Plenty for foodies at Bury Christmas Fayre

Food and drink play a big part in the celebration of Christmas, so it is not surprising that there is plenty to tickle your taste buds during this week’s Bury St Edmunds Christmas Fayre.

With about 70 per cent of the 300 stalls coming from East Anglia, most of the food and drink is locally sourced.

Greene King is not only sponsoring a stage, but serving its Bury brewed beers, while Branston Pickle, long made in Bury, will be handing out free samples on Saturday and Sunday.

Perhaps that will go nicely with the wide range of cheeses from East Anglia, Lincolnshire (look out for Lincolnshire Poacher cheddar) and further afield – the popular Normandy cheese lorry has booked a pitch again this year.

Bury’s renown provisions market, normally held on a Wednesday and Saturday, will be there Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so you will see many of the regular food stallholders there.

But on top of that, Sunday sees a farmers’ market at the Palmer’s end of Buttermarket.

As usual, there will be a concentration of small food stalls in the Abbey Gardens with many fayre regulars.

But there are also some newcomers: look out for the Ely Fudge Company and seasonal sounding cranberry vodka.

Chocoholics can overdose quite easily, whether it’s on artisan chocolates or a mug of Bailey’s hot chocolate.

This year, organic chocolate makers Green & Black will have its multicoloured classic Berliot van there on Friday when it teams up with Rede Hall Farm’s Friendly Loaf Company to create an special bread and butter pudding using freshly baked St Edmunds’ buns with a chocolate twist.

If you are hungry but do not want to stop for a meal in the comfort of one of Bury’s huge variety of restaurants, there is plenty of street food on sale.

As well as the provisions market’s usual burgers and bacon butties, not to mention Thai, Indian and vegetarian, you’ll find almost every breed of sausage from home grown Suffolk ones to bratwurst, plus hogroast or, if you fancy a sweeter snack, the Belgian-style waffles.

The fayre starts at 4pm on Thursday and is on all day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

For the full fayre programme visit www.burystedmundschristmasfayre.co.uk