Don’t just get mad, join the Newsgroup.

Bankers narrowly lost out to Afghanistan in the first Newsgroup workshop when Gavin Crichton asked people what news stories were making them angry.  What will be the burning issue for the second Newsgroup?  Come and find out at 10 am on Saturday 30th January in Pilmeny Youth Club. Be sure to bring your cuttings with you!

This is a joint venture between Leith Open Space and ACTive Inquiry, the very active community theatre group now firmly based in Leith.  The inspiration comes from artistic director Gavin Crichton who saw the potential of combining the  Open Space format with a drama workshop to get constructive discussion going. So it’s not just about talking.  Like our Open Space discussion events, the workshop ends with a vote on what participants want to do to make a change.

As Gavin explains: “The workshop explores  how we can become active participants in current affairs rather than passive consumers.”

And what kind of action can we take? Write to your MP about Afghanistan was the gist of the winning vote at the end of the first event in December when 19 people turned up with news to discuss and plenty of views.  “It was a great session,” says Gavin who is emailing everyone on the list inviting them to a second event at:

Pilmeny Youth Centre, 44 Buchanan Street, between 10 am and 1pm on Saturday 30th January.  The fee is just £5 and after the workshops we will adjourn to the cafe at Out of the Blue in the Old Drill Hall where, no doubt, the discussion will continue.

If you want more information just get in touch with Gavin on gavin@activeinquiry.co.uk or ring Ben Stollery on 07963 782 874

ACTive INquiry promotes increased participation in the arts as a catalyst for active involvement in society. More information on  www.activeinquiry.co.uk

The aim, inspired by the World Kitchen in Leith, is to celebrate  good home cooking from many cultures.

Here is fresh and spicy food to revive your appetite after Christmas and New Year.  In our first World Kitchen film, Mridu Thanki welcomes us into her kitchen to show us how to cook mushrooms in cream with red peppers and fresh green coriander.  It’s delicious, doesn’t cost much, takes only a few minutes to prepare and cook – and you can probably get all or most of the ingredients at the corner shop. (See below for the recipe).

Mridu generously gave up her lunch hour to let us film the dish adapted from her cookery book, Feasts of India, just a few days before the launch in McDonald Road library (complete with poetry by her partner Gordon Peters).

Even better, we got to eat it.  Mridu demonstrated how traditional Indian vegetarian cookery provides a balanced meal,  serving the vegetable dish along with lentils for proteins, rice or bread (traditional Scottish potato bread works well too) for  carbohydrates and fresh salad for vitamins. The spices bring their own nutritional values as well as delicious aromas and flavours. “Just smell that coriander,” she says finally stirring the chopped green herb into the creamy mushrooms.  And although it is just a film, we think you can!

Thanks to Dougal Perman at Inner Ear for editing the film. And thanks to Mridu for a delicious lunch.  We hope cookery films may become an occasional series on the blog. The aim, inspired by the World Kitchen in Leith, is to celebrate  good home cooking from many cultures. Right, now we are off to try a few more Feasts of India. Meanwhile here is that recipe (serves four):

Creamy mushrooms with pepper and coriander

250 grams mushroom, 100 ml single cream, 1 red pepper, 1/4 cup fresh coriander, large chopped onion, 2 cloves garlic, 3/4 teaspoon salt, tablespoon oil.

Spices: teaspoon (ish) each of cumin seeds, coriander, garam masala, and pinch crushed dried chillies.

For more information about Feasts of India contact:
jaggnath.recipes@googlemail.com

Now click here to enjoy the film

We are in the kitchen with Mridu Thanki to taste a meal from her first cookery book, Feasts of India.  On a cold Edinburgh day there are tantalising warm spicy smells coming from the pan and we are getting hungry.  But it isn’t time to eat yet.  While Mridu lines up red peppers, green coriander and creamy button mushrooms we are trying to capture the moment on film  – hoping tummies do not rumble above the sound of sizzling onions, cumin and chillies.

