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Come and celebrate the very best tastes of the south east this May Day Bank Holiday Sunday and Monday at the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum in Singleton, near Chichester, West Sussex. England’s leading museum of historic buildings and traditional rural life will be hosting its ever-popular Food Fair in and among the historic buildings on its beautiful 50 acre downland site.

‘Celebrate the Taste’ is jointly organised by the Museum and ‘A Taste of Sussex’, who, under the umbrella of Sussex Enterprise, provide a comprehensive support service for the counties’ food and drink producers, helping them to expand their markets and make their products more accessible to the consumer. The award-winning Museum accommodates the numerous trade stands throughout the site, bringing together the three great influences on our lives - food, culture and landscape - in one great taste celebration. Last year over 6,000 people attended the event over the two days, and more than 80 producers from the region will present a stunning array of local produce, from wines, sauces, ciders and beers to locally-produced meat, cheese, ice cream, cakes and confectionery.

To reflect the national ‘Year of Food and Farming’, this year the event will also include a celebration of downland farming. This will feature five areas of agriculture, namely, dairying, poultry, horticulture, cereal and meat farming. Activities will include a traditional dairying demonstration in the Museum’s historic Pendean farmhouse; the
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Schools Services Department will showcase the work of school groups who have studied the food and farming theme during recent visits to Museum; and visitors can even have a go at ‘milking’ a wooden cow provided by the National Farmers Union! No experience necessary!

As well as the opportunity to browse and buy, there will be a range of talks and demonstrations throughout the event to interest all the family. Last year, children’s cookery school the Fun Food Academy held a demonstration of cooking for children by children, which proved extremely popular, and they will be attending again this year.

If you start feeling peckish as you discover all these culinary delights, there will be a delicious hog roast on offer, and the Museum’s own café will be supplying its usual tasty homemade fare, including biscuits and cakes made with wholemeal stoneground flour ground in the seventeenth century watermill. As well as caring for rescued historic buildings, the Museum demonstrates many aspects of traditional farming, highlighting the importance of agriculture to our rural ancestors. Shire horses and working cattle carry out seasonal agricultural tasks; traditional breed sheep, Tamworth pigs, geese and chickens are raised on the site, and traditional cereal crops are sown in the field strips.