Category Archives: events

Edinburgh Blasda 16th September, Leith

Posted on August 21, 2012 | Leave a comment

2 – 7 pm, Sunday 16 September

Out of the Blue, Dalmeny Street, Leith

Now in its second year, Blasda will be help­ing cel­eb­rate all that is good with local food through a series of events run by com­munit­ies cafes and cooks in loc­a­tions ran­ging from Barra to Edinburgh dur­ing Food and Drink Fortnight.

Blasda, which is co-ordinated by the Fife Diet, pro­motes a vibrant new food cul­ture that cel­eb­rates local her­it­age and vari­ation, but is based on eat­ing locally-sourced fresh food which can be a boost to the eco­nomy and eco­logy of Scotland.

With events includ­ing mass lunches, pot luck pic­nics and pub­lic feasts plus ceilidhs, talks and food films across Scotland there really will be some­thing for everyone!

Blasda are also pleased to announce a mobile ele­ment to the fest­iv­it­ies this year with a rov­ing set of work­shops on how to ‘grow your own’ being pro­moted by the chip-fat oil powered Seed Truck and the Culture Kitchen Relay run by Hidden Gardens which will be swap­ping recipes between com­munit­ies as it travels! 

Edinburgh Blasda Workshops, Out of the Blue, Leith

MAPPING LOCAL FOOD EDINBURGH 3.00 – 4.00 

Ally Tibbitt from Greener Leith will hold a ‘local food audit’ look­ing at what’s avail­able across Edinburgh and map­ping allot­ments, local food pro­jects, cafes, com­munity grow­ing schemes, local food shops. Come along, bring your local know­ledge (and your laptop) and fill in the gaps.

GROWING SPACES EDINBURGH: PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE 4.00 – 5.00

Greig Robertson (Edinburgh Communty Backgreens Association, Edible Estates) on who’s grow­ing what and where. Talk fol­lowed by tour of nearby Sunshine on Leith com­munity garden.

SCOTTISH CHEESEBOARD  5.00 — 6.00 pm

Phoebe Weller (Roving Fromagerie) on the pro­lif­er­a­tion  of qual­ity artisan cheese-making and tra­di­tions they’re draw­ing on. Come along for a taste of the best cheese in Scotland.

STALLS / EXHIBITORS 2.00 – 7.00 pm 

Breadshare with the Seed Truck pedal-powered mill bike (Fergus), Community Gardens (Sunshine on Leith, Redbraes Strawberry Field, Lochend Secret Garden and vari­ous),  Changeworks, Zapatista Coffee, Mcleods Organics, Foragable teas and infu­sions (Anna Canning), Leith Open Space ‘World Kitchen’ (Fay Young), Fife Diet’s Smoothie Bike with fruit from Edinburgh com­munity garden pro­jects with Diane Burn.Reception (sponsored by William Bros) 6.00 — 7.00

The acclaimed Centotre and the Scottish Cafe http://www.centotre.com/thescottishcafe/ will be fea­tur­ing a full Scottish menu as part of the Blasda celebrations.

 For a full list­ing of Blasda events check out the inter­act­ive map at www.blasda.org.uk

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Posted in events, Food

Nourish Conference: Scotland’s food 2020 — healthier, wealthier, greener, smarter, fairer?

Posted on August 21, 2012 | Leave a comment

28th and 29th September

Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh

In the worst grow­ing sea­son for years, with dairy industry protests, the pig sec­tor under pres­sure and US drought push­ing grain prices to a record high, we face some big choices about the future of Scotland’s food. The Nourish con­fer­ence will explore Food 2.0 — a food sys­tem which feeds every­one well and afford­ably while deliv­er­ing vibrant, diverse and climate-smart local food economies.

Friday’s ses­sion will include a key­note address from Anya Hultberg from Copenhagen’s House of Food, which has con­ver­ted 75% of the city’s pub­lic food to organic. On the Saturday the con­fer­ence will look­ing at how com­munity groups, NGOs, small pro­du­cers and con­cerned cit­izens can work together for a bet­ter food system.

 N.B Nourish are look­ing for local organic pro­du­cers to sup­ply sea­sonal food for the event, which the cater­ing team at QMU will cook. Please get in touch (see below) if you can offer some pro­duce in return for a free place at the event.

More inform­a­tion at www.nourishscotland.org.uk soon. Meanwhile for more inform­a­tion or to offer to be a sup­plier, con­tact Pete Ritchie on pete [at] nour­ish­scot­land [dot] org [dot] uk phone 0131 243 2732 or 07794 610148

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Posted in events, Food

Portobello Market Day 2nd June

Posted on May 23, 2012 | Leave a comment

Saturday 2nd June is Portobello Market day!

