Thame Food Festival

For the third time running, Thame shopkeepers, publicans, caterers and cooks are taking over the centre of town to stage a family-friendly food festival that celebrates autumn. Their aim is to get residents of the town interested in food and make them aware of the wealth of good local food that’s available at this time of the year.

When the food festival was first launched, the idea was to build up the festival gradually and not be too ambitious to start with.

Following the success of their previous festivals organisers are confident that they now have a winning formula on their hands, and are going all out to ensure that this year’s attracts food lovers from all over Oxfordshire.

Sally Dorking, who is helping to publicise the event, said: “One of our aims is to showcase the wealth of local food available at this time of the year. We want the festival to be different, and not just a collection of stalls that are there for the sake of it.”

By including virtually everyone in the town who produces and sells food, she is convinced they will achieved this, and be staging a really friendly little festival that is accessible to everyone.

The Buttermarket will be filled with food stalls, but there are other venues too. The James Figg pub has invited several great guest speakers to give free food and drink demonstrations in the Stables at the back of the pub throughout the day.

These sessions will include a wine and beer tasting session by the licensee Frazer Sutherland, who will lead his audience through some superb wines and provide several real ale tastings from one of the local brewers that supply the pub. Later in the afternoon there will be a tea-making demonstration in the Stables followed by afternoon tea and cakes.

In the Buttermarket, local chefs will be demonstrating in the specially-erected Cookery Theatre.

They will include local television cook Lotte Duncan who is well known for the delicious rustic dishes that she creates from local ingredients The award-winning local butcher Tom Newitt, of Newitts, will be giving a butchery demonstration and sausage-making masterclass in his shop too.

Visitors who would like to know how to turn their glut of apples into apple juice or cider can attend apple demonstrations that will go on all day in the town centre.

Those attending are invited to bring their own apples if they would like them pressed.

Children are catered for with a series of cookery workshops that will include a cupcake demonstration at the Aga Shop in the High Street.

They can also learn how to make a dough tortoise at the Cottage Bakery, Upper High Street, and enjoy learning how to make pasta in the Upper Chamber of the Town Hall.

Rumsey’s Chocolaterie, who specialise in delicious handmade chocolates, will be staging a chocolate treasure trail throughout the day, which should fascinate children too.

Frazer Sutherland, from the James Figg, says that he is delighted to be able to host some of these events at his pub. He said: “The food festival’s going to be a really great day out for the whole family. I am thrilled to be involved.

“It’s all very exciting. As seating in the Stables is restricted to 50, the pub is inviting members of the public to phone and reserve their free ticket on 01844 260166, or pop into the James Figg to pick one up.”

No tickets are required for the free demonstrations in the Cookery Theatre and tickets to the children’s cookery workshops can be acquired on the day from the Town Hall and the Aga Shop.

As the town’s fascinating little independent bookshop offers a wide choice of cookery books, they have invited Lotte Duncan to sign copies of her latest book Lotte’s Country Kitchen, (Absolute Press £20), which is a true celebration of all that the Thame Food Festival stands for. Lotte will be at The Bookhouse, High Street, between 11.30am and 12.30pm.

At 8pm in the evening, the film I am Love, which is described as a foodie flic, will be screened at the Thame Players Theatre. Tickets for this can be purchased at the door on the night.

Those displaying their specialist foods in the centre of town will include the specialist cake makers Yummy Scrummy Cakelicious, the Old Farmhouse Bakery, Tims Dairy who make Greek-style and natural yoghurts and Mortimer Chocolate Company who specialise in powdered chocolate for drinks.

For the best of the autumn vegetables and salad ingredients there’s produce on sale from Bucksum, Sandy Lane Farm from Long Crendon, and Thame’s own What’s Cooking.

The Thame Food Festival takes place throughout the day on Saturday, September 25. There is no entry fee, and all events are free, apart from the film, and the afternoon tea session.