Mridu seems undaunted by the cameras. (You have to remember that as a founder member of the World Kitchen in Leith she served delicious courgettes in tandoori masala during torrential rain at Leith Festival in June this year.)  Her infectious enthusiasm for food overcomes most obstacles. “I love  food, I love cooking food and I love feeding family and friends,” she explains in her introduction.

Friends and family love her cooking too. “Why don’t you write the recipes down for us?” they ask and that is how she comes to write a book which she says has been 40 years in the making. After all, cookery books were not part of her family tradition. As a child growing up in North India Mridu  learned by watching and copying her mother and grandmother, absorbing the feel, colours and aromas of recipes which had been handed down for generations. As a mother bringing up two children in Britain she enjoyed experimenting with new flavours and ideas gained from her travels.

Now, adding a pinch of salt to the pan ( “to draw liquid from the mushrooms”) she describes how the idea for the book finally took shape in 1997 when she was running cookery classes for women in Latvia and sending recipes home to her daughter Priya and son Rahul.

The result is Feasts of India which is being launched at McDonald Road Library on Saturday 12th December at 12 pm.  Beautifully illustrated by Sandra de Matos and designed by Calum Ross, it has the look and feel of a handcrafted book and the friendly conversational tone of a natural cook who simply wants to share the vegetarian recipes that she enjoys cooking. Like the delicious creamy mushroom dish we tucked into – along with the rest of the meal Mridu prepared earlier to demonstrate the nutritional balance of an Indian meal: black eyed beans with okra,  white rice fragrant with whole spice, beetroot salad and minty raita of yoghurt and cucumber.

And the film?  Well, that is on its way and will be nicely cooked by the beginning of January when fresh, healthy vegetarian food will be exactly what the doctor ordered. We will make sure you are the first to join us ‘in Mridu’s kitchen’. Pardon any rumbles!

illustrations by Sandra de Matos

FEASTS OF INDIA is published by Jaggnath
£17.99 + £2.00 PP

For more information contact:
jaggnath.recipes@googlemail.com

Here’s a chance to make a difference.  Muslim women are increasingly the victims of hidden crimes of hate – verbal threats and words of abuse hurled in public places – but the crimes are rarely reported for fear of making things worse.  That is why the very enterprising charity, Amina-MWRC, is inviting police and women to meet, talk and strengthen a network of support, at a Women’s Hate Crime event in Edinburgh on Wednesday 9 December. [To register email: samina@mwrc.org.uk]

The aim is to encourage women to speak up without fear under the protection of third party reporting and the event is organised by Amina – the Muslim Women’s Resource Centre (MWRC) which has become a third party reporting agency in recent years.  Samina Ansari, a young Pakistani Scottish mother, who is the MWRC Helpline Officer for South Scotland, describes the background of increasing harrassment behind the event:

“It has been noted from our development and helpline  case work across Scotland that there has been a rise in Islamophobic and racist incidents and women are not likely to report these crimes.

“Sometimes a victim will not want police involvement for  fear the problem may get worse. But they  have an option of reporting to a third party reporting site.”

Amina–MWRC, which promotes the welfare and social inclusion of Muslim women, is one of the national agencies on a growing list of third party centres  on  the Lothian and Borders police website.  The system enables victims from minority communities to report incidents of harrassment to a third party who can offer support and advice as well as passing information on to police and local authorities

The Women’s Hate Crime event in York Place, Edinburgh on Wednesday 9 December is an opportunity for women to discuss their experiences with police and victim support agencies.  In a two-way conversation open to Muslim and other women (interpreters can be provided if needed), the idea is to raise awareness of third party reporting and provide the real life stories which will enable police to improve the service and support they offer. As always perhaps some of the most valuable discussion will arise over a shared lunch at the end of the morning.

As Samina explains in an email to Leith Open Space: “Amina – MWRC proactively wish to prevent repeat victimisation and reduce the fear of crime and harassment.”

