Forest Festival showcases a taste of the Forest

From tossing turnips to vegetable creatures and chickens, the Forest Showcase Food & Drink festival is an event with a lot more going on than most food & drink festivals. The recipe for the day? ……..well take over 80 top local and artisan producers, a big serving of stunning hot food, add a dash of real ale and wine, interesting talks, parent & child cookery sessions and lots of children’s activities, top chef demos, stir in a few competition, the launch of the new Wye Valley and Forest of Dean sweet with lashings of excellent live music, and arts & crafts. Mix all this together to make a lovely foodie family day out.
The festival will be held in the Speech House Hotel grounds, in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire,on Sunday 2nd October from 10am and will be opened by TV chef , baker, author & cookery school owner, Peter Sidwell.
Peter has been a chef for 20 years, cooking his way around the continent, the bright lights of the big city were tempting for a while, but having furthered his training on the London restaurant scene, he decided that he’d like to get back to his roots to work on a passion of his; baking. Peter will be demonstrating in the cookery theatre along with other local top chefs including Rob Cox, head chef from The Tudor Farmhouse Hotel & Yvette Farrell, owner & principal of Harts Barn Cookery School.
The cookery theatre which is provided by Hales of Drybrook & Esse stoves will also be the place to be if you want to see the final of the ‘Battle of the Boar’ fun cookery competition where finalists will the battling it out to find a healthy boar dish with a taste of the Forest!

The Festival has attracted producers showcasing the best in local, seasonal and speciality food and drink. It’s a great opportunity to get a real taste of the best of the area. With tasty treats ranging from handmade scotch eggs, freshly baked artisan breads, locally brewed beers, award winning preserves, farmhouse ciders, cheeses, homemade cakes and much more.

Returning this year will be our very popular free Parent & Child cookery classes with healthy eating advisor & cookery teacher Glyn Owen from ‘Kids & Food’, this year he will be teachig how to make a ham and cheese calzone (just cheese for the vegetarians) with a carro, lemon and poppy seed salad, all using simple cooking skills which can then be replicated at home and can involve the children as much as possible.

After you’ve done your foodie shopping, sit out enjoying tasty hot food, a refreshing drink (or two), with great live music including Lydbrook training band & The Paris Jazz Café Swing Band bringing you acoustic music from the Parisian café era and the French jazz of Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt, with a taste of classics from the roaring 20’s and swinging 30’s and 40’s to the finest Hot Club Jazz.

The event will feature children’s activities with entertainment throughout the day, there are also plenty of free food related arts workshops and a cookery book swap. With a selection of arts & crafts on display along with green ideas on composting, a vintage cider press crushing apples, tips on vegetable growing & keeping bees this really is an event worth visiting, so come with empty tummies & we promise you will be full to bursting when you leave.