Caspar Lampkin Archives - Aberdeen Voice

Local Food? – Yes Please!

Aberdeen City, Articles, Community, Environment, Information Comments Off

Mar 252011

By Ela Nowakowska.

Being a student often means we have to watch the pennies closely. Cruising through supermarkets looking for bargains and discounted produce that will feed us until the next chunk of the student loan arrives.

It is hard to associate with the industry behind the mass-produced Cornflakes and the cheapest chicken breast with the camouflage of glaring lights in pristine warehouses.

But it does not have to be this way.

Taking a step back and giving our food some thought is not actually that hard and Aberdeen is a great place when it comes to local produce. Located by the sea it offers a wealth of seafood and fresh fish as well as regionally grown vegetables and fresh dairy products.

We do not even need to leave campus to make the make the most of the shopping opportunities available through the Veg Bag scheme and the associated student organic Fairtrade Shop. Both are outcomes of ingenuity and have led to regular weekly shopping opportunities for not only the university students and staff but are also gaining recognition from the surrounding community too.

Every Tuesday at Alfies Café, Butchart Centre, between 12 and 2pm all are welcome to purchase a bag of ethically and organically grown fruit and vegetables delivered from Lembas farm located just south of Aberdeen (lembasorganics.co.uk). The student shop (campus Chaplaincy on High Street, every Wednesday 12-2pm) obtains its stock from the Green City co-operative in Glasgow, which specialises in the wholesale of organic and ethical foodstuffs such as pulses, snacks, flour, coffee and many others. And they are all dirt cheap!

As far as real grocers in Aberdeen are concerned, do not waste your precious time trying to find one – you will not. But do not fret for there are several decent spots where you can get you hands on fresh local produce. That includes a little weekly farm stall on The Green (take the steps down from Union Street, beside the Thorntons Chocolate shop) where every Friday you will find vegetables, plants and eggs produced locally on a farm near Dyce.

D Nicoll Fishmonger on 243 Rosemount Place is a lovely little shop where you cannot only grab some fresh mackerel or a few tasty little sardines but also get your free-range eggs and some hand-made preserves, all local and on a small and unpretentious scale. If you fancy something a little closer to home then why not use the fishmonger who comes to you? A white van appears on the university campus every Thursday with all the fishy basics you can think of, at very affordable prices too!

A great way to support local producers in and around Aberdeen is to visit the Farmers’ Market

There is another fishmonger in Aberdeen, located in the indoor market on Market Street where you can get the sense of what shopping in this merchant city would have been like several decades ago. The people behind the counter know their trade well; they’ll be able to advise you on the best fish for your Indian Korma and home-made fishcakes.

While at the market, why not pop across the hall to the butcher’s stall which has plenty of regional meats of high quality. Surely you are already dribbling at the thought of your Friday night Bolognese with a bottle of well-chilled lager on the side. This stall also offers fruit and vegetables so you can purchase your five-a-day here too.

Aberdeen hosts a number of good quality butchers providing succulent, delicious, local meat including Laidlaw (1-3 McCombies Ct), Thomson’s Quality Butchers (8-10 Market Street) and A&M Butchers (49 Justice Street) just to mention a few.

A great way to support local producers in and around Aberdeen is to visit the Farmers’ Market, which takes over the cobbles of Belmont Street twice a month (every first and last Saturday of the month). Here you will find fresh local vegetables, free range eggs and cheeses. Often you will also come across a lovely bakery unit with a rather satisfying selection of artisan breads, buns and oatcakes…mmm…get those scrumptious cheeses and a bottle of bramble wine from the regional Cairn O’Mohr Winery (East Inchmichael, Errol, Perthshire PH2 7SP) for your weekend treat.

For more local food questions and queries contact the Climate Change Project at c.lampkin@abdn.ac.uk.

Herby Sense

Articles, Community, Environment, Information, Opinion Comments Off

Mar 252011

By Frida Mittmann.

The last traces of winter are still circulating in our lecture theatres, offices, factories and homes generating influenza, snuffles, sore throats and fatigue. These are minor illnesses, however, and do not necessarily have to be cured with strong antibiotics that radically kill all bacteria, including the beneficial ones which can lead to unpleasant side effects.

It is a characteristic of our current lives to consume more rapidly, show a reducing interest for local medical traditions and simplify our lives with hasty cures at the long term expense of one’s own health.

Last Friday the Climate Change Project hosted nutrition expert Dr Chris Fenn who gave a lecture about Well-being and Mental Health which included explaining the harming effects of the ingredient Aspartame. This chemical sweetener included in NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, Canderel, Benevia and E951 is also added to the Cold & Flu Lemsip remedy as well as many carbonated drinks.