Amina – MWRC offers a wide range of events and services including training and friendship groups,  information advice drop in, helpline, and counselling services (see the website for more details – www.mwrc.org.uk). HELPLINE 0808 801 0301
helpline@mwrc.org.uk

It didn’t just rain, it absolutely poured. Recipes and posters got washed away as the deluge battered our poor gazebos.  But cooks just kept on cooking which was just as well because as soon as the rain stopped people came looking for food.  Crowds of them. We might have hoped for better weather but we couldn’t have asked for a better beginning for the World Kitchen than the Gala Day in Leith Links on Saturday (13 June).

The aim was to bring people together to enjoy eating food from different cultural traditions of the world.  To break down some of the barriers daily life seems to set up. And it worked better than we ever dared to imagine.

“This is good,” said Luis with a broad smile on his face as the rain leaked in all around us. He had been just about to start his cookery demonstration when the sky opened. “We can improvise,” he said, setting out a dish of Portuguese food: prawn and coriander ‘pancakes’ made with chickpea flour and served on crisp lettuce topped with a delicate tomato salsa flavoured with lemon grass.

Loving Leith: Gurmit and Luis (on the right) enthuse about food

Cookery demonstrations were abandoned but there was still plenty to see. On the stall there was Maryjannas delicious sour apple cake from Poland (donated by the Kleofas Cafe), a basket of perfect Pakistani mangoes (thanks to Planet Asia), loaves of wonderful Irish soda bread (baked by Celia to Granny Barron’s recipe), and Fran’s tray of American choc chip cookies which stayed miraculously crisp despite the rain.

Then there was the hot stuff. A big pot of chilli pepper soup (a Nigerian recipe made by Patricia) began to draw hungry folk around noon.  Agnes (from the Africa Centre) arrived with trays of African maize porridge, chicken, beans and spinach cooked with peanuts. Mridu served up courgettes stunningly crimson in tandoori masala sauce and a chutney made with pineapples and almonds which went amazingly well with my Scottish potato scones (just as Mridu had promised).

Not dreaming: these are definitely real life pakoras!

And all the time Pip was conjuring up home-made pakoras at the other end of the stall along with her daughter-in-law Balvinder (pictured above),  “I was dreaming about pakoras in the night,” she says laughing at the end of a very long but successful day over a hot stove. I wasn’t sure if it would work.”  In fact it worked so well Pip was kept busy right until the last drop of onion, potato and batter.  (Fortunately we had brought an extra bottle of gas to fire the heroic old burners kindly provided by the Scouts).

Serving the last few spoonfuls: from the right Agnes, Alice and Jo

And still people kept coming back for more.  Just when we thought we had run out Alice arrived with a new pot of beans and coconut and reinforcements of maize meal.  Meanwhile, we began to invent combinations of food we had never thought of before. Not just Scots potato scones with Indian chutney, but Irish soda bread with African beans, and Portuguese prawn and coriander with Indian pakoras. And…”just give me a taste of everything you have got,” said one happy customer loading his plate.

Nick enjoys a multicultural meal

That’s it for now. But we will be back.  The World Kitchen has loads more stories to tell about our sponsors, the people who made the food and the places it came from.  And more events to plan. Thank you, thank you to all our friends and supporters. And special congratulations to Gurmit and Mridu who had the brilliant idea of creating a World Kitchen just a few months ago!

Flashback to April: Gurmit and Mridu making plans at Out of the Blue.

Gurmit and Mridu, cooking up plans for the World Kitchen in Leith

The idea begins with Gurmit Singh, an active member of the Sikh community in Leith as well as being a member of the Leith Festival Programming Committee.   Keen to promote community integration, Gurmit sent an invitation to every minority ethnic community group he could think of inviting them to take part in a cookery demonstration to celebrate their culture.

First to reply was Mridu Thanki, an enthusiastic vegetarian cook who has just started a cookery series, The Worldly Vegetarian, on Leith FM. “I love food, I love food from all over the world and I love to learn,” says Mridu explaining why she comes to be preparing for a 15 minute demonstration of Indian vegetarian cookery on Leith Links on Gala Day (13 June). For Mridu, who is writing a cookery book, food can be a creative art as well as a necessity of life. But it is also a social event.  “Food not only brings pleasure, it brings people together.”

