The Mid and East Antrim Borough Council’s ‘Wild
About Food’ project has been running throughout 2016 in collaboration with
Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council, and was funded by Heritage Lottery
Fund. The two Council areas celebrated the success of the programme with a
final Winter Festival event in Mossley Mill on Saturday 10th
December. Activities included delicious winter fare workshops, wreath making, robin box
building, arts and crafts and woodland creatures.
The ‘Wild About Food’ project was Mid and East Antrim's contribution to Northern Ireland's
Year of Food and Drink 2016 which is a celebration of everything delicious
about Northern Ireland. Throughout 2016 participants across the Borough have
had the chance to taking part in a range of events and workshops making the
most of our fantastic local products.
Workshops throughout the year have included Love
Veg at Eden Allotment Gardens, Cook Your Catch at Blackhead Path, Pesto making
at Ecos Nature Park, Ice Cream making at Dixon Park and Apple Day at Diamond
Jubilee Wood, and have proven extremely popular. Our ‘Winter Festival’ was a
great way to celebrate the end of this exciting programme.
Furthermore, this project was intended to act as a reminder of the ecosystem processes which provides us with food, air and water, and remind us of the importance of the natural world around us. With today’s reliance on supermarkets, and the assumption that any food can be purchased at any time of the year, this project has hopefully reminded people of the importance of our local produce and those ingredients which have not incurred thousands of air miles and the associated carbon foot print.
