A series of three podcasts exploring food and folklore have been released online.
Blasstal is a series of three 35- to 45-minute episodes created by Lucy Dearlove and Manx woman Katie Callin for the food podcast Lecker.
The full series is supported by a Culture Vannin grant and the third and final episode has just been released online.
It is hosted and produced by Lucy Dearlove and Katie Callin with theme music by Mera Royle and artwork by Vicky Webb.
Lucy explained the series came about after they did an episode for her food podcast about the World Bonnag Championships, which saw Katie learn how to make bonnag from her mum Vanessa Callin, a champion bonnag maker.
‘Although Katie’s gluten free bonnag entry was unfortunately overlooked on the podium – robbed – we felt like we’d touched on something really interesting and so decided to return with our microphones to make something more ambitious.
‘One thing which listeners really seemed to enjoy about the Bonnag podcast episode was the discussion of how seamlessly food and folklore co-exist on the Isle of Man.
‘When you’re making a bonnag, it would be unthinkable to skip the step where you press the cross into the top with a knife, so that the Mooinjer Veggey can’t touch it due to its contact with metal. And so we wondered: what other Manx foods are intrinsically connected with the island’s folklore?’
They settled on three episodes: Moots, Skeddan, Loaghtan.
Lucy said: ‘With every episode we wanted to capture some of the atmosphere around how that particular food is consumed or talked about on the island.’
Moots was recorded at the 2021 Hop tu Naa celebrations at Cregneash.
Skeddan features Nicky Beavis at the House of Manannan and marine conservationist Dr Fiona Gell.
And Loaghtan sees Jenny Shepherd at Ballacosnahan speak about the joys and challenges of farming the heritage breed of sheep.
The podcasts can be found leckerpodcast.com, or via the Culture Vannin website.