Crowds come out for cancer charity’s Feast of Food

LATE NEWS:  last Saturday’s Feast of Food raised £12,000 for Cancer Research UK.

It’s all about food and gifts – but it’s also all about beating cancer.  The Marlborough branch of Cancer Research UK held their annual Feast of Food event at the College on Saturday (October 20) – and it was a sell-out success.

The Norwood Hall and an adjoining marquee held sixty-eight stalls with traders representing just about every part of the south-west of England and far beyond too.  One of the organisers told Marlborough News Online that they’d had applications from almost twice as many stall-holders as they had space for.

Crowds started to fill the hall almost as soon as it was open.  And many of the stalls were very soon doing brisk business.  Organisers said they had a consistent flow of people and were “really pleased” with the whole event. They hope to make between eleven and twelve thousand pounds.

The event came hard on the heels of the joint Channel 4 and Cancer Research UK Stand Up to Cancer campaign – which raised a magnificent £6,483,995.

At this year’s Feast of Food you could find some really delicious meat and game pies.  There was Wiltshire honey and Marlborough’s famous shiitake and oyster mushrooms. And Wiltshire chillies of varying strength. Making their second appearance at the Feast of Food were Loire Uncorked with an array of Loire wines and highly delectable cheeses.

Looking ahead to Christmas there were homemade puddings with traditional and not so traditional ingredients.  And a range of Christmas cakes that might well find themselves being opened long before the day itself.

If you had shopped for food and had your mid-morning coffee and cake, you could start on the Christmas gifts.  There were some really attractive Polish pottery designs and Backdoor Shoes brought a colourful display of their light waterproof clogs painted with fruit and vegetable designs.

Vying for a place on the Christmas present list was all manner of ‘kitchen stuff’ from bottles of oil (olive and rapeseed) to innovative cookware; from cookery books to antique cutlery; from Turkish delight to fragranced candles.

Finally time for a taster from Ramsbury Brewery or the Wiltshire Liqueur Company.

Oh, and there’s a date for your diary: also raising funds for Cancer Research UK is the Marlborough Spring Fair which will be on 13 April 2013.