The Nailsworth Food Festival took place on Sunday and drew huge crowds, making the event a roaring success.

Advertised as being held in the Mortimer Garden, it actually took over the bus station as well with many stalls selling a wide range of food from organic meat to chocolate. The pig roast was back, something that does the rounds at most outdoor events and Uley Brewery, purveyors of fine real ales, were on hand to provide much needed liquid refreshment!

A side distraction was an unofficial swimming race against the flow of the stream that meandered it's way through the middle of the whole site. Unsurprisingly, nobody took part. However, a yellow plastic duck called Fred was spotted drifting past wildly out of control. Fred was last seen floating in the pond in front of Egypt Mill.

These distractions aside, I was fascinated to see a demonstrating of cooking using what looked suspiciously like something that would not be out of place in a metal bashing shop. With what can only be described as a small blow torch, delicate puddings were created a layer at a time and then blasted with the roaring flame from the torch until finished. A running commentary of the process showed us how to reproduce the same pudding back home in the privacy of our own kitchens.

One of the town fire engines was on hand should anything have gone wrong.

Hopefully the same fire engine will be on hand when you try this at home.

Please Note: The plastic duck is not really called Fred. I changed his name to protect his identity.