Yesterday I had a fantastic day at the YUMI community street festival, despite my ridiculously early start. YUMI is a multicultural initiative with a community garden that Ryan volunteers for, he is a keen gardener so it's totally his kind of thing. You can find out more about the work they do from their website, http://www.yumiyork.org/
"YUMI links people with different beliefs, lifestyles and cultural roots: we share our skills and talents, support each other, celebrate our traditions and achievements, and lead public events."
So how do I come into all of this? Ryan asked if I would help out with the festival as there were a few children's activities (my specialty) but I strangely enjoyed getting mucky with the bunching onions before tucking into some delicious food from India, Hungary and Harrogate's Bettys (a little closer to home of course).
The success of the festival was of course down to all the hard work that went into the organisation and the growing of all the produce. My tiny contribution is nothing in comparison to all the people that religiously gave up their time to make sure everything stayed on track. I did visit the allotment a few times and I was definitely the only one who didn't know a pak choi from a tomatillo.
On the day all of the plants got transported by van to Parliament Street in York (where all the best festivals and markets happen) at 6am!! Yes that meant a very very very early start for us. Once we got stuck in and started mulching (I picked up gardening words, go me!) the time soon flew by and before we knew it we had a beautiful little garden in the city centre. The little touches such as painted wooden signs and facts about the plants made it even more interesting and colourful to look at.
One of my favourite parts was what I have nicknamed the cute produce stand. The ceramic pots, painted wooden labels and mucky bags gave it a real authentic garden feel and I loved reading where the seeds had come from. Hungary, Japan, and Poland are a few that I can remember. I don't know whose idea the wellies were but I think they looked awesome!
As well as the beautiful garden, there were also stalls where chefs from around the world had cooked some native dishes using ingredients that were being grown on the allotment. There were also some children's activities that enhanced their understanding of both the cultures and where the food comes from. I was amazed to see food from so many countries all being sold in one place. I also learnt where some dishes originate from that I didn't know before.
After perusing all of the yummy goodies that the chefs had to offer, we settled for the Indian Chickpea Curry. It is something I have tried before which defeats the purpose BUT it was delicious! Plus it came with some type of fried bread that I had never heard of. I got a little more adventurous with pudding and sampled a Hungarian poppyseed cake with raspberry sauce before going chocolate testing at the Betty's tent. The lady was lovely and so interesting! I never knew that so many processes went into making chocolate from cocoa beans. Betty's had mixed new flavours of chocolate specially for the festival. I was brave a tried a 'rosemary and olive oil' as well as a 'wasabi' flavoured one rather than playing it safe with ginger caramels. They were weird but strangely yummy too!
Thank you YUMI and Ryan for letting me be part of such a fun and interesting day!! Now I just need plenty of sleep ready to start my first year of teaching on Monday...... and you guys thought I wasn't going to mention it :P hahaha good luck to all you NQTs out there! Just remember that you are fabulous teachers and there is more to life than your work <3
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