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It was bright. It was sunny. It was the day the Tour of Britain (cycling, for those not in the know) was coming to Norfolk.  Tour of Britain, combined with the Norfolk Food Festival at the Norfolk Showground?  It was like I’d died and gone to heaven.

Getting in was easy, no crowds, it was fairly early to be sure.  But then it was only 10.30am, and the cyclists didnt arrive until 3pm………   So I had plenty of time.   The main arena was stuffed with stalls and I was in my element.  After a swift circuit I watched the delightful Richard Hughes The Lavender House (surely one of the best places to eat in England and certainly my favourite in Norfolk) who was  making Empanadas but filled with a very un-Spanish FruitPig black pudding, apples and Mrs Temple’s piquant Binham Blue.  I tell you they were divine. All made in an hour including the dough.

The the long leisurely trawl round the artisan stalls.  Some women trawl for handbags and shoes.  I do that aswell, but never more pleasurable trawling to be had, than searching for good local ingredients and provendors.

EthnicFusion had an amazing array of pakoras, lamb and vegetairan samosas and onion bhaji’s.  That was lunch taken care of then! Samphire Foods are breeders of rare breed pigs and have a smallholding just up the road from me.  Their pork pies were selling like hot cakes (sorry for the mixed metaphor) and according to Giles Coren are the best you can buy.  Their smallholding is generally open one day a year in September and always worth a visit.  Years ago Don Lear used to sell cars in Diss. I bought one from him once.  But he has built up a fabulous business BhajiMan providing premixed spices and ‘recipes in a box’.  I have been known to throw together onion bhajis in an instant using his brilliant mix of gramflour and spices.  Gorgeous. He was doing a roaring trade – more than once I have thought what a brilliant business idea that is Don.

CrushFoods had a beautiful stall with their full range of cold pressed rape seed oils, dressings and grains and First Thyme had such a simple idea – cordials for kids made from chamomile, or raspberry or rosehip and hibiscus with no added sugar or preservatives. They looked so good I drank one myself.  Gorgeous.

I could go on and on of course but not without mentioning my favourite stand Little Melton Gourmet Yogurts  This stand was overwhelmed with visitors and it wasnt hard to see why.  Gorgeous thick creamy yogurt, sliced through with passionfruit, or lemon curd, blueberry or honey, mango or pear.  They sold out by the end of the day.

In between I watched the cycling. Of course the anticipation was wonderful, sadly Cavendish fell off at the entrance to the showground and limped home looking rather grumpy, battered and torn; and I saw the lean mean machine with is Wiggins, louche and willowy coming into the home run.  Magnificent summer for cycling.

But why was Little Melton Yogurt my favourite?  Well I had bought the (literally) last pot of passion fruit as I left for the car park.  It was literally park. Gridlock. Easy to get in, getting out was more problematic.  It took me 1.5 hours to exit the showground by which time I was famished.  And very hot.  So the gorgeous pot of passionfruit infused yogurt was sitting in my bag as,getting nowhere fast, I thrummed the steering wheel with my fingers, impatiently trying to ignore the lure of the cool, creamy, luscious delight.  No use!  After 30 minutes I had to have it – off came the lid. Damn. No spoon.  In went the forefinger and I ate it all. In the glaring sun. In the queue of traffic. All by myself.   Yummy!

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Wymondham Farmer’s Market, third Saturday in the month,  is a non-negotiable date in my calendar. There’s something so seductive about getting there early, wandering up the quiet back streets, baskets idly dangling off my fingers, smelling coffee brewing in the cafe’s,  wondering what will be there to tempt and delight. This Saturday was no exception.

