Sheffield's Annual Food Festival 2014

Sheffield's Annual Food Festival this year took place over the May Bank Holiday weekend where despite the agglomeration of optimism and hope from a population fed up with its frigid winters and damp springs, rain still flooded from the skies, sometimes in short sprinkles but occasionally in heavy outbursts.

Not that this would prevent any festivities from pushing through. If anything it strengthens the resolve of most people to prove that nature cannot boss them around. Refusing to be confined to the cold walls of their homes, the public headed off to the city centre to sample the taste of Sheffield and its surrounding countryside.

We went early on the Monday, when after two days of tireless downpour which created deep puddles of rain along our path down the hill, we had a short respite. But this still came with a warning from forecasters that showers may slip through the grey skies depending on wind direction, something I never understood but that which my husband has a geek-like knowledge of.

We got off the tram from the City Hall stop and walked towards the town hall where a couple of  girls in vintage clothes manning a sweet station in a stall with Union Jack buntings, created a nostalgic impression of Old England. A makeshift farm has also been set-up to advertise a local farm complete with an impressive tractor and a friendly pony to pat. For little children who preferred much smaller animals, there were chicken coops too and a scarecrow in what looks like a backyard. At the garden stalls, we couldn't resist the aromatic smell of rosemary and bought a tin pot for our kitchen window.

We followed the festival map to the Peace Gardens and then towards the bottom of the moor. Lines of stalls were set up where local restaurants served their delectable cuisines, independent shops peddled their goods and health awareness groups made their pitch to anyone who listened. There were also crowd drawers like Madame Zucchini and her talking vegetables whose audience are young impressionable children being encouraged to eat their greens while the Great British bake-offs were a hit with the older masses.

We queued for lunch at a popular Greek stall, mixing it with a Caribbean meal and then sat at one of the newly erected seats along The Moor with background music playing while taking in the changes that are taking place in this once shabby part of town that is now showing signs of regeneration starting with the opening of the new Moor Market (which disappointingly showed very little enterprising spirit by choosing to close for the event).

With full stomachs and plenty of newly gained knowledge about food wastes and healthy eating, we headed back home. Rain did not fall that day, we were lucky after all.