Some pictures from the amazing day that the schools had with chef Emmett McCourt from the Irish Food Heritage Project, celebrating their Lumper potato harvest in the Living Heritage project
Pictures courtesy Stephen Latimer Photography
The kids had a great time learning about the historical context of the Lumper potato from chef Emmett, and really enjoyed assisting with the cooking…and loved the eating!!
The cooking was the penultimate part of the Living Heritage Project which saw 12 schools from across Derry-Londonderry build specific raised beds to which grow the heritage Lumper potatoes in. The kids from all the participating schools then planted, cared for and harvested their potatoes. Bringing them along with them to the various cookery events which ran in 4 different locations within the participating schools.
Here you can see items on the various schools planting their Lumper potatoes:
Long Tower Primary, Lisnagelvin Primary, Oakgrove Primary, St Annes Primary and Ebrington primary plant their Lumper Potatoes
St Patricks Primary plant their Lumper Potatoes with Chef Emmett
Groarty primary School plant their Lumper Potatoes
St Eithness Primary School plant their Lumper Potatoes
Greenhaw Primary, St Therese Primary and St Pauls Primary plant their Lumper Potatoes
The Kids looked after their Lumper Potatoes from the Easter planting till they started to harvest them.
Here you’ll see the Lumper Potatoes coming on well across Derry- Londonderry
and of course the kids loved the Harvesting, they loved digging up the Lumper potatoes:
Fountain primary, Greenhaw Primary, Long Tower Primary, Oakgrove Primary, and St Annes Harvesting their Lumpers
St Therese and St Pauls Harvest their Lumper Potatoes
Groarty Primary harvest their Lumper Potatoes
This turned out to be a wonderful project which allowed school children from all areas of Derry-Londonderry to come together and explore some shared history, my thanks to Glens of Antrim Potatoes and the Irish Food Heritage Project and the pupils and teachers from the participating schools who made it all possible.
Gareth Austin is a Community focused Horticulturist based in Derry-Londonderry and voice of Gardening on the Mark Patterson Show on BBC Radio Foyle. Gareth specialises in Community horticulture, offering a wide range of events, programmes and acitivity on engaging people in the exciting world of Horticulture. Gareth lectures in Horticulture in the North West Regional College and offers school horticulture programs through the Western Education + Library Board. Gareth is passionate about changing land-use to a more positive use, urban food production and showcasing the flora of county Derry through the City of Horti-Culture programme of events.
Source: Source: Gareth Austin Horticultural & Media Services – Living Heritage Cookery Event with Chef Emmett McCourt – Gareth Austin
