What a year so far..,

We really can’t believe it’s September already and we are now heading into our busiest time of the year.

It’s been a glorious summer, we’ve met so many lovely people at the Summer Fairs that we have been to for the very first time this year.

Madresfield Village Fete in Malvern, was the quintessential English Fair, held in the grounds of the Madresfield Court Estate…beautiful stalls, classic cars, vintage tractors even a medieval re-enactment!

Not too far away from Madresfield was the Edgbaston Village Artisan Market, where we were one of eighty stalls. It was so busy and is Birminghams biggest artisan market.

The market is surrounded by Edgbaston Village’s cafes, bars and restaurants, it had such a positive vibe as families, browsed, bought, ate and listened to the music echoing through the market, we loved every minute, and look forward to returning.

From the Midlands we went to Hampshire, another beautiful area of the U.K. 

Our first event was the Alresford Watercress Festival, where it really is a celebration of the locally grown watercress. It was such a busy festival with beautiful artisan stalls, cookery demonstrations, music and of course the Watercress eating competition!

Since 2004 when the Festival arrived in Alresford it’s estimated that it’s had approximately 180,000 visitors.  We so enjoyed it, again meeting so many lovely people, hopefully we’ll have the opportunity to return next year.

Then came The Garden and Green Fair, held in Alresford, as part of the inaugural Winchester District Garden Festival, was another memorable event for us. We so enjoyed being part of the collaboration between the New Alresford Town Trust and New Leaf Alresford. There were so many beautiful stalls, and apart from selling our Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Balsamics, we were able to learn more about the Alresford Community Growing project, picking up tips on plants that would encourage more wildlife into our gardens etc.

There were free bicycle checks and repairs, for children and adults, together with a Pollinator Trail in the shops of Alresford … it really was a Community Fair.

To end the summer, we attended both the Goodwood and for the second time the Hampton Court Palace Food Festival, again beautiful surroundings and lovely people. It was so encouraging to have returning customers at Hampton Court, some of whom now feel like friends!

In between the fairs there’s been numerous ‘tastings’, in all the lovely farm shops and delis that support us, for which we are so grateful. Again this is something we enjoy doing, as it’s a time when we can introduce our products to more people, who hopefully enjoy them as much as we do.

So now our thoughts are of our olive harvest in October and all the Food and Christmas Fairs ahead of us. One thing we do know, is that we’ll be doing a lot of chatting, as we meet more and more lovely and interesting people, but we’ll keep you posted!