Scottish Food Guide at Gardening Scotland
Just had a great weekend at Gardening Scotland with Scottish Food Guide Pavilion brimming with fantastic produce.
Owing to the unique qualities of participants our stand this year featured Slow Food Ark of Taste. Jane from St Andrews Farmhouse Cheese Company was there with her much sought after Anster cheeses and Mature Farmhouse http://www.standrewscheese.co.uk and Chris Rowley from Ballintaggart Farm http://www.ballintaggart.com cooked a fabulous venison dish using local ingredients. Between us, Chris and I cooked in the theatre and audiences visited the Stand where they could also meet John Hancox, The Apple Man and dip into his expertise on heritage apples. Following the Ark theme I had met up with Andrew Skea of Skea Organics https://www.skea.eu and thanks to him we had heritage seed potatoes on sale and those too created quite a stir, many purchasing them to plant and grow with children and grandchildren.
Last but by no means least Bosse and I became grocers for the weekend, with an emporium of Slow Food Ark of Taste comestibles: Golspie Mill Peasemeal http://www.golspiemill.co.uk Birsay Mill Beremeal, Isle of Skye Sea Salt (100% Skye) http://www.isleofskyeseasalt.co.uk Musselburgh Leek seeds and Colonsay Wild Flower Honey. We met many lovely people and these heritage foods prompted tales from their childhood, grandmothers’ recipes and island homes. It was a real pleasure to hear such wonderful food culture reminiscences – it gives one hope in these days of industrial agriculture and poor quality mass-produced food of questionable nutrition!
The recipes are posted on Scottish Food Guide for you all to enjoy http://www.scottishfoodguide.scot/Recipes?category=6
Next weekend is the Power of Food Festival across Edinburgh… ‘Its purpose is to encourage greater societal wellbeing, environmental sustainability and social inclusion through the promotion of community food growing.’ https://poweroffoodfestival.wordpress.com I shall be speaking about Scotland’s heritage foods and making specialty bread using Ark of Taste products at the Botanics. Hear the story and taste the results!'
Scotland’s biggest, best, amazing and spectacular Royal Highland Show is just around the corner so start planning your trip now! There are Clydesdales and crafts; Shetland sheep and yarns; magnificent Highland cattle and cheeky goats! Amongst the cabins and combines; shopping arcades and saddlers you will find Scotland’s Larder Live over in the Lowland Hall with a treasure trove of food on sale. We have Scotland’s Larder Live Cookery Theatre with a full programme of fabulous chefs to entertain you; Scottish Dairy Championships, the inaugural Scottish Bread Championships, and the Tastings and Talks Theatre where you might find out what makes these amazing producers tick! We look forward to seeing you there. https://www.royalhighlandshow.org
