Nourish

A new Small Producers Info Hub launched yesterday at the
👉 https://smallproducers.scot

Co-designed with small-scale producers, it's the place to find all the regs - and exceptions - you need to know about. More sectors to be added, give your suggestions via feedback function.

Home Supporting small food producers across Scotland. The Small Producers Info Hub, supported by the Scottish Government, is designed to answer your questions about dos and don'ts in relation to food production in Scotland.

Join Us!
Local History and Social change at your fingertips…

We want individuals from all backgrounds, anywhere in Scotland, with a range of skills and abilities to join us on researching the forgotten history of British Restaurants of the 1940s.

We hope to spark social change in developing these earlier restaurants into modern Public Diners that will feed and support local communities in Scotland today!

You will be able to gain and develop skills in oral history interviewing, archive and collections research, exhibition curation and overall help in making Public Diners a reality.

If you are interested, please contact [email protected] or scan the QR code for more information.

Food is everyone’s business. Have your say on the Scottish Government’s National Good Food Nation Plan.

Host a Kitchen Table Talk before consultation closes on 22nd April: all you need is a small group of people, a table (real or virtual) for you to sit around, and a desire to explore the key steps needed to make Scotland a Good Food Nation.

Find out more: foodcoalition.scot/kitchen-table-talks or email [email protected]

Good Food Nation Plan Consultation How to take part in the Public Consultation on the Scottish Government draft Good Food Nation Plan

Peterhead's up next! The consultation for Scotland's first ever national food Plan is headed to Peterhead on Monday. Join us to discuss what's in the Plan and feed your views directly into the consultation. Book your place here:

National Good Food Nation Plan: Consultation Workshop, Peterhead Join us in Peterhead to provide your views on Scotland’s national Good Food Nation Plan.

The Scottish Government is headed to Oban to hear views about the first national Good Food Nation Plan this Friday. Come along to hear what it's all about and have your say. Book here:

www.goodfoodnationplan.scot

National Good Food Nation Plan: Consultation Workshop, Oban Join us in Oban to provide your views on Scotland’s national Good Food Nation Plan.

The consultation is headed to the Borders next Tuesday for the next Good Food Nation Plan consultation workshop. If you’re in or around Galashiels, come along to Volunteer Hall and have your say on Scotland’s first national food Plan. Book in here:

www.goodfoodnationplan.scot

National Good Food Nation Plan: consultation - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space Find and participate in consultations run by The Scottish Government

The next online consultation workshop is coming up this week! Join us to discuss the national Good Food Nation Plan on Tuesday 5 March. This will be the second of 5 online workshops being held by the Scottish Government throughout the consultation period. Book in here:

www.goodfoodnationplan.scot

The consultation is headed to Dumfries & Galloway on Friday, 8 March. Join the Scottish Government at Easterbrook Hall to share your views on Scotland’s first national food Plan. Book here:

www.goodfoodnationplan.scot

National Good Food Nation Plan: consultation - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space Find and participate in consultations run by The Scottish Government

In Glasgow this Friday?

Join us to discuss Scotland’s newly released national Good Food Nation Plan at the next consultation event. Book here:

www.goodfoodnationplan.scot

Can’t attend an in person consultation workshop? Join us online to discuss the national Good Food Nation Plan next Wednesday 28 February. This will be the first of 5 online workshops being held by the Scottish Government throughout the consultation period. Book in here:

www.goodfoodnationplan.scot

A reminder that the consultation for Scotland’s first ever national Good Food Nation Plan is now open! If you're in Alloa on the 27 February, we'd love to see you at the next consultation workshop. Register for a place here:

www.goodfoodnationplan.scot

National Good Food Nation Plan: consultation - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space Find and participate in consultations run by The Scottish Government

It's time to have your say on Scotland’s national Good Food Nation Plan! As part of a national consultation, the Scottish Government will host a series of workshops across Scotland - with the first taking place in Edinburgh next Friday.
Book your place:
http://goodfoodnationplan.scot

National Good Food Nation Plan: consultation - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space Find and participate in consultations run by The Scottish Government

What an amazing day yesterday exploring the idea of public diners with over 100 people from across Scotland and beyond. Shall we make it happen? It's a resouding 'yes!' from the conference.

There will be so much more to say - watch this space!

Job Opportunity - Community Chef - Greener Kirkcaldy Greener Kirkcaldy is a community-led charity working locally to bring people together, take positive action on the climate emergency and support people through fuel poverty and food insecurity. We deliver a range of projects, events and skills training to achieve the needs and goals of local people....

👷‍♀️👷‍♀️👷‍♀️The time for design is now!

A reminder to book your place to our Public Diners conference in February.

This event is open to anyone who eats - we invite you to join us in building the infrastructure that’s going to support us to eat better in Scotland.

Register here: https://bit.ly/publicdinersconference

Interested in coming along to our Public Diners conference?

You might also be interested to know that the public diner is not an entirely new concept - there is precedent in our recent history: British Restaurants.

In the 1940s and 50s, the UK had state-subsidised, affordable public diners, serving healthy meals to communities across the country. In Scotland alone, there were more than 50 of these restaurants in operation. One does not have to think too hard about the benefits such an institution might deliver today.

Should they return and if so, how should they return?

Let's start planning: https://bit.ly/publicdinersconference

What does a public diner look, feel, smell and taste like for you? 🤔

What’s on the menu?🍲
Who is serving who? 👩‍🍳
Is there music playing?📀
How much are you paying for a meal?💸
Who’s there with you? 💙

Let's talk about it on 1 February!
https://bit.ly/publicdinersconference

It’s finally here…join us on 1 February to begin designing a new piece of infrastructure for Scotland: the public diner.

