I GOT PRESS PASSES!!!

Did I tell you that I got press passes to a food festival? I’m not going to lie, I was immensely excited!  Taste Festival is aimed at showcasing local/regional food producers as well as a demonstration tent with various chefs throughout the weekend. I could rattle on about everything there was, but I don’t think I’d have many readers by the end of this post.

We couldn’t have been more blessed with the weather as the weekend of 18^th was an absolute scorcher, we only lasted a few hours before wilting under the heat so my hat goes off to everybody who was exhibiting and selling at event. I suppose I should get started telling you about them! I’m a bit of a condiment fiend, particularly because they are often the sort of thing that one struggles to replicate as well, and boy were there some good ones here.

No, its not a condiment, but I felt I had to mention Toffee Vodka somewhere!

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE chilli jam and it is on my list of things to make for myself one day, so I was quite delighted to notice at least 3 chilli jams around the place. They were all of a really high standard but I ended up buying mine from The Versatile Sauce Co, and I’m pretty sure that’s just because the people were so lovely. But now I can’t stop eating it! It goes so well with everything and we enjoyed it that night with barbecued sausages from Spot on Produce.

There was one other condiment that day that I feel deserves its own special mention, Rosemary Jelly from Kush Cuisine. A bit like mint jelly with that sweetness but instead of mint, there’s this wonderful taste of rosemary. I imagine its absolute heaven with roast lamb, I was just sad my wallet didn’t stretch quite that far.

I’ll get back to more of the stuff on sale later but first I HAVE to tell you about the barbecue train! Yes, that’s right, a barbecue that looks like a steam train! The pulled pork they were making looked delicious; unfortunately I decided to have slow roasted lamb for lunch that was HORRIBLE! I thought the point of slow roasting is that it’s all soft and delicious, this was just dry and stringy, very disappointing.

Hiding away in the corner of the field was Herbal Haven, who seem to be following us around as we saw them at the Winchester Hat Fair (not to do with hats) very recently. I was drooling over the selection of herbs then, so I couldn’t resist a second time. His range is incredible, more types of mint, basil, thyme, coriander (to name but a few) than you could hope t o remember and he even does a range of medicinal herbs and plants. I came home with Vietnamese coriander that took me straight back to Hanoi and a beautifully sweet apple mint that I can’t wait to try and make tea from.

There’s so much more to tell you but I imagine I am probably boring you so I’ll finish off by telling you about ale-gar. ‘Ale-gar?’ I hear you ask, yes ale-gar! It’s vinegar made from ale instead of wine, and is made from a medieval recipe and was probably the most intriguing thing on sale. It comes with a pretty hefty price tag however, so I decided to go home with some deliciously sweet and syrupy blueberry vinegar from the lovely ladies at The Blueberry Co.