Monday - our last day at Kew

Our final day dawned bright. Hooray! We’d had just about enough of the ‘dark clouds on the horizon’ thing to last us.

Getting to the site at Kew a little earlier than usual, we decided to actually see some of the amazing grounds (really idyllic so close to Central London  - as long as you forget about the thundering jets on the flight path above), not least the new and exciting tree top walk; a circular construction high in the tree tops and affording up close acquaintance with these beautiful canopies.  

So after taking our time (it was so early we had the place to ourselves) we thought it was high time to get back to our stall and open for the day’s proceedings; after a successful Saturday we were keen to duplicate the result.

The most impressive thing about this year’s Start were the diversity of stall holders. Sure, you had your M&S and your B&Q making their claim on sustainability - which was refreshing, no matter how ‘market led’ their motivation – but the most interesting stalls were the small business and enterprises:

·   Helping abolish the plastic bag, and led by a very friendly chap called Dan, were the excellent Onya Bags. We just had to spend a little of our profits on each getting a rather neat Wrap-n-Mat to keep our future out-and-about lunches in. Ingenious.

·   These guys have to be a big part of the future: take a look at what The Donation is doing to save on resources and cut down on all that junk we keep on accumulating

·    From the first day, we were also happy to sell some excellent and interesting little children’s books on behalf of Secret Seed Society – again they’ve designed and produced amazing things in their cute publications – we’ll be selling them on the site from now on.  

So this was the pleasant company we were enjoying as the first customers rolled in. As was the case the previous day, we sold loads during the hour from 11.30 – 12.30, whereupon it fell off for lunch – and to watch some entertainment  on the main stage: ‘Bee, the musical’.

The afternoon warmed up nicely as Caroline took on ever more willing participants in our ‘make-a-bee workshop, and visiting friend Coelina, help a reading circle for passing children  - it all helped to create a very nice little vibe to our corner of the tent – and get people talking Beetroot of course!

At the end of the day we had broken well and truly into the black, spread the word and networked with some great people. Well worth the effort and time.

We can’t wait for our next stall!