BBFF

With over 60 different trade stands all being local, it gives you the customer a chance to meet the producers be that a beef farmer a honey maker a brewer or distiller.

In turn this gives you the opportunity to try and buy some superb foods to eat as street food or take home and cook.    

With great food, great drink follows and with a wide choice of beer wine spirits and liqueurs you have many to choose from or alternatively non-alcoholic apple juice.  

Renowned S4C chef Nerys Howell has a tasting table taking ingredients from around the market hall combining them into delicious combinations for you to try.

If you want to learn how to utilise some of the wonderful ingredients on offer then there is a Cookery Theatre, a collaboration with NPTC Group and CK Deli.

As a background there is melodic choir music of many genres www.welshcountry.co.uk/brecon-food-music/  which is so good that you can just stand and enjoy the different choirs.

Whether it is raining outside or cold having the festival in the Brecon Market Hall means your visit is completely weather resistant.

Getting to the Festival is made a lot easier removing trying to find somewhere to park The Festival organisers say:

Exciting park and ride service  for the Brecon Beacons  Food Festival

With all this cornucopia of things to try – taste – see – listen to it gets even better in that entry is FREE.

Brecon Beacons Food Festival is being held in the Market Hall in the Centre of Brecon on Saturday 5^th October, 2024 and is open from 9.30am.

To make the festival free to enter the festival would like to show their appreciation to their sponsors: www.welshcountry.co.uk/brecon-beacons-food-festival-thanks-its-sponsors/.

The Brecon Beacons Food Festival, one of the oldest food festivals in Wales, is set to return on Saturday 5th October 2024, from 9:30am at Brecon Market Hall. Founded in 1997, this annual celebration of local food and drink continues to be a key event in Wales’ culinary calendar, attracting thousands of visitors eager to sample the finest local produce.

A Celebration of Local Welsh Produce

The 2024 festival promises a fantastic mix of over 60 exhibitors, showcasing everything from freshly baked bread, artisan cheeses, and handcrafted beers, to local meats, preserves, cakes, and much more. With most items travelling fewer miles than the visitors themselves, it’s the perfect opportunity to support local producers and indulge in the best that Welsh cuisine has to offer.

Event organiser Andrew Powell shared his excitement for the upcoming festival, stating:

Exciting New Additions for 2024

This year’s event will see the introduction of exciting new features, including an exclusive Tasting Table hosted by renowned S4C chef Nerys Howell, where visitors can sample a range of local treats, all prepared by the chef herself.

Another new addition is the Cookery Theatre, a collaboration with NPTC Group and CK Deli, featuring live cooking demonstrations in Bethel Square. Led by Shaun Bailey, BBC Celebrity Chef and Head Lecturer, along with students from Powys, the theatre offers festival-goers the chance to pick up new recipes and cooking techniques in a vibrant outdoor setting.

Headline Sponsors and Community Support

The Brecon Beacons Food Festival has also confirmed support from several local businesses, including headline sponsors Beacon Foods, Castell Howell, and WW Bowen Ltd. Their contributions, alongside the efforts of exhibitors and local producers, ensure that this year’s event will be a true celebration of the region’s culinary talent.

A Day of Free, Family-Friendly Fun

Entry to the festival is free, making it a fun and accessible day out for all ages. In addition to the Tasting Table and Cookery Theatre, visitors can look forward to live music, and a huge range of food stalls to explore throughout the day.

Don’t miss out on this year’s Brecon Beacons Food Festival—an unmissable event for food lovers, families, and anyone with a passion for supporting local Welsh businesses. For more information on confirmed exhibitors, sponsors, entertainment, and how you can support this year’s event, visit www.breconbeaconsfoodfestival.co.uk.

Brecon Food Music, Shakespeare wrote “if music be the food of love play on”, possibly this should be twisted with relation to the upcoming Brecon Beacons Food Festival, as “for those that love food there is great music”.

The Brecon Beacons Food Festival which takes place in the market hall in the centre of Brecon on Saturday 5^th October has always supported the town and aspects thereof.

2024 in this way is no different but the musical line up is. Brecon Food Music has amongst its line up Brecon Men’s Shed. This is part of a national organisation Men’s Shed which is best described in their own words. Happy & Healthy Men Connection, conversation and creation – that’s what joining a Men’s Shed is all about. Men’s Sheds encourage people to come together to make, repair and repurpose, supporting projects in their local communities. Improving wellbeing, reducing loneliness and combatting social isolation. Brecon Men’s Shed choir is very much an amateur ensemble whose primary aim is creating a great mentally easy place for their members whilst singing.

Another local choir that is a regular performer at the Brecon Beacons Food Festival is the Brecon Male Voice Choir also known as Côr Meibion Aberhonddu. With around 40 voices they keep the tradition of the Welsh male voice choir singing at the heart of Welsh culture. Their repertoire is wide and varied from West End pieces to famous operettas and not forgetting the traditional Welsh hymns.

