River Cottage Autumn Festival

Last year we fell head over heels for River Cottage when we were taken on a mushrooming tour de force by John Wright – Hugh’s brilliant mushroom expert. It’s taken us a nearly a year to return – but we did so eagerly.

The River Cottage Autumn Festival attracted 2,000 visitors over 2 days – each paying £15. Which means that over the course of a year Hugh’s seasonal festivals take £120,000 on the gate. Impressive stuff. Even more impressive when you look at the itinerary for the rest of the year. It’s great to see someone’s rustic dream become a lucrative success.

The festival itself was a jolly affair. Swarming with families and kids in wellies running around without a care in the world.

All the stalls were manned by slightly hippyish people – utterly dedicated to making things by hand, just like the good old days. This is the part that really excites me at the moment. I am dead keen both on smoking my own food and also have a burning desire to build a clay pizza oven.

By sheer coincidence, Cowie and I watched the episode of River Cottage where Hugh builds a smoker on the train down to Somerset. Having learnt how easy it is to do and now armed with a photograph I am planning to convert Cowie’s spare stable into a rustic smoker.

Perhaps more excitingly, I also had a chance to inspect Hugh’s collection of clay ovens. Whilst I can’t afford to go on his “Build a clay oven in a day” course, I have now got the seminal book on the subject. I’ve also found a brilliant website that explains exactly how to make them. All I need is a load of clay, another load of sand, some sleepers and a few spare weekends. Then I’ll be feasting on pizzas…

The folk music band was in full swing as we pottered into the farmers’ market tent. It was full of brilliant local foodie producers.

My favourite was the South Devon Chilli Farm.

Their chipotle sauce is now on my desk at work and has inspired me to smoke my next batch of chillies… Why not combine two of my favourite things. I guess I’ll have to then scatter them all over my innaugrual pizza!

Their chillies ranged from the mellow to the fierce. I’ve invested in 4 new types of chilli… with one weighing in at 450,000 Scoville units… frankly, I’m a bit scared!

We left the skwelchy car park full of beans, but starving! It was a great event that I am very hesitant about critcising… but not being able to provide enough food for a ticketed event is pretty poor… especially when you’re a chef at home on your own farm!

So we went to Lyme Regis and had some sensational fish and chips instead!

Farmhouse Kitchen Takes Stourhead by Storm

Or was it “Storm rains down on the Farmhouse Kitchen at the Stourhead Show”?

On a wet Sunday, at the beginning of August Cowie and I helped James and Henry out on their fantastic sandwich stand at the Stourhead Show. It’s only when you are standing the otherwise side of the counter that you realise how hard caterers have to work to earn every penny. With the cost of diesel as high as it is these days travelling to events and running a generator is on the verge of being prohibitive.

Putting this very boring introduction aside, Cowie and I had great fun helping out. It’s so refreshing to be part of a business idea you can truly believe in. It all started when we went off to Wales to test drive some ideas Henry and James had been cooking up. After a full day of cooking and eating we came up with the concept of selling handmade good old fashioned English sandwiches at outdoor events. It’s not rocket science. But that’s the beauty of it.

There is a serious gap in the event catering market. At the moment you are subjected to overpriced, substandard food that is swimming, like David Walliams, in grease. You can see from the other stalls below that the competition is very generic. They don’t have strong brands and are simply there to serve edible fuel.

Henry and James have created the beginnings of what could become an iconic brand – The Farmhouse Kitchen. Henry’s design background with Linley has meant that the stnad always looks incredible. It stands out against the generic backdrop and has already captured the imagination of many event goers.

We served tea and toast in the morning to hungry, cold eventers whilst we got ourselves set up for the lunchtime sandwich rush.

The sandwiches are brilliant. Delicious and handmade by Henry, James, myself and Cowie… using hand sliced fresh white or granary bread from Bob the baker.

You have a choice of beef and horseradish. Which went down a storm.

Roast ham and mustard.

And the very popular, cheese and home-made pickle.

Having tried all three sandwiches the beef is by far and away my favourite. Perfectly rare and smeared with buckets of horseradish it is the king of sandwiches. The cheese and ham sandwiches are excellent as well.

By the time afternoon came it was pissing with rain. Everyone ran for cover. Cowie headed out as soon as the clouds cleared with a tray of delicious cakes.

James’ brownies are amazing. It’s very rare that you get that slightly crispy glaze on the surface that marks our a bog standard brownie from an absolute cracker.

