VOICE had an extremely busy weekend, driving our white van all over Dublin, Fingal, Meath and Wicklow bringing 'Food Rescue' to the Flavours of Fingal and the Taste of Wicklow. We couldn't have picked a more glorious weekend! After picking up our demonstration cooker kindly lent to us by Unilever Food Solutions and our grade 2 and 3 vegetables (including lots of cabbage, turnips and potatoes) generously donated by Meade Potato Company, we began our weekend flurry.After washing, peeling and chopping around 65 kg of veg, we headed off to the Flavours of Fingal in gorgeous Newbridge House Demesne in Donabate, North County Dublin. The crowds were enormous and our message about reducing food waste was well received by all who tasted our delicious vegetable curry and Potato and Red Onion Soup.Mindy was recruited to conduct her very first cooking demonstration, where she shared her knowledge on how to cook with leftovers. Trying to cook and share the message about food waste at the same time was a bit nerve-racking, but no food burned or fell off the counter. Recipes are below:Potato PancakesChicken PieEve's PuddingMembers of the Donabate/Portrane Tidy Towns group and Rush Grow it Yourself organisation were on hand to help with the cooking and baking (we had banana bread and carrot cake on hand on Sunday, which was inhaled by passers by!) Many thanks goes out to Barry, Dermot and Blaithin! Recipes below:

Banana breadCarrot cakeWe had a composting information area, kindly staffed by Sandra from Stop Food Waste and vegetable seed planting for kids sponsored by Glenisk.Huge thanks goes out to Fingal County Council for their Local Agenda 21 grant that funded this event!

Our next stop was the Taste of Wicklow in Wicklow town in the Abby Grounds. What an amazing venue and with the glorious day, thousands were around to enjoy the event! We gave away potatoes that were destined for animal feed and chatted all day with various people passing by. Again, we felt incredible support for our food waste prevention campaign.Paul Smith, owner and head chef from the Rustic Celt, conducted a food rescue cooking demonstration using items we all find in our fridge, such as baked beans, rice, flavour packets and packaged ham which was turned into a tasty 'Irish' Paella (with added mussels and frozen prawns).

Thanks to Wicklow County Council for funding this event through their Local Agenda 21 grants programme!Huge thanks goes out to all our volunteers who helped make these events a great success!