Foraging Fortnight 2021

Foraging Fortnight is coming back, in the week following the Festival, and we’re providing a preview of the kind of events that you can enjoy in its programme. One example is a talk about the wealth of goodness in those wild plants we often disparage as weeds, and we will hear about their role in nutrition.

There will be a workshop on identifying common wild plants for foraging. Another workshop will highlight the role of wild plants in the making of compost and the transformation of kitchen and garden waste into food for the soil.

And in several of our lunchtime sessions we’ll hear about appetising snacks you can make from foraged food.

WORKSHOP: A WEALTH OF WEEDS – REMEDIES FROM WILD PLACES

September 3, 2021 → 6:30 pm ─ 7:30 pm

Wild plants – including many we think of as ‘weeds’ – are not only wonderful for wildlife but have been used by humans for thousands of years in a multitude of ways. In this workshop you can explore with Anna Canning some common weeds and their medicinal properties – and learn to make ...

WORKSHOP: PAPERMAKING FROM NATURAL MATERIALS

September 4, 2021 → 10:30 am ─ 12:00 pm

An opportunity to learn the basic elements of the art, as artist Lin Chau leads you through the process of mould and deckle making, preparing plant pulp fibre, pulling a sheet and couching it, then pressing the paper. The core ...

JOIN US FOR LUNCH …

September 4, 2021 → 12:45 pm ─ 1:15 pm

... where Dr Martin Braddock will tell us about the extreme conditions under which living creatures can flourish – and why that means we should expect to find life elsewhere in the universe. We’ll also be joined by mountaineer and photographer Tristan Cameron-Harper to tell about his Orkney travels.

THE CURES OF HUDSON’S BAY

September 4, 2021 → 5:00 pm ─ 5:45 pm

The Atlantic voyage from Stromness, plus the harsh environment, could cause serious health problems, such as scurvy, for Hudson’s Bay Company workers. They had doctors and apothecary chests but, as Dr Winona Wheeler of the University of Saskatchewan ...

WORKSHOP : BLACK GOLD – THE ART OF COMPOSTING

September 5, 2021 → 10:30 am ─ 11:30 am

It’s a way of recycling your own household and garden waste into some of the finest fertiliser and soil conditioner for your plants. The work is carried out by many, organisms and out of it comes something rich and alive – a mix of nutrients, bacteria and fungi mycelia. ...

A WEALTH OF WEEDS

September 6, 2021 → 5:00 pm ─ 6:00 pm

Gardening can sometimes seem a battle against those plants we consider weeds which want to grow in our carefully-prepared spaces for flowers and vegetables. But, say ethnobotanical researcher Anna Canning and gardener/composter Elizabeth Woodcock, there are other ways ...

JOIN US FOR LUNCH …

September 8, 2021 → 12:45 pm ─ 1:15 pm

... with mountaineer and photographer Tristan Cameron-Harper back to see us with more scenes from his travels in Orkney. Eric Walker looks upward into the Orkney night sky, and Sandy Smith brings us news of the outcome of the Great Molecule Hunt and draws the winning entry ...