The flapjacks aren’t bad either. I’m a bit surprised James hasn’t nicked Mum’s lavender flapjack recipe yet. Maybe we’ll see it in phase 2!

Henry’s clever use of bails in the design of the stand helped to create a fantastically family friendly atmosphere. People loved the idea of perching on a bail whilst eating their cake or sandwich. It gave rise some wonderfully English scenes – my favourite of which is below.

Henry and James are off to the Wincanton and Shaftsbury Show next week. Good luck chaps. I hope you sell loads of sandwiches and that the weather is kinder than it was at Stourhead.

Brockwell Park: Lambeth Country Fair

I must admit, I thought the idea of going to the Lambeth Country Fair was a joke. A warped joke to make us all get mugged and just drive around the destitute South Circular for a whole Sunday as a way of reminding me of the endless traffic jams that greet the hockey season.

As we drove past the entrance by mistake for the forth time we noticed a sign with Tom PB’s smiley face on it praising Olley’s restaurant for being one of Tom’s top 5 fish and chip shops in London. At this point things started to pick up!

We eventually parked and set about exploring. Any hint of dount evaporated as soon as my nose picked up that magnetic whiff of jerk chicken. Plumes of spicy smoke wafted over the park as countless stalls grilled up the same food! The first stall we visited was even using environmentally friendlt charcoal from Croydon of all places. Apparently it is much better for the environment. Or so the Observer says.

But probably more important was the fact that they were cooking with organic chicken – Hugh your campaign is working after all!

The only draw back inevitably was the price. With only a fiver in my pocket and some shrapnel this was going to have to a Country Fair on the cheap.

But it was only a matter of moments before my eye was almost wrenched out of their sockets by the sign of all signs: Carnivorous Plants for sale.

At last… a solution to our greenfly problem at work. Within seconds I had bought a man eating. Sorry green fly eating plant for our chilli plants. The only downside is that is has similar dietary requirements to an anaemic, celiac with a lactose intolerance and a small issue with solids. Fussy doesn’t even come close!

Our Wahaca chillies are going to be so pleased when the meet their new friend! And those greenfly are going to extinct.

Having shelled out most of my money on essentials such as carnivorous plants it left only a few coins for lunch. So we went for some jerk chicken from the stall with the longest queue. Apart from the dried out skin, fragments of sharp bone and questionable meat it was delicious. I sort of wish I had an extra few quid to get the organic stuff at the top of the post. But this was probably more authentic. I would have felt a bit like someone with their own VIP toilet at Glastonbury.

Aside from the man eating plants, choke worthy jerk chicken, drug deals, petting zoo and falconry demonstration the best thing was definitely the plant tent. Lots of lovely plants and then to top it all… a vegetable competition. The highlight was definitely these very impressive red onions. From now on I am always going to present my onions on disks of toilet roll tubing. Genius! This is what makes Britain great.

As a collection of hooded black youths were frogmarched out of the fair by 12 stab proof vested policemen, a couple of queer chaps were presenting the prizes for the best vegetables in Lambeth. If you want a snapshot of Britain you could have found it in the plant tent at the Lambeth Country Fair!

Taste of Bath

Describe Taste of Bath in one sentence:

“Smaller, wetter, friendlier, more interesting version of Taste of London.”

Controversial? Possibly… True? Probably.

Taste of London is great fun. It’s a fair reflection of London’s impressive range of restaurants. But we felt a bit bored by what was on offer. It all seemed a little bit samey. Nothing massively adventurous. Nothing that blew our socks off. Nothing ground breaking. All very expected.

Taste of Bath was similar and to be honest we were a bit underwhelmed to begin with. Not to mention soaking wet!

Lots of good old fashioned dishes such as roast fillets of lamb from Wheatsheaf…

… and well cooked sea bass from Fish Works. Delicious but hardly adventurous.

Mum would have been pleased to see the flowers on the lamb.

I tried some pork belly from Bells Diner that was going really well until I popped a few of the sultanas on my plastic fork and almost spat it out. The combination of boozy sherry that they havd been soaked in destroyed the dish completely. What a shame.

So far so provincial. But then we came across Chris Horridge who cooks at Bath Priory. He did really well in this year’s Great British Menu – his style involves using minimal ammounts of oil, salt and sugar. He uniquely always ensures that his dishes are nutritious as well as tasty. One by one I spent my crowns on his dishes.

