Just transition for Scot’s tradition

Tradition got a just transition Sustainability braes successfully Transitioned the traditional burns supper into achieving sustainability and governmental net zero targets, by giving the traditional burns night an update ( whilst also being mindfull not to commit culturcide) to achieve net zero targets, this transition to a well loved tradition, to help educate modern burns fans about the population explosion biodiversity loss and environmental destruction, The evening kicked off with the address to our vegetarian Haggis. This Haggis was locally sourced (as was nearly everything we have a shop local champion) the vegetarian Haggis unfortunately came from a local slaughterhouse! this did not please our animal welfare advisor (she's a lifelong, peace loving vegetarian who's passionate about an end to cruelty) but; she was overruled this slaughterhouse is only two miles up the road, and- Campbell's meats gave us a good deal on their veggie Haggis and broth mix. The evening's host had reworded the most famous lines of Burns address to the Haggis, to make it related towards lentils and peppers as opposed to the traditional slaughtered animal, The vegetarian haggis is much better for your health, and the health of the environment but being sourced at a slaughterhouse meant that some vegans, would still view us as supporting animal cruelty the event organiser could not find an alternative? except for to make it ourselves and Tam the chef had enough to get on with Address tae the muckle haggis Ye Guid honest sonsie face Great chieftain o rah puddin race Aboon them o ye tak yer place Oats pepper an lentil Weel yer worthy o great praise As langs ma airm Thy groaning trencher ther ye fill Yer erse is like yon distant hill Yer juice is fae a healthy still See this yins even got seeds While roon yer spores the dews distill Like honey mead His knife saves laboured plight an cuts ye up wi ready sight Trenching yer gushing lentils bright Like oanie ditch An then o whit a glorious sight Warm steemin rich Ye powrs that own mankind av got nae care Thir feeding folk crap fir bill o fayre New scotlands seik eh yer stinking ware Yons loupin wir in despair Gie scotland a guid haggis

The host then delivered his updated version of the Selkirk Grace - with a little bit of history of what the Grace was and why that tradition has been transitioned by the host, Assembled guests were asked to make sure they had charged glasses for the toasts that will be coming before and after the meal, he recommended the vegan friendly gangs wheil wi haggis Bramble Wine from Cairn o mohr, This is a winery in Tayside that produces fruit wines from Scottish farms and Orchards, this was done in support of the circular economy and the reduction in the carbon footprint of the wines and drinks, the whiskey was donated to us by one of the assembled guests, we had written off to - the two local distilleries closest to us, asking if some donation could be done? we never heard back from either of them, however our circular economy shop local champ - did check to make sure that the Donated whisky was definitely made here in Scotland,, it truly rips his knitting that - thanks to clever marketing the most popular whisky in scotland gets shipped across the atlantic! he objects to something being shipped across the world creating a massive unnecessary carbon footprint from people living in Scotland, he ran the Speyside dramathon last year and loves a dram o scots,

The beer was our best begging letter to a local business! the beer came all the way from California! no not that California there was no air miles, california the village is in the Braes area of falkirk (as are we) the not that California brewery company were very kind to us and the beer was delicious, Selkirk grace A grace is a prayer which is often said before eating, to give thanks to God for the food. Many religions give thanks for food. The original Selkirk Grace is said in a dialect of Scotland called Lallans- the lowlands Scots dialect. One of the greatest myths about Selkirk Grace is that it was written by Robert Burns -. Burns was said to have delivered the grace at a dinner party, held by the Earl of Selkirk in 1794. But at that time, Selkirk Grace was already 80-100 years old, and was originally called the Galloway Grace or the Covenanters’ Grace. he may have brought some popularity to the grace, which is probably why people now call it the Selkirk Grace, We at sustainability braes thought it was due an update, Weve nae meat bit plenty tae eat Herty guid fid fir awe tae eat Let us awe be thankit Then it was time fir oor scran! Tam the chef had spent the whole day preparing this wonderful meal, he was/is a volunteer and a friend of our community, when Kenny from sustainable Braes asked him if he would cook for us? explaining that the whole meal had to be plant based! Tam said not a problem, yes I can do that for you and he certainly did, to kenny - this is the difference between a chef and a cook a good chef likes to create, Tam enjoyed the challenge and unlike maist folk didn't say meat and dairy should be offered! what a fantastic free three course he produced

first up was stewp! this was a barley broth so thick it could almost be a stew, but; the genius was also, that we had warmed tattie scone instead of bread to go with our stewp, we made sure it was Scottish product locally sourced, the veg could not have been closer (actually that's not true! We hope to grow some for next years)

