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Abergavenny Food Festival, Fine Forage Foods, Isle of Wight Garlic, Jekka McVicar, Sea Spring Seeds
Over the last decade or so it is hard to deny that there has been a bit of a revolution in the way we approach food in this country. For years we, and others, thought our food was dreadful, we were the poor relation culinary wise, not just in Europe but in the world. Our food industry had, and still does, to some extent suffer from the intensification of agriculture needed during the Second World War. Small scale producers found it increasingly difficult to compete with large companies and then the supermarkets came along and food became about convenience. People no longer wanted to spend time making food, ready meals and microwaves were the way forward. I can remember watching Tomorrow’s World and there being a story about us only needing to swallow a pill in the future and we would get all our nutritional needs that way. *shudders*
But things have changed, nowhere near enough, I’ll admit, but we are no longer seen as a culinary desert. We are learning to celebrate our food and nowhere is this most evident than at the Abergavenny Food Festival. Held on the second weekend in September, people from all over flock to the small market town on the edge of the Brecon Beacon National Park. September and October have traditionally been the months of harvest festivals and ever since man started to grow their own food I imagine that early autumn was seen as a time of abundance, a time to be thankful for the crop that year. Over the last decade or so food festivals, like the one at Abergavenny, have sprung up all over the country and are, I think, a modern day version of the harvest festival.
Abergavenny is only a short drive from my home and I can’t quite believe my luck that we have such a great event on our doorstep. Food producers from the local area and beyond set up stalls in the town centre and the market hall selling their wares. There are plenty of opportunities to taste and stock up the fridge and larder for autumn and winter.
At various venues there are talks from chefs and food producers giving an insight into subjects as varied as the wonders of garlic and foraging to urban growing and setting up a rural skills centre.
There is a great buzz to the town, so with cool bags at the ready we set about the ever so slightly daunting task of navigating ourselves around so much tasty food.
There can’t be many occasions when you have sampled pumpernickel bread, a variety of goats cheeses, rose petal syrup, roasted seeds, crayfish tails, raw chocolate, lavender jelly and a shot of Herefordshire gin all before 11am and all this was topped off with smoked salmon and bubble and squeak for lunch. It’s certainly a test of your digestive system and reading the list now, makes me feel slightly queasy. Where’s that mint tea?
It shows how far we’ve come though, as a country, in regards to food. There was a whole range of food I hadn’t eaten until I went to university. I can’t imagine cooking now without ingredients such as aubergines, peppers, hummus and pesto but these were foods I’d never come across until I was in my twenties; they were the staples of health food shops rather than supermarkets, seen only as foods for hippies but now they are ubiquitous. The wealth of produce on offer now however, is quite incredible, from smoked garlic and goats meat to wild boar and pickled unripe blackberries. We’ve rediscovered classic British recipes but by using the best ingredients it has meant they can rival any other cuisine. We’ve also started to produce our own versions of classic foods from around the world such as our own charcuterie, mozzarella and parmesan.
The market hall packed with stalls offering tasty produce
My favourite stalls were the Isle of Wight Garlic Farm, along with the colourful chillies from Sea Spring Seeds. Jekka McVicar’s herb stall is always a treasure trove of the most essential herbs for cooking and something a little bit different, such as ginger mint. Probably the best discovery though, was the Forage Fine Foods stand. The brainchild of Liz Knight, there were all sorts of concoctions made from wild, foraged foods such as the elderberry viniagrette or from locally grown produce such as the herb garden rub which could be used on meat. My favourite had to be the rose petal preserve. I’ve always been a bit wary of floral scented food products, I think I was scarred as a child by being given parma violets. As a result, I thought everything with flowers in it would taste like old fashioned soap but this rose petal preserve was so delicious. The taste of a British garden in June. I know that sounds a little strange but believe me it was lovely and would be delicious on ice cream, pancakes, sponge cakes, even porridge.
Events like this are a great way of trying different foods and ingredients without having to buy lots of jars only to find you’re not that keen on something. Here you can try until you can take no more and then, when you find those products that tickle your taste buds, you can make your purchase safe in the knowledge it won’t sit at the back of your cupboard unused for years.
Abergavenny may be over for this year but over the next couple of months there will be foodie festivals the length and breadth of the country. Hopefully I might get to squeeze in a few more but for now I’ve got to go and find some recipes for goats meat!
