Food With Filska

13/03/2026

Keep an eye out for tickets soon!

No88 is teaming up with Jenny Food With Filska for a night of margaritas and nibbles
Bringing creative flair and a scientific mind to food, Jenny has been messing with mixology for years.
She loves bringing new flavour combinations to the cocktail world and the mixology masterclasses that she runs. Jenny loves to mix in creations from her other passions of foraging and fermentation. On the night Karen from No88 will be working alongside Jenny to make a selection of playful variations on one of the world's favourite cocktails - the Margarita. You can expect the much loved No88 Classic and spicy Margaritas to be joined by some more unusual characters, as well as the launch of a new No88 Margarita. Keep an eye out for tickets soon.
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03/03/2026

North Atlantic wakame

Alaria esculenta or less commonly known- sea mustard.

This is a seaweed that I usually would have to wait patiently for. Holding on until the big spring ebb where the sea may pull itself out far enough to expose these deeper water fronds to the shallow water forager. However, last week I was lucky enough to go out for a swim with to a nice bit of kelp forest for a look.

We gathered in plenty of North Atlantic Wakame, some gorgeous Red Dulse and Peter got to taste a nice garlicy bit of Pepper Dulse while we were out.

Most of the Wakame and all the Dulse went to the dehydrator to be used, and snacked on, later. I did hold back a little wakame fresh, as I absolutely adore a little seaweed salad, maybe not the prettiest plate but it is delicous.

North Atlantic wakame is one of my favourite seaweeds to work with, mostly as I love it's dramatic change from brown to bright green when blanching. It packs a bit more of a punch than its Pacific cousin and is slightly more toothsome with that fiberous midrib down the feather like frond but it's still quite approchable for those dipping their toe into cooking with seaweed. It's a simple thing to prepare, blanch chop and dress. I like a dressing of spiced vinegar, a little tamari and sesame seeds. But I will need to experiment more as I now have access to it year round.

My freediving certainly needs work, but I am really looking forward to seeing what opportunities and new forage potential this unlocks.

Thanks to Peter for the underwater shots 📸

Cheers,

Filska x

25/02/2026

Homemade gifts are the best

And I have been so lucky to get several jars of this gorgeous marmalade from .

Citrus season is still in full swing and thanks to Louie I have gotten to taste some of the seasons best. I have several citrus projects I will need to get moving before the season ends

This mixed citrus marmalade is just utterly gorgeous. I think it has to be the addition of the bergamot. Opening a jar is like cuddling a freshly brewed cup of earl grey, but all that bergamot is in the aroma, and none of the over powering bitter soapy notes that bergamot can impart make it to the actual marmalade.

Anyhoo it's lovely spread on a slice of toasted porridge bread and it's so good served simply like that, I doubt it will make it to any other recipes.

Cheers,

Filska x

19/01/2026

Good night to my sweetest boy.

You were loveliest goofball of a dog and I was not ready for you to leave us as early as you did.

Walks and adventures will be very lonely without my backwards walking, own shadow chasing, derpy foraging pal.

Your last day was filled with beaches, treats, songs, the hokey cokey, and lots and lots of love.

I hope the otherside has lots of chicken and rice to eat, long stretches of sandy beaches to run, calm seas for swimming, lots of mice to chase- and that your method of hunting rabbits by shoving your face down the rabbit hole and screaming down it actually works there.

May you sleep well now my sweet Madra. X

01/01/2026

Last one: The year O'Da Bog

Of course I have to end this with this most fabulous video by .

In January I got a random Instagram message from Aidan (my older sisters friend from high school) out of the blue saying " I have an idea for a project I think you would be good for. It's to do with communicating climate science through the medium of cake. Tell me of you are interested and I can give you more info."

I didn't need more info, I was in.

Best choice made in 2025.

We were very fortunate to get funding from to put on a exhibition and teas for folks to come and learn about the landscape that surrounds them.

My year was spent out on trips out into the bog, many thanks to Sue of Peatland Action and from the RSPB for taking us all out to learn all things blanket bog. I spent my trips gaining inspiration for cakes and sugar sculptures to be at the exhibition and teas. This was a collaboration between many artists, film, textiles, sound, scent and food and it was such an honor to be part of the O'Da Bog team.

