about mendip food festival

launch of the Festival held at The mendip District Council Offices on Friday 21st October - Apple Day. The food for this event was all supplied by Delicious, 36 High Street, Shepton Mallet Somerset. BA4 5AS it was sponsored by Capita. Approx 100 invited guests had a delicious lunch of Cheese & Onion Bread, a selection of raised pies including Pork and Apple, a range of home made pates along with Apple Juice. There was a talk from Simon Crannage Head Chef from Charlton House on the amount of local produce that Charlton House uses over the course of 12 months
Launch of the Festival	Launch of the Festival
Launch of the Festival
'A Very Funky Party' held at Wilkins Cider Farm. The staff of the Wookey Hole Inn served a Funky Menu, washed down with Cider Cocktails from the Farm, there was Raspberry Beer, Local produce available to taste and purchase including Westcombe Cheddar Cheese. The evening was completed with Dancing to live bands late into the night. Over 300 people attended
Funky Party	Funky Party
Funky Party	Funky Party
Funky Party	Funky Party
*Cider pressing at the Somerset Rural Life Museum, Glastonbury - Saturday 22 October*
Cider pressing	Cider pressing
Cider pressing	Cider pressing
Cider pressing	Cider pressing
*Events at Charlton House - Monday 24th October*
Charlton House	Charlton House
*Monday night saw a packed house at The George Inn at Croscombe for a Food and Drink Quiz A full house with teams propping up the Bar! to join in.*
Quiz Night at the George Inn	Quiz Night at the George Inn
Quiz Night at the George Inn	Quiz Night at the George Inn
Cllr Bill MacKay OBE, Chairman of Mendip District Council, called in at the start of the Classic Car Rally which started and finished at the George Inn, Croscombe, on Sunday 23 October. Cllr MacKay is seen with Peter Graham, landlord of the George, alongside one of the classic cars taking part in the rally. Participants enjoyed Sunday lunch back at the George, after a 40-mile drive around the Mendips. George Inn - Classic Car Rally	George Inn - Classic Car Rally
Cookery demonstration at Charlton House on Tuesday 25th October. Chef Mark Hardiman demonstrated a three course meal with produce from within a 10 mile radius of Charlton House.
Cookery Demonstration	Cookery Demonstration
Saturday evening saw lots of people taking advantage of the great Chocoholics night at the Thatched Cottage. The food was amazing and very imaginative and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. It's amazing the amount of different food you can link with chocolate! Check out the blueberries in the white chocolate mousse and Crayfish in white chocolate sauce .
Chocoholics Evening	Chocoholics Evening
Chocoholics Evening
FROME WHOLEFOODS Shop manager Elmer had been using a traditional apple press to produce apple juice from local apples for customers to taste. He was delighted with the interest in the festival and had also managed to arrange for an extra event on Wednesday, featuring Pertwood Cereals who would be hosting a tasting of their products and there would also be more apple pressing.	Frome Wholefoods
Sunday 23 October - GREEN FARM & Shute Farm Studio. ‘A Potato Experience’! Stephen & Frances Britten hosted a tremendous event that combined ‘Art and Agriculture’ which was well attended by over 30 people. To begin, guests were treated to a Potato Lunch, provided by Jonathan Steele of The Food Company, Frome. All the dishes featured potatoes grown on Green Farm. There were over a dozen items to choose from including: potato and goats cheese bread; potato pizza; rosti; Portuguese potato cake; and a chocolate & potato cake. There was also mature Cheddar courtesy of Barbers of Ditcheat, made with milk from Green Farm. Jill Barker, one of the Studio tutors is going to compile a recipe book from all the lunch recipes used on the day. Guests then had chance to indulge in some Potato Printing under the instruction of Jill Barker, one of the studio’s tutors and were given timely reminders for ideas for Christmas – homemade wrapping paper and cards using potato printing! Guests were taken up to the farm to see the potato and dairy side of the business. Green Farm is a dairy farm of approximately 280 Friesian Holstein cows, with all the milk being sold to AG & RG Barber of Ditcheat for cheese making. Stephen explained how the year round supply of milk was achieved and then visitors saw the start of afternoon milking. The other important part of the business is potatoes! Green Farm is the only seed potato farm on the Mendips. 40 acres of 5 varieties of potatoes are grown, 90% of which are sold to other farmers for their following year’s seed requirements. The remaining 10% is sold locally to retailers and farm shops. Visitors saw how potatoes are handled, stored and prepared for export and ware.
