By Ardis Önnerfors –
Instead of our usual large, public harvest celebration we decided to do a smaller, more intimate version this year. Inviting our young artists’ committee, board, collaborating artists and neighbours we gathered under gazebos, hiding from the persistent Scottish autumn rain around a fire and shared fruits of the harvest. From our own garden came the fried yellow courgettes and spicy tomato sauce for the patatas bravas. It was a beautiful potluck spread!
After a lot of discussion in the studio we also decided to finally settle the age old question; which supermarket’s Colin the Caterpillar cake is the best? Ara and Holly hosted a blind taste test which revealed very inconclusive results regarding the taste, but number 3 from Asda definitely had the best shoes.
After the meal it was time for our annual harvest tradition; apple juice pressing. Luckily for us, as our apple trees’ fruits did not survive this year, Rod from Glasgow Apple Pressing came to the rescue with crates of spare apples (and crabapples!) and a big chopper, making the process a lot speedier than usual. In total we pressed about 15 litres of delicious juice! We’re very grateful to his amazing project, and urge you all to look up his community apple pressing events at the link above.
We left the evening feeling very grateful for the beautiful community that supports and makes up Rumpus Room. Harvest season is a time to gather together to celebrate a successful growing year and extend a thank you to everyone who has been part of the process. That’s true on apple farms as well as at small-scale art projects like ours. And sometimes the two even intersect, as they did on Friday when we toasted to a year of silly art-making with our very own Rumpy juice!