Fire and Food at 54° North

Considering the rather modest population of our county, Cumbria has more than its fair share of food festivals, but when a new one was announced last year it really sparked our interest.

The festival in question is 54° North, held on the weekend of 5th – 7th May at Into The Woods near Little Salked, Penrith in Cumbria’s beautiful Eden Valley.

Billed as ‘a Cumbrian Fire and Food Festival’, the bar has been set incredibly high for their inaugural year boasting three Michelin starred chefs headlining the event – Ryan Blackburn (The Old Stamp House, Ambleside), Kevin Tickle (Heft, High Newton) and Ben Queen-Fryer (The Dog & Gun, Skelton).

We’re big fans of Ben and his work at The Dog & Gun, and are rather proud that he uses Park House Organic Cheddar for his Twice Baked Cheddar and Black Truffle Soufflé – if you haven’t tried it yet, stop what you’re doing and make a reservation as soon as you can!

Throw into this the highly acclaimed and multi-award winning Phil Corrie (Head Chef at Restaurant 1863, Pooley Bridge) and event host Steven Lamb, the curing and smoking expert and author of River Cottage fame, and it’s a line-up to get any tastebuds twitching!

Mark and Jenny will be there representing the Torpenhow Farmhouse Dairy with plenty of cheese to try and buy, including Park House Organic Cheddar and Oak Smoked Cheddar, Binsey Red, Darling Howe and – if there’s any left – our limited edition blue cheese, The Monarch.

“The festival was scheduled before the date of the King’s Coronation was announced, so it just means we need to fit in our own celebrations around 54° North.” explains Jenny. “For anyone wanting to watch the Coronation, they can be assured there will be a live screening at the festival.”

“It promises to be quite an event with such a diverse array of Cumbria’s independent food and drink producers taking part, and the whole concept around fire and food is something that has us more than just a bit excited.”

In addition to our lovely cheeses, we’ll also be serving delicious milkshakes made using our fresh organic milk and will also be introducing Matthew Stockwell and Three Hills Gelato.

Matthew’s gelato making is now fully operational at Park House Farm and, it’s fair to say, the incredible flavours he’s producing is proving to be quite a distraction…

Along with demonstrations by some of Cumbria’s foremost chefs, 54° North also features master classes, charcuterie, pickling and fermentation along with live music and DJs on both Saturday and Sunday.

And if you’re bringing your little foodies as well, there’s plenty of activities for the kids as well.

At time of writing, there’s still a few tickets left if you want to head along to 54° North but, if you can’t make it, we’re sure that this will be the first of many future festivals from these fiery foodie folks!