Well, 45 plus two babies certainly works.

Thanks to Beth and Sam for organising the event and to everyone who brought food along to share. I suppose that the True Food Co-op is self selecting for people who care about what they eat and last night proved that, as well as knowing where to find excellent ingredients, there are many True Foodies that know what to do with them once they've got them! There were compliments for the sushi, black bean soup (oops, sorry I mean stew) and chocolate cake, but I didn't hear a bad word about any of the dishes and there wasn't much left at the end.

Cooks, why not submit your recipes to the recipe forum? It doesn't matter if it's not original, just acknowledge your sources.

Due to insufficient custom and high local costs, the committee has reluctantly decided to close the market at Woodley. The last market will be on 23rd October. Alternative markets for those in the east of Reading are Earley on Fridays, Newtown on first and third Wednesdays and Risc on second and fourth Saturdays. See the market location and calendar pages for details.

One happy outcome of this closure is that from 6th November the Downshire Square market (pictured right) will take place every Tuesday. This is apart from Christmas and New Year's day naturally! This will bring the number of weekly markets up to three as Downshire Square joins Caversham Heights on Mondays and Earley on Fridays

The 11th members meeting took place on Saturday (29th) at RISC. Current TFC chair Stuart Major lead a discussion on the impact of the recent changes to the Co-op and solicited ideas on possible future modifications. We learnt that the committee is actively considering starting a market in Wokingham and changing venues in Tilehurst. Customers in Woodley are being warned that their market is likely to close due to the expensive, but small venue and low takings. Look out for further announcements!

Did you know that the TFC has a number of trade accounts? Although large organisations will order direct, many wholesale suppliers have a minimum order value which is too high for small cafes and caterers. If anyone is interested, please drop in to a market to see what is available and discuss the idea.

Thanks to Joanna for organising a yummy product tasting. The Turron and olives supplied by Organico proved particularly popular, as did the Japanese style tofu. Don't forget the chilled goods in the fridge next time you're at a market.

Full minutes will be available in the members area in due course.

Congratulations to Dave, our warehouse manager, and his partner Heather on the safe arrival of their new baby boy. He was born on the 3rd of September and is very photogenic (according to Joanna). If you don't believe it then you can judge for yourselves.

We did offer to run a naming competition with early suggestions of 'Suma' and 'Myona', but this was politely declined. Best wishes from all the True Food team to the new family.