I think the English are too hard on themselves when it comes to food and ‘traditional’ British/English cooking. Being an 9th generation Australian with entirely British heritage, I was raised on British meals and this is the sort of food I love to eat and prepare.
Italian, Indian and asian cooking (Thai, Japanese, Chinese etc) are very popular here in Australia but I love nothing more than traditional British fare.
My problem is – there are not enough British inspired restaurants or cookbooks. The only decent British cookbook I have found over here is Monty Don’s The Home Cookbook which is my favourite out of the 100 odd cookbooks we have in our kitchen.
Give me classic British recipes any day over Italian/Asian/French/Czech etc.
I can definitely recommend cookbooks by Sarah Raven and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and his River Cottage series of books. Take a look at them on Amazon maybe you can get hold of them that way.
Thanks by the way. I love classic British food such as hotpot and shepherd’s pie. I was brought up in the seventies and eighties which weren’t good decades for food in the UK. All I need say is crispy pancakes!!! Fortunately, I’ve taught myself to cook and we now have some great local food producers about. It was so great to see so many of them at the weekend.
Sounds wonderful. our daughter went too and thoroughly enjoyed it, our grandsons had a wonderful time tasting everything! Food has come on a long way in the last 10 or 20 yrs, lets face it, it needed to! More food festivals like Abergavenny can only be a good thing, hope you find a good recipe for your goat’s meat, I won’t tell you what the goat was like that we ate in Sierra Leone!!
Hubby had goat meatballs a while ago and loved them but the meat we got on Saturday was for casseroles. Apparently you can just slow cook it in a casserole.
Probably best I don’t know about the Sierra Leone goat!! Wow Sierra Leone, that sounds like a fascinating trip.
We’ve ear-marked a localish food festival in a few weeks’ time, though not on the same scale as Abergavenny, which is on our “one of these years” list… :) Those chillies are beautiful. Lovely to celebrate all the great local produce we grow in these Isles…
Some of the smaller festivals can be really good fun and less crowds. If you do get to Abergavenny it’s best to get there as soon as it opens, it can be a little hectic and difficult to get to the stalls later in the day.
Your food festival sounds fantastic. We have wonderful farmers’ markets that offer locally grown fresh produce. I can only imagine how happy you are having such a wonderful event so close to home.
Thanks Judy. It’s a great event.
What a great event. I like the idea of being able to try so many different products before you actually buy them.
It is such a good idea. We’ve all had those jars stashed away at the back of the larder gathering dust because we had them once and didn’t like it.
Oh what fun WW. I like the sound of the rose petal preserve and imagine it to be a most pretty colour. We have intended to get to the nearer to us Ludlow Food Festival for some years but unfortunately work or holidays have got in the way. Next year maybe :)
I went to Abergavenny only for the second time, this year. I loved it just as much as last year. It’s not just the genuinely fantastic selection of truly excellent produce, and the great programme of talks and tastings one can attend but also the really warm and friendly vibe as well. Everyone just loves being there, from stall holders to speakers to punters. It’s a happy festival.
Liz Knight’s Forage Fine Foods was one of the stalls I noticed last year, and I was so happy to attend two tastings she co-hosted this year.
You’re so right about the quality of British food new. When we moved to Italy 9 years ago, food was one of the inducements – to be able to buy really fresh local, seasonal produce is and was a joy, I do now produce a lot of the fruit and vegetables we eat but it is good to know that the vegetable shop I usually frequent has 80% of its products coming from the local area, the majority of the rest from Italy and only one or two items being imported. Italians are justly proud of their own produce and will always buy local, buy Italian if they can (some brain washing helps this remain true); it UK consumers could learn to appreciate the good things produced at home the economy would improve and farmers might start getting paid properly for what they produce. Rant over. Sounds like you had a fun time, Christina.
Sounds as though you had a wonderful day. Abergavenny is one of those festivals I always wish that I could go to. I’ll make it there someday. Now I live abroad, I often find myself having to defend British food and produce. I think it is such a shame that we have been stuck with this poor reputation for our food. This hasn’t been true for decades. till more great food and brilliant produce for us, I guess.
I made rose petal jelly this year, and I think it is going to be brilliant on patisserie, instead of apricot jam as the glaze. I am going to experiment, but have my eye on next season’s first forced rhubarb, when I shall definitely make a tarte au rhubarb with pastry, creme patissiere, and the rose glaze.