Aspartame derives from GM micro-organisms and the short term side effects range from nausea to blindness.

To most of us, this is a new revelation because we take industrial medicine for granted, assume it is tested and is somehow a quick and reliable help. Obviously chemical medicine is vitally important for grave illnesses…. but we are talking about simple colds here.

Seasonal changes give colds and bacteria advantageous chances to spread. To prevent and cure the common cold, herbal infusions can be a great alternative, being tasty, affordable and natural. The time your body will spend degrading the additives and chemicals of an antibiotic could be potentially the same period in which herbs can act naturally.

This slowing down of effect will not only enable you to become healthy sooner, it will help you understand and reflect also on the products ingested to increase your fitness and quality of life. Knowing one has pleased their body with something healthy feels good and is therefore beneficial psychologically. To satisfy one’s senses with fresh and flavoursome herbs locally is beneficial both to one’s health and the environment.

Obviously chemical medicine is vitally important for grave illnesses…. but we are talking about simple colds here.

The Beannachar Camphill Community on the South Deeside Road, for instance, grow their own herbs and offer their homemade teas at the Newton Dee shop. Newton Dee is also a Camphill Community, which is further west of Aberdeen and is a community offering adults with disabilities meaningful work and the chance of personal development.

Their shop has particularly specialised in organic and biodynamic products. Other worthwhile shops for exploring herbal alternatives are Nature’s Larder in Holburn Street and MacBeans at the corner of Little Belmont St.

An idea to make use of herbs was also implemented with the planting of a herb garden in Hillhead last October by Aberdeen University students. In addition to culinary herbs as chives and parsley, medical herbs such as rosemary, thyme and sage were planted also.

If you visit there and see the buds and flowers shooting out you may get into the mood to go out any buy yourself some seeds and plant some herbs in a pot on your window sill. Sow the seeds in shallow boxes now and then transplant seedlings either outdoors or in bigger pots in the spring.

A light, well-drained soil is best for starting the seedlings indoors. Be careful not to cover the seeds too deeply with soil. Generally, the finer the seed, the shallower it should be sown. Rosemary is the easiest of all – simply cut off a branch from an existing bush and stick it in the ground and ‘Voila’ it self roots and starts a new bush ….. Easy.

Hillhead Tree Planting A Success – Jam Tomorrow?

Aberdeen City, Articles, Community, Environment, Information Comments Off

Mar 042011

What happens when you give some students 420 trees, spades and a clear bit of ground? Quite a lot actually, and very quickly too – Caspar Lampkin reports on the Climate Change Project’s latest planting event.

As part of People and Planets ‘Go Green Week’, the Climate Change Project organised Aberdeen University’s second big planting event up at Hillhead on 11 February.

The 420 trees generously donated by the Woodland Trust were all planted within two hours, thanks to all the volunteer help.

Following the success of the first planting event which created two herb gardens, a lot of shrubs and a couple of fruit trees, there was strong demand to get out and do further planting around the campus. The amount of land in the university area, and indeed throughout the city, is huge and holds enormous potential for the creation of ‘edible landscapes’ to bring free, local, fresh food to the community.

OK, the trees planted in February will not provide fruit for at least a decade but we really should be thinking about this now for the benefit of future generations. The Chinese proverb, ‘The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is now’ sums this up perfectly.

There were six varieties of tree planted, including plums, hazels and crab apples, which will all produce berries and fruits useful in making chutneys, jams and cordials once they reach maturity.

The great thing is that there are already many of these trees around campus which have reached maturity and the Climate Change Project is currently putting together a map of where all these trees are so that we can all benefit from their harvests.

Imagine not having to go to the supermarket to buy overpriced, flavourless apples and plums but picking them for free as you need them on your way to lectures instead.

The Climate Change Project has more planting projects to come. Why not come along next time and learn how to plant a tree yourself? Go to http://eepurl.com/co4BD to sign up to our weekly newsletter.

Photos by George Chubb.

Union Terrace Gardens Big Sunny Lunch

Aberdeen City, Articles, Community, Events, Featured No Responses »

Jul 302010

By Caspar Lampkin.

Almost as if by arrangement, the sun popped through the clouds just before midday last Sunday to join us for the 2010 Big Lunch in Union Terrace Gardens. No small thanks to the sun, the event was really well-attended and most folk remained sitting around on the grass all afternoon enjoying mouth-watering soup and great company. Continue reading »