If you’re visiting one of the two Lancashire Great Inns - The Inn at Whitewell or The Millstone at Meller – there are two annual food events that you might want to add to your diary.
During British Cheese Week (September to October) the county’s farms and dairies will be celebrating Lancashire’s grand tradition of cheese making, with great cheese producers such as Mrs. Kirkhams and Singleton’s Dairy getting involved. And Taste Lancashire Producer’s month in October gives people the opportunity to witness local produce being brewed, baked, grown and ground.
If you’re crazy about cider, check in at The Royal Hotel Inn in Scotland. Perthshire is famous for its cider, holding a Crann-Apple Cider Festival in October. Visitors can bring along their own apples to be pressed, sample a wide range of ciders and enjoy home baking and local produce. And Perthshire also hosted ‘Perthshire on a Plate’ for festival for the first time in July this year. Check online for details of future events.
Stay at The Old Bridge Hotel for the Free Cambridge Food and Garden festival in September which sees head chefs from some of Cambridge’s top restaurants take part in cook-offs, where they also demonstrate to visitors how to cook signature dishes. Cambridge also plays host to one of the UK’s oldest and largest Beer Festivals which attracts more than 32,000 people over six days. Festival-goers can sample over 170 real ales and 60 foreign beers, ciders and English Wines. The festival takes place during May.
If you’re looking for something different, try Ye Olde Bulls Head Inn in Anglesey. Anglesey hosts the annual Oyster and Welsh produce festival (October) which provides a platform for Welsh producers to exhibit, promote and sell a huge range of exquisite food and drink.
You’ll be spoilt for choice at The Hoste Arms Inn in Norfolk. Norfolk is famous for its organic and local produce, sweet honey and microbreweries, where strong homebrewed beer is produced. All this comes together the annual EDP Bidwell’s Norfolk Food Festival (throughout September) which features over 300 events across the county including – for sausage lovers – the Battle of The Bangers.