Pop-up pickling at Ethel Athel Alleyway Garden Community Day

Thom Eagle

11 July 2026
12pm – 2pm
Ethel-Athel Alleyway Garden

OSE Community Cook Thom Eagle sharing work as part of Home is where the garden is at the Ethel Athel Alleyway Garden ‘Community Day’. Photo: Open School East, 2026
Despacito Art School member sharing quick pickle recipe with Ethel-Athel Alleyway resident, using tomatoes grown at OSE’s community allotment planters. Photo: Open School East, 2026
Despacito Art School members preparing plant pots for a mint cutting workshop as part of the Ethel Athel Alleyway Garden ‘Community Day’. Photo: Open School East, 2026

Pop-up pickling workshop with live demos and opportunities to get involved hands-on, led by members of Despacito Art School with OSE Community Chef Thom Eagle.

Pickles were made with produce grown in the OSE planters at Ethel-Athel Alleway Garden and quick pickle tomato tasters were prepared and served throughout the pop-up. Here, Despacito Art School shared their art and community-led approach to working with Ethel-Athel Alleyway Garden residents and members of the public.

We also brought our OSE community cookbook Growing Wild (in ENG, SVK, CZH) to share hyper-local foraging, growing and cooking tips developed with Despacito, their families and local neighbours.

This pop-up was kindly hosted by Ethel-Athel Alleway Garden as part of their Community Day, which brought residents together to share local knowledge and expertise, as well as good food and conversation.

Thom Eagle is an award-winning author and cook. His first book First, Catch: Study of a Spring Meal was awarded Best Debut Food Book by Fortnum & Mason in 2019, nominated for an Andre Simon, and named one of the best food books of the year by The Times and The BBC Food Programme. He is currently based in Kent where he writes, grows vegetables, and teaches classes on pickling, fermenting, curing and foraging. 

Ethel-Athel Alleyway Garden is a community-managed space that aims to foster social inclusion. Historically, the alleyway was a space lost to fly tipping and street crime. The alleyway now provides a setting for a range of activities, from gardening and creative workshops to communal events, creating casual social space for the community.

This Civic Programme event is part of OSE’s two-year thematic cycle Home is where the garden is – find more events: https://openschooleast.org/home-is-civic