The themes of inclusivity, community and charity continue with the Builth Wells Ladies Choir. This wonderful choir is a community-based choir that combines their love for music with a commitment to charitable giving. Their annual charity concerts are a testament to their dedication to supporting various causes and fostering community spirit. They bring a wide mixture of music to the food festival which is always much appreciated.

Brecon Food Music has another new dimension to it for 2024 with the melodic voices of members of the Brecon Cathedral Choir. Having been enhancing worship in Brecon Cathedral for 900 years but their repertoire now encompasses far more than Psalms and canticles. A little more back ground to the choir shows how they are very much part of Brecon and the wider community

There are between 14 and 18 Choristers, children aged between 8 and 13 who sing the Soprano or Treble line in the choir. They attend local schools and come to the cathedral to rehearse after school on three afternoons every week during term time and sing an early evening service (usually Evensong) on Fridays in addition to two choral services on Sundays. The Brecon Cathedral Choir Trust was set up in 2003, with the aim of ’empowering young people through the gift of music’, enabling the choristers to receive free music tuition. Places are available for year-4 children each September, with auditions held in early June.

The adults and teenagers who sing alto, tenor and bass in the choir are called Lay Clerks and Choral Scholars. They rehearse on Thursday evenings and join with the choristers to sing evensong on Fridays, for the two Sunday services and some external performances. They do so as volunteers, and some travel considerable distances (from as far away as Neath, Abergavenny, Newport and Bristol) to sing with the choir on a regular basis.

The Brecon Beacons Food Festival has had the pleasure of welcoming Affinity Female Voice Choir previously.  Brecon Food Music is made all the more magical with Affinity which as it says on the can is an all female choir, founded in 2012 by the Musical Director, Diane Wright. The choir based in Cardiff has recently appointed Ryan Wood as their deputy musical director who normally resides behind the keyboard with the choir but brings so much experience from other musical groups around south Wales. The choir performs an eclectic range of music from a variety of genres including musical theatre, pop and light classical.

Importantly Affinity is a non-auditioned choir with around 50 members ranging in age from 18-80, and no previous experience is required but enthusiasm and love of music is essential.

Diane Wright herself a musical tour de force in South Wales brings another of her groups to the food festival this year, Tawe Voices. This female choir is based in Ystradgynlais, where no auditions or experience necessary are necessary to join.  In addition to their visit to the Brecon Beacons Food Festival they perform 2 main concerts a year in winter and summer, singing a variety of repertoire each term.

Brecon Food Music just demonstrates the wonderful atmosphere inclusivity and community that emanates from the Brecon Beacons Food Festival with the very best of food drink and music.

Facebook: @BreconBeaconsFoodFestival

Drinks of Brecon are brought together at the Brecon Food Festival.

From tea and coffee to wine and liqueurs the festival has them all. One thing that is common to them all is that they are artisan and businesses from the region. Brecon Food Festival is the epitome of local food and drink and has to be congratulated for being so.

Brecon borders the county of Herefordshire famous for its ciders but the Welsh Marches also grow the most wonderful cider apples and a selection is at the Food Festival.

Drinks of Brecon and Ciders

Afal Yr Graig makes cider from its own orchard a few miles south of Brecon at Fforest Goch. A true range of farmhouse ciders.

Ty Madoc Farm is a producer of cider & perry, from sustainably run orchards in the Brecon Beacons.

Brecon Beacons Cider produces traditional Breconshire cider and perry using fruit from pesticide-free orchards.

If beer is your preferred tipple then they also feature within the drinks of the Brecon Food Festival.

Drinks of Brecon and Beers

Tudor Brewery is a Family owned and managed traditional micro-brewery which focuses on crafting quality Vegan & Gluten Free Beers, Ales and Stouts based in Llanhilleth.  

Antur Brewery started back in July 2021 operating on the small end of Micro we output 500L per batch and produce everything grain to bottle on site just down the road at Three Cocks.

Left Bank Brewery based at Llangorse brews on the wild side, welcoming back live and wild, bye bye filtered and pasteurised.

Drinks of Brecon Wines and Spirits

Blue Moon from Radnorshire planted 1200 vines of two separate varieties in 2014. Now producing red rose and white wines commercially, demonstrating the most wonderful use of marginal land.

Cwm Deri now resides in Carmarthenshire. With a quality range of liqueurs and fruit wines has tipples to raise a glass to all occasion.

Gasm Drinks taking the traditional champagne and sloe gin creating plum, raspberry  and traditional sloe gins mixed with the best of prosecco. Wonderful cocktails from Montgomeryshire.

Praxis Spiced Rum blending the finest white rum’s sourced across the Caribbean islands, aged and infused with quality spices crafted in the heart of South Wales, to produce a proudly premium spiced rum experience.

Drinks of Brecon continues with…

Cardiff Distillery a family-run business founded in 2019. As the first and only Gin distillery in Cardiff, they take the past and inject a modern approach by mixing copper stills and state-of-the-art new equipment.

Cascave Gin a true gin of the Brecon Beacons with botanicals of Bilberry, Meadow Sweet, Liquorice Root, and Wild Sunflower Root and cut back water hand collected from a source within the historic caves of Dan Yr Ogof.

