Fenland Food Festival was back with a bang over the weekend (Saturday 5th September) at the Queen Mary Centre in Wisbech – hosted and organised by The Ferry Project Cookery School. With over 20 local food producers and suppliers, the festival was a true celebration of food grown and produced in the fens.

In the main hall of the Queen Mary Centre was a busy indoor space showcasing local businesses such as highly acclaimed and award-winning Fruit Pig, a Wisbech-based black and white pudding producer, who offered free tasting samples of their award-winning puddings that grace the shelves of Fortnum & Mason in London. Cross Keys and Bees were on hand with their locally harvested raw honey and beeswax candles. There was bread from the traditional family-run bakery, Krusty Loaf. Pies and mini quiches from Gagen's butchers. Mouth-watering cakes and bakes by Sweet Bakes by Emma and hot, fresh pancakes from the Queen Mary Centre cafe. A supply of Elgoods award-winning beers and ales were also available alongside the crisp apple flavours of Marshland Cider. Bramblebee Farm had a mouth-watering array of meat, milk and poultry for sale too.

The main sponsor of the event, Fenmarc, a leading fresh food manufacturer that prepares, packs, and distributes fresh vegetables and stir-fry products for major UK supermarkets, had a stall with competitions and games for all ages. Alongside them, Cambridgeshire County Council was on hand to help festival-goers reduce food waste. Healthy You offered a free health check service and Fenland Grow Project offered a variety of hands-on farm-to-fork activities for all the family, including milling your own flour.

In the Talks and Cookery Demonstration garden, several inspiring and interesting demonstrations were given by acclaimed chef, recipe book author and Manager of Ferry Project Cookery School, Alison Crouch. Talks were also given by farmer and agricultural tick-tock influencer David Wheatley; Andrew Callaghan from the Fenland Orchard Project and Harriet O’Shea from The Fenland Grow Project also spoke about their food projects and work within the local community.

The Street Food Zone was created in the car park of the Queen Mary Centre. It was larger and busier than ever before and offered delicacies from East Coast Mushrooms, Watergull Orchards, JJEB Farm with their authentic goat curry as well as jerk chicken, gourmet wraps from Wrapshack and hot fruit crumbles by CrumbelieveableUK.

Live music was also on offer throughout the day, with performances across two stages by folk musician Natasha Richardson; soulful reggae from Ash Gower; Stunning vocals from Steven Lee and traditional accordion played by Clive Butcher.

Over 300 people attended the event. This was the fourth occurrence of this annual event, and it seems to be getting bigger and better each year.

Mayor of Wisbech, Lucy Foice-Beard, was in attendance and was very impressed by the wide variety of food producers as well as their knowledge and enthusiasm for their products.

Some feedback from festival-goers included: “This event was very professionally orgainsed. The Food Festival was a fantastic event – there was so much choice of food and the kids also loved it. I learned so much from the flour mill equipment”, and another said, “A fantastic event with great food, friendly people and a lovely atmosphere. We really enjoyed it and look forward to coming again.”

Danielle Callaby from Fenmarc, the main sponsors of this year’s event, said, “We were delighted to support such a wonderful event. It was fantastic to meet and speak with so many people, share in their passion for food and the Fens, and see local producers being celebrated and enjoyed by the local community.”

Alison Crouch, Manager of Ferry Project Cookery School, who hosted and organised the festival, said, “A really special day of food, farming, music and cooking, bringing all our community together. Food is magic in so many ways. It was wonderful looking around at everyone, traders and attendees chatting, laughing, sharing stories. Everyone looked so happy. A huge thank you to everyone who came, traders, attendees, performers and the many people who helped behind the scenes. Thank you.”