The Highland & Moray Food and Drink Festival

On Saturday Mr B was officiating his first wedding, so I was at a bit of a loose end! After a quick wander around town to get some errands (or messages as they are also known) done, I headed over to Eden Court for the Highland & Moray Food and Drink Food Festival. It was a cold and crisp day, the autumnal colours were beautiful along the River Ness!

Over 40 Scottish food and drink exhibitors were in the foyers and in the One Touch Theatre, where there was also a space for the foodie demonstrations held throughout the day. Lots of tasters and samples were available which obviously goes down well with the punters!

I treated myself to a few pocket money purchases:

Savoury – Isle of Kintyre ‘Poachers Choice’ cheese – this is a smoothmature cheddar strongly flavoured with garlic. Great on a poppyseed or plain cracker!

Sweet – Peanut Butter Fudge and Macarons (Chocolate, Gingerbread and Peppermint) from  Kirsty at Ever So Sweet Bakery (and the co-organiser of Let’s Bake Inverness), plus some super sharp Lemon and Lime marmalade from Days Gone Bye in Fife. I also very kindly was treated to a caramel chocolate brownie from Bad Girl Bakery (who for all the local readers, has a stall in the Eastgate Centre all week this week!)

To drink: A couple of bottles of Loch Ness Cider (I’m a sucker normally for the Thistly Cross sweet stuff, but I really liked these medium dry and dry options from Loch Ness Cider) and Elderberry Highland Cordial (this is going to get me through the winter at work, I really should have bought two bottles!).

There were three foodie demos over the course of the day: Chris Bond from the Glen Mhor hotel created a cod dish complete with fondant potatoes and, Shirley Spear demonstrated the famous Hot Marmalade Pudding and Drambuie Custard which has been on the menu at Michelin starred restaurant The Three Chimneys for over 25 years. Both making this pudding and having a meal there are both now on my to-do list!

Finally Adam Dwyer from the Loch Ness Country House Hotel (which is really not too far from us, and somewhere that we haven’t ventured out to for no particular reason) showcased his winter woodland dessert, complete with chocolate sorbet and soil, tempered chocolate trees, meringue mushrooms and popping candy! Afterwards I found out that the Loch Ness Country House Hotel are doing a festive afternoon tea in the run up to Christmas, so I may just have to try that out too 🙂 (Edit – all booked up, I’ll be sure to let you know about it!)

The festival was a great local day out with the opportunity to talk to and sample produce from all over the Highlands as well as the rest of Scotland, as well as new initiatives aiming to educate people about where their food comes from and how we can all avoid food wastage. I felt particularly inspired by Shirley Spear in her demo, who was just so passionate about getting people cooking with fresh, local, good produce!

I received no incentive for this post – I just enjoyed my day out and would recommend it to anyone wanting to find local producers in the Highlands and Islands area!