New campaign will celebrate best in local produce

* The Launch of Taste North East Wales at Llangollen’s Horseshoe Falls with, from left, Pip Gale, of Gales Wine Bar, in Llangollen, rafters from SAS Outdoors, Robyn Lovelock, Donna Hughes, Cadwyn Clwyd; Janet Monshin Dallolio, Joe Bickerton, Wrexham County Borough Council; Emma Cornes and Jane Clough. Picture: Mandy Jones.

Taste, a 40-day fiesta of food-filled experiences, will this autumn celebrate the fantastic range of produce available from the north east corner of Wales.

Taste North East Wales will run through September, October and into November with 30 events showcasing ways for visitors and local residents to savour the region’s rich culinary tradition.

So if tastes run to black-tie catered rafting on the River Dee at Llangollen, afternoon tea in a prime ministerial library at Hawarden in Flintshire or a costumed medieval feast at Wrexham museum they and many others can be catered for.

The programme is backed by rural regeneration agency Cadwyn Clwyd along with the Clwydian Range & Dee Valley AONB and the Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham local authorities.

The money is from a pot of almost £8 million of funding administered by Corwen-based Cadwyn Clwyd from the Welsh Government Rural Communities – Rural Development Programme 2014-2020. It is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and the Welsh Government as part of a six-year plan to revitalise rural communities and their economies.

Taste North East Wales is being supported by Cadwyn Clwyd for its first two years but is then intended to become an annual and self-sustaining event which will include dining experiences, production tours, demonstrations, tastings, workshops and masterclasses and also incorporate the established food festivals at Llangollen, Mold and Wrexham. 

Emma Cornes, the campaign's co-ordinator, said: “What we are doing is showcasing this whole area through the medium of its fabulous food.

“We have put together a programme of unique food-based experiences and we want as many people as possible to explore, experience and eat the best of what North East Wales has to offer.

“If you want to go rafting, work in a community garden, attend a medieval banquet, visit an egg farm or go foraging you can do it and experience the unique flavours of the area through each opportunity.”

Pip Gale, of Gales Wine Bar in Llangollen, is part of the Ravenous Rafting experience which will include canapes made from locally sourced ingredients ahead of a white water trip down the River Dee followed by Sunday lunch at Gales, again profiling key local ingredients.

He said: “We live in an amazing place with amazing food and we are now working together to put North East Wales on the food map.

“The produce from this area is particularly good. Everyone knows the lamb is fantastic but we have so many other food producers making lots of lovely products that deserve to be better known, from craft beers and ciders to chocolate, honey and ice cream.”

* For more information on Taste North East Wales, go to: www.tastenortheastwales.org