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Healthy eating success for fourth Festival of Food at Cambridge Museum of Technology

13:18, 30 October 2024

updated: 14:51, 30 October 2024

Cambridge Sustainable Food hosted its 2024 Food for the Planet Festival at Cambridge Museum of Technology on Saturday.

The theme for this fourth year of the event was beans – “a magical land of ‘Beanology’ bursting with bean-based cookery demos at the bean counter, bean-themed talks, and a whole host of activities exploring the power of beans to benefit people and planet”.

Foraged fruits stall at the Festival of Food at the Museum of Technology, 26 October 2024. Picture: Cambridge Sustainable Food
Foraged fruits stall at the Festival of Food at the Museum of Technology, 26 October 2024. Picture: Cambridge Sustainable Food

The event took place on the ‘top deck’ of the Museum of Technology on Riverside – above the Kerb Kollective café area. There was a team at the foot of the stairs who encourage visitors to buy a bag of magic beans which they can give to stallholders in lieu of cash, to pay for the food and drink options laid out in front of the Pye Exhibition building.

Sue Frost, left, and Mandy Mazliah of Sneaky Veg Kitchen at the Festival of Food at the Museum of Technology, 26 October 2024. Picture: Cambridge Sustainable Food
Sue Frost, left, and Mandy Mazliah of Sneaky Veg Kitchen at the Festival of Food at the Museum of Technology, 26 October 2024. Picture: Cambridge Sustainable Food

The stalls included Cambridge Community Kitchen, Cambridge Sustainable Food, Waterland CSA, Cambridge Organic Market Garden, Museum of Cambridge, Paus (a café/vegetable growing organisation near Bourn), and Trumpington Allotments. In addition Fen End Farm had an apple pressing team, and there were various advocates for juices and beans including Hodmedod’s Wholefoods from Suffolk.

Workshop leaders Vanessa Sturman, left, and Nadia Mohd Radzman at Festival of Food at the Museum of Technology, 26 October 2024. Picture: Cambridge Sustainable Food
Workshop leaders Vanessa Sturman, left, and Nadia Mohd Radzman at Festival of Food at the Museum of Technology, 26 October 2024. Picture: Cambridge Sustainable Food

“Around 600-700 people attended the event,” said Gemma Hose, the festival organiser at Cambridge Sustainable Food. “Trading magic beans for produce on the stalls was really fun and popular with kids, for adults we also hosted cookery demos and talks from three expert speakers on topics of food waste, plant based nutrition and mental health.

"We were thrilled to have Nadia Mohd-Radzman (Plant biologist at the Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University) speaking about her research into the link between fava beans and mental health and her talk was extremely popular. Attendees also got to taste some examples of unusual ways to use fava beans - brownies, crackers and a fava bean dip (recipe here).

“Nadia Mohd-Radzman who has just had research published about broad beans and the link between broad beans and dopamine talked about the mental health benefits from eating broad beans. There were 60 people there for the talk, and they made Fava Bean brownies with flour from Hodmedods (recipe here).

Cookery session at the Festival of Food at the Museum of Technology, 26 October, 2024. Picture: Mike Scialom
Cookery session at the Festival of Food at the Museum of Technology, 26 October, 2024. Picture: Mike Scialom

“Vanessa Sturman, who is a plant-based nutritionist and coach, discussed affordable nutrition, which is often associated with expensive food, so that was a myth-busting talk about diets at an affordable level.

“Plus the other speaker was Waste Not Rowen, a local Michelin-trained chef who became disheartened with high-end restaurants so he trained on how to grow and use sustainable food, fermentation, and how to preserve food. He did a talk and a cookery lesson.”

Volunteer Rebecca, left, with Adam Schmaughan of Paus at the Festival of Food at the Museum of Technology, 26 October 2024. Picture: Cambridge Sustainable Food
Volunteer Rebecca, left, with Adam Schmaughan of Paus at the Festival of Food at the Museum of Technology, 26 October 2024. Picture: Cambridge Sustainable Food

Cambridge Sustainable Food supports the Sustainable Development Goals 'Beans is How' campaign to double global consumption of beans by 2028.

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