OISF 2019

Did you know that dandelion leaves are high in vitamin C and minerals, and the young leaves can be used in salads? That chickweed is rich in magnesium, phosphorus and copper, and can be used like spinach?

The Festival had an outdoor look this year, and opened with stories of survival skills in the wild. Zeki Basan is a glacier guide in Iceland’s winter, and at other times of the year a wilderness instructor in the Cairngorms and elsewhere, and an accomplished filmmaker as well.

We moved to a new venue at Kirkwall Grammar School, with a wealth of activities for every one to enjoy, and we had a great turnout of people.

We had a great time with the foraging events in the 2019 Festival. They came about through the LEADER-funded initiative covering five Scottish regions, and they added a whole new dimension to the programme, and to the weekends before and after.

Festival will commemorate Moon landing Apollo 11’s 50th anniversary will be commemorated in Orkney in September with a programme of talks on space and astronomy in the islands’ annual science festival.

Orkney International Science Festival this year will have an added outdoor dimension as it joins forces with a new Foraging Fortnight being established in Scotland.

“From Orkney Nature to Murdoch Mackenzie’s beautifully detailed charts of Orkney waters, from Scapa Flow’s history and marine life to sea forms and soundworks …”

Foraging Programme 2019 The first Scottish Foraging Fortnight is producing a rich harvest of events and experiences for this year’s Festival programme. There are foraging outings and shore walks, food tastings and seaweed workshops, accounts of

There’s an outdoor strand in this year’s programme, going from pole to pole, with Central Asia also to the fore.

It’s fresh, it’s nutritious, and it’s free! The benefits of foraging is becoming realised, doing what generations of people have done for thousands, indeed millions, of years – finding food in the wild.