His birch sap cured duck was delicate, clean, full of flavour and a breath of pure, fresh air. A bit like when you crawl into the bathroom and brush your teeth after a heavy night on the booze. As the brush and paste do their work the taste of raw garlic, onion, kebab and beer fade away leaving you feeling human and revitalised. The tangerine paste added a beautiful swathe of colour and sweet acidity. And the seeds added a soft gritty texture.

In fact the plate looked just as good once I had hoovered it all down – which surely must be the sign of a good dish!

We went away and were drawn back to his roasted scallop with lemon balm foam, which wasn’t as exciting to look at as the duck but was a delight to eat. The scallop was meaty and the foam was light and fragrant. A hugely welcome alternative to the ubiquitous cauliflower or pea puree combination.

We then did another circuit before I convinced Cowie to go for the pud. It was a blackcurrant and redcurrant jelly type thing with space dust and mango paper. Sublime. Light. Zingy. Rammed so full of flavour I wondered whether he had laced it with LSD. The picture doesn’t really do it justice but it probably helps to get the idea across.

We left feeling inspired. Delighted to have come face to face with Chris Horridge’s food. Eager to find an excuse to book ourselves in for a foodie weekend.

Realfood Festival

Cowie and I went to the Realfood Festival today and had a whale of a time. We’ve been to a range of food festivals over the last year or so. The Taste of London was excellent and we are looking forward to going again. But the Good Food Show and London Food Festival were both disappointing. So we had our fingers crossed that the Realfood Festival was going to be a success.

Our hopes were bolstered by the amount of pre show publicity and marketing we saw. This was added to by the fact that the tickets were excited and that the event was being staged at Earls Court. Previous events had failed because they were undersupported in terms of marketing, exhibitors and therefore the consumer experience was poor. The concoction of top location, top exhibitors, high prices and good timing meant that the Realfood Festival was a brilliant experience.

We were almost overwhelmed by the number of exhibitors. But because of the logical way in which the show was laid it it was very easy to get to grips with the flow. We were a bit baffled about the decision to cover the floor with a thin layer of saw dust. When was the last time you went to a genuine farmers’ market that did this? It meant that we all left with dusty shoes. And anyone wearing flip flops had a bit of a dusty day. But this was the only negative part of the whole day!

The brands that stood out had something in common. All the exhibitors are passionate about their products. But for the most part they don’t move beyond just being a product. Walking down sausage alley we must have tried 5 or 6 samples of swine from seemingly identical producers. All very good sausages. But ultimately they were all the same. This was true of all sectors – cheese, coffee, tea, chocolate etc. The ones that stood out and got us excited were the ones that had taken their product a step further. They had turned their otherwise generic product (albeit passionately created) and turned it into a brand with a personality wrapped up in beautiful clothing.

Our first experience of this charming branding was our encounter with Sharyn Wortman founder of Tea & Philosophy – two things that are very close to my heart!

From the moment we saw the “Tea-Pi” we were smitten. Things got better when we started speaking to the charming “Tea Team” who gave us samples and let us have a free badge. Their teas are blended to meet your different need states. Happiness, in a red packet was my favourite.

Cowie loved the yellow one called Inspiration.

The charm of the team transalted into the beautiful design of the packaging.

The copy on the packets is inspiring and human in much the same was as Innocent smoothies. If I hadn’t had a chat with Sharyn I would have guessed that Innocent were behind this venture too. It was no surprise at all to find out that Sharyn used to work in advertising. The creativity and coherent brand experience aren’t the work of an amateur. We bought a packet of the red and yellow tea and found ourselves chatting at the end of the show about the fact that our favourite discoveries at the show had been producers who had created brands with distint, stylish packaging. Sharyn pointed out that the extra effort, energy and enthusiasm that goes into these fine details is a sure sign that the product itself is well crafted. The penny dropped. Sharyn was of course right. The best exhibitors had created engaging, memorable brand experiences.

We also loved Nudo olive oil. I wrote about Nudo’s adopt an olive tree programme a while ago so it was great to meet the mastermind behind it. He got the adopt an olive tree idea from a pork farm who do something similar with their pigs.

It’s a fabulous idea and takes off where Tea and Philosophy left off by creating a rich brand experience. It could very easily be just another olive oil company. But through great packaging, engaging ideas, impeccable products and the founder of the company being on the stand himself Nudo came across as a confident, premium, niche brand.

As a result I bought some delicious mandarine infused olive oil that tasted a bit like the yuzu we had at Roka.

Luscombe Organic Drinks first reared their head at Riverford Farm. We loved their hot ginger beer then and we loved their entire range today! The elderflower is sensational too. Their packaging, team, range and design work all exude quality. It’s a well thought out, beautifully crafted drinks brand that would grace the menu of any aspirational gastro pub.

