{"id":1433,"date":"2025-12-22T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/?p=1433"},"modified":"2025-12-17T11:12:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T11:12:09","slug":"spudfest-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/2025\/12\/22\/spudfest-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"SpudFest 2025!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>On Thursday 28<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;November the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences (SNES) hosted SpudFest, transforming the Boiler House into potato heaven. From research posters and company stalls to a potato-printing art station, the event brought together students, colleagues and local partners for a fun and informative day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"759\" height=\"420\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2025\/12\/image-15.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1436\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2025\/12\/image-15.png 759w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2025\/12\/image-15-300x166.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2025\/12\/image-15-624x345.png 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 759px) 100vw, 759px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As part of their research, SNES has collaborated with NU Farms to drive innovation in plant and crop science. Every year, University farms <a href=\"https:\/\/newcastle.h5p.com\/content\/1291824725137920527\">Cockle Park Farm<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/newcastle.h5p.com\/content\/1291824726132645757\">Nafferton Farm<\/a>&nbsp;grow tonnes of potatoes for research. When harvest season ends, rather than letting the produce go to waste, SNES shares the potatoes with the University community through SpudFest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over 1000 people attended the event this year, and over two tonnes of potatoes were given away!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eat@Newcastle<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the highlights of the day was the complimentary food samples, courtesy of Eat@Newcastle. The wedges and potato soup were fan favourites, drawing long queues of students and colleagues throughout the day.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"320\" height=\"320\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2025\/12\/image-14.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1435\" style=\"width:326px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2025\/12\/image-14.png 320w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2025\/12\/image-14-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2025\/12\/image-14-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p><strong>Sustainability<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our team had a stand at the event to talk all things sustainability. Alongside us, Annita from <strong>Biffa<\/strong> highlighted the environmental impact of food waste with some eye-opening statistics:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Food waste contributes to <strong>8% of the UK\u2019s total greenhouse gas emissions<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>UK households throw away <strong>4.4 million fresh potatoes every day<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Every day, <strong>20 million slices of bread<\/strong> are thrown away. This is equivalent to a million loaves wasted daily!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Top Tips:<\/strong><br>To keep your potatoes fresher for longer, store them somewhere cool, dry, dark &#8211; and away from onions. If they\u2019re starting to look a little old, boil them for five minutes and freeze them. They\u2019re perfect for roasting later! Also:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Check out these <a href=\"https:\/\/www.milkwood.net\/2015\/03\/02\/stale-bread-rescue-5-great-recipes\/\">stale bread recipes<\/a>, to make the most out of your loaves.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If you are a student in university owned accommodation, make sure to use your <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/2025\/01\/10\/food-waste-bins-are-coming-to-your-kitchen\/\">food waste bins<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Men\u2019s Pie Club<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>North east charity Men\u2019s Pie Club joined the event to raise awareness of their mission to bring local men together over good food and friendly conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018It\u2019s all about making pies, having a laugh, and getting to know a great bunch of lads in a relaxed, no-fuss environment.\u2019 &#8211; Men\u2019s Pie Club<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Find out more about the club, <a href=\"https:\/\/menspieclub.co.uk\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"663\" height=\"498\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2025\/12\/image-13.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1434\" style=\"width:503px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2025\/12\/image-13.png 663w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2025\/12\/image-13-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2025\/12\/image-13-624x469.png 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 663px) 100vw, 663px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>There was also a table to donate food items to the local foodbank! A great way to give back to the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SpudFest 2025 brought together research, sustainability, wellbeing and community spirit in one brilliant event. Huge thanks to SNES and Katy Sawyer for organising the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>We are already looking forward to next year\u2019s celebration of all thing&#8217;s potato!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Thursday 28th&nbsp;November the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences (SNES) hosted SpudFest, transforming the Boiler House into potato heaven. From research posters and company stalls to a potato-printing art station, the event brought together students, colleagues and local partners for a fun and informative day. Why? As part of their research, SNES has collaborated [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12007,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[133,36,131,56,74],"class_list":["post-1433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-food-waste","tag-get-involved","tag-spudfest","tag-sustainable-action","tag-water-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12007"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1433"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1437,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1433\/revisions\/1437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}