Photo of
September 4, 2013

[https://www.youtube.com/embed/Yp-S7E0-bXs?feature=oembed]

The Scottish Food and Drink Fortnight gets underway from Saturday.

Over the next fourteen days, organisers expect there to be over 200 food and drink related events held throughout Scotland under the SFDF banner.

World’s best food and drink

From farmers’ markets to butchery demos via whisky tastings and food fairs, the message is the same: Scotland produces some of the world’s best food and drink so get out there and enjoy it.

The above clip will give you a flavour of what it is all about.

The 5pm Dining blog will almost certainly be returning to the subject over the next couple of weeks but, for those of you who want dig in as soon as possible, there are a couple of big events taking place this weekend.

Celebrate food and farming

We’ll start with the Huntly Hairst in Aberdeenshire. A celebration of food and farming, the weekend’s attractions include demos from the Kilted Chef; a farmers’ market; a Can’t Cook, Won’t Cook competition; a beer festival and the hotly contested world stovie competition.

Starting on Friday, the Dundee Flower and Food Festival begins to bloom. The 5pm Dining blog is always a huge fan of the vegetable competitions at food fairs. Few things tickle our schoolboy’s sense of humour quite as effectively as a selection of root vegetables dressed up as a horse or the Duchess of Cambridge.

Great British Bake Off

Wiser, more mature visitors will probably be prefer Saturday’s appearance of Paul Hollywood, the twinkle-eyed judge from The Great British Bake Off.

We can’t see whether or not he is appearing on the same day but James Morton, the winner of 2012’s Great British Bake Off, is also flagged up as doing a demo.