Now Leith Open Space has joined Gurmit and Mridu in their weekly planning sessions at Out of the Blue. Sharing food, as we discovered at our first multicultural discussion event in 2005, is probably the best way of breaking the ice; making connections between different cultures and traditions. We have always wanted to build on the friendly buzz of the lunchtime break during our Open Space events.  This seems too good an opportunity to miss!

Rami Okasha serving lunch at our 2006 Leith Open Space multicultural discussion event on the theme”How can we widen opportunities?”

Why not join us? There is plenty of room in the World Kitchen.  As Gurmit says, “In our busy lives we do not always get a chance to meet people in other communities. We can become isolated. Through World Kitchen we want to celebrate all the vibrant colours, all the flavours and all the people who make Leith a unique place. We would like many ethnic communities to join us and make it a really colourful event.”

With enough support, Gurmit hopes, World Kitchen in Leith will keep on growing long after the cookery demonstration on Gala Day. “Whatever happens, we will have fun trying.”

Keep watching this space. We will let you know how plans are progressing. Meanwhile, please pass the word on – and if you are interested in getting involved just email leithopenspace@btconnect.com.  Or leave a comment on the blog.  We will be delighted to hear from you.

FEAST brought Chinese and Scottish communities together for a creative celebration of food and music in Out of the Blue in 2007.

The website is run by Rob Hainsworth, a member of Leith Walk Central Community Council. As he explains, one thing kind of led to another: “It came about as a way of publishing the results of a community consultation carried out in the Hillside area re what services local people wanted from the Department of Community Learning and Development given the demise of the Calton Centre.

“A community consultation produced by a group of local Hillside people for which I became the ad hoc convenor….It has developed, as I always wanted it to, into a more generalised Noticeboard for the use of all local community groups.”

Leith Open Space is very pleased to be one of the growing number of community groups listed on EH7 Noticeboard, although of course strictly speaking we are more EH6! As far as Rob is concerned that is not really the point.

“My feeling is that networking is more important than postal areas, (which more often than not don’t really reflect “communities of interest”).”

Rob is happy to publish news and views (photographs too) from:
Community Centres /  Venues, School Parent Councils, Residents Associations
Church groups, “Friends of Parks” groups, Scouts, Boys Brigad. etc.

Who said there was no such thing as society?

Thanks to Nick Gardner for the pictures

There’s nothing like a food market to bring life to a public space. The fortnightly farmers market transforms the view outside Ocean Terminal between 10 am and 4pm every second and fourth Friday of the month.  And tomorrow is indeed the second Friday of April. 

We found the market for the first time a fortnight ago when the sun was shining and the enthusiastic organiser, Nick Paul, introduced us to organic butchers, bakers and fishmongers and cheesemakers.  And on the way, we just had to try the free samples of delicious  cheese, ice-cream, cider, and tiny hand-made vegetarian pies.  Of course we had to buy some stuff too.

All that’s missing so far is a fruit and vegetable stall or two. But  Nick, who  has written a farmers market cook book and runs the foodtrail website too, is hoping to expand the number of stalls as business grows.

Choosing topics for discussion at Who Cares for the Carers?

The day starts with some tough questions. Who should care?  Does caring begin and end in the family?  How much support should the state give? And what exactly is a carer anyway?  Such questions do the rounds as women join the circle of discussion on a sunny spring morning in Pilmeny Youth Centre. Then someone hits the nail on the head: most women do not see themselves as ‘carers’ at all so they never think of asking for help.

If the identity of the carer is not clear, the other main confusion is about what help is available. At the end of the day everyone agrees.  Unpaid carers need more support, more respite, more recognition and more information about what help they are  entitled to. That means making sure that professionals (particularly GPs) can tell them where and how to get help.  And, for good measure, how about a national campaign to celebrate the extraordinary achievements of all unpaid carers?

So what next? On paper there is already a good strategy. Just take a look at the Scottish Executive report, The Future of Unpaid Carers in Scotland published in 2006.  On the ground there is already a support network  – including a new ‘pathway’ system referring carers to specialist help in north and south Edinburgh.

