I am glad that Fairtrade Fortnight is over. I have not been home in an evening for about 3 weeks. In Clackmannanshire, we had a visit from a Palestinian Fairtrade olive grower, a Guatemalan fairtrade coffee producer and we ran a Savour the Flavour, African cooking demonstration.
Taysir Arbasi from Palestine came to Alva on Friday 22nd when we showed the film The People and The Olive at No 140 in Alva. A poor turnout, but we will show the film again at the MacRobert cinema on 18th June.
On Tuesday 5th March, Douglas Eloan Recinos
Lópe, a Guatemalan coffee grower and Chairman of Fedecocagu, a co-operative of 19,354 small coffee growers, visited the Co-operative store in Alva, then on to the store in Bridge of Allan and finally on to Forth Valley College's Gallery restaurant for lunch.
In the evening of the Tuesday, I hosted a cookery demonstration at Resonate Arts House in Alloa. Until 2.30 in the afternoon, it looked as if I was to be the one cooking as well as hosting it!
Fortunately, Stuart Hall of Forth Valley College pulled the kitchen staff out so that we could thank them after lunch. He then asked if any of them would like to give a cookery demonstration that evening. They all examined their shoes initially until a wonderful woman, Bernie Syme, volunteered and she press-ganged a fellow student, Neil Reid into helping her.
They were great! Entertaining, efficient and educational , they produced the food which was appreciated greatly by the audience. I am pleased that I did not have to demonstrate the cooking, although...
Part of the food served were palmiers made from puff pastry and guava jam and shortbread biscuits made with macadamia nuts. I made these on the Sunday before. I have NEVER baked before! One of the tables gave me 20 out of 10 for the biscuits. Made my night!
I spoke to Alva Academy 1st & 2nd Year assembly and to Primaries 4, 5 and 6 at Craigbank Primary School. I ran a Fairtrade themed Art competition for schoolchildren, wrote articles for newspapers and squeezed in lecturing and other activities as well
Showing posts with label Co-operative. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Co-operative. Show all posts
Tuesday, 12 March 2013
Friday, 9 November 2012
BenRiach Maltings reopen
Word came through this week that BenRiach's maltings have reopened.
Billy Walker, the company's MD, said: “From a commercial point of view, it makes no sense
because the costs of producing malted barley are significantly more. The reason
we’re doing it is because we had everything in place and in fantastic
condition. Bolting the maltings onto BenRiach is a beautiful join-up.”
It brings to eight the number of distillers who malt at least a portion of their own barley.
Today, I have a meeting of Delph Pond Forum and can advise them that the group, of which I am the treasurer, has been successful in its bid for funding from The Co-operative's Community Fund. The Forum is attempting to raise funds for interpretation boards around the pond giving visitors to the area and schoolchildren (as the park has been used by local schools as an outdoor classroom in the past couple of years) information about the area's flora and fauna. We are gradually having the locals accept some responsibility for the area and to understand the importance of protecting the area's biodiversity.
Thursday, 8 November 2012
Cutty Sark again at Lochgreen House
Tuesday night was again down in deepest Ayrshire, at Lochgreen House in Troon educating a group of Greek bartenders about blended whisky for Cutty Sark. Our normal line up has been North British 5 yo, J&B, Cutty Sark, Dewar's White Label, Ballantine's & Johnnie Walker Red Label. The guys and gals at Cutty see these as being what they call their "competitive set".
We've been doing these events for their overseas distributors and customers for about 18 months now. Initially, I thought that they were being very brave, putting their juice up clinically against the opposition, but Cutty ALWAYS shows well. The liquid is of fantastic quality.
The Greeks, from W.S. Karoulias, Cutty's distributors in Athens, wanted the competitive set changed, because they see the competition differently in Greece. Thus, the line up this week was N.B. 5yo, Cutty, Dewar's, Grant's, Haig and J.W. Red.
Again, Cutty showed up wonderfully. It is a long time since I last tasted either Grant's or Haig. The Grant's showed well, but the Haig's flavour was flat, old-fashioned and exceedingly disappointing.
The group was quite knowledgeable, had a good command of English - sometimes one of the group has had to translate my words into Russian, Turkish or Portuguese and that adds to the length of the night.
