In a pickle!

Last Friday saw the team joining forces with Marcus and Katy of Trove Foods for a chutney- and jam-making workshop as part of Manchester Food & Drink Festival. We got there bright & early as we wanted to catch Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s demo set before we kicked off our workshop at 3pm.


Things are often not straightforward in Cracking Good Food Land though and we discovered that because of the gas explosion earlier in the week, we weren’t allowed to use our (very safe) gas hobs. But never fear, there was a solution and we got to use the demo kitchen on the stage, at least until the next demo started at 4.30. We managed to get one apple and damson chutney workshop in and everyone went home with their very own jar of delicious chutney, complete with beautiful handmade label, and the recipe to make lots more now they knew how to do it. What great Christmas presents they would make!

We even managed to persuade Hugh over after his book-signing for a quick chat and a photo with the group. But what a shame we had to cancel the second session for lack of a hob. On the bright side, Katy gave me some of the leftover damsons and I made the most glorious looking damson gin with them on Saturday afternoon. Can’t wait for Christmas when it’ll be ready...!