Events

Preserving Culture is a workshop series exploring preservation and fermentation in collaboration with local traveller women’s groups in Westmeath. Under the guidance of Chef Rose Greene, co-founder of 4Hands Food Studio, the groups will explore ways to express traveller culture through preservation and food fermentation.

Across 12 weekly workshops, participants will be encouraged to share their own cultural skills and memories while also learning from Rose. There will be an introduction to fermentation and the historic use of this preservation technique. Recipe development will then be explored with discussions of childhood memories and how fermentation can capture a flavour or feeling. Participants will explore the outdoors in order to gather and discover the uses of wild herbs and fruits in fermentation. Local, seasonal and organic vegetables will be fermented into various types of nutrient dense ferments, including sauerkraut and kimchi. Then the groups will look at kombucha and wild sodas. As Ireland has a strong culture of dairy production, participants will explore organic cow’s milk, making kefir, churning butter and making simple fresh cheese. Learning the technique of dehydration in order to store vibrant flavours will be explored as well as making sourdough. The programme will conclude with a creative skills celebration where the groups will gather to share a festive feast of their creations.