fly agarics – extremely poisonous but pretty!
There is, it has to be said, a slight chill in the air. But this comes with all the lovely things associated with autumn so it’s not so bad – spectacular displays of burnished leaves, the excitement of lighting fires, the magical overnight arrival of toadstools and even the warm smell of welcome when you turn the heating on for the first time.
And then of course there’s the food – from the last crop of juicy blackberries which marry wonderfully well with the warming flavour of cardamon to the first sprouts of the season (sweet and tender they are a far cry from the overcooked grey mushballs of our childhoods).
And in Devon, like many areas of the country, one of the heralds of the cosy season is the liberal scattering of contemporary craft fairs across the county. Whilst nobody really wants to think about the thing that happens every year in the second half of December just yet it will be upon us before we know it, and so one of our favourite ways to ease our way gently into the inevitable maelstrom of festivities is to immerse ouselves in the craft fair timetable.
We’ve booked ourselves into four (so far). 
The first is the Tavistock Goose Fair on Wednesday 8 October. This is a very traditional fair that has evolved over the centuries away from the trading of livestock into a celebration of local businesses and family entertainment. We’ll be in the Butcher’s Hall all day (trying, but inevitably failing, to pace ourselves as we graze at the artisan food stalls around us).
The next one is on Sunday 20 October at Coldharbour Mill Museum in Uffculme. Coldharbour is a spectacular example of a Victorian woollen mill and is a great place to visit with the whole family – pop in to walk round the exhibits after you’ve finished shopping at the Craft Market.
Saturday 16 November will see us at the Sandford Craft Fair, a firm favourite in the artisan fair calendar. Always a lot of fun and we end up doing our own Christmas shopping there (it will be mid-November by then after all).
And on Saturday 14 December we’ll be decking the halls at Wonderworks in Jubilee Hall, Chagford. The tors of Dartmoor are just a granite stone’s throw away from Chagford and should be lovely and wintery by then so we’re looking forward to the full seasonal experience…
Hope you can join us!
