The last weekend in October saw the Tastings on Hastings festival returned to Port Macquarie and saw our beautiful, coastal town filled with three action packed days that would delight any food lover! Tastings on Hastings is the regions premier food festival which showcases our regional farmers, artisans, food producers, wine growers, brewers, restaurants and cafes. It was a fantastic weekend that saw almost the entire community out and about, enjoying the sunshine, supporting local businesses and indulging in delicious cuisine!
[spacer height=”10px”]The festival ran from Friday through to Sunday and included a night time festival, celebrity chef dinners, cooking demonstrations, cooking masterclasses and the popular main Tastings event on the Sunday.
We ventured down to the Town Green on Saturday night to the Tastings Ignite Festival where we treated ourselves to some tasty international cuisine, wandered through the art installations, treated ourselves to some local oysters from the Oyster Barn and finished off the night marvelling at the fire twirlers!
The night was made even more perfect with one of the most gorgeous sunsets we’ve seen since we have been back in Australia. We truly had to pinch ourselves to realise that we actually live here now (and how lucky are we)!
The theme of this years festival was “Fire, Water, Harvest”and the fire component was certainly ticked off with the fire twirling! Both the female and male fire twirlers were incredibly talented and it was mesmerising to watch them in their element!
Sunday was the main event and saw tens of thousands of people descend on the town green. We had a great time sampling delicious foods, talking with producers (Dan particularly loved the sausage man and his chorizo), shopping for local produce and enjoying the local musicians and entertainment. We also took the time to stroll through the wine and beer precinct and enjoy some of our regions finest wines, beers and ciders!
My favourite food from the weekend was this raw caramel slice from Yvette’s Raw Kitchen! Yvette’s Raw Kitchen are a unique raw cake manufacturer from nearby Wingham. Together this team of 3 ladies create over 40 different styles of raw cakes, slices and tarts and they have truly taken the raw cake market by storm! I love healthy eating and especially loved that their cakes are gluten free, wheat free, refined sugar free, dairy free, egg free, no artificial colour or flavours, no preservatives, GMO’s or Soy! The caramel slice tasted even better than it looked too!
We had a great weekend at Tastings on Hastings, enjoying all the local produce and talents of our community. The wind on the Sunday was a little painful but thankfully the rain held off! Tastings on Hastings is such a fantastic event for our region, we left with very full and happy stomachs and we can’t wait for next year!