Other highlights included the Sharpham Farm spelt stand that benefits from all the millions earned by the guy in charge of Mulberry. It was a great stand with a charming girl doing the honours. We walked away with some extra fine spelt grain to make pasta with, some spelt porridge for Cowie and a brochure for the very exclusive Charlton House. Another great piece of marketing. Cowie’s got her eye on a 4 poster extravaganza with a 30 minute spelt treatment that weighs in at around £600!

One of my favourite moments of the day was having a chat with Oliver Rowe – the guy behind uber local Konstam. He was incredibly charming and full of beans. I mentioned that I had eaten his food a couple of times.

Once at Konstam at the Prince Albert and also at The Future Laboratory trends day where I had been surprised to see him actually cooking. He tried my newly bought vanilla and celery salt and seemed genuinely interested in just having a chat. What a legend. Good man.

This salt was incredile. It’s harvested (if that is the right word) on the Isle of Angelsea and is beautifully packaged and lovingly sold at a small stand. It all started by me trying their standard salt which was… er… salty. Then I moved on to their vanilla variety and I was hooked! Great on scallops or sea bass! Then I got some celery salt for Cowie to sprinkle on her quails eggs! Truly delicious and a great way of adding a classy flourish to a dinner party meal. Their Halen Mon product hasn’t been through the branding exploration that the products above have. But then again does salt really need it? Their product was so good it spoke for itself. That said I’m sure Maldon sells a few more bags than they do.

Let’s finish on a high with the organic mushroom stand – Fundamentally Fungus. Regular readers will know that I am bonkers about mushrooms! So finding a mail order unusal mushroom company was a real find!

It gave me the chance to try the macro function on Cowie’s camera out. I’m quite pleased with the result! But it has to be said that my interst in their stand was mainly due to my mushroom mania rather than the fact that their brand was particualry engaging. But then again they are probably aiming at a fairly niche market. There can’t be that many fungus nuts about! I really hope their excellent website does well. They girls on the stand were utterly charming.

In generaly we had a marvelous time. At previous events we have left feeling tired, uninspired and with empty bags. This time we waltzed out of the front door with a memory card full of pictures, a head full of copy, a recycled Whole Foods bag full of goodies and heads buzzing with ideas. Great event. Can’t wait for the next one.

For a collection of the rest of our photos have a play with the fun widget below or link through to our Flickr set. We agree with the sentiment of the person who drew this on the comments blackboard…

London Food Festival

On Sunday Cowie and I visited the London Food Festival on behalf of Trusted Places. Walid sent me off with an open brief and a free ticket. It gave me a chance to eat some free food and Cowie a chance to play around with her new and amazing camera…

We got a feel for the scope of the event by checking out their website in advance. Having been to Taste of London in Regent’s Park earlier in the summer were a bit underwhelmed by the line up of chefs and exhibitors. The fact that the website was still advertising for more exhibitors wasn’t the best sign either.

I don’t want this to be negative because it is the event’s first year. They have chosen a great and really accessible venue in the London Business Design Centre in Angel. It’s huge and is frequently home to some very prestigious events. It’s a great space for an event, so long as you fill the room and have plenty of visitors.

We arrived on Sunday morning eager to get stuck in. My immediate concern was that my pre ordered ticket was 15% more expensive than buying one on the day. This is probably a teathing problem and down to the quirks of online ticketing. Still, this was a bit of a luke warm start.

So far, our expectations were fairly low.

A brass band greeted us as we entered the exhibition space. Spurred on by this we spent the next couple of hours exploring the 40 or so exhibitors. Initially the atmosphere was a bit flat due to the lack of visitors. But in a way that is what made this event work. Whereas at the Good Food Show in Earl’s Court there was a constant threat of being crushed, at the London Food Festival you had the space to move freely and the chance to have lengthly conversations with the people on the stands. I remember leaving Earl’s Court with bruises and a sullied view of the world. It was too successful for its own good. This show on the other hand allowed you the intimacy of a Farmers’ Market but on the scale of something much larger.

Exhibitors ranged from well know brands such as Tanqueray gin, Brown Brothers and Rachel’s Organic to smaller scale, more personal enterprises such as Diablo toasty makers and Royal Berkshire Pork. Most of the stalls were companies I had never heard of. Very few of the big foodie brands had turned up which seemed bad to begin with but actually turned out for the best. It gave me a chance to talk to some really passionate people who love food.

