Sunday 7 October 2018

1o.30am – 4pm, Hungerford Town Hall & High Street.

Hungerford Food Festival on Sunday 7 October was another full day of local foodie fun with over 40 stalls, sizzling street food, the annual Hungerford Cook-Off, live cooking demonstrations, Pumpkin Challenge, apple quiz, buskers and face painting.

For the first time this year we had a Chilli Eating Competition run by Hungerford’s very own award-winning food scientist and chilli fanatic Simon Flanagan (click link for video!)

There was plenty of street food including stone baked pizza, thai curry, gourmet burgers & sausages, veggie specials and Brazilian Bolitas.

Local producers ranged from grass fed Brunskill Beef and award-winning Foxglove Flock lamb, to local rapeseed oil, apple juice, honey, beer, cider, charcuterie, cheese, chilis, confectionary, cakes with secret ingredients, fudge, venison sausages, flavoured salts and herbal teas.

Visitors discovered how rape seeds are pressed into oil, bees make honey with Newbury & District Beekeepers, how to grow your own with Hungerford Allotments and the local ATE charity helps farmers grow crops during the dry season in Ghana.

Hungerford Churches Together ran a children’s craft stall and collected Foodbank donations and the John O’Gaunt School PSA face painters were kept busy all day.

The most delicious spread of cakes were baked by the talented Hungerford Scouts

Pig: Tales from an Organic Farm Book Launch

Soil Association Chief Executive and organic farmer Helen Browning gave a thought-provoking talk about her new book Pig, the importance of animal welfare in farming and her visions for smaller, less intensive farms that employ more people and allow livestock to have a natural life in healthy conditions, needing fewer antibiotics. “For this to happen,” Helen concluded, “consumers need to understand where their meat comes from, especially after Brexit when we could be importing meat from countries with lower animal welfare standards than ours.”

Signed copies of Pig are available at Hungerford Bookshop.

Hungerford Cook-Off!

Our judges this year were Eddie Barisha, Head Chef of Eliane’s of Hungerford, local preserves expert Lanie Allen and food journalist Hilary Scott.

The winners were:

Class 1: Cupcakes
Under 16: Rosie Gregory, Marbled chocolate & vanilla cupcakes
Over 16: Sarah Chatters, Chocolate & Vanilla Cupcakes

Class 2: Veg (any way you like)
Under 16: Molly Lewis – Carrot Cake
Over 16: Rachael Walsh – Parsnip Cake (Highly commended: Sarah Chatters courgette, mushroom & basil loaf)

Class 3: Free From (but you wouldn’t know)
Under 16: Jonathan Kelly – chocolate brownies
Over 16: Karen Neate – Ginger & Cacao Slice

Class 4: Sweet Preserves
Chris Giles & Angela Bartlett – crabapple jelly (highly commended for their strawberry jam, greengage & vanilla jam)

Class 5: Savoury Preserves
Ted Angell – tomato & apple chutney

Class 6: Cordial/homebrew 
James Iles – Coco Pops Porter

Cookery Demonstrations

This year’s schedule of inspiring live cookery demonstrations was kicked off by Audley Inglewood Head Chef Gert Pienaar demonstrating Prawn & Salmon Tortellini, a fascinating talk from Sam from Tilly’s Treats about how chocolate is made, Eddie Barisha on how to make vegan lasagne, Peter Cooke on how to de-breast pheasant and cook escalope of pheasant breast, how to make cocktails to impress by the bar staff at The Three Swans Hotel.

The raffle in aid of HEAT (Hungerford Environmental Action Team) featured fabulous prizes donated by The Tutti Pole, The Pheasant Inn, Wheatsheaf Inn, The Tally Ho, Eliane’s of Hungerford and lots more.

Cream Tea Trip on The Rose of Hungerford

A special Hungerford Food Festival Cream Tea trip was a sold out success.

Sponsors

The event is kindly sponsored by Doves Farm who offer everything you need for home baking under one roof, from organic and heritage flour to baking essentials.

 

Three Swans Hotel in Hungerford and Blandy’s at Audley Inglewood near Kintbury

 

St Lawrence’s Harvest Festival Service will be at 10am in the morning and at 6.30pm there will be a service of readings and hymns for the Harvest. All welcome.

Video of Hungerford Food Festival 2013

 

Video kindly sponsored by Doves Farm and produced by Dudleigh Films

 

If you would like to assist with the running of the festival then please use the Contact Us form. All support appreciated.