Hearty Squirrel Meetings 2019/2020 All meetings are in the University of Edinburgh Chaplaincy, Room 2 from 19-21. It is on the first floor with no wheelchair access. Semester 1 10 & 17 September 1 & 15 & 29 October 12 & 26 November Semester 2 14 & 28 January 11 & 25 February 10 & 24 March
Past Events:
Whitmuir Farm visit Hearty Squirrel members visit Whitmuir Farm, the supplier of Hearty Squirrel's organic veg bags and eggs, every semester. Our last trip was in February 2014- we helped plant a willow wind break, enjoyed lunch of seasonal vegetable soup, and went on a tour of the farm. We'll be planning another trip this semester, so look out for updates!
The 50-50 Food Challenge- Edinburgh- October 2013 The aim of the food challenge was for 50 people (students and non-students) to eat food that is grown and produced within a 50 mile radius of Edinburgh for one week in October. By participating in the challenge we supported local businesses, reduced food miles and thus our carbon footprint, and gained insight into how we can eat local on a more regular basis.
Permaculture Design Weekend Course with Jan Bang on the 16th and 17th of March 2013! Edinburgh University Allotment & Permaculture Society invited special guest Permaculturist Jan Bang (all the way from Norway!) for a weekend course on Permaculture Design. We focused on design techniques, urban gardening, ecovillages, and sustainable building design, through a mixture of short talks and small and large group discussion. We also had a very tasty joint potluck social for the Allotment and Hearty Squirrel Food Cooperative. Jan showed some clips and we discussed the wonder of mushrooms followed by dinner and a film screening of ‘The Real Dirt on Farmer John’.
Spice, Herb and Curry Workshop! In March 2012, we hosted a workshop aiming at increasing knowledge of spices and herbs for use in curries and teas. We also created a few spice blends which people took home with them!
Food Sustainability talk and discussion - January 2012 Hearty Squirrel, in collaboration with People & Planet, hosted an evening on Food insecurity and sustainability. Dr Debbie Marais, professor at Aberdeeen University specialised in Public Health and Nutrition, led this interactive session. The workshop addressed Food insecurity and the aspects influencing this – on a global level. There was a discussion around case studies on the theme of the ‘Hungry planet’. The second part covered Food sustainability, Dr Marais talked about a UK-based project called the ‘Live well plate’, dealing with agricultural interventions to improve nutrition. The session also covered practical suggestions of how people can make a difference in their own communities.
The Climate Friendly Food Workshop On December 4th 2012 a Climate-Friendly Food Workshop was held in collaboration with The Hearty Squirrel Food Cooperative and The Sustainability Office. The aim of the workshop was to focus on the connection between people’s personal choices of food, the environment and the climate. This workshop was also part of the anthropological research of Sara Henriksen and used for collecting data for her Masters dissertation on student’s motivations for climate-friendly food choices. During the evening we prepared food together, had group discussions, watched a film and of course enjoyed a lovely 'holiday-themed' meal made with local, seasonal and ethically sourced ingredients.
Due to technical difficulties it was not possible to show clips from the film; “No Impact Man” as intended, but the short film; “The Food and Climate Connection” was successfully screened and discussed.
All in all the workshop went really well and people enjoyed the opportunity to discus and think about the importance of what food we choose to eat in our everyday life and the impacts it has on the climate. Also, sharing the amazing food we prepared together was a nice way to put climate-friendly food on the agenda!
New People's Social We had a Potluck Social on Thursday 29th November from 6pm for all new people who have been wanting to get involved with Hearty Squirrel. We learnt more about us with a presentation of who we are and what we do :-) We talked about the new role/task list which is to be our new system of organisation! We plan to have co-ordinators for different roles within our co-operative (such as website or gmail) and within these different key roles there are smaller roles for which anyone can sign up to be a part of (such as sending out the weekly update email, or making specific alterations to the website). We also played vegetable charades and much merriment was had with lots of yummy food! Thank you everyone for contributing to the feast!!
The Raw Food Workshop on the 16th of November was super yummy! We gathered together to make 4 different dishes; a dahl, nori rolls, courgette pasta (the courgette became the pasta!) and a delightful autumn pie for dessert. Many a happy tummy. You can download the recipe zine that we made below. It was great to see so many new faces - we hope to see more of you at future events or at a stall!
During 2011/12 we had 3 workshops on different themes. The first one was Vegbag Cooking, in which we used the vegetables in the Vegbags to make pakoras, parsnip pancakes, potato, celeriac & cabbage gratin and vegan beetroot brownies. The second one was focused on bread and dip making; two different types of bread (basic and flat-bread) and several dips (3 types of hummus and baba ganoush) were made. The last one we did was a dessert workshop in which we made fruit and nut brittle, pear soup, parsnip cake, and chocolate, banana & potato cake. All were immensely tasty!