Cha Dao

Peter Green is from the South Coast and loves tea. He and his wife visited somewhere on the continent last year and were amazed by the quality of speciality teas on offer. Inspired by this they brought the concept over to England and set up their own speciality tea company 6 months ago. By the look on Peter’s face he was enjoying every moment of being a tea merchant. His philosophy is simple. He wants people to experiment with tea and try new things. He aims to do this by using clear packaging which shows off the beauty of the tea leaves inside. So often with other tea companies the leaves are hidden by opaque packaging. Not so with Cha Dao. It’s all on show. He is passionate about the art of tea with style. I walked away from Peter’s stand understanding what this show was all about. It’s a great platform for emerging foodie companies to get themselves on the foodie map.

We then met a man demonstating Diablo toastie makers. I’m all for gadgets, but am conscious that they often go unused so was a bit sceptical when watching the demonstartion you can see below. But it was brilliant and looks so cool. It’s great when products are simple, functional and have a personality too. This little gadget is clean, efficient, fun and makes great toasties. You can get them on I want one of those.

We then spent the next half and hour talking to the two charming chaps on the Berghoff cookware stand. They were demonstrating their range of non stick saucepans in such an engaging way that Cowie bought an entire range of non stick pans. They looked fantastic. The ultimate non stick heavy duty pans. Currently they aren’t well know in the UK. They mainly produce white label products that are rebranded by Siemens and Bosch. Good value and heavy duty. But above all, they guys showed the art of good salesmanship. Cowie bought me a new frying pan which I am currently knocking in! Cowie simply couldn’t cope with the twisty removeable handle which could cause a few problems!

I was completely duped by the charming Indian stand serving very tasty chicken curries that are about to launch on the UK market. Succulent chicken turned out to my shock to be soya! But it tasted fine and I can imagine them doing very well indeed.

We briefly watched the demonstration by Ready Steady Cook’s James Tanner but lost interest through a combination of not being able to see because of the camera pointing at the wrong thing and a lack of excitement for what he was cooking. We saw Ramsay at the Good Food Show along with Greg Wallace so I couldn’t help but judge them in this bracket. Maybe next year there will be some more interesting demonstrations.

By this point we were starving. So we had a spot of lunch on the balcony. We loved the look of the quiche and palma ham on offer which was lucky because that was the only option! Unfortunately they ran out of palma ham and the quiche despite looking fantastic was really dull. It’s a bit of a shame that a food festival can’t sort out decent catering. On the other hand they did sell Belu water and they do have Dyson Air Blades in the loos. Giles Coren from the Times would love it!

We finished our lunch and decided against doing a wine tasting given the delicate nature we found ourselves in from the night before. The speaker looked energetic, but it all looked a bit forced from a distance.

Once we understood what this show was all about we loved it. Don’t expect big glitzy foodie brands and top of the range celebrity chefs. The London Food Festival is all about up and coming producers and small companies reaching hardcore foodies. It’s a great chance to have a personal chat with them and you get a realy feel for their passion. We’re looking forward to seeing how this evolves next year and will be back for year 2.

Taste of London Festival

Cowie and I had been looking forward to our gastronomic trip to Regent’s Park for around a month now. Needless to say, I was late meeting Cowie. After a brief bit of frostiness we pottered up to the Park praying that it wasn’t going to rain.

Here’s a very brief run down of what we got up to at Taste of London:

Theo Randall’s Scallops were really tasty and perfectly cooked but we weren’t convinced by the bed of lentils they sat on.

Tom Aitken’s sole goujons with chips and tartare sauce were simply amazing. So juicy. So tasty. So well battered. And the tartare sauce was very delicate. Great capers and very good herbyness. You can see how much I loved them below!

Surf and turf from Zilli’s was excellent, if a little on the cold side. Juicy lamb and very strong tasting prawns came with a wonderfully oily tomato sauce.

Our favourite dish of the night came from the lads at Cinnamon Club. Curried tilapia with a yoghurt rice and carrot and coconut mousse was sensational. Cowie liked it most cos it made me hiccup!

The Gavroche stand was swarming with people, celebrities and film crews. Steven Wallis from Masterchef and M. Roux were serving out lobster bisque and daube of beef. Both were mindblowingly rich – but amazing! I washed down the little piece of lobster tail that was in the bottom of my sampling mug with a well earned sample of Penfold’s chardonay! Text book!

