Robin

Yeah!

I have never seen... Or heard of Space Olympics. But I'm going to watch it right now.

You've just been here for about ten years, isn't it? Yeah, I'm a newbie. What do you get out of it? It's fun. It's social. You come to great settings like this. You make great friends. It's just an expression of joy to me.

Yeah, yeah. Wow, they're the odd ones, really, aren't they? You know, every nation has a version of folk dancing. It's folk dancing, isn't it? You know, it's just inherent. And dancing is one of the most fundamental human traits. You know, wherever you go, anthropologists will tell you, people will dance. And, you know, I think it's a particular point at the moment to think,

the Ukrainian folk dance is supposed to be one of the most difficult in the world and you just think well which would be better for Ukrainians at the moment to be dancing their folk dancing or to be doing what they're doing for me that was very much part of it actually that Just having fun is a very human thing and it's a good thing.

2026 would have been our 100th year. We were really hoping to get there, but with declining health and people moving on and that, sadly we've had to accept this will probably be the last year that we dance.

When I joined, first of all, in the sort of late 60s or 70s more, there was a sort of revival of it. It was quite a trendy thing to do, you know, and I think a lot of us would have joined at a similar time.

So many other things to do, that's it. And phones, you know, technology has changed the way we live so much. And in a way, you know, that's one of the nice things about Morris dancing is it keeps you very earthed. It's a very natural thing to do. It's a world away from that technology. But not a lot of people, especially younger people, appreciate that.

Yeah, and there are areas of Morris dancing that I think are still growing and are still going on. You know, Border Morris particularly, which is quite, how would you describe Border Morris? It's a lot more boisterous than what we do, isn't it?

Robin Degener. So the accent is from South Africa, so it's a South African accent. We have been here in the UK for over 10 years now, but I'm married to the handsome husband who is German. His family is German, so that's where the surname comes from.

Right, so this morning we're at the Natfield Village Hall. And the class that have given the lovely ladies here, we've got eight ladies at the class, is called Plant Based for Beginners. The class is really to show you, regardless of what your diet is, it doesn't matter if you're a vegan, a vegetarian, or a meat eater, it's to show you how to add more plants to your diet.

Plants are so good for you. So I showed you how to have a delicious breakfast. We made a fantastic lunch. And over here on the stove, you can see I'm busy cooking a cauliflower korma, which we made. It's one of the 30-minute midweek meals that you can have on the table really, really quickly.

Everybody gets a workstation, they get their recipe cards, they get all of their ingredients pre-measured out for them. And then they have all of the equipment that they need. So they've got their knife, they've got spoons. And we've got the peeler because we peeled potatoes for our curry. And you can see we've got all of the bowls that have got all of the ingredients in.

So really making it nice and easy. Nobody needs to faff about what needs to go in. Everything's already laid out for you.

Everything gets provided. And if I can just have a little shout out to the Rygate Council. These beautiful induction hobs were because I got a new business grant from the council. And from that grant, I bought these fantastic induction hobs, which means I can do more cooking classes. Fantastic. I love the council. I really do. So can you smell that?

I know. So this is what you can see in here. We've got cauliflower, potato. You can see the green peas and the little cannellini beans, which make up our cauliflower korma. There's a little bit of cream in there. What I've used today is a plant-based cream to make it nice and rich and creamy. The ladies had it for lunch and they had it with a piece of naan bread.

So really easy, delicious plant-based meal.

Let's talk to them.

I really do believe that you are what you eat...

Yes, you are. I really do believe it. And if you're eating healthy, you will be healthy. And the good thing is that if you eat really healthy now, you'll be healthy for longer. Who doesn't want to be healthy for longer? I do.

Yeah, I think completely. And I think at this age, I've just said yes, I'm middle-aged, we were talking earlier about suddenly you have a teenage daughter who comes home and declares they're vegetarian. Yeah. So suddenly you might have... And they want dinner in five minutes. Exactly. And they want it to be, like, really delicious. So you suddenly have families that have multiple diets.

Or we could, at this age, have health issues that we hadn't had when we were 20. You know, when you're 20, life's just so easy. But now you start really thinking about, how healthy am I now? What am I doing? And we know that if we put good things into our tummies, then that'll be... makes our whole body healthy.

Oh, you see our point? Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

In one day, we had 25. You can do it in a week.

Is it a lot of work, ladies? No, definitely not.

Exactly. Those beans are already cooked. And everything about plant-based robin is showing you to do things quick and easy. If it's not quick and easy, it's not plant-based robin because we're all busy. We don't have time to do complicated cooking and meals. So, yep, that's everything.

Exactly. So today's was plant-based for beginners, but I also do other cookery classes like an Italian cookery class, where everything you'll come to learn to make is Italian but plant-based. The other very, very popular class is my kimchi class. Always, always sells out. People love learning how to make a kimchi.

And what I do in that class is I teach you more about why fermentation is so good for our guts and how easy it is to eat every single day. I promise you it's easy.

I mean, as Alison says about the kombucha, there's some delicious kombuchas that you can buy already made and drink, have a glass of that every single day. It's not hard.

Exactly, just one thing.

At the Nutfield Village Hall. I do them at the St John's Community Centre in Redhill. At the moment, those are the venues, but always looking for new venues. So if you're interested in a cookery class, have a look at Plant-Based Robin.

The two things that I do offer is a private cookery class. I actually had one this week. We had such fun. So a mom and her daughter, it was a birthday present. We learned how to cook a Buddha bowl, a nice seasonal Buddha bowl together. And after the cookery class, they sat down and had lunch together. So a private cookery class. I do it for groups of friends as well.

If you have all of your friends around. and you want to learn how to cook a specific meal, we can do that. And corporate workshops as well. So go into corporate companies, give a quick demonstration, and very easily I can show a big group of corporates how to batch cook a breakfast. Something easy to do. How to make a delicious lunch. Everything that's in your pantry and in your fridge.

Quick and easy.

We're going to start having a look at everything. We've got the delicious asparagus coming up. I mean, asparagus is one of my favourite vegetables. We've got all of the new fruits that are coming into season. There's so much we can do in the springtime. I love spring because if you think about it, we've come out of all the dark, gloomy months. We've also probably had a really good Christmas.

probably a really difficult January. But if you look at springtime, you've got all of the delicious foods that are starting to come. So you've got asparagus, you've got the berries coming, you've got delicious spinaches, sorrels, all of the new fruits and vegetables.

Exactly. I mean, summer's coming as well. So almost through the foods and all the new foods makes me excited for even more deliciousness coming up in the summer months as well.

And that's the best way to eat the rainbow. If you're eating what's in season, you'll always have the rainbow on your plate.

Please go to plantbasedrobin.co.uk.

Oh, it's always with a Y. R-O-B-Y-N. Because if it's with an I, it would be Batman's sidekick, and I'm not that.