That Old Chestnut is a vegan collective from Leeds who take great interest in the world around them; adopting a vegan lifestyle for ethical, health and environmentally friendly reasons. We are elly robinson and chris kubiszewski. That Old Chestnut began as an art collective in 2008, attempting to make people think about animal welfare in a subtle and thought provoking way. Since That Old Chestnut graduated from university they have branched out into the vegan food world! Elly works part time with Leeds City Council at Temple Newsam and Chris is also working with the public at his local Sainsburys - his future aspirations include studying science.
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How we entered the food trade.... We found there was little affordable vegan cakes in Leeds so we kick started our venture with taking part in an event on Woodhouse Moor in May 2009 - Hyde and Seek, we set up a stall with a generous spread of vegan delights ranging from chocolate torte to pizza, chocolate and ginger flapjack to olive bread - all homemade with our fair hands. Our location was encircled with trees which we decorated with banners and flags to encorporate the picnic table piled with free food!
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We proved to be very popular and so we decided to take flags and banners - and of course food - to the local Farmer's Market and also the Pannier Market which took place summer 2010 at Granary Wharf.
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We were at the markets for about 8 months, however we were having to consume quite abit ourselves! But we were getting regulars and we didn't want to let anyone down, so we turned to other ventures and took trays of samples round to various delis, cafes etc in the Leeds and Headingley area. This has been very successful making deliveries every Monday since August 2010. We now deliver to five cafes and shops - Pomegranate Organics, Great George Street, Leeds, Sympossium Deli, Hyde Park Corner, Leeds, Green Action Co-op, Leeds Uni, Natural Food Store, North Lane, Headingley, Marias, Green Road, Meanwood, Love Organic, Regent Street, Chapel Allerton, Cafe 164, Duke Street, Leeds, Laynes Espresso, New Station Road, Leeds and Slips Deli, Cardigan Road, Leeds.We are always trying new things and regular give samples of these tried and tested recipes. Our Festive Winter hampers sold well and we thought it would be good to have a hamper selection all year round - for special occasions or simply to enjoy with friends and family. We stock as much as we can from Lembas who are a wholefoods company based in Sheffield, a small team of 16 staff work towards sourcing sustainable products and are commited to ethical trading, growing and recycling. Our chocolate comes from Kinnerton's in Norfolk, they produce a egg free, dairy free, nut free and gluten free chocolate.We obtain our fruit, veg, nuts and seeds from Leeds Kirkgate Market, as much as we can we want to support small, independent and local businesses. This is why we only sell to independent companies. The rest of our ingredients have to come from supermarkets at the moment. Our cakes are not exclusively for vegans, we feel that they are just as good - if not better - than egg and dairy cakes. Our vegan cakes have the added advantage of reaching a much wider audience. |
We bake at our own houses which are registered with the Leeds Environmental Health department and we have up to date Public Liabilty Insurance.
