By Kate Hodges
09th May 2019
EVENT Eat Your Greens
National Vegetarian Week runs from May 13–19, and makes a great opportunity to try cutting out meat from your diet, or, if you’re already veggie, discovering some enticing new recipes and inspiration. This year, explore the chart with 50 Veggie Things To Do In May – ideas for veggie-themed activities for you and your family to try. There’s also a stack of delicious and fresh-tasting recipes online – we fancy zucchini fries and fresh pea and burrata salad! More on The Vegetarian Society’s Facebook page
EVENT Folky Fun
Keep the Maytime joy going at Cecil Sharp House’s annual May in a Day festival this Sunday. Join in maypole dancing to live music with a caller, have a stomp along at a clog dancing workshop held by Laura Connolly, or try folk-inspired arts and crafts. Outside, there are activities in the garden, led by Permaculture. The venue is beautiful, and the organisation does sterling work preserving UK folk traditions – it’s an excellent opportunity to discover what the place has to offer. Ticketed.
DO and EVENT Mulch Love
It’s International Compost Awareness Week! It might not sound like the most glamorous of events, but gardeners are besotted with this rich, frugal stuff, and making it is a satisfying way to recycle scraps and leftovers. Why not use it as a kickstarter for your composting? There’s a great little video about urban composting here – you can break down scraps in even the smallest of flats, or find a family-friendly guide to composting here. Or run through more fun activities to try here – worm composting is a classic!
RECIPE The Lion King
It’s dandelion season. Yellow, pom-pom like flowers are carpeting our gardens and parks. Our guinea pigs are feasting on them, and, despite their pee-the-bed reputation, they’re good for humans too – find out about their healing uses here. They’re great to forage as they’re so easy to spot, just make sure that you don’t pick them in an area that’s likely to have been sprayed with chemicals. Find out more about picking them here – there’s also a recipe there for dandelion coffee, made from the roots. Alternatively, try them boiled and served with parmesan for a nutrient-rich twist on more traditional greens. Find more ideas here – the Tempura Blooms and Cauliflower and Dandelion soup recipes have us drooling already. Finally, dandelion wine is a country favourite. Hic.
EVENT Art Dive
Find out what sound feels like and how music appears at the Southbank Centre’s innovative Soundpit installation. Thrillingly immersive, Di Mainstone’s giant sandpits illuminated by graphics, and with a soundscape created by those playing are absorbing for all ages, but work particularly well for young art explorers. Until Jun 2. This piece is ticketed, but you’ll find equally absorbing, free, art pieces in Tate Modern, a few minutes, along the embankment. Explore how we experience art physically, sculpt the surface of Rudolf Stingel’s orange carpeted work, be overwhelmed by Cildo Meireles’ Babel or get up close to the trippy work of Bridget Riley.
