Thame and Dyrham Park

September rounds off this year with two really inspirational locations for food festivals. Following last year's successful Thame Food Festival, this year's is even bigger as the whole town centre will be closed off, allowing more space for exhibitors and visitors alike. And, for the first time ever, we will also be at Dyrham Park, just off Junction 18 of the M4 near Chippenham on Sunday: a beautiful National Trust home and garden.

 THAME FOOD FESTIVAL 9-5 Saturday 29th September

Lotte Duncan, Patron

Thame Food Festival is a landmark event in the food calendar. It attracts visitors to the town from far and wide. This wonderful showcase for local artisan food and drink producers and retailers in the region is a celebration of everything that is right with food and is a great chance to enjoy a bustling, fun filled, FREE, family day out in the centre of this historic Oxfordshire market town.
Visitors can choose to watch local and celebrity chef demonstrations or hear expert opinion and talks on selected food topics. There are children's workshops, hands-on food making stalls and a huge variety of wonderful exhibitor food stalls to sample and buy from. Events also include a fantastic raffle, competitions, street music and street entertainment.
The Patron of Thame Food Festival is TV chef and writer, Lotte Duncan, and the wonderful Ambassador is 'The Very Hungry Local Frenchman', Raymond Blanc. This rich vein of expert knowledge and food passion is enhanced by a wealth of food specialists and producers, and a great team of organisers. 
We were lucky enough to meet Raymond Blanc recently, at the 5th Anniversary of Brasserie Blanc, in Leeds, who we are proud to supply. As you can see, Wendy was putting her best foot forward that day...

Rupert Parsons, Raymond Blanc, Wendy Preston

DYRHAM PARK FOOD FESTIVAL 10-4 Sunday 30th September

With barely a pause for breath, we then zoom down the M4 overnight to set up our gazebo at the enchanting National Trust location of Dyrham Park for the latest Love Food festival.
The Love Food market will be packed full of spicy chorizo, freshly ground coffees, salt marsh lamb, dark chocolate brownies, local ales, seasonal fruit and vegetables, sloe wine, award winning sausages, chutneys, hand crafted goods and much more. The picnic area will also delight, with an excellent selection of street food providing some great lunch. Wash this down with award-winning cider and the Festival's much loved soundtrack and this will make for a very great Sunday.

Free children's activities for all ages will also be provided as Love Food Festival will be supporting the National Trust's "50 Things to do before you are 11¾" campaign, encouraging children to become less sofa-bound and get back out into the countryside.

For more details on both these events, do click on the links above which include maps and schedules.

Abergavenny FoodFest

The much anticipated Abergavenny Food Festival is once again almost upon us. Last year, this proved to be our busiest town food festival, full of knowledgeable and enthusiastic visitors. The town is so picturesque that I used a few spare minutes last year to take some photos as well, like this one:

Abergavenny Market Hall

We have been fortunate enough recently to supply our fruit vinegars to a particularly prestigious event of an elite sporting nature in a city not too far from here and this will be our first chance to show off our goods since the event ended. As you can tell, we are not allowed to say what this is, but come and taste for yourself why we were chosen...

This year, we are in the Market Hall and have far more space to exhibit. You can find us on Stall number 35, see the map below. Unlike last year, this means we'll be under cover (in the unlikely event of rain) and in the same area as the exciting Kitchen Stage where we hope to see the chefs doing a few demonstrations with our vinegars...well, you never know! You can see the timetable of the chefs demonstrating on the Abergavenny FoodFest site.

Do come along, then, to Abergavenny this Saturday and Sunday, 15th and 16th September for an exciting visit to a beautiful town at its' best. We will, for the first time, have our four chutneys available for you and our new Taste Award winners have lovely new labels, too...