A South Dunedin charity is aiming to teach life skills using the most potent source of wisdom known to humankind: grannies.They’re hoping their cooking workshops, focusing on cheap, sustainable recipes, will be a hit with eco-conscious, cash-strapped students.
The adorably-named SuperGrans run their classes out of a building in South Dunedin. They’re a service that offers one-to-one home-based mentoring, as well as free group workshops, aiming to teach people life skills as varied as cooking, budgeting, sewing, knitting and gardening. The twist: all these classes are run by volunteer grannies.
Critic Te Arohi attended one of their “Cook Like A Gran” events in an effort to gain some nan-imparted wisdom. Running between 10am-12pm every Tuesday, they’re hosted in South Dunedin (just around the corner from Pak ‘N Save). The free workshops focus on cooking “the old-fashioned way”: with simple, seasonal fresh ingredients, on a budget, and with minimal waste. “It’s funny that this is trendy now, that people are rediscovering the way we used to do things,” said Sandy McKay, manager of the SuperGrans.
The session began with “a little chat about potatoes,” which, despite some initial misgivings, rapidly blew the mind of this historically potato-deprived reporter. From the difference between floury and waxy potatoes (floury are better for mashing, waxy are best for roasting and salads) to the nutritional intricacies of potatoes’ glycaemic indexes, it seemed the resident grannies were just bursting with accumulated spuddy wisdom.
Volunteer Anita (pictured, on left) led the class through whipping up a cottage pie, gnocchi with a butter sauce and a silverbeet salad, helped by SuperGrans employees Rosie (on right) and Sandy. The kai was ready in less than an hour, despite the incompetent gnocchi-shaping of your hapless reporter. And yes, in case you were wondering: you do get to eat the fruits of your labour at the end.
The grannies present were keen to point out that “old-fashioned” techniques, as well as being ridiculously cheap, also had the very real benefit of being kinder to the environment. Raw, seasonal ingredients were used; not a single sauce sachet, microwave bag or freezer pack was in sight. Meat was kept to a minimum: stretching mince with lentils, making fish cakes go further with potatoes. And they wasted little, sharing tips on using everything from beetroot leaves (fritters) to leftover mash (baking them in a muffin pan!).
For anyone interested in upgrading their flat cooking skills without resorting to TikTok recipes, or if you’re just desperately needing some wholesome nans in your life to cook, bake, craft or knit with, flick the SuperGrans Charitable Trust Dunedin a Facebook message or email info@supergransdunedin.co.nz.