 It’s the Royal Jubilee week­end this time round, so come along to the mar­ket for the first class traders and some great enter­tain­ment for the hol­i­day weekend.

This month:

Annie D will be there with her renowned face paint­ing skills, plus Phil is back­with his Woodland Crafts work­shops, Fin Loening & friends will provide some great music and this month a spe­cial out­door Zumba class with a dif­fer­ence! Come along and find out.

And of course, all our usual traders and a few more will be there for your shop­ping needs, from award win­ning oils, fresh fish, loc­ally pro­duced fresh meats, con­tin­ental deli products, great fresh bread, artisan cheeses, hand-made soaps, cards & gifts, sea­sonal veg­gies, sushi & noodles, organic herbal teas, knit­ted crafts, Fair Trade products and a first class BBQ for all you hungry mouths.

So come along on the 2nd and sup­port your local sus­tain­able mar­ket and enjoy some great entertainment.

Where?  Brighton Park, Brighton Place, Portobello, Edinburgh, EH15 1LJ.

Time?  9.30am – 1.30pm

A full list of stall­hold­ers is avail­able on the web­site: HERE

See you there.

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Posted in events, Food, Market

Support the Community Turbine DEMO TOMORROW (Saturday 28th April) at TEN!

Posted on April 27, 2012 | 4 Comments
PEDAL and Greener Leith have hit a stum­bling block in nego­ti­ations over the deal to enable the Portobello & Leith Community Wind Turbine to be built on Scottish Water’s land.
 
We really need local people to come along to show their sup­port for the pro­ject on this tomor­row, Saturday 28th April. Please please meet on the Prom at the slip road behind the Dog & Cat Home at 10AM and we will walk/cycle/scoot to the tur­bine site. Also can any­one make a ban­ner? If so con­tact justinken­rick [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk.
 
Press pho­to­graph­ers will be present.
 
Please pass this mes­sage on — we only have until tomorrow!

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Posted in events, Wind Turbine

Portobello Market — 5th May

Posted on April 25, 2012 | Leave a comment

Saturday 5th May is Portobello Market day!

This month: Following on from the fant­astic suc­cess of the Easter mar­ket, we are once again offer­ing enter­tain­ment: AnnieD will be appear­ing with her amaz­ing face paint­ing and a young stu­dent duo will be provid­ing great music in two 1-hour sets.

Our traders this month include:

Award win­ning oils, fresh fish and meats, artisan cheeses, unique snacks, hand made soaps, cards and gifts, sea­sonal veget­able, sushi and noodles, organic herbal teas, knit­ted gifts, Fair Trade products and a first class BBQ for those hungry mouths.

So come along on the 5th and sup­port your local sus­tain­able mar­ket and find out about the excit­ing devel­op­ments for the next mar­ket in June when we will have a first in the UK piece of entertainment!!!

Where: Brighton Park, Brighton Place, Portobello, Edinburgh, EH15 1LJ

When: 9.30am  –  1.30pm

A full list of stall­hold­ers for 5th May is avail­able here.

See you there.

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Posted in events, Food, Market

Portobello Market — Saturday 7th April, Easter weekend

Posted on March 28, 2012 | Leave a comment

Saturday 7th April is Portobello Market day!

This month: We are relaunch­ing the mar­ket with a new look and feel. Come along this Easter week­end and enjoy face paint­ing for the kids, a sci­ence fest­ival, Easter egg hunt and live music.

Our traders this month include:

Award win­ning oils, fresh fish and meats, artisan cheeses, unique snacks, hand made soaps, cards and gifts, sea­sonal veget­able, sushi and noodles, organic herbal teas, knit­ted gifts, Fair Trade products and a first class BBQ for those hungry mouths.

So come along on the 7th and sup­port your local sus­tain­able mar­ket and find out about the excit­ing devel­op­ments for the next mar­ket in May.

Where: Brighton Park, Brighton Place, Portobello, Edinburgh, EH15 1LJ

When: 9.30am – 1.30pm

A full list of stall­hold­ers for 7th April is avail­able on the web­site by click­ing here.

See you there.

