Our Environment, Our Heritage

In 2021, as a result of the Pandemic The Young Curators began the Our Environment, Our Heritage project. They started by researching the WW2 Government 'Dig for Victory' Scheme. Inspired by the sustainable nature of the scheme they set about growing vegetables and fruit to give away to the local community and visitors. By then of the summer they had given away cucumbers, tomatoes, brocolli, spinnach, cauliflower and kale, as well as broad beans peas and courgettes. The seedlings were donated along with bags of compost by Highland Seedlings and Fearn Free Food Garden. Inverness Botanic Gardens donated companion plants to control pests during the growing season. 

In September the YCC were invited to Ospisdale House to pick apples from the beautiful orchard. With all of the apples and left over produce they made chutney's, jam's, apple crumbles and mincemeat from a WW2 recipe.

In October, Tim Palmer ran a willow weaving workshop and the children spent many happy hours creating birdfeeders.

They made christmas decorations from willow and flax and by December they had made enough produce to hold a 1940s themed Christmas Fair. The Fair raised £630 towards the museum extension fund.

In the spring the club were joined by Trish Mathews from Brora Learning Zone. Together they learned about the ancient forests of Scotland, spent time in the Camore woods identifying native trees and collecting lichen to make natural dyes.

The children created project books detailing the whole project and these are on display in the YCC dedicated exhibition space.