Not As Good As Nigel Kennedy. 6th October

Stone

Today we went along to the Food and Drink Festival in Westbridge Park. Here there were numerous hot food and drink stalls. Inside a large marquee was a selection of local and not quite so local food stuffs, hotels, marinas and restaurants vying for custom.

We had a good look round and sampled quite a lot of things making note of where we’d like to go back to make purchases. There were the usual cheese stands (I may have had more cheese today than I’ve had in months). Two or three chilli sauce stands, Yorkshire Dipper Oils (not a patch on Charlie and Ivy’s), only one sausage stand, no butchers, cakes, gluten free/vegan cakes, veggie boxes, chocolates, pans, garlic, chutneys, along with gins, vodka and chopping boards.

By the time we’d managed to sample a fare few things we were hungry so decided to see what was on offer outside. We both were drawn to the crepe stand, where their savoury crepes were gluten free and very tasty with cheese and ham. This then was washed down with a half pint each from Lymestone Brewery.

Entertainment started with a three piece folk band on the sound stage. They were okay, but the fiddle was just slightly out of tune, not as good as Nigel Kennedy would have been.

The best bit by far was a chap from the small circus tucked behind the marquees. His speciality was blowing bubbles, not just any bubbles, but big ones and lots of them. On two sticks he had a section of netting, after he’d dunked it in soapy water it was then raised and with the breeze behind him a huge cascade of bubbles kept coming from it. He was doing his best to fill the air with translucent iridescentness and he was nearly succeeding. Another two sticks had just one large loop attached which created one very large long bubble. He was great, unless the bubbles landed on your food, that wasn’t so tasty.

Back in the marquee we watched a chap demonstrate his ceramic pans. We’ve seen him at Crick before but never taken any notice. However we have been wanting to replace our main pan, a saute pan with a lid and he had just the size we were after at a special price. We were impressed and made a purchase, here’s hoping it works as well for us as it did for him. The smoked garlic I bought from the smoke house in Glasson is just about all used up, so I got another bulb along with some normal, I refrained from buying a string of garlic like my mum used to have. Normally at such things we walk away with a life times supply of cheese, but today we managed to only buy one and only one variety of sausages (but they are very tasty ones). A Pork Pie for Mick and a gluten free Raspberry and Frangipane slice for me which I enjoyed with a half pint from the Titanic Brewery.

There were also talks and demonstrations that we could have gone to, even masterclasses, but we didn’t feel the need. A good way to spend the afternoon.

0 locks, 0 miles, 4 halves, 2 crepes, 7354562 bubbles, 8 sausages, 1 cheese, 2 bulbs garlic, 1 pie, 1 slice, 26cm pan more generous in size than our old one, 1 pan drawer a bit full.