FOOD&DRINK

The big problem with any outdoor event in this country is the unpredictable British climate; months of planning and negotiation are worth nowt should the heavens open. So the organisers of this year’s Organic Food Festival (Sept 11-12) must have felt heartsick when they awoke Saturday morning to a torrential downpour, threatening to scupper all of their hard work. They must have done some seriously hard praying, though, because less than two hours before the festival was due to open, the rain stopped and, barring the briefest of showers later that morning, the sun beamed benevolently down on the event for the entire weekend.

Festivals come and go but for the last 10 years one constant in the calendar has been the Soil Association’s Organic Food Festival, the highlight of their annual Organic Fortnight promotion, which each summer brings thousands of people to Bristol’s Harbourside to sample some of the best food this country has to offer.

The weekend kicked off with the presentation, by the placenta-scoffing Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (looking decidedly trimmer and tidier than his adoring TV audience would recognise), of the Organic Food Awards, with gongs for local businesses including Bath’s Bertinet Bakery and the Wiltshire-based Pertwood Organics. All the usual suspects were there: the Chef Demo Kitchen offered amateur cooks chance to learn at the feet of festival favourites including brothers Barny and Phil Haughton, the latter having just announced plans to open a second Better Food Company shop on Whiteladies Road, Sam Moody of the Bath Priory and baker extraordinaire Richard Bertinet; around 150 stalls gave people opportunity to graze to their heart’s content; a world cafe area provided beer, cider, wine and plenty of hot food courtesy of Easton’s award-winning Cafe Maitreya, Brown Cow Organics, Indian street food specialists Paratha Wali Guli and more, and two stages provided a soundtrack of feel-good sounds. One new attraction pulling in the crowds was the Sheep Show: a manic New Zealander named Craig, but sounding for all the world like one of the Python’s Bruces, shearing rare breed sheep to a Queer Eye For the Straight Guy soundtrack. Bizarre, but compulsively watchable.

Early estimates suggest that the number of visitors was up 25 percent on last year, with people encouraged to spend more thanks to a more stable economy but just as likely to have been bolstered by the fantastic weather and a couple of pints of Bath Ales’ Wild Hare. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. By early Sunday afternoon – a good couple of hours before the agreed 5pm curfew – some, including Sheepdrove Organic Butchers, were already packing up, having been cleaned out by a public ravenous for their organic goodies.

When this reporter last reviewed the Organic Food Festival (in 2007) I was accused of putting the boot in, even threatening the very future, of this decade-old institution. I’m glad to say that, on the strength of this year’s event, the future of organic food in the region – and of the Organic Food Festival itself – seems assured. (Darryl Bullock) 

FFI: WWW.THEORGANICFOODFESTIVAL.CO.UK

Copyright Darryl W Bullock 2010