Food Drink Devon's industry Summer Partya huge success

Food Drink Devon is celebrating the success of its first ever industry Summer Party, which was held on Monday 17th June at the stunning Dartington Hall gardens. Over 100 members and non-members enjoyed a wonderful evening of fabulous local food, drink, entertainment and demonstrations.
Barbara King, chair of Food Drink Devon, says: “We are delighted with the triumph of our inaugural summer party. We were blessed with great weather which allowed us to enjoy the beautiful gardens of Dartington Hall whilst tucking in to some delicious local produce and learning new skills. The event was so well attended and we have had such fantastic feedback already that we will definitely be making this a regular fixture in our calendar.”
The party took place in the stunning private gardens of Dartington Hall, a magnificent historic country estate just outside Totnes. During the evening, attendees were treated to live music and informative and entertaining demonstrations. The first was from award-winning wine expert Susy Atkins who, alongside Mark Sharman from Sharpham Estate, led a tasting session of some of their most popular wines. Hayley Reynolds from the South West Wine School rana blind tasting competition to guess the grape variety. Cosmo Caddy from Devon Distillery gave a fascinating insight into gin and guests were able to participate in the creation of a special bottle of gin, using his mobile distillery. Mark Bury and Anna Elliot from Eversfield Organic provided a masterclass on how to cook steak on a barbecue and chef, Chris Sherville, treated everyone to a captivating dessert-making demonstration.
Guests enjoyed drinks and a superb three-course barbecue and buffet of local produce provided by Food Drink Devon members including: Salcombe Gin, Hunts Cider, Salcombe Brewery, Luscombe, Devon Distillery, Surf 'N' Turf Kitchen, Burts Chips, Rod and Bens, Bell and Loxton, Clive’s Pies, Dartington Dairy, M C Kelly, WestCountry, Column Bakehouse, South Devon Chilli Farm, Otter Vale Products, Ebb Tides, Granny Gothards, Salcombe Dairy, Truly Treats, The Shops at Dartington, Sharpham Cheese, Owens Coffee and Bristows of Devon.
With over 250 Devon-based members including cookery schools, hospitality and catering businesses, speciality retailers, farmers’ markets and producers, Food Drink Devon is the county’s only dedicated membership organisation supporting quality, sustainability and provenance in the sector.
For more information about Food Drink Devon visit www.fooddrinkdevon.co.uk where you can sign up to their monthly newsletters which feature events, offers and competition. You can also follow @FoodDrinkDevon on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.