This weekend, there will be hot chef and oyster shucking competitions, along with master classes, demonstrations, live music and food stalls in Falmouth.
This year’s Falmouth Oyster Festival will open with award-winning chef owner of St Tudy Inn, Emily Scott, on Thursday 10th October. This will be followed by Nick Batten and Ashley Carkeet hosting a demonstration at Cornwall College’s catering faculty. Matt Slater, a Marine Awareness Officer from Cornwall Wildlife Trust will return to talk about seafood sustainability, joined by Guy Owen from the Idle Rocks, St Mawes.
Friday’s events will include Annie Sibert’s fish cookery master class, wine tasting, the Hot Chef challenge and a Grand Oyster Parade, as well as arts, crafts, local produce and food stalls.
On Saturday, the festival will see the return of George Morgan, from Falmouth’s Hooked on the Rocks overlooking Swanpool Beach. Head Chef George focuses on using the best quality, locally sourced and most sustainable fish in his cooking, combined with locally grown veg and foraged sea herbs.
In the afternoon, the Oyster Shucking Competition will take place, as well as more live music and food offerings.
Sunday morning welcomes newcomer Jasmine Martin from Daaku, Penryn, who promises ancient flavours of Indian cuisine combined with seasonal Cornish produce. Other entertainment will include the Falmouth Working Boat Race, a Sea Shanty Sunday Roast and Cornish singers The Oggymen.
For more than a century, Cornish families have derived their livelihood from oyster dredging in the Carrick Roads and surrounding rivers. Many of the oyster boats, known as Falmouth Working Boats were built in boatyards around the Fal, with some of the oldest dating back as far as 1860.
Governed by ancient laws that were put in place to protect the natural ecology of the riverbeds and oyster stock, oystermen fishing in the Port of Truro Oyster Fishery are prohibited from using engines. Instead, sail power and hand-pulled dredges must be used. This is the only oyster fishery in Europe, where such traditional methods must be used.
Falmouth Oyster Festival began in 1996 and celebrates the start of the oyster season, which runs from October to March. The festival is a great event for oyster, seafood and maritime heritage enthusiasts.
When: 10th – 13th October 2019
Where: Events Square, Falmouth
£: Daytime events are free
More info: falmouthoysterfestival.co.uk