Tastebuds at the Ready! Top Food Producers to Pitch up at Popular Food Festival

Lytham-based Mr Murray’s Scotch Eggs is one of the new exhibitors at the festival, which takes place on Saturday, 12 August.

The award-winning eggs, made in a raft of spectacular flavours, including chilli cheese Welsh rarebit, Spanish chorizo and Bury black pudding, recently swept the board at the British Street Food Awards, winning gongs for Best Snack, Future Food Legend and King of the North.

The Clitheroe Food Festival, organised by Ribble Valley Borough Council and sponsored by the Compleat Food Group, Fort Vale Engineering and Holmes Mill, is one of Lancashire’s most popular events, attracting over 18,000 food enthusiasts.

The free-to-enter festival features quality food and drink – from wild game and Biltong beef to cheese truckles and curry kits, along with a feast of fruit and vegetables packed with authentic flavours – from around 90 exhibitors.

Revisiting this year’s festival are former Ribble Valley Business Award winners Millie and Ruby’s Dog Bakery, which produces dog treats handmade from locally-sourced, organic ingredients and free from artificial additives, flavourings and colourings.

Also pitching up will be Bacup-based the Fudge Factory, which produces some of the finest handcrafted fudge in the UK and will be based in the Clitheroe Market food court.

And if you fancy getting hot, hot, hot visit the Clitheroe Market bullring, where Burnley-based Mama Shar’s Caribbean Cooking will be dishing up jerk chicken, rice and peas, curried goat and fried chicken dumplings, among other specialities devised by founder Sharmen Frith-Hemmings using family recipes handed down through the generations.

Also returning to the festival will be a host of veteran exhibitors, including Colin’s Country Crepes, Cowman’s Famous Sausage Shop, Mrs Dowson’s Ice-Cream, the Grasmere Gingerbread Shop, the Port of Lancaster Smokehouse, Real Thai Pies and the Weston Biltong Company.

David Birtwhistle, chairman of Ribble Valley Borough Council’s economic development committee, said: “Food enthusiasts are invited to get their tastebuds at the ready, because this year’s Clitheroe Food Festival looks set to be one of the best yet.

“Festivalgoers can expect top-quality artisan produce, as well as cuisine from further afield, a feast of family entertainment and most importantly a warm Ribble Valley welcome.”

As another first, this year’s festival will round off a week of foodie events being held throughout Ribble Valley.

The Ribble Valley Taste Fest, which starts on 5 August, will feature a feast of activities and special events, including picnics, wine-tastings, a mouth-watering champagne and seafood dinner at Holmes Mill and farm walks, to name just a few.

Further details are available at clitheroefoodfestival.com