Nearly 300 primary schoolchildren will be taking centre stage at next week’s Royal Highland Show when they present “Scotland’s Larder Showcase”.
Organised by the Royal Highland Education Trust, the main ring event - at 2.00 pm on the Friday of the show – sees pupils from schools throughout Scotland featuring a range of Scottish produce including beef, lamb, pigs, eggs, milk, soft fruit, fish, poultry, game, potatoes and vegetables.
Each of the school groups was chosen by the local RHET Project Co-ordinator and allocated an item of produce. They were given a brief to prepare in class, interpreting the produce in the context of Scottish food production, branding and the journey from farm gate to plate.
At the show, a pipe band will lead the groups, “colour-coded” in different T-shirts, into the main ring. One pupil from each group will then introduce the school while another recites a rhyme about the produce. All schools will then march from the ring to the rousing sound of The Proclaimers’ (I’m Gonna Be) 500 miles.
The schools participating are as follows:
Fife Countryside Initiative - Pittenweem (vegetables); Lothians CI – Newtongrange (pigs); Borders CI – Broughton (eggs); Dumfries & Galloway CI – Leswalt (potatoes); Perth & Kinross CI – Glendelvine (game/venison); Ayrshire CI – Dreghorn (milk); Clyde CI and Dumbarton, Lomond & Renfrew CI – Bridge of Weir (poultry and lamb); Highland CI – Alvie (fish); Royal Northern CI – Milltimber (beef); and Angus CI - Southmuir (soft fruit).
“Scotland’s Larder Showcase” is one of a number of RHET activities at the show with the main focus at the Dobbies Children’s Discovery Centre where the theme will be “From Past To Present”, encouraging interest in farming, food and rural life through the ages.
Around 15,000 children, in school parties or with their families, are expected at the centre where there’s host of hands-on activity.
Budding naturalists can join the Little Seedlings Club run by Dobbies in a session looking at the types of flowers that attract bees and butterflies.
Food features strongly with the QMS sponsored Scotch Beef Children’s Cookery Theatre offering the chance for youngsters to cook with fresh, seasonal produce. The Taste Adventure, run by Slow Food and the HGCA, focuses on the five senses and Seafood Scotland will be explaining the importance of fish in a healthy diet.
Also featuring are the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, Gorgie City Farm, Our Dynamic Earth, The James Hutton Institute and RHET’s life sized fibre glass cow “Mabel”, the start of the journey of fresh milk from cow to carton.
RHET Manager Alison Motion said: “The Royal Highland Show is a highlight of our year-round programme of taking children onto farms and estates or having farmer speakers in the classroom. Although it’s all about enjoyment, we want to make sure our visiting children go away with more understanding of farming and food production. We are also thrilled to have a main ring spot as this will demonstrate to show visitors just how RHET connects with schools in Scotland.”