It’s festival season and with an event almost every weekend, the calendar is busier than ever before but forget Glastonbury, forget Reading and Leeds, in Dorset it’s food festivals that rock our summer. The season kicked off in April with the inaugural Dorset Venison Festival, culminating with Parnham House’s Eat Dorset Food Fair in October. There are events celebrating particular foodstuffs – Wimborne’s Great Dorset Chilli Festival (1st & 2nd August), Sturminster Newton’s Cheese Festival (12th & 13th September) and Fish and Ships at Portland Marina (11th & 12th April) and festivals which boast big name chef demonstrations – Food Rocks, Lyme Regis (6th & 7th Sept) and the Dorset Seafood Festival in Weymouth (11th & 12th July) and then there is our most off the wall offering, attracting national media attention for its eccentricity – The Dorset Knob Throwing Contest.
It’s an odd thing to be celebrating – The Dorset knob – made since 1880 by Moores Biscuits at their Morcombelake factory, for just 2 months of the year, they are perhaps best described as, an acquired taste. A hard savoury biscuit, made from bread dough, enriched with butter and sugar and with the appearance of a small bread roll, they are said to be best enjoyed dunked in tea. As a Morcombelake resident I don’t mind admitting, I’d rather be eat Moores’ butter biscuits with stem ginger or any other item in their range for that matter!
My husband and I attended the first knob throwing contest in 2008, an inauspicious gathering in a muddy field behind the village pub. A few food stands in the village hall and a hog roast and burger truck or two made for a merry, if somewhat rain sodden day. Unsociable chefs working hours have prevented me from returning since. Who could have envisaged that it in the intervening years, it would balloon the way it has, garnering national radio time, newspaper inches and television news segments. 5000 people attended last year and over 50 food producers participated. Events now include knob eating, knob darts, guess the weight of the big knob and splat the knob. Enterprising exhibitors produce special editions for the event -knob juice (FromDorsetWithLove) and knob cheese with cumin (James’s Cheese) – all sold out within a couple of hours this year.
The main marquee is a who’s who of Dorset food and drink; speciality produce from Deliamo, Capreolus and Liberty Fields; free range meats from Fortunes Wood Organic Beef, Sam’s Pigs and The Dorset Game Larder and sweet treats from The Baking Bird, Eat Dark Matters and Miss Marshmellow. For pre- knob throwing sustenance, an unbeatable selection of lunch to go options- Fishdogs from Hix Restaurants, freshly made pizzas from The Pizza Box and Pork Rolls from Posh pigs; whilst real ale from Palmers Brewery, West Milton Cider, Langham wine and Dorset tea, all promised to lubricate those knob eating gullets.
A personal highlight for me was the stunning chocolates from Chocolate Arthouse. Inspired by Christian Dior’s philosophy “zest is the secret to all beauty”, each one is handmade using the finest chocolate and hand painted by John Tyldesley. They can be purchased online and at various events over the summer. The hot Red Thai Crab Soup from Dorset Shellfish was exceptional. Offering fresh shellfish from Weymouth dayboats, including their own vessel Marauder, they attend numerous farmers markets and events throughout the county. Finally my interest was piqued by the range of honey from Filberts Bees, which is a truly seasonal product, varying in flavour and consistency depending on the bees’ diet in their Dorset hives. They also offer natural beeswax lip balms, salves and body butters available to purchase online and nationwide at selected stockists.
Knob throwing wasn’t for me- a school report aged 10 bemoaned my “total lack of hand-eye coordination but it spoke to the sportsman in my husband. Not one for the “it’s the taking part that counts” school of thought, he bragged for weeks of his imminent triumph. Back in 2008 he had rather mastered the art of tossing the knob, in the lead with 10 minutes remaining of competition. Leaving for home, his victory secure, he waited impatiently for the winner’s phone call that never came. “A fix!” he proclaimed, a story he continued to recount each and every year when the knob throwing festival rolled around. At last a chance to avenge this injustice and claim his rightful title!
Approaching the site with the inevitable heavy traffic, the jitters started to set in; applying the handbrake adrift amidst a sea of cars, his confidence started to falter “there are rather a lot of people here aren’t there?”; then walking onto the site “let’s look round some stalls and get our bearings then I’ll do it”, then “lets watch a few throws first”. He checked out the queue – admittedly somewhat lengthy –“oh it wouldn’t be fair on the baby, waiting so long”. Then out came the trump card “I’m not sure it’s a good idea with my old shoulder injury- what if it aggravated it?” It was over; stepping out onto the Wembley pitch squaring up to the line-up of Wayne Rooney and Theo Walcott, he was suddenly confronted with his non-league status. Not one to show any glimmer of weakness, his parting remark – “let’s arrive earlier next year- the queue won’t be so long”. A mid-season blip in the journey to inevitable premiership victory? We’ll see shall we!
The following is a useful though not exhaustive guide to this years’ festivals – www.dorsetaonb.org.uk › Dorset Food & Drink › What’s On or pick up the Dorset Food and Drink Directory, available at farm shops and food events.
Alison Smith @chefalismith
