The Yorkshire Dales Food and Drink Festival 23rd and 24th July 2022...

Official Site Link: https://www.yorkshiredalesfoodanddrinkfestival.com/

Hello everyone,

As a couple, me and my Wife enjoy watching the Hairy Bikers and James Martin cooking shows on the TV. Both shows have witty and interesting hosts as well as lots of mouth watering fooood.

Today my Wife treated me to a special day out at Funkirk Farm.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Wakefield

This resulted in us executing a cross border raid into the White Rose County of Yorkshire from the wonderful Red Rose County of Lancashire to see a couple of performing Geordie Chefs.

It was all in the best possible taste, - pun intended!
Thanks to the late, great Kenny Everett for that and many other witty ditties. Round them up in a field and bomb the bar stewards is another one that springs to mind, well we were in a field covered in cow sh*t mines.

Upon arriving at the venue we were ushered into a field and guided to a parking spot by the Stewards. From here it was a brisk walk to the event itself.

This journey was fraught with booby traps for the unsuspecting reveller, left by the now relocated cattle.

Upon arriving at the entrance we were treated to an event wristband, just like you get at Fun Parks.

As we started to get our bearings it quickly became apparent that we had entered an exclusive farmers market that cost a mere £30 each to attend and £6 to park in a field full of cow pats. Upon revisiting the website we noticed the fee for parking had increased to £10. We got a bargain!

This also meant we were part of a captive audience at the mercy of a rather expensive pricing policy.

With cans of pop costing £2 each and doughnuts at £4 each, we opted for a cup of Yorkshire Tea, 'done proper' of course as Sean Bean would say. We opted for 4 doughnuts for £13, and they looked mighty tasty.

I was reminded of a reply by Hive account@stevec on one of my previous posts:

@onw/grand-days-out-in-blackpool-oh-i-do-like-to-be-beside-the-seaside-i-do-like-to-be-beside-the-sea

Then again, we were here now, so best to make the most of it... Stiff upper lip and all that, What!

We did find some interesting stalls, like the one selling these unique colouring pens, my Wife was hooked. Our Daughter is quite artsy and her birthday is fast approaching. I made the mistake of thinking it was a future gift idea, but as usual - I suffered from the male disposition of being wrong.

The stall owner did this doodle in the five minutes he was chatting to us.

A major theme of the stalls was alcohol, here we have Coconut Rum Cream.

Alcoholic tea, a nice morning tipple before departing for work - I think not!

There was also a number of Gin tents, one selling James Martin Gin with a Gin Lessons gazebo attached.

My family can take or leave alcoholic, tending to buy but not consume it. We already have upwards of 15 flavours of Gin in the house so thankfully we steered clear of these establishments.

Curiously there were several stalls selling dog treats and brik-a-brak.

Someone obviously has a doggy bottom obsession, still if you can get therapy for computer game addiction, there'll be something that medical science can do for them.

I have always liked cacti, however they tend to die shortly after purchase, so I now leave this job to my Daughters boyfriend who seems to have the knack of keeping them alive.

Now this stall was a doozy, with several guest appearances of Chefs from TV competitions. We got to sample sweet pizza with lemon cream and shaved almonds, with edible flowers. A second guest Chef made sticky rice with sweet mango. There was plenty of banter.

What a cracking idea, Sunday Lunch in a Yorkshire Pudding wrap, we heard a few people raving about this stall and my Wife sampled their wares for lunch. She normally leaves some, but there was no fear of that today.

For some reason this stall reminded me of 'Scarborough Fair' by Simon and Garfunkle - ♫Tell her to make me a cambric shirt♫. Although I have to admit, even though both Scarborough and Skipton are both in Yorkshire. Scarborough is on the North East Coast with Skipton on the Western border of the largest County in England. I'm guessing my mental link is more to do with the type of posh clobber (clothing for the uneducated).

I haven't seen deckchairs for quite some time, these ones looked great, but I can't get over the fact they are and always will be a pin in the ass to put up.

I have to admit, this was one stall that caught my eye more than once, I found the them to be superior eye candy and had to make a firm decision not to buy anything. We have far too much crap cluttering up the house as it is.

The last stall we visited is an institution in my home town of Rawtenstall. Odd that a Farmers Market, rife with alcohol stalls also hosts a Temperance stall.

We took home 3 flavours, taking advantage of the special offer.

Here we see the shop in Rawtenstall.

Now you would be forgiven for thinking I've commented on every stall, after all I have included almost 15. Yet the reality is I only took photo's of the ones that caught my eye. I would guesstimate there was at least ten times more.

But it wasn't all about shopping, there was a fun fair for the more fun loving and adventurous types. I don't fall into either of those categories, so avoided this distraction completely, we're far too long in the tooth.