Foraging Events

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.

Those weeks in lockdown added to feeling that foraging is an idea whose time has come. For fresh air, for exercise, for general wellbeing, for nutrition, and for a clean fresh flavour, wild food that you gather yourself has so much to enjoy. We join forces with four mainland Scottish regions to present a varied mix of activities, including island outings, and walks along sections of the St Magnus Way, with chefs to advise us as well.

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?

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. There was more foraged food to enjoy at the Neolithic dinner where chef Sam Britten and his team produced an amazing meal. There is wonderfully atmospheric account of it in the Orkney News by Bernie Bell.

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 wild food north of the Arctic Circle and new menu approaches in Copenhagen. And 20-year-old Zeki Basan, glacier guide and wilderness instructor, will