However I really wish I hadn't caught that bloody super flu just in time for the exhibition opening, I can only remember parts of the weekend (whenever the paracetamol kicked in. So I need a do over of this one day please 😂

Anyway farewell 2025, you were fab.

Cheers,

Filska x

31/12/2025

Happy new year bairns! X

31/12/2025

Post 12: A late summer trip south

An August trip with a packed schedule and nothing quite went to plan but it was grand none the less.

This trip was planned as Sophie had gotten tickets to Chappel Roan. But as many trips to the mainland go I always try to see as many folks that I can while I am there. I started in Glasgow meeting up with my old flatmate and his lovely wife .sharkey.90 I arrived to find her packing up the flat, a surprise to me! Jonny had forgot to mention that they were thinking on moving to Dunblane, but we caught up on all their news over margaritas. Which we then followed up with more drinks and sing star in the evening.

I then had a quick stop over for a catch up with Miriam and a look around the Perth art gallery before moving to Edinburgh. In Edinbugh I met up with my favourite ole man Kev (le tres vieuxcon), Julie and her man Hugo- Fance 2023 crew reunited. I love meeting up with it's normally a marker of a fantastic year if me and Julie get to meet in person, normally we get up to some sort of shenanigans. We were a bit light on that this time Julie so I hope you and Hugo are ready for the crazy meals and projects we are going to do when I appear in Mamouls for the walnut harvest I 2026!

I also had a lovely time catching up with and Karan, as well as an impromptu trip to Manchester. In Manchester we got to try the famous sandwich which Karan has spent a good 7 years telling me about. My god I can't wait to get back to , especially as they are suppliers of pickle water.

The trip ended with and me having a fabulous Gastronomy catch up witb Lewis where we all relived our student days and stayed out far too late on the meadows. We then went out to North Berwick to camp and happened upon a pile seabuckthorn (which later featured in the opening cocktail at Amy and my food and folklore event). And the of course ended the trip with the summer sessions Chappel Roan concert.

That trip, while full on, truly made me realize how many wonderful people I have been lucky enough to get to know. May 2026 be filled with as many wonderful people as that trip was.

Cheers,

Filska x

31/12/2025

Post 12: Round up of Summer

Ended this rather incredible summer with cunningsburgh show. Of course I can't do any of my entries like a normal person so my entry for "butter presented for the table" was a sculpture of the birth of Venus seved up on a scallop shell 😂

Did I expect to place? No. It most definetly did not fit the brief, if I had that on the table I would be very uncomfortable cutting into it and spreading it on bread but the judge clearly took pity and gave me 3rd. Butter is a pretty godless medium to work with on a warm day I have to say!

My vegetable character of course had to unfortunately be the domineering character on every news channel this year. I did want to put a little folder in his hand saying "Epstein files" and a lighter in the other... But I was told that was maybe a bit too much for a country show. So we settled for the shrunken wotsits packets and the foundation brush instead, and the caption he was getting dolled up for the show.

A big part of the end of summer was helping my neighbours Gill and Steve get the art shed or "red shed" built. An old neglected shed given a new life as a studio for Gill and she has very kindly given me a corner to work on some paints and arty projects of my own. I am very excited to see in 2026 what a whole season of work for will look like. Her side of the shed was already looking so lovely with concertina sketchbooks of Shetland, playing with paints and a amazing embroidered birch bark piece.

I am excited for summer to get more work on that shed done, so that we might use it in winter as well.

Cheers,

Filska x

31/12/2025

Post 10: Forage

Of course foraging for flavour was still (and as long as I can move, will always be) a big part of my year.

This year is the first one that has been living in the back of beyond out west and when she told me at the end of February about the massive patch of wild garlic in her garden I was skeptical. But she was very right, I was so sure she must have misidentified it, no way there was a patch coming so early and looking so healthy in Shetland! 😂
This year was a lot of wild garlic pesto, oil and omelettes and my god I am so looking forward to the spring so it can start all over again.

With her moving out west there was another area to explore, and it turns out that out there in the middle of nowhere there is a ruined Croft house with a big knarled old elder tree growing from the middle of it. With beautiful fragrant blossoms, which featured in a few of my cocktail classes for Blyde Welcome this year.

I finally got out for a forage walk (still have to get you out to seaweed pick sometime!) we picked plenty summer blossoms and made them into syrups and sugars. A sweet reminder of summer that we have been able to take out when the days have been less bright and the weather frankly quite sh*te.