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Posted in events, Food, Market

Next Portobello Market: 7th April

Posted on March 19, 2012 | Leave a comment

Brighton Park

Quickly fol­low­ing on the suc­cess of the March mar­ket with increase in foot­fall and stall hold­ers, we are going to relaunch the mar­ket on Saturday 7 April. It is Easter week­end and as such there will be numer­ous enter­tain­ment events all day, includ­ing an Easter egg hunt. There will be live music, a cir­cus act, hair braid­ing, face paint­ing and a sci­ence fest­ival cour­tesy of Scottish Parliament funding.

We now have a centre piece in the form of a large teepee tent, sup­plied for free by Nordic Outdoor, and all new ban­ners, posters and flags pro­mot­ing the new name, Portobello Market. Each month a new A-board will advert­ise the next market’s entertainment.

COME ALONG: A large pres­ence is needed to swell the num­bers and encour­age com­munity par­ti­cip­a­tion in all the events, so please do make time to come down and visit. It is hoped, but not yet con­firmed, that the Evening News will run an art­icle prior to the market.

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Posted in events, Food, Market

Orchard is waking up

Posted on March 12, 2012 | 1 Comment

applesGreetings from the Orchard. This is an update on the orch­ard going  to all those who have been along to help since the first shovel of earth was dug in 2009. We had our first work­day of 2012 on the last Saturday in February 2012. It was warm, the cro­cuses were out and the bees were ven­tur­ing out from the hive.

We were able to start put­ting up the wires for the fruit trees against the large stone wall. Nearly fin­ished the wooden fur­niture. We build another sec­tion of the dry stone wall and checked all the labels on the fruit trees. Sadly we also cut down the old apple tree which died last sea­son. We also drank tea and cof­fee and ate bis­cuits and looked at what we all achieved last year.

Here are some of the things that happened at the orch­ard in 2011.

  • We planted 50 trees and bushes
  • We star­ted build­ing a low dry stone­wall along the path
  • We put in a table and two benches
  • The bee keep­ers got to work. The hive was put in place and the bees made honey
  • We had a won­der­ful Apple Day atten­ded by 50 people and made a huge amount of apple juice
  • We con­tin­ued the work of keep­ing the trees free from weeds and strimmed the area
  • Sadly the shed was broken into and some of the apples disappeared
  • It rained too much but luck­ily not on workdays.
  • We had our Wassailing cel­eb­ra­tion on a crisp Saturday morn­ing in January

We were able to to as much as we did because of money from the Climate Challenge Fund to pay for trees etc. We also had paid work­ers but sadly they fin­ished in early spring. We have used up the grant money for trees & tools but a great deal has been achieved.  Most import­ant has been the volun­teers and vis­it­ors. It is the com­munity who make hap­pen with the help from mother nature. So thanks to all who helped in 2011.  We are look­ing for­ward to the year ahead and please come and join in whatever way you can.

Our first job on our next Workday  Saturday 31st March will be to put up the sup­ports for the apple tun­nel and plant the trees. Further workdays:

  • Saturday 28th April
  • Saturday 26th May
  • Saturday 30th June
  • Saturday 28th July
  • Saturday 25th August
  • Saturday 29th Sept
  • Saturday 27th October
  • Saturday 24th November

If you want to know more ring: Mary Jane Elton 669 5129  or  Diana Cairns 669 4981

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Posted in events, Food, gardening, Orchards

Portobello Market, Saturday 3rd March

Posted on February 22, 2012 | Leave a comment

Satrurday 3rd March is Portobello Market day!

This month we’ve got award win­ning oils, fresh fish and meats, artisan cheeses, unique snacks, hand made soaps, cards and gifts, sea­sonal veget­able, sushi and noodles, organic herbal teas, knit­ted gifts, Fair Trade products and a first class BBQ for those hungry mouths

So come along on the 3rd and sup­port your local sus­tain­able mar­ket and find out about the excit­ing devel­op­ments for the next mar­ket in April.

Where: Brighton Park, Brighton Place, Portobello, Edinburgh, EH15 1LJ

When: 9.30am – 1.30pm

A full list of stall­hold­ers for 3rd March is avail­able here.

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Posted in events, Food, Market, PEDAL

Portobello Market, Saturday 4th February

Posted on January 26, 2012 | Leave a comment

Saturday 4th February is Portobello Market day! Come along to find all your reg­u­lar stalls selling mouth-watering locally-produced and sea­sonal food, and local and upcycled crafts.

Where: Brighton Park, Brighton Place, Portobello, Edinburgh, EH15 1LJ

When: 9.30am   —   1.30pm

A full list of stall­hold­ers for 4th February is avail­able here.

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Posted in events, Food, Market