Highland Food Challenge

Q. How much time is likely to be involved in taking part? I keep fairly busy and don’t think I can commit a lot of time to the Challenge.

A.

 The actual time involved in recording your meals is minimal. We ask you to record 3 days meals once every 3 months. Recording your meals is likely to take no more than 5 minutes each day or in total over the course of 3 months, around 45 minutes to an hour. Regarding the time involved in planning your meals, this can be as little or as much as you like. There’s no need to be puritanical! Your efforts can be whatever fits in with your lifestyle and can be as simple as checking a few more labels than you usually would when out shopping.

Q. I don’t have a garden (or have a very small garden) and think this will put me at a disadvantage. Is there any other way I can grow some of my own food and does this matter?

A.

 There are plenty of great food suppliers locally that you can purchase from, so if you’re unable to grow anything you need not worry. However, if you’d like to grow more of your own food there are plenty of ways you can do so. Herbs and salad crops can be grown on windowsills and potatoes in containers or if you’d like to do a bit more why not go along to our community gardens at Culbokie and Loch na Mhoid?

Q. I’m confused about what I should and shouldn’t be counting as local. Does bread produced in the Highlands, but using flour from elsewhere count?

A.

The aim of the Challenge is to encourage people to reduce the climate impact of the food we consume, which can be done by reducing the distance our food has travelled to reach our plates.  For the purposes of the Highland Food Challenge any food grown or produced in the Highlands will count as local and your bread would count.

Q. What counts as organic, other than certified and labelled items that I can buy?

A.

 We recognise that the cost of certification can be prohibitively expensive to some producers who use similar methods of growing. Ask your supplier whether pesticides and chemicals have been used in its production and if you’re certain that they haven’t, we’re happy for you to count this food as organic. In addition, foraged food or food grown in local gardens, which use organic methods, can also be counted as organic for the purposes of the Challenge.