Well. It’s been a wee while since my last blog entry so there’s so much to write about I almost don’t know where to start. I thought I’d share three highlights from my past month:
Spring Feast 2gether 2014
Imagine a table spread with over 50 dishes waiting to be sampled. There’s a huge selection ranging from curry’s to salads, home made quiches to sushi, chutneys, breads, cakes and biscuits. Everything is made from food which is as local and seasonal as possible whether it be grown, foraged or bought. Add in a room full of happy hungry people, all eager to share recipe’s and try each other’s dishes (homemade wine and cider too) and you’ll be able to picture the Spring Feast 2gether. This was a joint venture between Transition Stirling and Forth Environment Link’s Grow Forth Network to encourage and support eating local and seasonal food. It was truly inspiring to see (and taste!) just how many things can be made from foods that come from the Stirling area in April. As a vegetarian I didn’t even have to miss out on much although my favourite dish was a vegi haggis lasagne which turned out to be not so vegi – which serves me right for getting too excited and not reading the labels!
Spring Foraging Ripples
Another food orientated highlight would be the monthly Transition Ripples event, where we shared our knowledge and experience of foraging wild foods. For this, we took a walk around the woods on Back Walk and the edge of the King’s Knot, right at the bottom of Stirling Castle walls. As with all Ripples, the idea is that everyone knows a little bit about something which others would be keen to learn. We all took our I.D books along to help with anything we were unsure of as, the number one rule with foraging is to be absolutely 100% sure of what you’re picking. We managed to find a surprising number of plants (I counted 26) you could expect to find at a woodland edge including nettles, brambles, raspberries, garlic mustard, sweet cicely, cleavers, elder (flowers/berries), blackthorn, dandelions and sorrel to name a few of the most common finds.
Getting a closer look
Big Woodland Event
I think it’s pretty safe to say the Big Woodland Event, was by far the biggest event I’ve ever been involved in organising! We had over 17 different activities throughout the day led by various local environmental and community groups including bushcrafts, green woodworking, bird box making workshops, music, face painting, kids crafts, bug walks, plants & folklore walks, storytelling, orchard cycle visits and chainsaw carving. Not to mention the citizen science activities run by TCV. The atmosphere was buzzing. We were absolutely delighted with the day, which not only ran incredibly smoothly but was also attended by over 500 people, despite a drizzly end to the afternoon. We’ve had such great feedback and enthusiasm from all participants which has really made it a very rewarding experience. I did get the chance to make a kazoo as well – what more could you ask for?
TCV’s Anna and Amy
One of the busiest activities – the kinds crafts tent
Some of the great Transition Stirling volunteers
For now, it’s back to planning more Ripples and working on the forest garden project which is starting to take shape, although I think I’ll save that for another time….