Taste of Scilly to showcase seafood islands
The annual Taste of Scilly returns in September with a special focus on the islands' seafood offering.
Billed as "the festival that has foodies flocking to the Isles of Scilly", the event is a month-long celebration of the best in local food, drink and produce from across the five inhabited islands.
Highlights include everything from lobster feasts and surf and turf beach barbecues to pop-up crab shack evenings, paella nights, chowder chowdowns, Scillonian taster menus and wine pairing dining experiences.
New for this year is a one-off Island Hopping Supper Safari where diners enjoy evening aperitifs, starter, main course and pudding at idyllic locations on different islands whilst chaperoned on a private boat charter. This outing is limited to just 12 people.
The evening programme will be supplemented with working family-farm tours and tastings across St Mary’s, Bryher, St Agnes and St Martin’s; gin tastings from Westward Farm and the launch of foodie book An Island’s Food Mile on St Agnes; workshops with Bryher-based Island Fish on how to pick crab and lobster; a “day in the life of” a lobster fisherman talks on St Mary’s and afternoons learning how to crimp pasties.
There will be a special Taste in the Park Scillonian produce market on St Mary's featuring many of the islands' local producers and live entertainment throughout the day. Also across that weekend, the Seven Stones Inn on St Martin's will host its annual Beer, Cider, Gin and Rum Festival showcasing drinks produced across the islands with a Taste of Scilly menu to match.
September 10th sees the return of the Low Tide experience, an ultra-mini food festival on a sandbank between Tresco and Bryher featuring bowls of locally harvested garlic mussels, seafood paella dished directly from a beached fishing boat, Tresco salt beef and Scilly mackerel baps washed down with gin cocktails and Prosecco while being serenaded with live music.
Throughout the islands, there will be lots of special Taste of Scilly offers and stories to be shared among all our passionate local producers, whether bakers, brewers, chefs, farmers, fishermen or fantastic foodie producers. There will also be wine tastings at Scilly’s two vineyards, and tours of micro-brewery Ales of Scilly.
David Jackson, Executive Director of the Islands' Partnership (Visit Isles of Scilly), says: “We’re delighted to be hosting our third Taste of Scilly festival this September. For an archipelago so small, Scilly boasts an extraordinary array of award-winning producers and foodie entrepreneurs; you’re never far from fresh produce and refreshment on the islands - from freshly-caught seafood, farm-grown vegetables, island-reared duck and beef, homemade ice cream and fudge, and the islands’ own wine and beer.
"Taste of Scilly is a fantastic celebration of all the good things that are produced, reared and prepared here on our tiny islands, as well as our most distinctive eateries.”
Download the programme at www.visitislesofscilly.com/tasteofscilly .