We have
public transport,
public libraries,
public housing,
a public health system,
but there is very little public infrastructure around food. We need an institution that supports us to eat, and eat well.

This one-day conference invites you to begin imagining and planning the future of public diners across Scotland. Importantly, we will also be feasting and reviewing a prototype public diner menu.

-

The day’s workshop will be followed by a closing event - inclusive of another public diner style feast and an exciting performance.

Book your spot here: https://bit.ly/publicdinersconference

Public Diners: Infrastructure for a Good Food Nation Join us as we begin to design a new piece of social infrastructure in Scotland: the public diner.

To make healthy food we need healthy soil!

We enjoyed looking at farming and food production through the lens of soil with soil expert Joel Williams yesterday. Thanks to Tom Fairfax and Mindrum Farm for having us.

Tom has been experimenting with soil health for years now and says the benefits are clear -
“I’m improving lots and having fun listening to the ground.”

It’s easy to go down many technical holes when it comes to managing your soil, but Joel suggests following some basic principles can help:

1. Minimise soil disturbance
2. Maximise crop diversity
3. Keep the soil covered
4. Maintain living root year-round
5. Integrate livestock

That's a wrap on Scotland's National Veg Summit 2023!

The summit paid veg the attention it deserves in our Good Food Nation conversation. Table discussions brought together ideas from across the food system for how to get more veg onto more plates across Scotland. First look at some of the big ideas from the day 👉👉👉

🍽️🍽️🍽️ Important food for thought being served at the National Veg Summit: Is working with large-scale commercial growers the key to eating more veg?

We'll have the chance to talk with Kettle Produce about the links between commercial growing and veg eating 🥔🥔🥔

🍽️🍽️🍽️The National Veg Summit is ready to plate up the perspective of our public nutrition policy.

We're excited to have Food Standards Scotland as a provocateur at the Summit. Time to get thinking about where public nutrition fits into our pledge to eat more veg 🥗🥗🥗

🍽️🍽️🍽️Time to get the perspectives of New Scots onto the plate.

We're excited to welcome the Central & West Integration Network to the National Veg Summit -- leading discussions on what we can learn from all those who now call Scotland home 🍅🍅🍅

🍽️🍽️🍽️Putting the perspective of our hospitality industry onto the plate!

Compass Scotland will be at the National Veg Summit - leading discussions into how the hospitality industry can get more veg onto more plates across Scotland 🥦🥦🥦

🍽️🍽️🍽️Time to get the local grower's perspective onto the plate!

We're excited to have Lauriston Farm at the National Veg Summit as one of our provocateurs. Let's get talking about the links between local growing and veg eating 🥕🥕🥕

“Dad wishes we farmed like we do now for the previous 40 years.”

Last Friday, the Scottish Borders farmers group of our Agroecology project had the pleasure of visiting the Mitchell’s at Whitriggs farm.

Interested to learn about this farm’s successful conversion to low-input, organic farming, farmers from the region came together to learn from Stuart Mitchell and from each other. The visit was also joined by Doug Christie, a trailblazer in no-till and cover cropping farming techniques.

If you’re interested in joining upcoming farmer to farmer exchanges, please get in touch.



Propagate
Soil Association Scotland
Pasture for Life
Landworkers' Alliance
Nature Friendly Farming Network
Scotland's Farm Advisory Service - FAS
The Scottish Government
Scottish Crofting Federation
Scottish National Rural Network

Knockfarrel Produce providing food for thought for our upcoming Veg Summit!

The organic market gardener here delivers veg boxes to over 200 families and grows 81 different types of veg.

Not only do they look good enough to enter our Scottish veg display competition, but they are grown with techniques that support biodiversity & increase resilience.

The croft runs a 5 bed organic rotation, using green manure to fix nitrogen, cover crops to minimise soil erosion and a polytunnel to help fresh greens survive the harsh winters.

Last picture is a lemon cucumber…as we said, food for thought!🍋🍋

🌱🌱🌱Learning about Scottish grown seeds with Seeds of Scotland earlier this week!

Did you know that the last Scottish commercial seed company closed its doors in the 1980s?

Since then, Scottish vegetable growers have had to go elsewhere for their seeds. Like other seed sovereignty projects, Seeds of Scotland is trying to change that.

This highland-based seed company offers locally-grown seeds for a variety of vegetables and herbs, including those that are notoriously difficult to grow in our Scottish climate.

They do this by nurturing Scottish heritage seeds and as well as adapting certain seeds to the Scottish climate. They also run seed-saving workshops! To find out more, follow the link:
https://seedsofscotland.com

Improving our soils can increase our resilience to climate change. Integrating trees on farms can support profitability. Increasing crop diversity can lead to healthier diets.

Want to find out how? Join us on our agroecological journey 👇🏼
https://www.nourishscotland.org/agroecology-strengthening-livelihoods/


Propagate
Pasture for Life
Nature Friendly Farming Network
Landworkers' Alliance
Soil Association Scotland
Scottish Crofting Federation
The Scottish Government
Scotland's Farm Advisory Service - FAS
Scottish National Rural Network

We're excited to announce some of the speakers joining us for the 2023 National Veg Summit!

These speakers will lead a set of interactive discussions, exploring the question: What would make it easier for everyone to eat more veg in a Good Food Nation?

To secure your spot, follow the link:
https://bit.ly/vegsummit2023