	Stephen & Frances Britten and Jonathan Steele
Potato Lunch	Green Farm
Potato Printing	Green Farm
Tuesday 25th October THE BELL INN - Lucy and Jeremy, the charming hosts of this traditional village pub with a difference, are offering a truly local menu for the week. Anti Pasti of local smoked meats, fish and cheese; roast pork with cream cider sauce; blackberry & apple crumble.
Wednesday 26 October ALHAM WOOD CHEESE & MEAT - Higher Alham Farm A great opportunity for visitors to see a working farm with a difference! Visitors had a chance to see the Romanian Water Buffalo close up – both youngsters and adults; a look into the new dairy to see how the cheese is made and then the chance to sample some produce from the farm and to buy from the shop! The farm produces 15 tons of cheese per year from the milk of 45-50 buffalo!
Higher Alham Farm	Higher Alham Farm
THE FOUNTAIN INN & BOXER’S RESTAURANT Julie Pearce, Chef and Zoe Leadbeater, Manager were both delighted with the response of customers – both new and regulars, to the special menu for the festival.
Delicious	Delicious
Good Fellows	Tesco, Shepton Mallet
Tenon Business Services sponsored a Business Breakfast event at the Swan Hotel, Wells on Thursday 27th October. The main speakers were John Sheaves, Chief Executive of 'Taste of the West', and Jolyon Stonehouse, Regional Managing Director of Tenon. Around 30 representatives of local businesses ( including farmers and food producers) attended, and all agreed it was a great success.
John Sheaves	Jolyon Stonehouse
Summerleaze Farm Shop and Hecks Cider, both retailers of local produce, had display stalls at last night’s showing of the local foods promotional film ‘Levels Best’, at the Strode Theatre, Street.
Hecks Cider	Summerleaze Farm Shop
F rome Wholefoods	Jon Thorners Open Day, Street
\|Jon Thorners Open Day, Street	Jon Thorners Open Day, Street
Jon Thorners Open Day, Street	Jon Thorners Open Day, Street
Sagebury Cheese - tasting event at their farm shop in Frome - 26th October	Sagebury Cheese
Sagebury Cheese	Sagebury Cheese
Sagebury Cheese	Sagebury Cheese
Julie and Andrew Co-ordinators of the Mendip Food and Drink Festival rounded off the weeks festivities by having a delicious Sunday Lunch at Bowlish House on Sunday. A mixture of treats which included Chicken Livers, Sea Bass, a good old traditional Roast Beef and rounded off with Creme Brulee and Banoffi Pie. What better way to end the week of food and drink festivities.



	Frome Country Market The ladies from Frome Country Market had plenty of tempting treats to entice customers old and new! all the items for tasting were homemade locally, ranging from cakes, biscuits, preserves and chutneys.
La Strada, Frome. Jude, the proprietor had a variety of delicious icecreams (all made on the premisies) for customers to try.
	Whiterow Country Foods, Beckington. Heather Tucker, owner, arranged for different tastings throughout the festival and there were daily specials in the restaurant/cafe using very local produce.
	Any Questions on Food & Farming, Frome. A hugely succesful evening which took the format of it's Radion 4 namesake. The panel consisted of Anthony Gibson, Graham Harvey, Oliver Dowding and Archie Montgomery and the event was chaired by Steve Haigh of BBC Somerset Sound who also recorded the event for broadcast. A wide range of questions were posed by the audience and they were met with a range of very well balanced and articulate answers from the panel.

	Farrington's Farm Shop, Farrington Gurney. A packed day of events at Farringtons that included tastings, a pumkin carving competition and special menu in the restaurant.

Wyke Farms, nr Bruton The farm shop attracted new customers during the week and was offering not only tastings of the cheese produced here but also had a display of old cheese making equipment.