I gained a foraging buddy for my foraging buddy this year. Merlin has joined Madra and myself on a few foraging adventures in 2025 and its very funny to watch them prance about, but poor Madra maybe missed his outdoor naps he takes while I am picking or sorting.

There were plenty times this year I was out picking berries amongst the bog cotton, and actually harvested some bog cotton too this year for a bog restoration project.

But my favourite forage has to be coastline, I love seaweeds. The super savoury notes, the bright colour, how crispy you can get sea lettuce and if you marinade it how much of a flavour punch it can deliver as a teeny garnish. I was less pleased to find an invasive Pacific seaweed appear a lot more on our shores. If you see deadmans fingers, pick it, slice it, salt it and serve it up mixed with tomatoes and lemon juice. Eat it to defeat it.

Cheers,

Filska x

31/12/2025

Post 9: Artist?

My jobs took an unexpected and very fun turn in 2025. Working in food and drink and hospitality my whole life I never thought I would ever get called an Artist, but here we are I guess.

It started in January when proposed a brilliantly bonkers idea for a project (one which we will get to soon) and on a zoom call about this I think I must had said I am not sure if I am artistic enough for this and she replied "I think what you are doing already is art" and that stuck with me this year. Food as art. That one little statement gave me a serious confidence boost, enough to maybe branch out a little more into the art world. So thanks for that Aidan, and for the many other things you have done this year.

Something I have been reading about for years but never really saw the point in persuing until this year was paint making. I can't really paint, I am learning- very slowly. But I am fascinated by pigments and finding them in the wild.

I have used foraging as a way to connect myself to the landscape and the passing of time through seasons. It's a wonderful way to slow down and ground yourself when the chaos of the world becomes a little too much. Taking that time to notice plants and things you may have ignored before gives you a moment to breathe and to focus. Foraging for colour has been very freeing, there no worrying about poisoning or what stage of its life cycle the plant is in as we are not eating it. It's about discovery, what colour if any will we get from this plant? If I mix it with acid or alkali will the colour change? How will it change overtime?

I took my first pigment a yellow made from the sad windbeaten dead heads of daffodil flowers to and things just kinda snowballed from there. In gaada there was a group of people very supportive and very willing to try paint with these watercolours I was trying to make. I ended up being very fortunate to be commissioned by Gaada to look into the subject of Shetland wild colours and pigment making and also given the opportunity to run a informal workshop on it at the hairst workshare.

So this year I could call myself an Artist, which is wild.

Cheers,

Filska x

31/12/2025

Post 8: Barcelona

The last leg of an incredible trip of 2025, and there is no way I will fit everything into an Instagram caption but here we go.

Primavera Sound was AMAZING, first artist we saw was CMAT, we just wandered into this sort amphitheater and there they were. I had not heard of her before but she now features heavily on my playlist of songs to scream along to in the car. I am really looking forward to getting a chance to go see her and her band live again, just brilliant.

The headliners were of course amazing, Charlie XCX, Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan. The crowds all very different vibes each night, the best time definetly being Chappell and making new festival friends by randomly being next to a couple lasses from Glasgow and having the best time singing and dancing along. Very sorry we didn't see you in Edinbugh in August lasses.

It was a shock to have a music festival which starts at like 9pm and then ends about 6am, but it did leave the days to explore Barcelona a bit.

I didn't expect to like Barcelona as much as I did, the streets are beautiful and the food incredible. We did a food tour on our first day to get our bearings. Being shown were the food market is, some good restaurants and bars and the sights. I found the most beautiful book I have ever laid eyes upon, a book with technical drawings all about making the perfect tomato bread... All written in Catalan so I don't understand a word but it's still gorgeous.

Had what can only be described as a transcendant potato experience at Bar Pia, where everything was delicious and the whole atmosphere of the place wonderful. Total luck and coincidence to have found that place and I would fly to Barcelona again just for the Patatas Bravas.

Our last day was spent wandering round the food market, where the vendors saw an easy target. We spent many euros on iberico ham. So suitcases and stomaches stuffed with ham we headed back to the UK.

Before I flew north, we got a quick Gastronomy girls reunion with , a fabulous end to an amazing trip. I am still so annoyed you couldnt come to Barcelona, but we will make up for that with the Krampus trip!

Cheers,

Filska x