Spirit Of Wales a craft distillery in Newport, South Wales, home of commemorative Steeltown Welsh Gins, award-winning Welsh Vodka and Dragon’s Breath Welsh Rums, vodka and 70% ABV Absinthe. Founded in 2021 by a team of passionate distillers, committed to using only the finest ingredients

DaMhile the first organic whisky of the modern era! Since then they have continued making whisky but also other organic spirits, from Dark Skies Rum to Seaweed Gin.

For those that want a non-alcoholic drink then drinks of Brecon features both tea and coffee.

Welsh Brew Tea an iconic Welsh brand, using a unique blend of African and Indian teas, specifically blended to perfectly complement Welsh water. With speciality teas and tea infusions the range is completed with coffee and chocolate.

Two Dogs Coffee with their coffee and tea emporium literally just down the road on The Struet in Brecon. With a passion for premium sustainably produced coffee, they are a small-batch coffee roaster with coffees of finesse.

Visit: www.breconbeaconsfoodfestival.co.uk

Taste of Brecon descends on the Brecon Market Hall this Saturday 3^rd June, 2023 when the Brecon Food Festival comes to town. To avoid clashing dates this years’ festival a few months earlier than previously. 

Brecon Food Festival has always been innovative and last year started an area called the tasting table bringing the Taste of Brecon right to its heart.

The tasting table is a superb concept and is run by local caterer Fingers and Forks. Fingers and Forks operate across mid Wales catering for corporate events, weddings, funerals and sporting events such as the Sweet Mountain Car Rally. Their premise is to use local food wherever possible so the tasting table fits so well with their own ethos about Welsh Food and Drink.

So what is the tasting table and how does it bring a taste of Brecon to the festival.

Taking a very simple analogy of three foods cheese, cracker and chutney. Whilst visiting a food festival you may have the opportunity to go around and try samples cheese at one stall, cracker at another and half an hour later chutney. The tasting table removes the guesswork of trying to imagine all three components coming together by creating treats easily made at home from combinations of the foods on sale at the Food Festival.

Fingers and Forks tell you what cheese they are using what cracker and what chutney all of which are available to buy at the festival. Best of all there is no cost to you the food festival visitor.

So over the time period of the festival enjoy:

• Jams and chutneys from local producer Black Mountain Preserves.
• Plain and flavoured savoury biscuits from Cradoc Biscuits.
• Borneo inspired sauces from Sorai.
• Delicious vegetarian and vegan foods from The Parsnipship.
• Vinegars chutneys and jams from Little Black Hen.
• Artisan chutneys, marmalade, curds, preserves, jams, mustard and spreads from Little Grandma’s Kitchen.
• Shellfish and crab from Cardigan Bay Fish.
• Organic raw milk cheeses from Caws Teifi.
• Marinated beef & venison jerky from Trailhead Fine Foods.
• Homemade chutneys, jams, pickles and sauces from Pleasantly Pickled.
• Vegetarian and vegan samosas, bhajis, empanadas, pickles, chutneys from Samosaco.
• Sheeps cheese from Dolwerdd Dairy Sheep.
• Hams from Rees of Carmarthen.
• All things charcuterie Hay Charcuterie.
• Cured meats from Gwella Cured Meats.
• Artisan and specialist breads from Caroline’s Real Bread Co.
• Bread and buns from Wigmore Bakery.

But the taste of Brecon is not just for those who like savouries , for the sweeter tooth.

• Cakes from Teifi Treats.
• Plain and flavoured welsh cakes from Fat Bottom Welsh Cakes.
• Cakes from Red Room Confectionary.
• Cheesecakes from Marie Cresci’s Cheesecakes.
• Fudge from the Fudge Foundry.
• Homemade Raw Chocolate from Shirley’s
• Traditional and flavoured welsh cakes from Lili Wen Welsh Cakes.
• Cakes and Brownies from Zoe Bakes.
• Plains and flavoured fudge from Gower Fudge.
• Cupcakes from Brecon Cupcakes.

What a treat! The taste of Brecon from the Brecon Food Festival and the Fingers and Forks tasting table.

Music at Brecon Food Festival brings melodious tones to a great family day out.

As well as being the most wonderful innovative food festival Brecon Food Festival always has an eclectic mix of live music being performed.

This year music at Brecon Food Festival has the traditional male voice choir, a solo harpist and community choirs that is epitomised in one of the choirs straplines namely ‘Dare to Sing has no social barriers’.

Very much on their home territory is Brecon Male Voice Choir also known as Côr Meibion Aberhonddu. With around 40 voices they keep the tradition of the Welsh male voice choir singing at the heart of Welsh culture. Their repertoire is wide and varied from West End pieces to famous operettas and not forgetting the traditional Welsh hymns.

Music at Brecon Food Festival is made all the better with a return visit of Alive and Kickin.

Their mantra is “Enjoy singing beautiful and inspiring songs & have lots of fun!” and this fun and enthusiasm shows in every performance.

