OUR STORY
Orkney International Science Festival has featured food and drink in many ways over more than three decades. Now with rising global temperatures threatening crops in some of the regions on which the global food supply depends, we are going further and launching this new website to help communities across Orkney and elsewhere share practical ways to become more self-reliant. We have gathered in expert help for guidance about how we can all grow more and also how we can all make fuller use of natural sources of food.
THE PROJECT
The Festival brings each year some fascinating people to Orkney, with insights, vision and sound advice, and some of them have very kindly provided guidance here about ways to help everyone increase and improve their sources of food. You can find out how to improve your soil quality, the starting-point for so much; how to choose seeds for the start of the growing season and how to save them for next year; how to grow more, whether in gardens or fields, polycrubs or windowsills; how to forage for wild food; how to make fuller use of food through the seasons to reduce waste and increase nutritional benefits. You can also find out about projects like our investigation into the effect of rock dust on flavour. The dust from the eruption of Mount Hekla in 1845 was said to have improved the flavour of that year’s Orkney potato crop. We’ve found that it helps tomatoes as well, as this year we’re trying carrots!
OUR STORY
Orkney International Science Festival has featured food and drink in many ways over more than three decades. Now with rising global temperatures threatening crops in some of the regions on which the global food supply depends, we are going further and launching this new website to help communities across Orkney and elsewhere share practical ways to become more self-reliant. We have gathered in expert help for guidance about how we can all grow more and also how we can all make fuller use of natural sources of food.
THE PROJECT
The Festival brings each year some fascinating people to Orkney, with insights, vision and sound advice, and some of them have very kindly provided guidance here about ways to help everyone increase and improve their sources of food. You can find out how to improve your soil quality, the starting-point for so much; how to choose seeds for the start of the growing season and how to save them for next year; how to grow more, whether in gardens or fields, polycrubs or windowsills; how to forage for wild food; how to make fuller use of food through the seasons to reduce waste and increase nutritional benefits. You can also find out about projects like our investigation into the effect of rock dust on flavour. The dust from the eruption of Mount Hekla in 1845 was said to have improved the flavour of that year’s Orkney potato crop. We’ve found that it helps tomatoes as well, as this year we’re trying carrots!
DEPENDENCY
“The UK is not self-sufficient in food production; it imports 48% of the total food consumed and the proportion is rising.”
UK THREAT
“Climate change will affect the UK through extreme weather, where warmer wetter winters are forecast alongside drier summers, potentially reducing yields.”
GLOBAL THREAT
“The global food system is vulnerable to production shocks caused by extreme weather, and this risk is growing.”
TEAM
The Festival has many collaborators whose work it much
admires, some of whom have kindly agreed to help with this project.
Howie Firth
Orkney International Science Festival Director
Prof. Karen Johnson
Professor in Environmental Engineering at Durham University
Ed Bollom
Professional gardener, adviser & trainer
Liz Ashworth
Food writer & food product developer
Anna Canning
Ethnobotanical researcher
Elizabeth Woodcock
Regenerative Gardener & Habitat Maker
Selena Kuzman
Design, marketing, web & photography