Exceptionally hot it was, 26C at 08.45, I pretended I was in Spain and fantasized about white peaches, giant tomatoes ripe for baking, toppling piles of broad beans, garlic and onions. As always, Wymondham FM delights (though no white peaches or broad beans).  Instead I went straight to the Fielding Cottage stall – full of goat.  Not an insult, definitely a compliment!  Andy and Helen were there with their hard cured goats cheese, and the wonderful soft feta-like cheese which I crumble into a plateful of salad, shoots, seeds and beetroot.  Their famous Billy Burgers are also fabulous, well seasoned and moist – believe me they are divine.  We had a quick conversation, took photos and a lovely invitation to develop some goat recipes. Already my brain is mulling this over – I’m thinking curry goat, or braised goat leg with aromatic oregano cooked like Kleftiko with a chunk of feta in the juices and finished off with a squeeze of lemon juice, or a rich tagine with prunes and almonds. www.fieldingcottage.co.uk

Only two steps to the right to Pye Bakery and their stall which groans under the weight of delicious breads and pizza heavy with herbs and olives.  I have my eye on an aromatic loaf of rye bread and a plump round focaccia studded with rosemary are carefully laid in the basket. And my favourite, wholewheat with caraway. Yummy  (with feta, or a soft terrine of rabbit and pistachio with quince chutney on the side). Anyway, two of those please. www.pyebaker.co.uk

Then it’s over to see Tim at MacaronsandMore. You might remember Tim as a finalist in Masterchef. My only claim to fame there is that I know his dad! Tim is King of all things patisserie but in particular his macarons, and my mouth was already watering in anticipation of macarons at tea time – luckily Jane and Dave were staying so I could indulge in a box of 12.  Consider this:  violet and blackcurrant, praline, salt caramel (my favourite), lemon, passion fruit and milk chocolate, gingerbread and chocolate, all in a lovely box, sitting in your fridge just waiting for tea-time.  Torture!  Tim and I chatted about cooking business and cookery writing – watch this space on that one.  Lucky for you, Tim does mail order www.macaronsandmore.com

Those were my three favourite food stalls on Saturday, but I just had to whizz over to the plant stall, full of succulents and tropicals as well as beautiful species geraniums and pelargoniums. Many of which have luxuriated in my courtyard for a few years. But I was tempted by a Fatsia and a Sinocrassula yunnanensis .

Saturday started well – farmer’s markets rule!

Don’t you just love week-ends where everything just seems to fall into place?  The sun shone, it was hot. We went to the beach in Gorleston. We hadn’t planned to go to the beach but we ended up meeting friends,  going to their dinky little house right by the sea for the first time, imagining what it would be like to smell the sea, hear the sea, wander by the sea every day. We drank tea on a beach full of families in various states of dress and undress and sometimes in-between, shuffling undergarments on and off under inadequate towels, people calling out to one another, shaking sand from clothes, rolling up wet swimming gear  and stowing it in bags; swimmers and body-boarders, sailors and snorkellers.  After a long walk and a long companionable talk, back for another cuppa and then to Gt Yarmouth – memories of childhood holidays, the push-penny arcade games, the neon lights, the clip-clop of horses up and down the prom. The fish and chips at the Las Palmas fish and chip restaurant were divine; hot, fresh, crisp and soaked in vinegar. Violently green mushy peas.  Simply wonderful. Then on to the Hippodrome Circus – just as I remembered it aged 9, lights, music, laughter, high wire acts, synchronised swimming. It was 1962 all over again!

A leisurely drive to Rumburgh Buck to have lunch with Dinah today reminded me of the wonderful Rumburgh Rollicks of 25 years ago, cooking up vegetable curry by the vat load as part of the Beano’s contribution to the Rollick. Then setting up stall, cooking on a Primus stove selling veg curry in pitta bread for a quid.  Those were the days…………  lines of people waiting for our food and reminding us to ‘come back next year’.

Beano’s was a wholefood shop ahead of its time in Harleston, where you could buy the complete range of #wholefoods sold in Rainbow (but in Harleston – where there was only one bus  a day to Norwich); and Pete’s bread (as everyone knew it) – made in Metfield  and delivered by van every morning but Monday.  One delightful customer would come in every Monday and raise merry hell because there was no bread, he became known as the no-bread-on-Monday man.  Well truth to tell he was known as something much less flattering and definitely not PC so I am not prepared to commit it to the page!

We would hand bag all the produce, have disasters with bulk-buys of concentrated apple juice, fall over laughing at the labels produced by the gorgeous and dyslexic YOT girl, and cook up a storm every day on a two ring stove and a small oven.  Marion and David were pioneers. Happy happy days.