Founded just a few years ago in 2013 by singer songwriter Tanya Walker Alive and Kickin is a community choir.  The choir members come from so many different back grounds and start with varied abilities. With such professional directional abilities from their leader Tanya the resulting sound is melodic, harmonious and resounding.

As with Alive and Kinkin, Dare to Sing is so much more than pure music, although that is their foundation.  Rather than put a mundane description their own introductions says it all

An upbeat Ladies Choir for everyone!

‘Dare To Sing has no social barriers; all are welcome and as a collective we come together to sing upbeat songs for pure enjoyment. Having grown into an ensemble of more than 90 ladies, we have step by step expanded our repertoire, dusted off our diamante earrings, and ventured into performing at local events, fundraisers, gatherings and galas. We cherish our opportunities to sing, whether it be through our weekly rehearsal or in front of the public. Dare To Sing provides a relaxed yet focused environment to create and experience feelings through music that can transcend other areas in the different lives we all lead. If you’re as passionate about singing as we are, we’d love to hear from you.’

Music at Brecon Food Festival has more than an affinity with the sentiments of the other choirs performing at the food festival.

Affinity is an all female choir, founded in 2012 by the now Musical Director, Diane Wright, based in Cardiff. The choir performs an eclectic range of music from a variety of genres including musical theatre, pop and light classical.

Importantly Affinity is a non-auditioned choir with around 50 members ranging in age from 18-80, and no previous experience is required but enthusiasm and love of music is essential.

Music at Brecon Food Festival continues with a harpist Bethan. A professional Welsh award-winning harpist and singer. Having a superb reputation within the Welsh folk scene under her performing name ‘Bethan Nia‘. Bethan is a modern and versatile harpist, being just as comfortable playing classical and traditional Welsh music as she is pop standards or jazzy improvisations. Bethan plays a Welsh made harp known as ‘The Eos’, appropriately translated as Nightingale.

From a more traditional theme Talgarth Male Voice Choir completes the most wonderful. music at Brecon Food Festival. The Choir’s Repertoire covers many musical genres. Traditional Welsh Hymns (of course), songs from the shows, classics from the past, classics from the charts, traditional folk songs, songs from overseas…..all have a part to play in the make-up of our programmes. The Market Hall in Brecon is a very small venue for this choir that has sung at the Royal Albert Hall no less than six times. At heart though the Talgarth Male Voice Choir is a local choir.

With two months to spare exhibitor spaces are already fully booked for this year’s Brecon Beacons Food Festival. Taste buds are tingling with the prospect of over 50 local and Welsh food and drink producers on board. The annual event will be held in the Brecon Indoor Market on Saturday 3rd June, which first started in 1997.

Event Organiser, Andrew Powell said:

“It’s a great feeling to have filled exhibitor spaces so early. The line up of food and drink producers is better than ever, giving me the confidence this year’s Food Festival will be better than ever! 

“It’s fantastic to have such a broad range of produce on offer to showcase the very best Welsh produce. Exhibitors include sweet treats, preserves, meats, cheeses, alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, and much more. The event promises to be a great day out with entertainment, an opportunity to taste delicious food and drink and meet the producers face to face.

“We also have a fantastic number of local businesses supporting the event this year including title sponsor Beacon Foods. Without the support of these organisations the Food Festival simply wouldn’t be possible. The more businesses that get involved the bigger and better the festival can be. We welcome anyone who would like to get involved to get in touch for more information. Our website details the opportunities available and the benefits to anyone who wants to get involved.”

If you would like any further information about Brecon Beacons Food Festival, the exhibitors booked so far or how you can sponsor the event please visit www.breconbeaconsfoodfestival.co.uk.

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Brecon Beacons Food Festival is an annual event bringing the best food and drink producers in and around the Brecon Beacons together for the public to enjoy. As well as over 60 exhibitors the day includes a wide range of entertainment and foodie treats. 

Meets a huge range of local food and drink exhibitors. Taste their delicious produce whilst learning more about where and how it was made.

Watch this space for a special line up which will be announced in the coming weeks.

If you are a local food or drink producer then we would love to hear from you. Our exhibitor opportunities give you great exposure at a very low cost.

As a non-profit organisation we rely on sponsorship from local businesses to run the festival each year. If you would like to support this years event please get in touch!

Brecon Beacons Food Festival is delighted to announce the support of the first title sponsor for the 2023 event. Beacon Foods have already committed to supporting the event for another year, taking the biggest of 3 sponsorship packages on offer.

Event Organiser, Andrew Powell said:

“To have Beacon Foods on board again this year is brilliant. Their continued support is vital to ensuring the event can run as costs increase and our primary funding source not available this year from the Welsh Government.

“This year we are having to work harder than ever to raise the required budget to ensure the food festival is a success. The funds give us the opportunity to cover running costs and add additional funds to our marketing activities.

“I’d encourage any local businesses or organisations to get in touch if they are interested in supporting the event. Each year we are keen to build more mutually beneficial relationships and we have a great range of sponsorship packages available this year.”