But how many people know? After a day’s discussion (at Who Cares for the Carers on 14th March), our top six action points are all about campaigning for more information and better communication. And the one which gets most votes is “Campaign targeted at GPs so they know the single point of contact for carers support.”

Small group discussion.

Now we need to reach the people who can turn such words into actions.  With lucky timing there are two opportunities this year. Our Leith Open Space discussion event for women has coincided with the 2009 Scottish Government review of support for unpaid carers  (in partnership with COSLA)  – as Malcolm Chisholm MSP told us when he dropped in to hear the day’s outcome.

At almost the same time, the UN Convention addressing obstacles to women’s equality (CEDAW) will be receiving the latest update on progress in the UK.  We are very grateful to Engender for the chance to add our findings to their report – support for carers is an essential part of securing a woman’s rights: to work, social security, adequate standard of living and the right to the highest attainable standard of mental and physical health.

The Top 6 Actions

(Who Cares for the Carers?)

• Campaign targeted at GPs so they know the single point of contact for carers’support. (9 votes)
• Ensure the public are aware of the role/duty NHS Lothian has to them. (8 votes)
• Respite and short break awareness campaign (7 votes)
• One-stop shop (7 votes)
• GP referral pathway (7 votes)

But first, a quick look back. Leith Open Space chose the theme of caring for a women’s event because caring is most often the responsibility of women in any community.  That point was made over and over during the day as women arrived late or slipped away early to meet other commitments.  (Unfortunately our budget could not stretch to a creche). In our workshop alone – among mothers, daughters, wives, voluntary workers and professionals – there were women who care for children, women who care for elderly relatives, and women who do both and hold down a paid job at the same time.

Caring, we all agreed, is such a natural part of daily life many (if not most) women never stop to question what they are doing, let alone ask for help. Yet for an increasing number of people (both women and men) caring for the needs of others fills every waking hour.   Interestingly it was a community policewoman who  commented on the need for more information about respite care.  That call to a house in the middle of the night, said Margo, may be a first call for help after years of isolation.

We would like to thank all of you who generously gave time and shared ideas and laughter, not least Maggie Havergal who facilitated the day’s discussion.  Thanks too for help to produce and distribute the report. We will take you up on it!   The action points and comments from workshops will now go to relevant organisations, agencies and individuals (employers, health professionals, politicians and policy makers).

[And thanks to Mike, Nick and Stewart who came in specially to serve lunch.]

Tea break: Helen Ewing, Margo Anderson and Mary Moriarty.

Those Top 6 Actions Again

• Campaign targeted at GPs so they know the single point of contact for carers’support. (9 votes)
• Ensure the public are aware of the role/duty NHS Lothian has to them. (8 votes)
• Respite and short break awareness campaign (7 votes)
• One-stop shop (7 votes)
• GP referral pathway (7 votes)

Agnes Holmes, chair of the Africa Centre, gave us a glimpse of what lies ahead, when she joined the Leith Open Space discussion event for  women carers (and more about that too very soon!) at Pilmeny Youth Centre last Saturday (14th March).

During the tea break she told us how she was looking forward to the first meeting of the African Women’s Choir  on Tuesday (17th March). “Our aim is to sing songs in many different African languages,” she said with infectious enthusiasm.  After six weeks of rehearsals under musical director Rachel Milne the choir will be ready to sing in public, starting on 25 April with at the Africa Centre conference, Africans for the Equalities Network in the Thomas Morton Hall.

Last weekend we were meeting to talk about the different needs of women carers but we  hope to meet up with Agnes again soon to find out much more about all the Africa Centre activities.  Meanwhile, here are  key dates on their calendar (for more information see the Africa Centre website ).

Friday 20 March – Women and Children’s event

At the National Library on George 1v Bridge –  talk about people you admire and make a picture frame to celebrate their achievements. This event – organised by the Africa Centre in collaboration with Edinburgh Women and Children’s Group, Family Learning and the National Library – will lead to another project celebrating the centenary anniversary of the suffrage movement. (And from what Agnes said this will be a truly inspiring project which we hope to support).