Winter
Vol 1
Welcome to the online edition of Winter.
I am a UK-based lifestyle and portrait photographer and I make seasonal zines throughout the year, dwelling on themes of community, environment and sustainability.
In this edition, we spend time with the founders of Green Tomato, the UK's first carbon-negative mobile greengrocer.
“I had this vision of what I wanted, and then along came lockdown and people couldn’t shop. You know, I was shopping for 5 people in Asda and they wouldn’t let me shop for five people.
And I thought, ‘You know what? Now is the time to launch because it is such a need.'"
Nisha Ravat
“So we quickly started to look for the float, the milk float. I'd already done lots of research on it and we bought an old milk float from a dairy up north. My husband built the shelving and I had a local young lad, Jacob, he's so talented, he designed our logo and he hand-painted all of our signage on our float.”
“And off we went. We bought all of our produce from Leicester Wholesale Market and obviously having no idea of how much we needed, I thought I’d bought maybe two days' worth and we ran out by lunchtime. In one session we’d run out, you know.”
“So it was very, very popular. This was the original idea to get the community out talking to each other, for there to be a focal point. So it would stimulate conversation and a bit more of a connection. There was an opportunity for neighbours to look in on their elderly neighbours and regularly, more often than not, people would hang around and carry on chatting after they shopped with Green Tomato.”