Free From Festival 2014 — Her Favourite Food & Travel

Feb 25

Feb 25 Free From Festival 2014

This festive season Free From Events announced its first ever 'free from' food festival. Guest writer Syeshia Sweeney headed down to see what it was all about.

When I was offered the opportunity to cover a Free From Festival, I jumped at the chance. For the last five years I have been intolerant to dairy and have experimented with various dairy alternatives whilst still having a small amount of the real deal! (I won't tell if you don't!) This pop-up event located in a cosy space at BL-NK on East Road was filled with free-from snacks, treats and meals. This included everything from raw Asian noodle salads to delicious gluten/dairy/wheat free mince pies and even a bar and a live band to really get you in the festive mood.

One of the first stalls that caught my eye was the chocolates filled with dietary supplements. The Live Smart 360 chocolates are made from pure cacao dark chocolate and contains the same antioxidant found in green tea, an energy boost from chocolate? Yes, it is possible, in the form of a chocolate bar which also have different purposes such as working as a relaxant or appetite suppressor. These were perfect for someone like me who doesn't drink coffee or redbull but would benefit from a healthy pick me up without the side effects.

From this stand I also picked up a packet of the pineapple flavoured chocolate chews and at £18 it is a bit steep but the resealable packet should keep me going for at least a month. The lovely sales lady said to give her a call if I required refills as it's an American company not yet on sale in the UK. For more info: www.livesmart360.com/rebeccaf and you can email her for a 10% discountat rebeccachocolate@gmail.com.

The next was a small stall offering lovely baked goods such as free from cupcakes and moist delicious brownies, all dairy, wheat & gluten free. Antillia Delights are cake specialists for restrictive diets (dairy, eggs, wheat, gluten, sugar, grain & soy free). Then on to the Conscious Organic Raw Chocolate raw, organic, handmade, vegan friendly, low Gi, no dairy, no soy, gluten free, no refined sugars award winning chocolate bars jam-packed with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and essential amino acids.

I walked away with two bars for £6 one 'Lions Raw' with essential oils of lemon, grapefruit & lime and 10% donated to the Global Lion Protection Trust and one 'Simply Saintly' with cacao solids. The chocolates are organic and made in the UK.

Also from this stall, we were encouraged to sample tasters of granola but knocking back shots filled with different flavoured granola. Mini Magoos Funstuff! Seeds & Nut mix is gluten free, oat free and wheat free and comes in cinnamon (award winning flavour) and also ginger and a nut free variety. Serve it up with milk, yoghurt, juice or eat raw as a snack.

Another stall was serving raw burgers and salads in neat little boxes, the food looked colourful and healthy but the guys were busy filming at the time so next up was The Foodamentalists where we grabbed 4 quiches (at £2.50 each we got a little carried away). We purchased flavours mature cheddar cheese & caramelised red onion, steak & ale pie, vegetable & mozzarella pie and Homity pie which consisted of short crust pastry filled with potato, onion, garlic, tamari & topped with cheese & parsley. They also had bread, pastry and even doughnut mixes on offer!

Also from this stall we picked up rice cakes milk chocolate covered and strawberry & cream covered by Element Snacks, these products contained dairy but were gluten free. And our last purchase from this stall was a £4 box of gluten, wheat & dairy free mince pies that tasted so good we couldn't resist! The mince pies are also gmo, egg and yeast free and have star shaped pastry on the top which only makes it more special, all lovingly handmade in Ireland by The Lawless Family.

And last but certainly not by any means least was a stall in the corner selling coco water and various types of dairy alternatives such as rice milk. Personally, I have tried most dairy alternatives and have chosen to stick with almond milk as I like the texture and taste but my eyes were then diverted to the dairy free cooking ingredients. They offered rice, spelt, coconut & millet varieties as a cream alternative for cooking dishes. At only £1 each I went home with an Isola Bio Cuisine rice and millet mini 200ml carton (the millet contains extra virgin olive oil). All dairy and gluten free, I found it particularly interesting that these products are made in Italy because as much as I like Italian food, I've found that their menus are often full of cream and cheese. Tasty but not always suitable, so this is a great solution to that problem!

So I'm off with a bag full of 'free from' goodies, back outside there is a stall selling gluten-free buckwheat wraps and an inviting stall with a small tower of old fashioned books and a tempting smell of mulled wine. I part with my remaining change and leave with my cup of L'atypique mulled wine, I could just about see through my steamed up glasses as the security guards bid us a friendly farewell.