Family Fun at The Shops at Dartington Food Fair

For a wonderful day out for the entire family, head to The Shops at Dartington on Saturday 31st May and Sunday 1st June for the return of the hugely popular and greatly anticipated Food Fair. Celebrating the best of the region’s incredible produce with live music, cookery demonstrations and a vast array of children’s activities, The Shops at Dartington Food Fair is going to be a lot of fun, not to mention hugely gastronomic.

With over 50 of the South West’s best food and drink producers attending, the Food Fair is a must visit for any food and drink enthusiast. Local producers who you’ll be able to sample and buy from include Kenniford Farm, The BloomBerry Juice Company, Southwestern Distillery, The Wonky Kitchen, Born to Bake, Tried and Tasted, Good Game, Hunt’s Cider, Tom’s Pies and Portlebay Popcorn, as well as many other well-known names. Across both days lively cookery demonstrations will also be taking place with local food celebrities, all of which are soon to be announced and certain to entertain and captivate crowds.

A fantastic weekend for all, The Shops at Dartington Food Fair is brimming with events to entertain and interest both young and old. Have a go at chocolate making or learn how to ‘crack’ a crab, both bookable activities on the day, get messy with Crazy about Clay whilst learning how to throw a pot or treat the children to a pony ride. For those wanting to get their adrenalin flowing, a visit to Dynamic Adventures is a must, with their tree top walks, zip line and archery tuition, all bookable sessions on both days. Whilst for the little ones Cosmo the clown will be causing a stir, there’ll be a bouncy castle, colourful and creative face painting and Devon’s well-known Rattlebox Theatre will be bringing a lively puppet performance to the courtyard on the Sunday. John Shillitoe and his select four piece Jazz band as well as other local musicians will be wowing audiences with outstanding live music, creating a fabulous buzz around The Shops at Dartington.

For those budding Mary Berry’s, the Food Fair’s annual ‘Cake Competition’ is definitely for you. All entrants have to do to be in with the fantastic chance to win a fabulous night’s stay at Dartington Hall is bake a cake and enter it into the competition by 10am on the Saturday in the Activity Tent. It’s as simple as that! Other exciting competitions taking place include the new ‘Bake a Pasty Competition’, children’s colouring competition and guaranteed to raise the temperature, the ‘Guess the Chilli’ competition in association with South Devon Chilli Farm. For further information on how to enter these wonderful competitions with brilliant prizes such as £150 worth of The Shops at Dartington vouchers, delicious food hampers bursting with regional produce and children’s toys, to name just a few, visit the competitions page at www.dartingtonfoodfair.org.

Whilst at The Shops at Dartington make sure you pop into the newly opened ‘The Food Shop’. Packed full of homemade cakes, artisan fresh breads, premium locally sourced meats, regional ales, ciders and wines, tasty cheeses and tempting treats, the shop showcases the very best of produce from both the local region as well as the wider West Country. There’s also Dartington’s unique selection of shops to explore. Browse the exquisite craft and pottery collections, stylish women’s and men’s fashion, homeware and unusual gifts and furnishings and the two on-site cafés, The Venus Company and Cranks, serving delicious, handmade dishes to try. In the Cookshop, Mel Harradin will be running live demonstrations throughout both days, so make sure you drop in to gain some top tips.

Commenting on this two day event, managing director of The Shops at Dartington, Barbara King says: “The Food Fair has grown from strength to strength since we launched it in 2011. Year on year we have seen the fair grow both in size and popularity and this year has certainly been no exception.” Barbara continues: “We are delighted to have such an exciting and varied schedule planned over the two days with some of the South West’s finest producers exhibiting and activities which will keep families entertained for hours. We look forward to welcoming you all to The Shops at Dartington on the 31st May and 1st June.”

Passionate about supporting Devon food and drink producers The Shops at Dartington also holds a regular, popular food producers’ market, Love Food Dartington. Supported by Food & Drink Devon the market is held on the last Sunday of selected months. So, make sure you keep the date of the next market free - Sunday 31st August.

The Shops at Dartington are owned by the Dartington Hall Trust, an independent charitable organisation, trading ethically and sustainably as a social enterprise in order to help support the Trust’s activities in Social Justice, Sustainability and the Arts.

For further information about Dartington Food Fair please visit http://www.dartingtonfoodfair.org.