Belvoir Fruit Farms

The first of this year’s food fairs kicks off in three weeks’ time with the Wakefield Festival of Food, Drink and Rhubarb (24^th-26^th February).  We love the idea of a rhubarb festival – it’s almost as mad as the Pontefract Liquorice Festival.

Wakefield is the country’s foremost producer of rhubarb – in fact, its Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb is now a protected food, like Champagne or Stilton.  And, if there was anything you ever wanted to know about rhubarb this is the place to go.  As far as we can make out, there isn’t a recipe out there that you can’t put rhubarb in – after a couple of hours pottering about at the festival, you’ll have had the chance to sample rhubarb cupcakes, rhubarb and custard shakes (both hot and cold versions – eek!), rhubarb focaccia and any number of rhubarb-inspired jams and preserves.

It’s definitely worth making your way to the Farmer Copleys’ stall where not only will you find a memorable pork, ginger and rhubarb pie, but also lots of Belvoir Fruit Farms drinks.  By that stage you’ll no doubt be very relieved to have a refreshing glass of elderflower pressé or raspberry lemonade!

While much of the fair is admittedly fairly rhubarb obsessed, there are a lot of other things going on at the same time – celebrity chefs are on hand to give master classes, street entertainments laid on to keep the kids happy and a plethora of fine food stalls to browse.  So, forget about breakfast, wrap up warmly, snuggle into a pair of comfy shoes and totter off to Wakefield for a day of foodie indulgence.