Eat, drink and be merry at Topsham Food Fest

As part of Topsham’s Nello’s Longest Table celebration (which takes place on Sunday July 13), an array of events will be taking place on Topsham Quay on Saturday 12 July.

From 10am until 3pm, Topsham Quay will feature a ‘Slow Food Devon Food Market’ with the opportunity to sample and purchase artisan food and drink from some of the county’s top producers including Pipers Farm, Good Game, Quickes Cheese, Blueberry Bros, Shute Fruit, Ark Chicken, Green Valley Cyder, Devon Coffee and more.

The Slow Food Devon Food Market is a celebration of the fantastic local produce available on our doorsteps. Each producer featured in the market shares the principle of growing ‘proper’ food, slowly and in harmony with nature, food that is ‘good, clean and fair’, the vision set out by Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini in 1986.

Steve from Good Game said “There are some really interesting producers here. I have tasted food from all of them and it is excellent. No wonder our region is celebrated as being one of the best for food and drink with fantastic farmers, growers and makers like these. It’s a real community event, with Stuart from the Lighter Inn, Liz of Route 2 Café and Marc Millon from Slow Food Devon, working together to get this event off the ground, we are in for a real treat.”

Throughout the day there will be a demonstration kitchen provided by In Toto Kitchens set up on Topsham Quay, providing a platform for Topsham’s talented chefs to showcase their culinary skills, including Tom Williams-Hawkes from the Salutation Inn, Doug Pestell from Petite Maison, James Clark of the Travelling Cookery School and others.

From 5pm the Quay will turn into a street food celebration, with delicious stalls full of exotic and interesting hot food and local drinks. Award-winning butchers Pipers Farm will be serving Red Ruby Beef cooked on a fire pit. You’ll find slow cooked pulled pork shoulder and venison burgers available from Good Game, the Topsham-based charcuterie experts, plus Devon-made souvlaki from Eat like a Greek, an enormous paella full of delicious local ingredients, traditionally cooked to an authentic recipe by the team at Tasteful Tapas and much else.

Marc Millon, co-organiser of the Topsham Food Festival and a long-standing supporter of Slow Food, says: “We are delighted to bring back the Slow Food Devon Topsham Market and to have such great support from some wonderful local producers. The market provides a fabulous opportunity to meet people who work tirelessly to create such excellent local foods and who follow Slow Food’s underlying ethos that food should be ‘good, clean and fair'. The market will be a brilliant opportunity to taste and gather provisions for the next day’s Nello’s Longest Table festivities. Nello's Longest Table, which will see 2500 people sitting down together at a table stretching through the streets of Topsham, is a celebration of food, fun and friendship. We’re urging everyone to make sure their meals are local and locally sourced.”

Guests will not only enjoy some of the regions best food and drink, but will also be treated to great live music organised by Lighter Inn, featuring an assortment of blues, jazz, folk, funk, reggae and soul and including local blues musician Alex Kumar, Devon favourites The Jax, and Bristol-based headliners Ltd Edition.

The Topsham Food Festival is a not-for-profit event with all proceeds benefiting the local community.