We have dinner and then jump into a bus which takes us to Alloway, where we wander around the old churchyard and down to the Brig o' Doon where we drink Tam O' Shanter, Cutty Sark 25 yo.
It's a tough life...
Last night was a meeting of the Co-operative Area Committee in Stirling. A relatively easy meeting, we dispensed £5,697.84 from the Community Fund to deserving organisations, but there were applications totalling over £11,000, so we had to disappoint some groups.
Today I found some tasting notes which had become buried in the paperwork on my desk. I really must tidy it more regularly. I will get them up onto the website within the next couple of days - I hope!
We've been doing these events for their overseas distributors and customers for about 18 months now. Initially, I thought that they were being very brave, putting their juice up clinically against the opposition, but Cutty ALWAYS shows well. The liquid is of fantastic quality.
The Greeks, from W.S. Karoulias, Cutty's distributors in Athens, wanted the competitive set changed, because they see the competition differently in Greece. Thus, the line up this week was N.B. 5yo, Cutty, Dewar's, Grant's, Haig and J.W. Red.
Again, Cutty showed up wonderfully. It is a long time since I last tasted either Grant's or Haig. The Grant's showed well, but the Haig's flavour was flat, old-fashioned and exceedingly disappointing.
The group was quite knowledgeable, had a good command of English - sometimes one of the group has had to translate my words into Russian, Turkish or Portuguese and that adds to the length of the night.
We have dinner and then jump into a bus which takes us to Alloway, where we wander around the old churchyard and down to the Brig o' Doon where we drink Tam O' Shanter, Cutty Sark 25 yo.
It's a tough life...
Last night was a meeting of the Co-operative Area Committee in Stirling. A relatively easy meeting, we dispensed £5,697.84 from the Community Fund to deserving organisations, but there were applications totalling over £11,000, so we had to disappoint some groups.
Today I found some tasting notes which had become buried in the paperwork on my desk. I really must tidy it more regularly. I will get them up onto the website within the next couple of days - I hope!
Wednesday, 22 February 2012
Another Quite a Week
Was supposed to be forming part of a panel at the MacRobert Centre on Friday evening as a part of Take One Action's film festival (http://www.takeoneaction.org.uk/) which the Co-operative is sponsoring. The film was to have been Even The Rain (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbpdeI0ugGc), but the film didn't arrive at the MacRobert, so the evening was cancelled.
On the Saturday at Ashfield Village Hall, just to the north of Dunblane, the film was There Once Was An Island (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlFVJBZfsBY) and this film had arrived. Ashfield Village Hall serves a community of about 30 homes and has amazing facilities for such a small community. The film shows how global warming has impacted into the life of these remote islanders and how the sea level rising has caused half of the islanders on this low lying atoll to leave. We are left in no doubt that the remaining islanders will either have to leave or die.
There was a panel discussion afterwards, with myself, a woman from Christian Aid and a chap from SCIAF. They were showing another film in the evening, viewing of There Once Was An Island had started at 4.00 p.m., but I was unable to stay for that - domestic commitments.
I played a dozen holes of golf on Monday morning! First time on the course for about 8 months because of the poisoned foot and the bad weather. First thre holes were abysmal, ball going everywhere, but as I got into it, I improved. Finished with a par 3 on the winter 18th, which is the summer 18th at Braehead Golf Course.
My wife siffered pleurisy a few weks ago and went down with tonsilitis last week. She went in on Monday morning, b
ut only managed a half day, exhausted. he had Tuesday off. I, meanwhile, had Week 6 of the whisky cour
se - Marketing & Brand Devbelopment. Once again, i talked too much - my students seem to enjoy my course, as you can see from the ph
oto - and it was 9.15 before I finally got out of the college.
On the Saturday at Ashfield Village Hall, just to the north of Dunblane, the film was There Once Was An Island (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlFVJBZfsBY) and this film had arrived. Ashfield Village Hall serves a community of about 30 homes and has amazing facilities for such a small community. The film shows how global warming has impacted into the life of these remote islanders and how the sea level rising has caused half of the islanders on this low lying atoll to leave. We are left in no doubt that the remaining islanders will either have to leave or die.
