Join us for a special evening at St Andrews Botanic Garden - featuring storytelling, discussion and a seasonal three-course meal, with a spotlight on local flavours

We invite you to join us in the Botanic Garden for an immersive, multisensorial feast celebrating all life's interconnectedness. Our inaugural supper club, is inspired by Ed Yong’s I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life. Together, we will delve into the visible and invisible worlds that encompass us, guided by seasonal, local flavours, whispered tales, and the aromatic essence of late summer.

The three-course meal will be created for us by Jack Baldwin, head chef at The Rhynd, and feature seasonal dishes, crafted from thoughtfully sourced local ingredients, some of which hail from the Garden. There will be a vegetarian main option available. To toast our gathering and the worlds we inhabit, we are delighted to offer Kombucha brewed by Heather Blair in Fife.

We aim to position the holobiont concept at the centre of our gathering. Storyteller and folklorist Eileen Budd and one of our gardeners, Marijke Winton, will guide us on a mindful walk to discover edible and medicinal plants, reflecting on our interdependence with the natural systems surrounding us.

Limited spaces are available.

About Our Hosts

Eileen Budd is a Scottish author, artist and storyteller with TRACS (Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland) and Scottish Book Trust.

Raised in Perthshire in a family with a strong tradition of maintaining oral storytelling practises, Eileen specialises in traditional Scottish folklore, folk objects, folk beliefs, origin stories and ancient Scottish legends. Before devoting her life to sharing stories she spent over 20 years working with national museums, including National Museums Scotland and V&A London.

Compelled to maintain her family’s storytelling tradition and use all she learned from working in museums, she now travels all over Scotland sharing the stories, using song, illustration and historic object handling to help bring Scottish tales from history and folklore to life for audiences of all ages.

Some of her stories can be found on Instagram: @eileenbudd

BBC: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0hl7tf6

And STV: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YBMRADyVFfs

Marijke Winton is originally from the Netherlands and has a deep-rooted passion for the connection between human health and the natural world, encompassing health, nutrition, and gardening. After studying Ayurveda, yoga, massage and gut health while travelling in Asia, she settled in Edinburgh to work in nursing and occupational therapy. During her 12 years in Spain, Marijke ran a complementary health clinic while furthering her interest in rejuvenating soil health and growing vegetables. Upon returning to Scotland, she volunteered at the urban farm in the Botanic Garden before joining the garden and conservation team. Currently, her focus is increasingly on soil microbiome management, allowing her interests in gut health, nutrition, and soil to come full circle.

St Andrews Botanic Garden Supper Club: Becoming Multitudes