Eat, drink, be merry. . . and do it all locally!
Oktoberfest at Hebden Bridge Town Hall - part of the Hebden Bridge Food and Drink festival. With pretzels at the German kitchen, from the left, Alison Pearson, Kiya Howard, Amy Leader and Bettina Fischer.
MELLOW autumn sunshine and stunning stints from sizzling chef Phil Leverington injected colour and heat to the first Hebden Bridge Food and Drink Festival.
The week-long event, which continues until Sunday, includes dazzling demonstrations of how to cook locally grown produce and is drawing hundreds of visitors into the town.
People followed their noses as delicious smells drifted across the town on Saturday for the HebChef competition, a contest in which culinary kings and queens vied to produce the best dish using ingredients sourced from in and around the Calder Valley.
Fliss Johnson-Standley was judged the eventual winner and walked off with a set of Prestige pans and a Hammer Stahl knife, together worth more than £250.
On Sunday the focus changed from food to drink, with a bevy of beers brewed in the Calder Valley and cider from The Real Cider Company, based in Hebden Bridge, at an Oktoberfest served by “Bavarian” wenches in colourful costumes.
Amy Leader, from Hebden Bridge Community Association - which spearheaded the event with support from the town’s business association, community organisations and local councils - was dressed as one of the wenches serving the foaming ales. She said: “It was a beautiful day weather-wise and it encouraged a lot of people to come out and drink in the courtyard.”
Events are continuing this week and between now and Sunday, including a “meet the producers” event tomorrow at the town hall between 4pm and 8pm, organised by Calder Food Hub and a “family foodie funday” on Saturday run by Calder Food Hub from 11am to 4pm, including an apple pressing organised by Calderdale Local Orchards Group, a daytime food market in and around Lees Yard and an “eat in the street” night market in St George’s Square from 5pm to 9.30pm.
On Sunday get out your trowel and enjoy some “gorilla gardening” as growers in gorilla guise will be planting herbs, fruit bushes and vegetables in beds around Bridge Gate and Holme Street between 1pm and 3pm. Calder Food Hub welcomes any donations of fruit bushes, culinary herbs, rhubarb or strawberry plants.
l For full details visit www.hebdenbridgefoodanddrink.co.uk
l Pictures by Bruce Fitzgerald and Jim Fitton
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Weather for Halifax
Saturday 25 May 2013
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 4 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 5 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: West
