Published on 28th August, 2024 on the Arran Eco Savvy website
By Jess Wallace, Sustainable Food Coordinator. All photo credits Eco Savvy/Arran Pioneer Project.
On the 17th of August we ran an outdoor cooking workshop in conjunction with the Arran Pioneer Project team at Cordon Community Garden.
Although the weather was dreich to start with, the garden was verdant in the rain with beautiful fresh produce for us to craft our menu from. Eight of us set to work collecting our ingredients and preparing a shared meal.
What were we cooking?
We lit the fire pit then dug some tatties, including Arran Victory and Charlotte varieties fresh out of the ground to make a dish with garlic that had been drying and fresh rosemary from the herb patch. Using freshly pulled onions and courgettes to make skewers sprinkled in fresh oregano. We then rounded our meal off with a warm salad of char-grilled sweetheart cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower. We dressed this in a sauce of chopped basil, garlic, lemon juice, parsley and chilli. The meal was finished with some delicious apples cored and stuffed with sugar and cinnamon. We then roasted these in foil to make a tasty BBQ dessert.
We were joined by other garden volunteers to eat and the sun came out for our lunch. It was a great afternoon spent in lovely surroundings sharing skills on how to create a simple, tasty, seasonal meal.
When is the next event?
The Arran Pioneer Project will be running another outdoor cooking workshop at their garden open day at Cordon Community Garden. Open for all to attend, the workshop is on 15th September from 12-2pm. The outdoor cooking workshop is part of the Arran Festival of Food and Drink.
And on Tuesday 17th September, as part of the Festival there will also be an Apple Pressing event with Eco Savvy and the Pioneer Project. See below for more details:
Arran’s Festival of Food and Drink: 13th – 22nd September 2024
The 3rd festival is being held across many venues on the Isle of Arran. Aimed at locals and visitors you should expect to enjoy fine food and fun at events such as the Harvest Fest Farmers Market and Family Fun Day. Many of Arran’s foodie outlets are offering festival special menus and cocktails on given days or for the entire period of the festival, there’s farm tours, special offers and free gifts. See the website for more information on all the mouth-watering experiences to be had at the Arran Festival of Food and Drink.