BBC filming today at Auchindrain – potatoes to the fore

Auchindrain, Scotland’s celebrated preserved highland farming township, has been growing eight varieties of historic potato plants.

This has brought a BBC film crew to the township, south of Inveraray on the A83, along with over thirty schoolchildren from Inveraray, Furnace and Minard, who are picking potatoes – ‘tattie howkin’ – from their respective lots of land this morning.

Auchindrain’s resident chef, Seonaid Clark, who presides over the spectacular new kitchen that fuels the lovely tea room, will be cooking up the various potatoes later today – and other regulars at Auchindrain, the Inverclyde Gaelic Waulkers are there to entertain the cameras in the afternoon.

The connections made between Auchindrain and the three primary schools in the communities it serves are rich and rewarding.

The children are going there regularly to tend their lots of land, to grow and harvest the produce from them – all as part of the Crofting Communities initiative.

As well as extending their learning and enhancing their experiential understanding, the initiative has brought them considerable publicity, contributing to their growing sense of self worth and achievement.

We’ll let you know the details of the BBC food programme and its transmission date later when this is known.