Finance Director of Beacon Foods, Jeff Davies added,

“Beacon Foods are delighted to be a main sponsor again this year. The festival last year was a big success and a great day out for the whole family. Congratulations to the organisers and best wishes for another successful festival this year.”

Brecon Beacons Food Festival is in its 26^th year and will be held on Saturday 3^rd June, from 9.30am, in Brecon Indoor Market. The event promises to be a fantastic showcase of delicious local food and drink produce, entertainment and more.

Local food festivals are a vital part of the Welsh food and drink scene and are an important chance for the artisan food or drink producer to meet their customers face to face. But there are other important factors too.  

The nature of the local food and drink producer’s jobs is rather a lonely one. So the producer has an idea about a new flavour, a new product, a new recipe, let’s call it newbie. Yes they try the newbie product themselves and no doubt their long suffering relatives and friends, but this cannot answer the important question, does the general public like the newbie?

A local food festival provides the ideal vehicle to see if the general public like the newbie. The producer does not have to make a huge number, maybe even having a few variables of the newbie.

Many will have heard of Innocent Drinks, now part of Coco Cola, but they started from this exact premise asking the public via yes and no waste bins at a festival, music in this case, to say if they liked the product. The rest is history.

Local food festivals are also useful to the public as well.  Yes in your local supermarket they may occasionally have a demonstration from one of their suppliers, but normally we not have the chance to try something new. Because of this we tend to buy the same products as we have done over the past few weeks / months / years. Visiting a local food festival we have the chance to not only try one product but often a hundred plus.  New flavours, new foods, new drinks all are possible and more than likely the vast majority of tastings are free. 

As well as this superb opportunity for us to try new things we can also speak with, quite often, the producer themselves who can answer any question you have about their new product.

Even better than all these opportunities to try and taste is the fact that if you like the product and buy it, you are buying local. The money you spend at a local food festival is then going to be spent again locally helping to maintain an economically healthy local community. This is so much better than the money spent in the supermarket being lodged in overnight markets in Liechtenstein then ending up in the London financial markets.

Obviously local food festivals do not happen like magic, they take some considerable organising and do not happen without costs. Understandably many of the local food festivals do not charge us the public to try and buy the food, and drink and often provides local entertainment, see www.welshcountry.co.uk/melodious-voices-at-brecon-beacons-food-festival/ as an example, plus activities for the children, helping to make the festival a real day out.

In the past many local food festivals have had some minimal funding from Welsh Government. This year, 2023, it is rumoured that this funding will not happen, but not fully confirmed from the officialdom (Visit: www.welshfoodbites.co.uk/atisn-16790-food-festivals/), and yes understandable in that the Government has many demands on its limited purse. But what of the local food festival which is important to its particular local area or town?

Brecon Beacons Food Festival is run by volunteers and has been a feature of Brecon town centre events for over 20 years. Andrew Powell the event organiser is determined that the festival will not be killed off and has created a sponsorship package…Download the sponsorship package (PDF). 

Local food festivals are an important link in

• Supporting the local food and drink producers
• Supporting the local area and community
• Providing us the general public the ability to try new food and drink tastes and products
• Providing us the general public an easy way of supporting local businesses

We cannot reiterate strongly enough that Welsh Country recognises the array of quality Welsh food and drink products and is more than proud to support the campaign to Buy Welsh – Buy Local

Tea and cake is a real Welsh custom and there is a very good selection at the Brecon Beacons Food Festival, within the Market Hall in Brecon on Saturday 1^st October.  Whether tea and cake is around the kitchen table with a couple of friends or a much more sophisticated posh afternoon tea taste and quality are important and the businesses exhibiting at the festival certainly meet those criteria.  

We hear from the exhibitors. Starting with the traditional Welsh cake…

Fat Bottom Welsh Cakes

We started Fat Bottom Welsh Cakes back in November 2019. We have over 20 flavours, and we continue to create new flavour combinations ever since.. And we’re always. open to suggestions!

Tea and cake stays with traditional Welsh produce with Bara Brith but Popty make so much more.

Popty Cara

Fantastic home made cakes, made with love in the heart of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. Established in 1993, we supply the wholesale, retail and local markets. All the cakes are individually handmade and are cooked fresh to order (no stocks are held, at all).

For those that want to avoid gluten…

Good and Proper Brownies

We are a small family business making lovely chocolate brownies.

With these cheesecakes Tea and Cake may need a spoon and fork.

Marie Cresci’s Cheesecakes

We are renowned in the area for its quality and presentation, we achieve this by paying special attention to every fine detail and only using the very finest and freshest ingredients. If you are looking for a great selection of home-made cheesecakes in the Ammanford, SA18 area, then take a look and order from our easy to use on screen menu. You will see that we offer something for every member of your family.  If your favourite cheesecake is not on our menu just message your request through on the comments page and we will happily try and prepare it especially for you. Flavours include Blackcurrant Blueberry Cappuccino Caramel Shortbread.

