Learn How To Make Sustainable Food At These Workshops In Amsterdam

By attending workshops at Mediamatic in Amsterdam, participants can get to grips with innovative agricultural and food production techniques that place special emphasis on sustainability. These classes include sessions that cover the ins-and-outs of kimchi production, mushroom fungi cultivation and aquaponic farming, among many others.
Every month, around 10 workshops take place at Mediamatic, which are led by professional academics, entrepreneurs or artists whose work involves sustainable agriculture. These classes cover many different topics related to food production and allow participants to learn effective ways to grow versatile crops or prepare culinary staples. Though the classes are held in Mediamatic’s high-tech headquarters in Dijksgracht, they often revolve around traditional, time-honed techniques that have existed for centuries.

Mediamatic’s headquarters are located near Amsterdam’s Centraal Station

For instance, Mediamatic regularly hosts kimchi workshops, where students discover the natural fermentation processes that give the dish its distinctive taste. After learning the basic science behind kimchi, students then prepare the dish themselves, by mixing together sliced cabbage and spices.

There are several other workshops at Mediamatic that focus on fermentation, including a tempeh course, which teaches participants the skills needed to ferment soybeans at home and another class, where an experienced beer brewer explains how to catch, then cultivate wild yeast cultures.

Mediamatic is eager to promote alternative, more ecologically conscious farming techniques and organises several workshops related to this subject. Aquaponics plays an important role within the organisation and it is possible for students to join classes dedicated to the discipline. In fact, Mediamatic’s onsite greenhouse features an extensive aquaponics system, which uses organic, symbiotic relationships to cultivate plants and fish in the same environment.

Aquaponic systems inside Mediamatic’s greenhouse

There are also fungi farming workshops at Mediamatic every month that treat mushroom root fibres as an alternative to ecologically damaging materials like plastic.

At ‘Grow Your Own Fungi!’, participants learn to cultivate oyster mushrooms and discover fungi’s potential uses

Newcomers are always welcome to attend workshops and English is the primary language at most classes, which means that they are accessible to travellers with limited amounts of time in Amsterdam (as well as locals). For more information, make sure to check out Mediamatic’s online calendar!