That’s Incredible that is!

Joanna Dobson introduces Incredible Edible, the local food movement that’s spreading across the world.

Ezekiel lay on his side for 430 days; Hosea took an unfaithful wife, and in the west Yorkshire town of Todmorden, Mary Clear ripped out her rose bushes and replaced them with vegetables and a sign saying ‘Help Yourself’.

Sometimes when you urgently need to get people’s attention, it’s better to act than talk. And you don’t have to inhabit the Hebrew scriptures to be a prophet.

Not that Mary Clear, mother of four, grandmother of twelve and co-founder of the Incredible Edible movement, would ever call herself that. But in keeping with the best prophetic tradition, this simple act of planting food for a whole community to share has given people a new way of looking at the world and brought hope to places where it was often in short supply.

Incredible Edible Todmorden was born when a few local residents got fed up with waiting for the powers that be to do something about the challenges facing their town – challenges it shares with many places up and down the country, such as a shortage of jobs, dwindling community spirit, and independent producers struggling to survive in a supermarket culture.

This was originally posted on Breathe where you can see the rest.