Cakes come in all shapes sizes and taste and Baker Bears cover many of those options

Baker Bears

Passionately baking with love in the heart of Caerphilly providing a delicious range of treats to order as well at Farmers Markets. 

Baker Bears offers Cupcakes, Mini cakes, Cakesicles, Millionaire, Rocky road, Tiffin, Cake & brownie jars, Paint your own biscuits, Hot chocolate bombs and Pumpkin smashes. 

Baker Bears also caters for bespoke Wedding & Occasion cakes as well as Vegan, Dairy and Gluten Free and has a 5 hygiene rating.

Brownies are so versatile for tea and Cake

2greedycatering

Delicious, fudgy, homemade gluten free brownies, available in many different flavours. Collection and delivery available within the Brecon area, as well as finding us at St. Mary’s Bakery, Brecon.

2Greedy Catering began trading during the 2021 lockdown at home by owner Eliot, offering a range of brownies, loaded slabs and New York style baked cheesecakes. Since then, 2Greedy has expanded in to producing Gluten Free brownies, maintaining the same delicious flavours and fudge-like texture. In July, he began supplying a variety of these Gluten Free brownies to St. Mary’s Bakery in Brecon and was met with positive feedback from the wider community.

Chockshop Abergavenny

Chockshop founder, Greg Shearman, poured his passion for baking into creating the very best brownies he could. Greg made sure these brownies were seriously fresh – handmade, hand-cut and hand decorated. Crunchy peanut butter, sticky toffee and rocky road are the most popular.

Tea and Cake needs a good tea and the food festival offers two of the very best tea companies.

Welsh Brew Tea

Welsh Brew Tea is a true family business.

For the last thirty years, Alan, James & Sarah have worked on establishing our tea as an iconic Welsh brand, creating a unique blend of African and Indian teas, specifically blended to complement our wonderful Welsh water. And our story continues for one simple reason – those who try Welsh Brew, keep buying it.

And we continue to grow. Bringing you a range of exciting products. There’s Welsh Brew Decaf, so you can enjoy a cuppa before bed-time. And our premium Welsh Gold, a blend of the finest teas, sourced from around the world.

If speciality teas are your bag ‘Tea Birds‘ fit the biscuit. Whether you need to calm or invigorate, there’s sure to be something for you. We blend Moroccan Gunpowder Green, Peppermint, Green, Lemon and Ginger, Mixed Red Berry, Indian Spiced Chai, Camomile, Jasmine Green Tea, Green Tea Mango and Bergamot, Green Rooibos and orange, Earl Grey and Welsh Breakfast Tea.

Tea and Cake is very conservative for Morgans brew excellent as they are. But using teas in roasting meats flavouring gins or cakes such as Earl Grey sponge. Delicious!   

Morgans Brew

We have a selection of 52 bag and loose leaf teas to tickle your taste buds. Our range includes black, Earl Grey, caffeine free, infusions such as Herbal and Fruit, Chai and Speciality; all mixed for your enjoyment not only as tea for a drink of tea but for many other culinary delights.

Back in the days of a tea room in Shrewsbury, a plan was developed that a group of regular customers would sample a different black tea every day for a period of six months. After the sampling period was over, the collected results provided an overall winner. The top tea that they selected was a black tea from Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda and this was the beginning of Morgan’s Brew Tea.

• Traditional Plantations: Our teas are sourced from traditional plantations, and grown using natural methods.
• Non GMO: All our teas are non GMO.
• High Quality: The highest quality and purest teas are selected for our award-winning blends.

We look at a few of the businesses exhibiting at the Brecon Beacons Food Festival this Saturday 1^st October, 2022

In this article we look at those wonderful products that add so evocatively to that delicious dish you are creating whether that is a simple sandwich to a main course for a sumptuous dinner party.

This is what a few of them had to say.

Case for Cooking

The Brecon Food Festival will always hold a special place in the Case for Cooking calendar as it was the very first food show that we attended. We were a little nervous and excited but thoroughly enjoyed our day selling our first six spice kits and four curry spice pots! Our menu has grown considerably since then to include more kits and pots plus new spice rubs and cooking pastes but our principles remain the same.  We make everything ourselves in small batches, using only quality herbs and spices and always providing simple printed instructions that anyone can follow.

We have recently relocated to rural Herefordshire where we continue to attend local farmers’ markets and larger food shows across the UK and we’re delighted to be coming back to the Royal Welsh showground this October for the Mid Wales Autumn Fayre.

Little Grandma’s Kitchen

Welcome to Little Grandma’s Kitchen where you will find our full range of artisan chutneys, marmalade, curds, preserves, jams, mustard and spreads, all of which are made in our 5* rated home kitchen in St Clears to our own unique family recipes.

We are celebrating as our Strawberry Prosecco Preserve have won the Lux Life Best Artisan Jams & Preserves Producer 2021 – Wales Fruit Preserve of the Year 2021 (Wales)

Pembrokeshire Chilli Farm

Chilli. It’s what we do.

