The Conscious Kitchen: Preserving Seasonal ingredients

Want to make the most of fresh, seasonal produce all year round? Preserving Seasonal Ingredients is a hands-on workshop where we’ll explore the art of preservation—turning surplus fruits, herbs, and vegetables into delicious, long-lasting pantry staples. Reduce waste, capture the best flavours of the season, and take home your own homemade preserve!

What to Expect

Join us in the OmVed kitchen for a session dedicated to the magic of preservation. We’ll focus on a few key ingredients and transform them into jams, chutneys, fruit molasses, fruit leathers, stocks, fermented hot sauces, and herbal syrups. Expect plenty of tasting, experimenting with bold flavour pairings, and the chance to make your own unique preserve to take home.

What You’ll Learn

• Essential techniques for preserving seasonal ingredients

• How to make jams, chutneys, and syrups with natural methods

• The basics of fermentation and reduction

• Smart ways to reduce food waste by using every part of an ingredient

• Creative flavour pairings to elevate your preserves

What’s Included

Expert guidance, ingredient tastings, a hands-on session, and your very own homemade preserve to take home.

Who Can Take Part?

Open to all! Whether you're a home cook, gardener, or simply love great food, this workshop will leave you inspired to get creative in your kitchen.

Session Requirements:

• Bring a clean glass jar and a small bottle with a lid (glass or plastic)

• Bring an apron if possible

• If you have any seasonal, edible items from your garden that you'd like to include in your preserve, feel free to bring them along!

• Wear closed shoes, practical clothing, and tie back your hair
  
  

This workshop will be led by:

Josephine Marchandise

Head of the OmVed Regenerative and Creative Kitchen, Josephine works both at the garden and the kitchen to nurture food from soil to plate and gut with a focus on wild, fermented, creative and zero waste cuisine. Jo is a member of the UK Fermenters Guild, organises a yearly fermentation festival and regularly teaches hands-on workshops at Omved Gardens in London and in France. @jomarchinfood

Georgia Dowling

Holistic chef and Assistant Head of the OmVed Kitchen, she co-runs the space with Josephine Marchandise. Passionate about plant-based food, she specialises in nutritionally dense baking and spent over two years as a recipe writer for Minimalist Baker. Inspired by seasonal produce, Georgia champions low-waste, conscious cooking, always seeking creative ways to make food both delicious and planet-friendly. @everymoodfood

About OmVed Gardens:

OmVed Gardens is a garden, exhibition, events, and learning space in North London dedicated to exploring the connections between food, ecology and creativity for health and climate resilience. We are on a mission to inspire ecological awareness and action, and deepen our understanding of interconnectedness with the natural world.

As a registered Community Interest Company, all our activities prioritise social and ecological objectives. Whether collaborating with chefs, creatives, gardeners, or schools, OmVed Gardens is a hub for education, connection, and action. We aim to inspire individuals and communities to reimagine their role in building a healthier, more resilient world.

We work to increase biodiversity - of species, seeds, food systems, and participation, through regenerative gardening, seed saving, habitat creation, and ecological education. Our space serves as a living example of how urban areas can be transformed into thriving ecosystems that support both human and non-human communities.

Sign up for our monthly newsletter for tips from the garden and kitchen and hear about our upcoming activities:

https://omvedgardens.com/newsletter ;

www.omvedgardens.com · @omvedgardens

Subsidised Tickets:

We have a few reserved tickets at a subsidised rate. If this workshop is not monetarily accessible, please write to us at events@omvedgardens.com to avail yourself of a subsidised ticket rate. Subject to availability.

Refund Policy: Tickets are non-refundable, except in cases where a waiting list exists for the session. If the event is sold out, a refund may be considered if requested up to 10 days prior to the session date. Please write to us for any refund inquiries at events@omvedgardens.com.