Greer Pester & Sally Hackett Unicorn Enchilada

Edible bugs, edible bowls, edible play... Explore the weird and wonderful food rituals in Scotland and Mexico, create paintings with the native Mexican bug cochineal and build sacred altars.

Greer Pester and Sally Hackett will lead a tactile workshop highlighting the stark differences between Scottish and Mexican eating rituals. Exploring and encouraging curiosity in special foods and investigating their magical histories, this creative workshop will highlight and honour the history and tradition of popular national foods. Combining folklore-inspired artistic forms and motifs, participants will take inspiration from the adoration and decorative culture around sacred foods in Mexico to create their own altars to the delicious comfort foods in Scotland, marrying both cultures together in a lively Mexican/Scottish amalgamation.

Children are also invited to explore “entomophagy” - the technical term for the action of eating insects. Although this is an incredibly rare phenomenon in Scottish communities, it is common in a Mexican context. Surprisingly to most there are already insects in a lot of our foods, and edible bugs have been described as a potential and important protein source for the future. In particular, cochineal, which is already used in a lot of food products today and has a sacred history as a fine pigment, journeyed across the oceans to be utilised by Europe's finest painters. Children are invited to experiment creatively with this famous pigment.