Matt Gorman @ Daylesford Organic

Daylesford’s annual Summer Festival is one of my favourite days of the year, it is a celebration of summer, organic food and farming for all of the family. Plans for this year’s festival on Saturday 21st May are well underway and the festival is due to be bigger and better than ever. Let’s just hope that the recent sunny weather is here to stay.

This year the festival celebrates our Artisan producers and offers a behind-the-scenes look at Daylesford Farm, with plenty of engaging activities, tours, talks, demonstrations, live music, children’s entertainment and, of course, delicious Daylesford food and drink.

For more insight into the work and skills that goes into producing our dairy products, meat and bread our artisans will be on hand at the Creamery, Bakery and Smokehouse offering tastings and demonstrations throughout the day. The Cookery School will also be hosting a number of inspiring demos including an Organic Steak Masterclass at 11.15am, Family Summer Eating at 3pm and a Cheese Making Masterclass at 4.15pm.

A personal favourite of mine are the farm trailer tours where guests can go behind the scenes at the farm. Meet the best of our farm animals including chicks, lambs, our rare breed cattle and Gloucester Old Spot pigs. I highly recommend booking your slot on one of the tours as soon as you arrive at the festival. They are always very popular and spaces fill up quickly.

Don’t miss out on the sheep shearing demonstrations in the Straw Barn, ploughing demonstrations with working horses and see our busy bees in action at their hives. Tours of the market garden with our head gardener Jez are also not to be missed and include tips on how to perfect your composting.

As always there will be a fabulous range of delicious and tempting food straight from the farm. Our brilliant chefs will be firing up the BBQ for beef burgers, pork sausage sandwiches and pulled beef flatbreads. There will also be Market Garden vegetable paella, plenty of artisan ice cream, fresh salads and Daylesford picnic hampers. All washed down with refreshing soft drinks, Daylesford Prosecco and Château Léoube Rosé.

In the Children’s Corner there are plenty of fun and entertaining activities including face painting, tractor rides, a hay bale maze, Hula Hoops and Limbo. Budding chefs can also learn how to make buttermilk pancakes and garden vegetable wraps at our mobile cookery school. Don’t miss the Dog Show at 11am - will your four-legged friend win Waggiest Tail or Scruffiest Dog?

For those looking to relax, stretch out and unwind take part in the hourly yoga and Pilates classes at the Hay Barn or book an acupressure appointment. Also in the Hay Barn will be a demonstration of traditional Indian block printing.

There is something for everyone at our Summer Festival and we look forward to welcoming everyone on Saturday.

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