Hand Pict: Interactive exhibition dishes up insights on food and culture of Scotland’s ancient tribes – and you even get to eat the art

You’ve heard of the paleo diet, where you eat only foodstuffs our Stone Age forebears would have dined on. Now you can try the Pictish version, with an extra big helping of folklore on the side.

Participants at a unique interactive artistic and cultural project will have the chance to learn about ancient culinary techniques as well as tasting the sorts of dishes served up by our ancestors who lived in the north of Scotland in the early Middle Ages.

The event, being staged in a wonderfully wild setting on the banks of the River Bogie at Coynachie in Aberdeenshire, is the culmination of the Gathering Table: In Three Acts, an art initiative which aims to change the way we think about and eat food when the ingredients are treated as characters in the story of each meal.

It is the brainchild of artist, chef and forager Kawther Luay, conceived as part of a year-long residency at the Huntly-based Deveron Projects.

She and fellow artist Fionn Duffy are getting together today to present the final ‘act’ – Clay – with participants encouraged to get involved in preparing the ‘exhibition’, including collecting clay from the riverbed and building a primitive earth oven to cook the food.

Then all guests will sit down together for a lavish meal created with ingredients sourced from small-scale local producers and foraged from the wild.

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The menu is expected to feature clay-wrapped brown trout stuffed with hand-picked hogweed shoots and herbs such as sorrel, yarrow and lovage; vegetarian clay-wrapped barley and chickpea tofu; as well as ‘cultured’ cheese, yoghurt and sourdough bread.

Participants get involved in Grain, the second of the three 'acts' of the interactive Gathering Table art project. Picture: Jassy Earl

Desserts are likely to include elderflower-infused carrageen moss pudding. And there will be a gorse cocktail, made with local River Deveron gin, to wash it all down.

It brings a whole new meaning to Middle Age spread.

Ms Luay, who has held foraging walks and cookery workshops throughout the residency, said: “My work always responds to the place I am in and the people in that place, so for the Gathering Table I wanted to develop a creative meal that is connected to the local area.

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One of the delicious dishes served up at Milk, the first installment of the Gathering Table – an artistic and cultural project based in Aberdeenshire. Picture: Phoebe McBride

“Historically we had a much more holistic and sustainable approach to sourcing our food so I was keen to create the conditions that would invite us to change the way we think about, eat or share food, that use simple local ingredients from small-scale farms.

“Everything was sourced within a 50-mile radius, with most ingredients – including flour and dairy – from just down the road from where we are.

“I also looked at how we make hosting a more collective experience, creating a more convivial atmosphere that is in contrast to typical contemporary art spaces and challenging the roles of guests and host in playful ways.

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Artist, chef and forager Kawther Luay, who conceived the Gathering Table project, aims to change the way we think about and eat food when the ingredients are treated as characters in the story of each meal. Picture: Phoebe McBride

“Each meal is like an act in a play, working as a standalone moment but interlinked to a wider narrative as the guests at each meal help to prepare food for the next one.

“Collaborating with artist Fionn Duffy has been hugely enriching as together we have uncovered fascinating local histories and folklore connected to the land and its ingredients and these narratives have woven themselves into the fabric of the meals.”

Natalia Palombo, director of Deveron Projects, said the Gathering Table project had brought new insights – and fun – to the community arts group.

“As an organisation with an artistic programme, it's an opportunity to think around the dynamics and politics of sharing art through eating together and the relationship between art and food,” she said.