Its a short walk from the hub to Wilson's potato merchants on polmont Main Street,we spoke to the owners whose family have been the potato merchants on Main Street for over 100 years, they gave us an incredibly good discount, there was plenty veg not only for the wonderful soup, but: also obviously for the neeps and tatties of the main fayr, these Were mashed up with delicious plant based butter, the local supermarket temporarily had this in stock to support veganuary, They also had some original recipe Irn Bru that we could sell on the night,we had emailed barrs and asked for a donation from them which they declined, we will try again next year, our culture and heritage expert wanted to do a write up about this soft drinks link to falkirk, our healthy eating champ wanted to explain about the sugar tax and why the government enforced it, the zero waste recycling champ wanted to buy it in bottles and explain about, the british governments ludicrous blocking of the scottish governments bottle return scheme, which has caused uncalcalculable amounts of litter in the country whilst puting the price of our groceries up,This was not the only soft drink we had on offer, we also had some Williams brothers alcohol free Joker ale and some bon accord rhubarb sparkling sweet juice drink Last to eat was definitely not the least, tam had made us an incredible cold crannachin plant based cream with raspberries and Oats, an Auld traditional Scottish sweet treat, three of the assembled guests had the cheek to go through and question tam in the kitchen? Because they could not believe that cream was plant based? Tam felt insulted they thought that a chef could make such a stupid mistake, there could be somebody in the hall with an allergy to lactose, absolutely everybody loved it many of the assembled guests could not believe that there was no butter and no milk used in the making of any of their dinner it was that good, our host proudly announced that no animals were harmed in the making of this burns supper, the host then made the toast - happy Birthday Rabbi as this year saturday fell on the 25th, He then explained a bit about what the world was like when Rabbie was born, what Scotland was like This helped to build a picture of why Rabbi had written certain poems and songs in his life, The host then spoke a little about his early years, from when he started writing poetry at 15 (to impress the lasses) up until he was age 20 when he was getting Lassie's into trouble! Robert did not like the Church of Scotland that is clear, he was publicly shamed with Jean his wife to be at the Kirk, as was done in the day by the poor folk if they were caught as fornicators, the aristocracy could go about doing anything they wanted according to the Kirk, is the way rabbie and the campbellites seen the kirk at the time, the poetry reciter then read out a bit off Holy Wullies prayer about the church hypocrisy then over to Laura to sing the first of the nights many burns songs The host had decided that he would do the immortal memory, by doing a timeline in between traditional burns songs - sung by Laura Andrew and Gerry Fitzpatrick singing and playing guitar (amazing performances ) our sustainability manager said a bit about each song as introduction, to why it was written, what rabbies thoughts would be at how the world is now, scotland and england in rabbies time had just came through transition from being independent kingdoms to being a colonies of the british empire, this was a much more just transition for the people of england! Many of the other british colonies at that time were going through a transition away from feudalism towards democratic republics,such as france and america in roberts day, Considering the way scotland has been literally sheepwrecked by the land owners since rabbies day, we think he would be part of the modern day writing group such as - Paperboats who are writers focussed on nature and environment in a time of climate and ecological breakdown. Like Rabbie paperboats are Scotland based but global in outlook, not only tackling culturcide by writing in scots, but biocides and pesticides destroying the ploughmans beloved country We think we done this scottish tradition true justice in oor transition, making a change to plant based only food Reduced massively the environmental impact of the food, we think rabbie would be happy with this radical act of rebellion, The social omnivores that attended (thats all of us BTW) had a wonderful time, it was applause and thanks all round, especially to tam the chef, everyone was amazed at how guid wiz his fid, all the tremendous amount of work and time all these volunteers put into producing this wonderful free community event, was appreciated by all who attended, they all promised to return next year - which the host promptly booked into the hubs booking system