River Cottage
We’re thrilled to welcome to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and the River Cottage team to Port Eliot this year. Hugh will be performing on the Friday, while the rest of the team will be running workshops all weekend and feeding us delicious fresh food from their River Cottage Canteen field kitchen.
Back in 1998, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall moved into the original River Cottage in Dorset, to start growing and rearing some of his own food. River Cottage has grown massively since then – including a popular television series, regular food columns, a range of books, DVDs and online courses – but River Cottage continues to stand for the same principles of self-sufficiency, food integrity, and the consumption of local, seasonal produce.
River Cottage workshops at Port Eliot will include special children’s gardening sessions to show kids how to plant seeds and encourage them to grow their own fresh veg; mini allotments will be on display to show festival-goers how to grow herbs and summer veg; and there will be special sessions with food experts:
John Wright, River Cottage’s wild food expert, will be running a foraging workshop. John has written two handbooks for River Cottage; Mushrooms and Edible Seashore, and will be giving a special preview of his new book Edible Hedgerow, to be published later this summer.
Pam Corbin – affectionately known as “Pam the Jam” – is the author of the River Cottage handbook, Preserves, and “the font of all knowledge” on preserving. She’ll be guiding us through a world of jams, jellies, butters, curds, pickles, chutneys, cordials, liqueurs, vinegars and sauces, which can be made from local produce throughout the year.
The River Cottage Canteen will be serving the very best local and seasonal produce all weekend. The menu will include homemade muesli, River Cottage bacon sandwiches, smoothies, spicy mutton burgers and River Cottage organic ice cream, and they’ll be cooking with a wood fired barbeque and bread oven. Fresh ingredients will be sourced from local producers in the area.
