Photo of
March 9, 2015

Springfest

We’re not packing away our mittens quite just yet but the 5pm Dining blog reckons that winter is on the way out.

And that means that the year’s various food festivals will be cranking into life fairly sharpish.

One of the first out of the traps is the inaugural Springfest which takes place on Loch Lomond Shores on the 4th and 5th of April.

Great Balloch Bake Off

Run by the same team that organises the Loch Lomond Food and Drink Festival in the autumn, Springfest promises dozens of top notch Scottish food producers as well as live music, bakery classes, The Great Balloch Bake Off and, naturally, lots of cooking demonstrations.

There will also be bushcraft and foraging workshops. If that sounds a bit too Ray Mears then more genteel souls should keep an eye out for the pop-up tearoom from the Willow Tea Rooms.

GastroFest at Edinburgh International Science Fest

Launching at the same time is the Edinburgh International Science Festival.

As in previous years, the festival contains a GastroFest mini-strand which looks at the tasty bits where food and science meet.

There are lots of interesting events but two in particular caught our eye:

The first is called Will you recognise the food on your plate in 2050? Taking place in Summerhall on Wednesday 8th April, it asks who is going to shape what we eat in the future? And what will our food look like? Will changes be gradual, or will we be eating insect burgers and synthetic meat within the next ten years?

Hosted by The Nutrition Society, it will include input from a panel of experts including Prof Andrew Salter, Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry at Nottingham University and Dr Dean A Sewell, Senior Lecturer, School of Life Sciences at Heriot-Watt University.

Eat wild

We also liked the look of Dining on the Wild Side at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh on Thursday 16th April.

We’ve been eating farmed food for some 10,000 years and are now at the point where we pay a premium for food which labelled wild.

What is driving this gastronomic trend: taste, nutrition or environmental concerns?

Diners will discuss the issues over a gourmet three course meal with rising culinary star, Ben Reade and TV presenter and author Alys Fowler.

There will also be a SciMart or Scientific Farmers’ market at Summerhall on Sunday 5th. You can get a flavour of the event from this clip about last year’s SciMArt.