Other highlights included some tremendous tuna sushi with truffle cream from Samosuma and seeing a whole host of very busy celebrity chefs.

Hero Fearnley Wittingstall – we’re off on Hugh’s mushromm foraging activity day in October which should be fun.

Wozza furiously slicing pork

I think this man’s called Zilli

We left with sore feet and very stretched tummies having spent a wonderful evening sniffing, gobbling and tasting the best that London has to offer. Looking forward to next year.

Taste of London

Cowie and I are off to Taste of London on Friday and are very excited about it.

Here’s a preview from the London Blog:

“Now in its fourth year, the Taste of London festival is the highlight of every gourmet’s social calendar. Set in picturesque Regent’s Park, it’s a four-day food and drink spectacular which gives visitors the chance to meet and learn from top chefs from all over the world and experience the delights of 50 carefully selected restaurants and 140 food and drink exhibitors.

One of the highlights of this year’s event will be Gordon Ramsay, Janet Street-Porter and wine expert Olly Smith bringing their infamous TV show to life at the fantastic ‘F Word Live’. The new series sees the launch of a nationwide quest to find a new, talented woman to fill the shoes of legendary TV cook, Fanny Cradock. ‘Find me a Fanny’ will give ladies a chance to show off their skills and become the new Fanny Cradock of Taste of London, so if you think you’ve got what it takes, come along and show off your culinary skills.

If Gordon’s fast-paced and foul-mouthed style is not to your taste, then head for The Times Chefs’ Theatre where refined meat-lovers Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and John Wright will be giving delicious demonstrations, tutorials and Q&A sessions. There will also be wine tasting and advice from leading wine connoisseurs from around the world at The Wine Experience, and a haven for lager lovers at The Speciality Beer Masterclass. This is a rare opportunity to learn about premium-imported beers from across Europe with master beer sommelier and Belgian beer ambassador, Marc Stoobrandt. Guests can taste and learn about five different types of speciality beers and how to pair them with food. You haven’t lived until you’ve tasted Leffe Blonde with Crème Brulee!

Other gastrofeatures include jazz and Cuban bands performing on the music stage; port-tasting at the Cockburn’s Port Hole Lounge Bar; the Alessi cookery school; a Champagne and Seafood bar; Ferrarelle Water Bar and the 42 Below Cocktail World Cup 2007 – UK and Ireland final. If all that doesn’t tire you out, you can also buy local produce at the ‘delicious.’ magazine Producers’ Market; which features organic beers from ‘Brothers Brewing Co Ltd‘, marinated olives and antipasti from ‘Olives et al’, organic chocolate brownies and truffles from ‘Cocoa Loco’ and much more!

Taste of London will be held at Marylebone Green, Regent’s Park, and the entrance to the event is opposite Park Square Gardens on the Outer Circle. It runs from Thursday 21st to Sunday 24th June and opening times and maps can be found on the website. Standard entry is £21 and Premium entry is £35, which includes £20 worth of Crowns – the official currency of the festival. The nearest tube stations are Baker Street and Great Portland Street, but there are also plenty of buses that serve the area and 1,000 Pay & Display parking spaces within the park.”

Bruton Summer Fete

How good was today’s summer fete in Bruton? My big boss Patrick, who has a house in Bruton, asked a few weeks ago when the Bruton fete was… Cowie asked her hairdresser and hey presto we were booked in to scout out the famous Bruton Summer Fete…

Victoria went last year and dismissed it this morning as being OK, but nothing special unless you like Morris dancers and throwing sponges at people in stocks. She stayed at home tending to her geraniums.

When we arrived in Bruton, rain pissing down and making all the cows look unhappy, we were bowled over by the number of people scurrying around in their water proof coats. Normally when you go into Bruton you see about 4 people if you’re lucky. Hippies everywhere. Insense making my nostrils sting. Colourful jewellery being hawked by keen young girls. Local charity tombolas. All set next to a tranquil, muddy brown steam cutting between the dignified stone walls of Kings Bruton School.

We were enormously impressed by the number of really exciting foodie stalls. Thorner’s butchers have supplied me with my supper this evening – a beautifully tender veal rib eye steak which I am planning to sear for a fraction of a second on a super heated grill pan. Cowie had a Sweet Dreams smoothie, smoothified by a bicycle powered blender! Hippie power!

For more on how to make a Bicycle Blender visit the Make site here.

I can’t receommend the Bruton Fete enough. It ticks all the foodie boxes: organic, low food miles, local, tasty, democratised, fun! I’m now eagerly looking forward to next years.