Lincolnshire Christmas Food and Gift Fair 2011
by Baron Halpenny, LincsMag Editor.
Date: 01 December 2011
The Christmas Food and Gift Fair took place on Saturday, November 26th and Sunday, November 27th, 2011 and was open from 10am to 5pm on the Saturday and Sunday and cost £5 per adult to enter on the day or tickets could have been bought in advance at just £4.
This year the Lincolnshire Christmas Food and Gift Fair was celebrating its 10th year and was perfect for the whole family to enjoy and get into the Christmas spirit.
A Christmas Spirit
At the entrance to the Centre the Fresh Hot Roasted Chestnuts by Jagger Jackson already helped to give the Fair that Christmas spirit and prepared the visitors for the wonderful array inside.
Over a hundred stalls were offering fantastic gourmet gifts, fine wines and beers, the best British produce and a sample of flavours from across the world, with the wonderful delights of Italy being especially promoted with a taste of Italy by Pompeo who is based in Lincoln.
The Christmas Food and Drink Fair was indeed a festive extravaganza of food, drink, cookery demonstrations, gifts and crafts.
There never has been such a choice and section on offer to whet the tastebuds.
Lincolnshire’s Finest
Lincolnshire's delicious food and drink were excellently showcased with a great selection of award winning cheeses, chocolates, especially Sciolti Chocolates by the lovely Fiona, fudge, plum bread, sausages, turkey, ice-cream, fish, beer and wines.
Cookery Demonstrations
The Cookery Demonstration Theatre Programme that were hugely popular were as follows:
Saturday
10.30am-11am - Rachel Green
11.30am-noon - That's Amore Italian Family Kitchen - Karen Migliore
12.30pm-1pm - Dig for Victory 21st Century Style - Lorraine Bellis
1.30pm-2pm - Rachel Green
2.30pm-3pm - Geoff Adams with The Wine & Glass Company
3.30pm-4pm - Rachel Green
Sunday
10.30am-11am - Rachel Green
11.30am-noon - Our World Garden: Unusual Gourmet Vegetables to Grow and Eat - Samantha Ford
12.30pm-1pm - Rachel Green
1.30pm-2pm - That's Amore Italian Family Kitchen - Karen Migliore
2.30pm-3pm - Rachel Green
3.30pm-4pm - Geoff Adams with The Wine and Glass Company
Craft Workshops
Marion Sander and Carol Parker were upstairs in the EPIC Centre from 10am-1pm and 2pm-5pm on both Saturday and Sunday for drop-in papercraft, knitting and crochet workshops. Marion is an artist and designer from Hamburg, Germany with experience of 2D and 3D art and workshops for educational and non-educational settings. Carol is a 3D mixed media freelance artist with 15 years experience of working with schools and Community groups across all ages and abilities. So both were well able to provide fun and practical entertainment to anyone interested.
Plenty To Eat and Drink
Inside the Epic Centre there were several places for visitors to quench their thirst, though for LincsMag our favourite were the excellent coffees and personalities by the Mean Bean Coffee Machine.
Outside the marquees held traders providing savoury hot foods for the hungry visitors ranging from roasts and burgers to pizzas cooked in under a couple of minutes in a wood fired oven giving it that Neapolitan style.
The pizzas, LincsMag can certainly recommend, were tasty from Hot Rocks Pizza.
To see more LincsMag pictures of this event, visit our Facebook album:
Lincolnshire Christmas Food and Gift Fair 2011