There was a panel discussion afterwards, with myself, a woman from Christian Aid and a chap from SCIAF. They were showing another film in the evening, viewing of There Once Was An Island had started at 4.00 p.m., but I was unable to stay for that - domestic commitments.
I played a dozen holes of golf on Monday morning! First time on the course for about 8 months because of the poisoned foot and the bad weather. First thre holes were abysmal, ball going everywhere, but as I got into it, I improved. Finished with a par 3 on the winter 18th, which is the summer 18th at Braehead Golf Course.
My wife siffered pleurisy a few weks ago and went down with tonsilitis last week. She went in on Monday morning, b
ut only managed a half day, exhausted. he had Tuesday off. I, meanwhile, had Week 6 of the whisky cour
se - Marketing & Brand Devbelopment. Once again, i talked too much - my students seem to enjoy my course, as you can see from the ph
oto - and it was 9.15 before I finally got out of the college.
Wednesday, 15 February 2012
Quite a week
As a part of my voluntary work, I was promoting Zero Waste Scotland at Forth Valley College's Alloa campus last Wednesday (8th), explaining to people how they could cut down on the amount of food they send to landfill. We had quite a throughput over the course of the 3 hours I was there. I am always amazed, when talking to people about food preparation, how they do not think of saving themselves fairly large amounts of money over the course of a year by cooking from scratch, freezing in 2 or 3 serving batches and not buying over-priced ready meals.
On Thursday 9th I attended the United Nations International Year of Co-operatives launch at the Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood. I was quite surprise at the VERY good attendance. The evening was spoiled by the address to the attendees by John Swinney MSP, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth. He was poor, gave the impression that he was out of his depth and there was a definitely hostile, or at least support deficit feeling from those he was addressing.
On Saturday (11th) the meeting of the Co-op's Scotland & Northern Ireland Values & Principles committee. I'm really getting in to this which, with my political past is very surprising, but there is too much inequality nowadays not to get involved. there probably was when I was young as well, it was just that I was unaware of it.
Scotland were beaten by Wales on Sunday. Yet another Scottish try dissallowed! that's two this 6 Nations already.
Monday (13th), in my role as a Community Councillor, was handing out monies to local organisations which are doing good works in the area. Much of thsi should come from central or local government, but as Holrood has frozen council tax for the past 4 years, these organisations need funding from wherever they can get it.
Whisky course, week 5 - History from 1850 to the present. This group of students is 100% whisky drinkers for a change. In previous years, the class has consisted of up to 90% trade - either whisky shop, bar, restaurant or hotel owners and their staffs. This spring, of the 19 enrolled on the course, one is half of www.whiskyboys.com and the remaining 18 are just whisky lovers. Now tat we are into the 5th week, they have much more confidence in their own abilities and understanding relative to whisky.
It's fun.
On Thursday 9th I attended the United Nations International Year of Co-operatives launch at the Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood. I was quite surprise at the VERY good attendance. The evening was spoiled by the address to the attendees by John Swinney MSP, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth. He was poor, gave the impression that he was out of his depth and there was a definitely hostile, or at least support deficit feeling from those he was addressing.
On Saturday (11th) the meeting of the Co-op's Scotland & Northern Ireland Values & Principles committee. I'm really getting in to this which, with my political past is very surprising, but there is too much inequality nowadays not to get involved. there probably was when I was young as well, it was just that I was unaware of it.
Scotland were beaten by Wales on Sunday. Yet another Scottish try dissallowed! that's two this 6 Nations already.
Monday (13th), in my role as a Community Councillor, was handing out monies to local organisations which are doing good works in the area. Much of thsi should come from central or local government, but as Holrood has frozen council tax for the past 4 years, these organisations need funding from wherever they can get it.
Whisky course, week 5 - History from 1850 to the present. This group of students is 100% whisky drinkers for a change. In previous years, the class has consisted of up to 90% trade - either whisky shop, bar, restaurant or hotel owners and their staffs. This spring, of the 19 enrolled on the course, one is half of www.whiskyboys.com and the remaining 18 are just whisky lovers. Now tat we are into the 5th week, they have much more confidence in their own abilities and understanding relative to whisky.
It's fun.
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