Isle of Wight Garlic Festival

Garlic makes everything better.
Or at least that's what I read somewhere once.
One of the Isle of Wight's biggest exports is garlic. It grows all over the island. Have you ever smelled wild garlic? It's heavenly.
Every year on the Isle of Wight, there's a festival dedicated entirely to garlic. There's a special garlic farm (with a rather spectacular restaurant) on the island, and they sell a load of their produce at the Garlic Festival.
There's also a wide variety of other island produce sold there, and I feel it's quite important to go and support the local businesses exhibiting.
So last weekend I took my little sister, Sarah, on a trip to the Garlic Festival.

There's a stage with loads of live acts, so we started our day chilling out on the field listening to music.

I then decided I was parched, so I made my way to the nearest bar...

It was pretty bloomin' windy, so after a few battles with our flyaway hair, we made a move.

We headed over to the funfair, but I didn't fancy breaking my camera and Sarah was too scared to go on any of the rides

We then thought we'd have a look at some cars and stuff...

But whilst we were looking around, I was accosted by a couple of Storm Troopers!

'Get down on the ground and put your hands behind your head, you know the drill!'

After that little fright, we took a wander over to the more food related stands...

I have a thing for really good chutneys and relishes.
And my God, the Garlic Farm do some of the best I've ever tasted. Our fridge at home is full of them. You can buy them from various farm shops around the country or from their website here.

Let me tell you now, their sweet chilli sauce is particularly good.

They do a whole range of garlicky goodies.
I sampled some of the garlic popcorn - it was surprisingly tasty and extremely moreish.

We continued wandering around for the rest of the day, enjoying the entertainment and eating good food.
I'd definitely recommend a visit to the Garlic Farm if you ever visit the Isle of Wight, and I really really think you should all make at least one purchase from their site - I promise you, you won't regret it!