Owen and Michelle had the dawning realisation that there was a severe lack of variety in the fresh chilli and chilli products available in the usual supermarkets and high street shops.

So off they went, planting a variety of chilli seeds in the hope this would satisfy their need for the chilli. Later, in the summer and with over 150 plants, they had an abundance of shapes, colours, tastes and heat. After many experiments with flavours they emerged with 3 Sauces and 2 Jams.

Pembrokeshire Chilli Farm was born.

Now they have over 20 different products and over 8000 square feet of Poly Tunnels. Growing more than 2000kg of Chilli a year.

Award winning Pembrokeshire Chilli Farm has built an enviable reputation for producing a wide range of superb chilli sauces, jams and spices. 

We grow the best Welsh Chillies of all different Heats and Colours. These fantastically fresh chillies are used in our products, its how we guarantee the best flavours and heat.

Fat Man Chilli

We have one simple aim: to make great chilli sauces that are suitable for those starting out on the chilli trail to the hardened chilli-head!

Ensuring that quality ingredients go into each and every one of our sauces we are committed to making the best sauce the world has ever seen.

Little Black Hen

I’m Alison and I’ve been running my small business from our home in Cynheidre near Llanelli. I’m passionate about what I do, producing jams, chutneys and fruit vinegars using the best British ingredients. Everything is made in small batches without using artificial preservatives, flavours or colourings. 

Some of my earliest memories are of time spent in the kitchen with my grandparents and my mum learning to bake and to make jams and chutneys. The recipes I’ve developed have been influenced by these experiences. 

I’m often asked why the business is called Little Black Hen, well I rediscovered my love of baking and cooking when we started keeping chickens and the first chicken we had was a Black Pekin bantam we called Little Black Hen.

The Welsh Saucery

The Welsh Saucery is a family business based in North Pembrokeshire.  We only use quality wholesome ingredients to make our sauces and spice rubs. . So far we have achieved 6 great taste awards.  All our products are hand made in small batches.

Gwenynfa Pen y Bryn Apiary

Gwenynfa Pen y Bryn Apiary specialises in producing award-winning jams, marmalades and honey, for retail, using Welsh honey.

The Edwards family have been keeping bees since the 1930s when a swarm of bees landed on a plum tree outside their farmhouse. Carys started bee keeping when she was 12 following her uncle foot steps to producing honey creating the Gwenynfa Pen y Bryn Apiary. Early on Carys started entering her honey in honey shows, beginning to win with her honey and honey products. Honey Jams, Honey Marmalades. In 2020 Carys, with an eye to the future, started producing her award-winning jams in a facility with BRC* accreditation to an award-winning recipe and are now sold under the Gwenynfa Pen y Bryn Apiary brand. Carys has now developed a honey sauce and in the near future she will be launching a bara brith, of course including some award winning honey

Llangattock Honey

The hives are tended by Llangattock Apiaries’ owner, Anthony Smith, who is a member of the British Beekeepers’ Association, and Bee Farmers’ Association. His fascination with bees is long standing. Anthony first learned about bees when he was living in South Africa, but the bees there are aggressive and difficult to keep. He started his first hive six years ago in the Middle East, before moving to Llangattock in 2002 and establishing Llangattock Apiaries near to the River Usk.  All Anthony’s bees are of the Buckfast breed, which is renowned for its high honey yield and mild temperament.

Bee Welsh Honey Company

Welshbee I (Shane Llewelyn-Jones) started beekeeping with one hive in the garden aged 12, much to my parents’ dismay! Now 30 years later I run the Bee Welsh Honey Company, based in mid Wales, Builth Wells in the green heart of Mid Wales.  Currently running around 150 production hives, apiaries (where hives are kept) are place in the rolling hills and along the flowing river Wye.  The forage is an abundance of wild blossom from early spring blossom, low land clover in the summer to the upland heather moors of Mid Wales at the end of the season.

The honey produced in my mind is some of the best, winning/awarded endless honey classes at local, royal and national shows.

Pleasantly Pickled 

Established in 2013 in Swindon after many years of making chutneys and pickles as gifts for friends and family at Christmas. It now produces a wide range of homemade pickles, chutneys, jams and sauces.
Now based in the historic town of Pembroke, Pleasantly Pickled prides itself in making high quality, homemade products using fresh locally grown ingredients wherever possible.

Trading at various markets, craft fairs and regional events, the products can also be found in local shops and pubs within Pembrokeshire.
The range includes Piccalilli, Green Tomato Chutney, Chilli Jam, Onion Marmalade, Pickled Onions, Mango Chutney , Gift hampers for all occasions and much more.

For more about the Brecon Beacons Food Festival either go to www.breconbeaconsfoodfestival.co.uk or within this site www.welshcountry.co.uk/melodious-voices-at-brecon-beacons-food-festival.

Raise a glass, with autumnal evenings drawing in and, beyond that, celebrations around Christmas and the New Year we often think about our favourite tipple.

The Brecon Beacons Food Festival has a wonderful choice of drinks to take home and quaff at your leisure.

