge is mainly west yorks: Saltaire Farmers' Market, on the 3rd Saturday of every month - so you're bound to miss it! Stanforths butchers in Skipton by the Springs Branch sells local meat. Free range eggs at Silsden Boats from his own hens (taste great), as does the lockie at Bank Newton. If you go past Leeds there's an organic farm at Woodlesford, does great lamb - bit of a walk though, so take a rucksack and your walking boots - its about 15 mins - north from the road bridge and on the right after about 300 yards, then a long lane to the farm.

 

Being new to this site and having been assured of the friendliness of boating folk I am a bit surprised at the tone of some of the replies. I was recommended to open a discussion on the forum as I was told I would get lots of help and advice so to those who offered that - thanks.

 

Don't mind him he's just a moanin' bleeder.

 

Enjoy the trip, its a great canal. As for the water the summit relies on reservoirs, and I believe lots were sold off in the distant past to feed the growing conurbations of the region. Still more H2O than on some I've cruised on

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My knowledge is mainly west yorks: Saltaire Farmers' Market, on the 3rd Saturday of every month - so you're bound to miss it! Stanforths butchers in Skipton by the Springs Branch sells local meat. Free range eggs at Silsden Boats from his own hens (taste great), as does the lockie at Bank Newton. If you go past Leeds there's an organic farm at Woodlesford, does great lamb - bit of a walk though, so take a rucksack and your walking boots - its about 15 mins - north from the road bridge and on the right after about 300 yards, then a long lane to the farm.

 

Thanks for all that. As a novice to this, despite having sailed the ark in my past, the stories of water shortage are a little nerve wracking. However, if this rain keeps up............

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