I’m a strange soul I confess and can often be found wandering the food fairs of Dorset alone but for the baby strapped to my chest, my husband stranded at home with a list of chores to complete; whilst I deplete the family coffers to feed my need for the latest dining discovery, returning home with a single scrap of fudge lonely at the bottom of the packet and an obscure ingredient or two which “must not be touched – they’re for a recipe”. It’s not a bad system though and one I wholeheartedly recommend!
An invitation by a friend to join her and a group of others for a few hours of culinary titillation at Poundbury’s Dorset Food & Arts Festival, was therefore not one I was ever going to turn down. Now in its fourth year, the event has steadily grown and today welcomes more than 50 stallholders to showcase their wares. The festival is held in aid of The Weldmar Hospicecare Trust, whilst also supporting Artsreach, Dorset Farmers’ Markets and The Steve Charles Help a Friend Fund. A unique feature is the blend of music, crafts and food; artisan chocolates alongside pet portraiture, olives alongside cushion covers and bunting, all arranged in neat tented rows sandwiched between a music stage at one end and a chef’s demo stage at the other. A rather surreal addition was the curly haired figure of Rimski the piano cyclist, dressed in top hat and tails and billowing purple smoke from a pipe, weaving up and down the rows playing eccentric cabaret.
The weather was clear and sunny and whilst my friends leisurely browsed the arts and craft stalls, I bounced around like an excited puppy searching for a treat. My first titbit came in the form of some honey fudge from Hunny-Bears Bee Products of Blandford Forum. A delightfully crumbly traditional fudge with a heady honey flavour; profits are ploughed directly into supporting efforts to preserve pollinating insects.
I am always impressed by the displays from West Milton Cider, who frequent many of the food festivals over the summer. On this occasion I took the opportunity to sample their naturally sparkling cider, Lancombe Rising. I confess to having a rather underdeveloped palate for cider, opting for sweeter varieties over traditional scrumpies. I found this however, most agreeable, an easy drinking cider with a medium finish.
Weymouth preservers Dorset Handmade had an enticing display of treats with some unusual varieties alongside the more typical jam flavours. I struggled to restrict myself to three purchases. The yellow courgette and lemon verbena jam has a firm chunky texture, like a very good marmalade. The pieces of courgette transformed, they could almost be mistaken for candied peel. The Lemon Verbena lends gentle floral undertones and the overall flavour is not too sweet – an exceptional product. Julie Philpott, one half of the Dorset Handmade couple, recommended their plum jam, made with plums from their own allotment. It’s a proper farmhouse jam, with whole fruits, still quite firm. I’ve been stirring it through natural yoghurt as a naughty alternative to a fruit compote. I also took home some of their sweet pickled cherries, which I am looking forward to experimenting with in both sweet and savoury dishes.
As the afternoon drew on and the previously mild day began to warm up, we joined the considerable queue for Great Aunt Lucie’s Ice Cream. Made at Tisbury, just 4 miles over the border into Wiltshire, the recipe has been handed down through the generations from its origins in an ice house in Denmark in the 1850s. The stem ginger ice cream was amongst the best I’ve ever tasted. So uncorrupted is the vanilla ice cream recipe, that it contains just four ingredients, including local organic double cream. My friend described it as “like eating pure frozen clotted cream”. Pure decadence.
As I bid farewell to my friends I ferreted away the last few crumbs of my chocolate muffin from The Baking Bird, hoping my husband wouldn’t notice the tell-tale chocolate stain on the front seat of the car and thanking my lucky stars that the baby can’t talk yet!
Alison Smith @chefalismith
