Visit the Oaklands Pop Up Farm at St Albans Food & Drink Festival

ST ALBANS — Staff at Oaklands College will be rallying troops and four legged friends to make an appearance at the ninth annual St Albans Food and Drink Festival taking place in the city centre this weekend.

The College will be hosting two events – a Pop-Up Farm and Butchery Demonstrations on the Festival’s last day taking place this Sunday, 2nd October, the St Albans Street Finale.

The Pop-Up Farm will host a mix of the colleges bred and reared sheep, pigs and goats outside the Alban Arena.  The College’s master butcher from Hospitality & Catering will also be holding demonstrations to educate people on where their meat comes from, and wowing the crowds with his knife skills and showing how to prepare and cook meat at home.

Held from 25th September to 3rd October, the festival celebrates craft, diversity and creation of food across our district, exhibiting over 100 food and drink producers, with demonstrations and expert chefs to welcome the expected 12,000 strong crowd.

The College’s Pop-Up Farm will be located just in front of the Alban Arena from 12-6pm, nestled amongst the flow over the overall festival which includes a Pop-Up Village Green, Chef’s Theatre, Culinary Academy and Dliveroo Stage and more. All of Oaklands farm animals are cared for by the College Farm Manager and Agriculture students, with access to outdoor space in over 500 acres of land at the college’s site in Hatfield Road.

There will be a separate enclosed tent on St Peters Street housing the Butchery Demonstrations at 12.30pm and 2.30pm to showcase the skills of a master butcher and give visitors the chance to buy the meat, which is reared at the College in St Albans and also served in the campus’ open restaurant The Stables. The focus for the demonstration is education on where your meat comes from and understanding how to respect the animal fully by ensuring nothing goes to waste.

Oaklands Chef Lecturer and master butcher Kevin Speed said: “Our farm animals are reared with great care at Oaklands and we take care to ensure the best respect for the animal at every stage of its life. These demonstrations are an essential education to realise that the products we buy were not born and bred on a supermarket shelf. By sharing our expert knowledge, we can help people understand and appreciate the true value of their meat at home.”