North-east food festival Huntly Hairst is returning this autumn with an exciting line-up of events for visitors to take part in.
Running from Friday September 3 to Sunday September 5, the festival will feature an extended farmers’ market with more than 50 stalls, cookery demonstrations, drinks tastings, competitions and more.
There will also be an online producer week, educating people about a wide array of businesses based in the town, as well as the opportunity to learn how to make popular dishes and bakes.
These include stovies, bread, curry and shortbread, and Dean’s of Huntly, Rizza’s, Honesty Bakehouse and Neep & Okra Kitchen are among the businesses getting involved.
The online producer week will take place from Monday, August 30 to Friday, September 3.
Each day will have a different theme – meat and fish, flour, sugar, dairy and fruit and vegetables.
Making Huntly a food destination
All other proceedings for the Hairst will run in The Square in Huntly, with Saturday’s program consisting of a line-up of competitions, workshops and tastings, a lot of which are based around food and drink.
The events will take place from 9am to 4pm.
From the annual world stovies championship to oatcake, pickled beetroot, shortbread and vegetable animal competitions, there are plenty of opportunities for budding bakers to get involved, including youngsters in the Great Scottish Youth Bake Off.
There is also a sausage eat-off challenge, which involves participants devouring as many sausages as they can in 60 seconds, and gin-making demonstrations and tastings.
Laura McNeil, organiser of Huntly Hairst, said: “Our last event in 2019 was great. We had hoped we could run in 2020 but decided to wait until 2021 when everything had opened up again and people could enjoy all the event has to offer.
“I feel really excited about the community coming together again. We have had nearly two years of being apart from our friends and we want to finally and safely get together to celebrate what it is to live in this beautiful rural area.
“We have had funding support from both Aberdeenshire Council and The Regional Food Fund to put on the event and feel it will give us the kick start to make Huntly a food destination.”
Visitors can expect to see local producers including Granite City Fish, Wark Farm, Hungry Squirrel, Sweet Toots Cakery, The Teasmith Gin, Morning Dog Coffee, The Bread Guy and Udny Provender at the event.
And Richie’s Chilli Sauces, Pure Decadence, Forbes Raeburn, Haydn’s Woodfired Pizza, Paella Escocia and many more will also join in the celebrations.
Other events include a craft fair at The Gordon Arms Hotel from noon to 4pm on Friday and 9am to 4pm on Saturday, hosting 20 stalls, and “The Big Picnic” at Leith Hall and Gardens in Kennethmont from 11am to 3pm.
Majority of the events are free to attend, however some have small participation charges.
For more information visit www.www.huntlyhairst.co.uk.