The Bakewell Food Festival 2015
Published On Sunday 26 Apr 2015 by Sticky Beak
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It’s not just fancy-pants restaurants we eat at dear reader (although we have been very fortunate to do a lot of that recently), we also like to have a poke about at food fairs and farmers markets to see what local producers are up to as well. This weekend has seen one such event, The Bakewell Food Festival and Farmers Market and you’ll be pleased to hear that the farmers market takes place as a standalone event normally the last Saturday in every month.
The Boy Wonder and I decided to go on the Saturday to stock up on some goodies to have for lunch and dinner that day and also a few bits for a lazy Sunday supper with The Tribal Elders. As we hopped along it wasn’t many minutes before our beady eyes spotted the most glorious looking wedges of Rocky Road, and our resolve not to buy anything to eat on our way around rapidly crumbled. Drat you Bakewell Tart Shop & Coffee House for making such a fine morsel, we tucked in with such gusto that we ended up with a dusting of icing sugar on our beaks, much to each other’s amusement.
The next place we bought provisions at was a producer we have met before, those fine fellows at Granny Marys Potted Meats. We stocked up on the Venison and Ham Hock potted meats and grabbed some of the Tapenade too as it makes a fantastic Pizza base sauce as well as being awesome on bread. There was a new kid on the block in the guise of Super Smooth Hummus which was just begging to be taken back to the nest and gobbled up.
Being ruled by his tummy the Boy Wonder was scouting round for suitable nibbles to have for lunch and we stumbled across a fantastic looking stall belonging to Bloomers Original Bakewell Puddings and bought a Homity Pie for him and a Broccoli and Stilton Quiche for yours truly (it was cracking by the way guys). I love Cheese as you know so it wasn’t long before I had to indulge and I bought some “Old Hag“ (the Man did manage to keep a straight face, to his credit ) which had Ale and Wholegrain Mustard in it, from the Cheshire Cheese Company team.
Now, to my shame being a local lass, I have never tried Hartington Blue Stilton before (from The Hartington Cheese Shop) so I was really impressed when I tried a little nugget of it. It has a beautiful creamy taste to it, more subtle than some other Stiltons and the tang of the Blue veins is spot on, so a wedge of that found its way into my wings too. My Daddy Bird loves his blue cheeses and was really thrilled with this when he tried it for Sunday supper, so two new fans for The Hartington Creamery team.
One thing I love about events like these is that you can have a chat and banter with the producers and make the buying process more relaxed and sociable than just going into a faceless supermarket or merely clicking online. At Kevin’s Pies we must have spent a good 5 minutes or more chewing the fat as we bought a Venison Pie and a Rabbit Pie - I love Rabbit Meat, it’s my favourite. Kevin was born in Derbyshire, currently lives in Yorkshire ( which we all know is modelled on Derbyshire really ) but supplies shops in Bakewell so we decided to forgive him his transgression of living abroad and give him a mention here - which we would’ve done anyway but the banter was lovely. By the way Kevin the Pies were great, super pastry, chock full of meat and just a little gravy and vegetable in them.
Next stop was the stall manned by those fine bakers, The Loaf who are based at Crich. We’ve had bread from them on several occasions and been to their regular Wednesday night Pizza evenings too, so we knew the Cheese and Onion Focaccia and Goats Cheese and Mushroom Focaccia were going to be delicious. We also bought a loaf of Olive bread from them for Sunday Supper too.
I don’t know about you reader, but I love it when the warmer weather is here and you can cut the bread into chunks and dip it in Balsamic Vinegar and Infused oils. I already had some Balsamic Vinegar in my cupboards at the nest so I just needed to hunt down some good quality oil, and luckily we stumbled upon Brock and Morten’s stall and bought some Lemon infused Rapeseed oil from them ; one sniff of this and you are transported to warm Mediterranean climes.
Along the way we picked some Samosas from The Tasty Samosa Company (which were really tasty when we decided to eat them cold for supper instead of the usual way of warming them up) and from Charlie’s Country Garden I bought a jar of Balsamic Roasted Sweet Beetroot Chutney. The Chutney was a rich Ruby colour and tasted delightfully sweet on the palate; my Daddy Bird remarked that he could easily eat the whole jar over an evening as it was that good.
Now no shopping foray would be complete for us without the inclusion of some sweet morsels and The Pudding Room tempted us with their Treacle Tart and their Apple Crumble Tart , which when we cut into it was crammed to the hilt with chunks of sweet Apple and the pastry was beautiful. We spotted some really pretty two tone Rice Crispie cakes at the Hazlewood’s Desserts stall and also got tempted by their Lemon Sponge Cake which when we ate it was feather light in texture and the Lemon filling was lovely and tangy - the perfect foil to the butter cream in it.
It was lovely to see the market so busy and to hear the sounds of chatter and laughter coming from different directions, but with our wings brimming over with bags we made our way back to the nest and reflected on the success of our little jaunt.
Thank you to all the producers, your efforts are certainly appreciated in this nest. Long may you continue to be successful in your ventures! J:)
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