OSTRICH burgers, sage and onion cheddar cheese and chilli chocolate were just some of the diverse flavours on offer at the Tavistock Food Festival last weekend. Although visitors had to run the gauntlet of waterfalls between the connecting marquees on the Saturday as torrential rain hit the area after weeks of sunshine, this did not seem to dampen their enthusiasm, and numbers for both days reached a record of nearly 8,000. The festival is in its third year, having started with just 38 exhibitors in 2004 and 72 last year. This year the number leapt to 102 exhibitors from across the South West, and there were also masterclasses with celebrity chefs ? organised by Peter Gorton ? which were a sell-out, and food tasting sessions for children. Festival chairman Jeffrey Stackhouse said the festival had been ?very successful? despite the dreadful weather on Saturday, which had made it a ?game of dodgems? between marquees. ?I suspect it kept numbers down on Saturday, but overall we were up on last year and exhibitors were all happy and said how useful it had been for trade contacts as well,? he said. A random sample taken from visitors had shown a ?very high? level of satisfaction, and they had really appreciated the good quality food on show. ?We are pleased overall with the result,? he said. The jazz cafe with nationally known Armada Jazz Band was also very popular with much feet-pumping going on. ?We were delighted to have the Farmers? Market stalls outside ? it made the entrance festival friendly,? Mr Stackhouse said, although on the Saturday some stall holders had ended up like ?drowned rats?. Mr Stackhouse said that although the festival had increased in size each year so far, there were no plans to increase the size of the festival next year. ?It is just about manageable now, with the size constraint of the car park and the need for management and control,? he said. The Farm Shop from Lifton was present with some of its scarecrows who survived the recent attack by vandals, and was doing a good trade. Other stalls allowed visitors to sample everything from a wide range of sausages, buffalo and ostrich burgers, pork pies, crab meat, wine, cider, fruit juice, jams, dips and chutneys, ice cream, yoghurt and boozy cakes to an imaginative range of cheeses. The Windyridge Cheese stall was particularly popular, with 26 cheeses to sample, from the innocuous sage and onion cheddar to Afterburn ? with peppers, chilli and garlic. Lovers of chillis could also sample the South Devon Chilli Farm?s tantalising chilli chocolate ? a combination popular in Mexico and good for clearing the sinuses! A sausage competition was run, divided into three sections. The standard section was won by Peter?s Porkers from Whiddon Down with their Toulouse sausage ? a mix of pork, bacon and garlic ? while the flavoured section was won by the chicken and apple offering from Ark Chickens of Exeter. Westaways Sausages of Kingsteignton won the speciality section with their hog?s pudding.
