Support for Local Produce in East Perthshire

As part of the Glenshee Heather Festival, Love to Eat in the Glen Day is taking place at the Blackwater Hall on Saturday, 13th August.

This free event, using the best of local produce, will see a team of chefs staging interactive cookery demonstrations and workshops throughout the day.

Demonstrations will be themed around locally produced beef, lamb, game, fish, fruit and vegetables, and should appeal to all ages. Fi Bird of Stirrin Stuff, the food writer, will be leading some children-specific events.

Professional food forager, Iain McFarlane of Do it Outdoors, will lead two forages into local nearby woods, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Several local food producers will have products at the show including honeys, preserves, berries, traditional sweets and home bakes. Light lunches, tea, coffee and home bakes will be served throughout the day.

In addition, there will be a community produce table so for keen gardeners who are overwhelmed with fruit, veg and eggs at the moment, please bring them along to Blackwater Hall around 10.30am and they can be sold or swapped throughout the day with other local produce.

Proceeds from the sale of your vegetables can either be passed back to the producer or donated to the Glenshee & Kirkmichael Churches.

If you are interested in putting your produce on the community produce table, please email Philip Smith.

Love to Eat is a major new food tourism initiative being delivered by the Blairgowrie & East Perthshire Tourist Association (BEPTA).

The project, which spans two years, is being led by Tracey Baxter and is supported by a passionate and dedicated team of the BEPTA committee, other BEPTA members and members of the wider community.

Love to Eat supports BEPTA's overall aim of promoting East Perthshire as a year-round, sustainable, quality tourism destination.

BEPTA, a not-for-profit organisation, has received grants totaling some £65,000 in support of the Love to Eat project from the Scottish Government and the European Community Rural Tayside LEADER 2007-2013 Programme, and from Perth & Kinross Council's Developing Rural Tourism Project.

In addition, BEPTA itself is providing more than £10,000 in both cash and in-kind support.

The Love to Eat project also aims to promote excellent service, locally-sourced food, quality producers and produce, and eating establishments in Blairgowrie and the East Perthshire area.

More food and tourism news.

Looking to source local produce in East Perthshire? Use Scotland Food & Drink's Buyers' Guide.