Hello Everyone,
Caroline Oldham
This weekend I headed to the Foodie Festival Harrogate, I thought the weather might be nice seeing as it is August but no it was like April showers all weekend! The Foodies Festival was held at Ripley Castle, well a little bit behind in a large open field, which was lovely but I made the mistake of wearing flip-flops and I came back with drenched feet! I skipped along to the great live band playing and followed my nose to the amazing scents flowing around the fields!
It didn't keep people away which was great and I took my dad and made our way around the stalls, although this festival is not primarily aimed at the 'free from' market it was incredible to see how many of the products were either naturally gluten free or were dairy free and vegan.
We first passed by 'Live Life on the Veg', this is a company that are growing at a rapid pace, delivering fresh vegetable boxes to your door and including wonderful recipes for you to enjoy. They always try to source vegetables locally and believe in organic and ethically grown vegetables. Even if you are a meat eater, this is a great way of getting all your vegetables for the week delivered. Boxes start from £10.35 check out their website for more details.
There was a wonderful Macaroon store, which are naturally gluten free as they are made from almond flour and some amazing gluten free Malaysian curries, which were also naturally gluten free. Another naturally gluten free food was fudge by The Black Cat Kitchen, all of their fudges are gluten free and there were some amazing flavours, we grabbed a bunch of them including the cherry and almond, one of my favourites, liquorice, salted caramel and mint chocolate!
They were so delicious as a family we couldn't get enough of them. Next door to this was an amazing chocolate company, all gluten free and most of them dairy and vegan free too, when I asked why as I am always interested I got the best response, well they don't need to have any dairy in them so why bother! Love that! It is so true there are so many ways of making delicious treats now without having to use gluten, dairy, honey or eggs! The company is called Sciolti Chocolates and they are worth a try, my favourites included the dark chocolate with violets and the cherry and pistachio, but I have to say the orange and chili was also wonderful.
I then chatted to the lovely girls at Tarte and Berry where I couldn't resist having a gluten free, nut free and vegetarian Berry Crumble! You don't see many products like this around so I was dying to try one, they were so fresh and soft which the crunch of the crumble. A local bakery in Leeds run by two sisters who use locally sourced products.
One of the last stalls I visited was Curry on Cooking' their bold allergen signs grabbed my attention straight away. These curry kits are gluten free, additive free, preservative free, MSG free, nut free and sugar free, created by 'spice sisters' Nilam and Veena, they wanted to bring their authentic cooking not only to UK but to expat Brits who live abroad. We haven't tried them yet but we are going to and I can't wait!
So I had a wonderful time at the Foodies Festival and definitely recommend popping along, the next one is at Alexandra Palace this weekend in London, I am at a wedding all weekend for some great friends of ours so I will sadly miss it but pop along and join the fun, plus the sun with be shining this weekend!
This week's recipe is one of my mum's canapé recipes, which I just absolutely love, it is gluten free and vegetarian and so easy to put together pre dinner party! https://www.biteappy.com/blog/blog/feta-olive-mint-canapes/
Tagged in Caroline Oldham