News / Food fair to celebrate heritage
TRADITIONAL cooking will be honoured at this year’s Shetland Food Fair with a new ‘heritage area’.
A number of cooking demonstrations will take place, while food related artefacts and displays will also feature.
The heritage area will be held at the Bowls Hall when the Food Fair takes places at Clickimin, in Lerwick, at the last weekend of October.
The Saturday demonstrations will include Charlie Simpson making stap (a dish in which fish liver is mixed with the boiled meat from the head of a fish), Pearl Young making Shetland butter and kirn milk, while Peter Sinclair will produce bannocks.
On the Sunday, Jemima McGinnes will make krappin and there will be a demonstration of the process of making sheeps’ puddeens.
Shetland Museum curator Ian Tait and Davy Cooper will set up artefacts on the Friday, while there will also be stories and poetry in local dialect throughout the weekend.
It is the first time a specific heritage area is being held at the Food Fair.
Marian Armitage, chair of Shetland Food & Drink, said the attraction will celebrate the keen traditions of cooking in the isles.
“Shetland’s food heritage – including classic Shetland recipes – has played a key part in creating Shetland’s vibrant culture,” she said.
“Whether it’s Sheland wives having to use every bit of the fish or the animal because they had to make the most of limited resources, or memories of our mams feeding us reestit mutton and tattie soup – it’s all part of who we are.
“We wanted to celebrate this, for the first time, at the Food Fair.”
Museum curator Ian Tait added: “The museum has some fascinating artefacts from old Shetland kitchens and, through those, we can see what an important part cooking played in Shetland life.
“The cooking provided the ‘fuel’ that kept the workers, crofters, fishermen and families of Shetland going, with the traditional kitchen giving a warm, comforting ‘heart’ to the home.”
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