Wednesday 4 July 2012

A local food fair...a first for Kibworth

There's seems to be lots of foodie events at the moment. The wonderful BBC Good Food Show for one last month , but with my local food challenge, I'm sticking with local producers  and don't want to be tempted!

A new venture last month locally was the Kibworth Jubilee Food Festival held in the Old Grammar School. It was a first, with over twenty local food and drinks stalls organised by  Sam aka The Confident Cook

Sam started her own company last year -it's an informal cookery school, where all dishes are created in your own home, using your own equipment. She's on the right...






There were cooking demonstrations too...one, a jam making masterclass from Sandra Herbert of Whetstone Pastures. Sandra is a powerhouse of energy and ideas, of promoting her pick your own fruit farm and her homemade jams. She and her husband are also involved in a sustainable vegetable cooperative started in early 2009 with Transition Leicester. Their aim is to grow vegetables in an environmentally friendly way for villages and towns in South Leicestershire.



I made a happy discovery when I saw the Brambletree Preserves stall....it's a local company from North West Leicestershire run by a husband and wife team who still make all their products in their kitchen. Their orange curd and lemon curd tasted divine, but I also bought a couple of jars of their spiced carrot and garlic chutney. I've not come across a chutney like this before with carrots, ginger, garlic, star anise and coriander. I can tell you that it's an absolute winner. Light, but full of flavour, it works brillantly with both lancashire and wensleydale cheese and sourdough bread.




Once outside in the courtyard of the Grammar School, I was overwhelmed by a mix of enticing smells...from the sausages and burgers sizzling at a local organic farm stall....


to the aroma of freshly brewed coffee....and the smell of pies...from game to salmon to pork from Brocklebys.


Back indoors  I bought apple juice and fresh asparagus from John Slee at Abbey Farm in Wolvey. I'm sitting drinking a glass of his Falstaff apple juice as I write this. Sweet, fresh, if only he had more to sell ....but he's a really small producer with one orchard of about an acre.  He does have a hectare of land devoted to asparagus though, and estimates he gets a two ton yield each year. Now that's what I call a result....and the asparagus was delicious.




There were drinks of a different kind too...cocktails, and local wine shop Duncan Murray Wines.

It was a really busy event held over a Sunday lunchtime and afternoon. Over 500 people paid a couple of pounds to get in , but bought so much local produce, that quite a few of the stallholders sold out completely. Also, what I really liked about this food fair was the party atmosphere....groups of people gathering by stalls to taste,to chat as well as to buy.

A lovely fair for foodies...and it was such a success ,all the stallholders  have booked again for next year. I'll definitely be going too....








2 comments:

  1. That Carrot & Garlic chutney looks yummy!

    ReplyDelete
  2. erm yes...it WAS lovely...I bought two jars of it andeveryone liked it.Will definitely ahve to get some more!

    ReplyDelete