What we need to buy we prefer to buy organic but economics currently force us to compromise on many items. When possible we buy local products to reduce our food-miles and attempt to sustain the local economy by supporting local businesses rather than using supermarkets. We avoid genetically modified products and products derived from the exploitation of people or other animals.

The majority of our fruit and vegetables are bought in bulk from a local wholesaler while bulk dried foods are bought from a wholefood co-op in Bristol. Day to day convenience and comfort food tends to be bought by individuals in the local shops of Moreton. Most of our food is bought communally with pooled money while the rest is bought by the internal food-coop or bought individually as required. Our food co-op enables us to enjoy the advantages of bulk buying on luxury items that we feel should not be bought communally. Some people opt out of communal food buying altogether and prefer to buy their own in order to ensure that their individual needs are met.

We have tried to eat at least one meal together every day in order to ensure that we socialise with each other. However we have found that we have very different needs regarding meals due to various health problems, intolerance's, allergies and preferences. This has increasingly resulted in people purchasing and preparing their own food and eating it at different times and so sadly communal meals haven't always happened. We recognise the importance of eating together and its role in maintaining a healthy community and so we have recently been making a renewed effort to eat at the same time even though we may be eating different food.

We have no refrigeration and efficient storage of food can be difficult. We keep most of the food in metal boxes or cabinets to prevent problems with rodents. Our cooking facilities consisted of an open fire until autumn when we dicided we needed to enclose the kitchen area and built an oven from an old oil drum. We are eager to build an clay oven instead because it will look nicer but the oil drum oven works well and we enjoy lots of roast veg, pasties, bread and cakes.

Visitors to the woods are encouraged not to bring their own food so as to avoid difficulties with storage, and over issues such as GM food and animal products. They usualy donate one pound per meal for communal food and may purchase luxuries from the food co-op. We try to account for the dietary needs of long term guests when we buy our communal food each week. Assistance from visitors with food preparation, cooking and washing-up is of course always appreciated.

In the kitchen we have a double sink and draining board complete with running water. We hopped that such a modern convenience would leave no excuses for people to leave washing-up undone. However the woodland remains no safe haven from arguments over domestic duties and it is still not uncommon for the sinks to be filled with unclaimed washing-up.