If we firstly look at ciders there is a choice of threewith which to raise your glass:

Brecon Beacons Cider Award winning ciders and perrys from local pesticide free orchards.

Afal Y Graig making 100% pressed apple and pear cider and perry, all products contain no chemicals or flavourings, are vegan and gluten free. All fruit used is either from our own orchards or locally sourced and all from Wales.

Toloja Orchards makes traditional cider with no added yeasts or sulphates but goes much further. Cider Brandy, Apple and Pear Wine and Mead adds to the list of products from the artisan maker. There is also mustards and preserves many of which have cider / brandy additions.     

From apples and pears we move to barley and malt and the brewing of beers. Wales has so many wonderful breweries these days and the selection brought together at this festival demonstrates the depth and quality with which it is so good to raise your glass.

Starting with the Little Goat Brewery a young brewery established in 2018 brewing a variety of beer types including a Yankee Doodle Nanny New England IPA 6.5% and Hillbilly Pilsner 4.0%.

It’s worth dropping by all of these stands to discover the wide variety of beers.

Another new brewery is Antur Brewery. Using hops from around the world their beers reflect the international flavour with New England IPA with American and UK hops and Helles Lager with German noble hops.

Tudor Brewery is a Family owned and managed traditional brewery which focuses on crafting award winning quality Beers, Ales and Stouts. With a wide range of bottled beers they also have a few mini kegs ideal for that party.

Moving to wines, maybe the traditional drink to raise your glass, we firstly look at what you could consider is a traditional Welsh Vineyard if there is such a thing. 

Springhollow Vineyard  is situated in the Teifi Valley where this small vineyard is hand planted on South facing slopes with sandy soils over slate and shale providing excellent drainage.  Following both Organic and Biodynamic principles and they aiming to produce the most natural wine that they possibly can.

Moving across the border Monkhide Wines have taken possibly a more traditional path using initially foraged ingredients they say  “Every glass celebrates the very best Herefordshire has to offer in fresh fruit and flowers. Each product is hand made from start to finish in our family winery, using our trusted fermentation techniques and specialist yeasts.” 

 

Cwm Deri Estate is a boutique winery based in Carmarthenshire.

With a wide selection of fruit wines, sparkling wines, fortified wines and liqueurs this is the ideal stand for a gift for your friend but more than likely once tasted a gift for yourself.

Gasm Drinks. We think it better to let them explain: The sporting inhabitants of the British countryside, in general tough eggs clad in green, have for many years been refreshing themselves in hot weather and warming themselves in cold with a mixture of sloe gin and champagne. Now, the intelligent folk at Gasm have decided that this stuff is too precious to be confined to the back of Land Rovers and picnic baskets at the races. So they have found the ideal mixture of fizz with powerful spirits and bottled it.

If you want unadulterated spirits then the food festival has those as well but you may well need a smaller glass to raise your glass.

Cardiff Distillery produces a range of gins including Perthyn which is a low alcohol spirit (10% ABV) making unforgettable moments unforgettable. The perfect balance of 12 of the finest botanicals for a zesty spirit with notes of citrus, cardamom and thyme.

Da Mhile is an organic distillery creating a range of spirits where quality is the key. Whisky Gin and Rum plus Orange Liqueur, Sloe Gin and Apple Brandy.  Distilling the first organic whisky of the modern era innovation is huge in this family business. The latest innovative product is Dark Skies Rum celebrating the dark skies of the Cambrian Mountains.

As you can see Brecon Beacons Food Festival has a wide selection of alcoholic drinks where taste and quality reign supreme.

Visit: www.breconbeaconsfoodfestival.co.uk

One of the oldest food festivals in Wales, the Brecon Beacons Food Festival opens its doors for the 25^th year on Saturday 1^st October. The event promises visitors a fantastic mix of food and drink exhibitors and entertainment.

Festival goers are expected to sample a range of local produce, including bread, cheese, cakes, artisan beers, meats, preserves and more with most items travelling less miles than the visitors themselves.

Food Festival organiser, Andrew Powell said,

“I’m delighted to be bringing the food festival back to Brecon this year after a few years of uncertainty due to the pandemic. Small artisan food and drink producers need our support more than ever and I’m confident the thousands of event visitors will love what they have to offer.

Exhibitor spaces are already full, and we are busy planning lots of other exciting components for the day booked, including 6 local choirs who will be performing throughout the day.”

This year a new innovative area is being set aside to a tasting area. Run by the excellent local catering company Fingers and Forks there are two brunch menus a lunch menu and an Afternoon Tea menu. All feature products that are being sold by the artisan exhibitors at the festival. 

This food festival is the highlight of any food lovers’ calendar for many years and is not to be missed. Its timing with the harvest season is perfect and the food and drink on offer is at its best. Brecon Beacons Food Festival is the perfect day out for everyone – from those who are passionate about their food to those who are happy to taste.

Taking place in the Market Hall in the centre of Brecon town it is within easy walking distances of all the towns’ car parks.

For more information about this year’s event please visit the website or the Facebook Page