Tempting Slow Food Tours with Waterford Harvest Festival

Slow Food Tours at Waterford Harvest Festival

 It is less than a week until the Ireland's largest food festival, the Waterford Harvest Festival (Sept 10- 16,) and on several of the days you can go on a different tempting Slow Food guided tour. Have a read of each days' tour, below, & plan your visit/s accordingly. You may want to do all 5!

 Here's the info from the festival:

 September 10: Visit a prize winning dairy farm at milking time to view the process in action and then meet John Flahavan at the sixth generation miller’s facility at Flahavan’s Porridge in Kilmacthomas. The final stop is an opportunity to meet Grace Kiersey and take a tour of her vegetable garden also near Kilmacthomas, County Waterford. It promises to be a real treat of a day out and something that should not be passed up for any curious foodies who want to get a behind the look at some local food production.

September 11: Brilliant for seafood lovers.. Ahoy there me hearties! Take a nautical adventure where you can experience seaweed foraging on Boat Strand, a talk from Bord Iascaigh Mhara on local fisheries and a visit to Flanagan’s Fish Mongers where you will be able to taste scallops, mussels, oysters, crab, lobster and many more seafood delights.

Waterford Harvest Fesival Apples 

 September 12: Visitors will be taken on a journey north of the River Suir to south Kilkenny to visit High Bank Organic Orchards where you can view the production of their organic juices and syrup and also sample the finished products. From there the tour will travel to Goatsbridge Trout Farm where you will experience their eco friendly work environment and taste their premiumfish and smoked trout produce. You may even be lucky enough to get some tasty caviar samples! To round off the tour, it is then on to Knockdrinna Farmhouse Cheese to observe their cheese production and indulge in some of the finished products.

 September 14: A trip to Dunhill Ecopark & Community Garden is first on the cards for this Slow Food Tour. Visitors will be able to take in the fantastic scenery of the community garden and stretch their legs out in the fine County Waterford air. You will also be able to sample some very tasty treats from artisan food producers and see the recently installed apiary from the Beekeepers Federation along with the Crough Venison Farm. 

Bilberry Goats, Waterford

 September 15: A trip to a traditional Waterford Craft Butcher is the first port of call. At the butchers, guests will get the chance to view and sample local meat specialties such as Crubeens, Chucks and Pig’s Tail.A visit to the uniquely Waterford Bilberry Goats Heritage Trust at Bilberry Rock, Gracedieu is a perfect way to finish up the Slow Food Tours. You will be able to experience the protected creatures in their beautiful and often periloussurroundings and sample their homemade goats cheese!

You may be wondering: Where is the Slow Food tour for the 14th?Well, it is SOLD OUT, so hurry & book your places on these ones!

All Slow Food Tours depart the House of Waterford Crystal at their appointed date and time, tickets are €14 for a place on the bus and a car travelling is €10 per car. Guests will travel on a 15-seat bus and 8 persons are required to make trip viable. Tickets for the tours are available on waterfordharvestfestival.ie

The city will be in festival mode from September 10 to 16 with a further programme of events on offer for all the family. For a full programme of events see waterfordharvestfestival.ie

Note: I'm excited to say that this which festival Terry & I loved last year, has this year (2012) invited me to be their guest as one of the bloggers on the special blogger's tour- 1 night & 2 days! I'm thrilled to take part, as I really believe in the ethos of the locally produced food, craft, and tourisim businesses. Waterford is a fantastic little city and deserves to be even better known & visited! GO! :-)