You know this moment when you feel accomplished & rested from what just passed, yet excited and motivated for what might be coming next? Oh December, what an amazing month you’ve been!
Orla Collective has been online since July 2014, and this last month we decided to take it further into real life events, experiments & encounters.
Finally, the true feeling that Orla is supposed to represent it coming to life. When we came up with it, we really wanted it to feel like a community. A local community. And I don’t know about you, but to me, a community is definitely more than something that’s online. It’s stronger than that. David and I quickly realised that the real life exchanges, the people we met along the way, and the things that really defined this community were both online and offline. So it was time to get active and make some cool things happen.
We’re not afraid to say that we are overloaded with ideas when it comes to that. In our to do list, you can find things like workshops (and many subjects around that), potlucks, gatherings, markets… And way more. Something new pops up everyday, and we love to exchange with people to see how we can involve them and their ideas too!
To begin with, though, we started this alone (just the two of us), so we could experiment and see what happens. And the first thing we organized was a workshop.
4th December: Green Goodness Workshop
The idea for this workshop came on a cold and grey November day. I quickly realized that the food we tend to eat during this period is more comfort-like and carb-rich, luring us into an even further hibernation mode. It’s a pity because there is actually amazing produce at this time of the year, like leeks, citrus fruits, wonderful kale and lots of produce that’s abundant in vitality needed for a winter energy & an immunity boost. So in this workshop, we had fun coming up with four different recipes full of seasonal greens: a lemony leek pesto, a raw cheesy kale salad, a chickpea spinach millet salad and a power smoothie. We had the ability to make this happen at the cosy spot Ready, which was perfect for the occasion. Surprisingly to us, about 2 days after we announced the event, it was fully booked (OMG!!). We also had the great opportunity to collaborate with like-minded brands such as Lush, local juicery GoGusto and local cosmetic brand Essential Factory, so we prepared lovely goodie bags for each participant. I still can’t get over how fun this evening was. I was quite nervous before I started showing the recipes, and we even had some trouble with our not-so-new blender, but everything ran so smoothly because the ambiance was really laidback and everyone seemed to be quite comfortable & happy! We were in heaven when we drove back home after all this positive feedback & energy. What an awesome experience, and we can’t wait to do more. Check out our post-event video above.
13th December: Yummy Jars at Wanterfest
A few days after the workshop, we were busy with even more food prepping. Our friends at Bamhaus organize an alternative Christmas market every year, and they asked if we were interested to participate via Orla. That was strange at first, because I didn’t really know what we could sell (as we did not have any products in mind), but the ideas quickly popped again.
How about we sell some chutneys, pestos or all kinds of yummy food jars that people can get for Christmas?
We already have a lot of fun doing that at home, so here we were again, coming up with funky recipes. We ordered a bunch of jars, collected a bunch of food and started experimenting, jarring, packaging! And for something we never did before, the result was pretty unexpected: on the day of the Wanterfest, we SOLD OUT. Yes, till the very last jar. The preparation that got the most attention was our Spirulina Pesto, but I really did not expect to head back home barehanded, out of everything. Everything was gone. It was so lovely to meet people and make them try vegan & healthy spreads. We even brought us a gluten-free nut bread to serve the tasters. It seemed everyone really enjoyed that, and it was a fun foodie experience for all ages. We also met some really cool people we are hoping to collaborate with, such as local cider makers from Apiculatus, and a girl who made her awesome energy balls (we’re thinking a workshop around that would be great!!).
17th December: Foodie Catering at Lady Panoplie
And yet another Christmas market event to attend! Just around the time we were thinking of re-doing our first workshop, another opportunity came up. A designer market at Rocas, where we were asked if we were interested to provide & sell food. A dilemma, but it quickly got solved. This experience was not to be missed, and who can say no to this variety? We had a tiny spot behind a counter, so we came up with food that could be whipped up fast & wouldn’t require heating, yet is vegan, healthy & varied. We offered David’s tasty mushroom skewers, a spinach chickpea couscous salad with various optional toppings, and outrageous fudgy chocolate balls (by the way, I must share this recipe soon. This one’s a keeper). We also were able to collaborate with the awesome organic chocolate brand Newtree, so we offered a bag of their chocolate apple chips at every full menu purchase! Everything ran very smoothly again and it was a wonderful experience. How crazy though: one day we are blogging & collaborating with like-minded folks online, the other day we’re at a trendy event feeding people with our home cooked food to promote Orla Collective. This variety is inspiring! In this event, we did not get to sell out completely, so instead of the dreaded food waste, our lovely Julie provided the leftovers to the homeless. Thank you Julie for helping us spread a little kindness!
Verdict?
What a crazy month. I must say, it was very, very food-based. But yeah, what can we do, December tends to be a month where the primary concern is food anyway (innit? INNIT?). Well, I do hope that we don’t start to get too categorized with food though, because we are really, really, looking forward to doing things around DIY, gardening, eco & healthy tips, and so on. The inspiration sources are endless. We might be coming up with things such as a knitting workshop (suggested by our friend Valérie), gardening & wild herb harvesting (an idea by Gosia), soapmaking and many more. And what we want to do from now on is to actively involve various people, and basically have anyone who wants to share an idea or lead a workshop be free to do so. So, friends and strangers, if you have any ideas or anything you’d like to share, we want you to tell us! This is it. Orla is a community and you can have fun and be a part of it in any way you like. It means a lot to us and we hope it means a lot to you too.
Let’s shake Luxembourg with a positive wave together!