Local Food Producers in Newcastle

Unfortunately I missed the Spring Graze market organised by Anna Hedworth (@the_grazer). I’d really enjoyed Autumn Graze, and Spring Graze was set to be much bigger, so I was most upset I had to stay inside and revise. I would have much rather spent my time browsing lots of delectable local food produce stalls. I was driven mad by tweets about Spring Graze so decided I needed to make up for missing it somehow.

There were lots of foods I wanted to try and, due to me returning home to Warwickshire until September, not much time for me to get my hands on them. The first ever Tynemouth Food Festival followed Spring Graze by five days. This gave me the perfect opportunity to get my hands on most of the goodies I wanted, but not all. In a space of five days I visited Grainger Market for macaroons and pizza, Tynemouth Food Festival for cupcakes, popcorn, soup and chocolate and The Quayside Market for fudge.  

Grainger Market

French Oven:

I was genuinely shocked I hadn’t made any purchases from French Oven before now after discovering where it was. I spend a considerable amount of time wandering around Grainger Market yet it had managed to go unnoticed.  The beauty of twitter and other people’s food blogs is that you’re constantly being made aware of food producers that you haven’t heard of before. After seeing tweets of pictures of French Oven’s brightly coloured macaroons I decided I just HAD to try some. I bought eight on Wednesday and five on Friday. Individual macaroons are £1 or you can buy eight for £6.

I have now tasted the following (in order of favourite to least favourite) – chocolate ganache, salted caramel, coconut, mocha, apple, orange, peach and blackcurrant.

I did reserve some vanilla, lavender and gold leaf macaroons via twitter. When I went to pick them up on Friday afternoon, as agreed, they weren’t ready so I said I’d go back on Saturday instead. I went back on Saturday afternoon to find they still weren’t there. I was really disappointed as I’d made two special trips to pick them up. As tasty as French Oven’s macaroons may be I won’t be buying anymore due to the fact that I had no apology or given reason, the second time around, for the macaroons not being there for me.

Pizza by the Slice:

If you love pizza then you need to head to aisle four in Grainger Market. Pizza by the Slice sells traditionally cooked pizza that’s as close as you’ll get to Italian pizza in Newcastle without actually flying to Italy. The slices of pizza are humongous! I went for a classic slice of Margherita. It was just simply; dough, tomato, cheese and herbs. Unbelievably tasty pizza and it only cost me £1.70. What a bargain! I can’t wait to go back and try another slice!

Tynemouth Food Festival (http://www.tynemouthfoodfestival.co.uk/)

Pet Lamb Patisserie:

I’ve been following Katie Deacon (@Katie_Cakes) on Twitter for a while now. I’m not usually a huge fan of cupcakes. However, after browsing through her blog I became fascinated by some of the cupcakes she bakes. I was particularly intrigued by her Gin and Tonic cupcake. I’ve been dying to eat one of her cupcakes instead of drool over them. The Pet Lamb Girls (Katie and her friend Kay) had a stall at Tynemouth Food Festival so I took advantage and I brought four for £5, not a bad deal! I brought; oreo, peanut butter and chocolate, lemon and blueberry and white chocolate and raspberry. Every single one was delicious. But, I have to say my favourite cupcake was the chocolate and peanut butter. The sponge was just deliciously light and moist. I think they were, hands down, the nicest cupcakes I have ever had the pleasure of eating. They also come in really cute little personalised boxes.

Corn Again Popcorn:

I have become very fond of Corn Again. I first saw them at Autumn Graze where Tegan purchased a bag of their Fennel and Chilli popcorn for her brother. I’ve been following them on Twitter and they were kind enough to tweet me a link to a blog called 'The Language of Food' which has inspired the idea behind my English Language Dissertation which I will be researching and writing come September. I was lucky enough to come across them again at The Tynemouth Food Festival. I purchased a bag of their Salty Sweet Popcorn. I’m usually a sweet popcorn kind of girl. However, this popcorn is different and perfect for someone who loves both and can never decide. You bite into a piece of it and aren’t sure whether you’re going to taste the sweetness or the saltiness first. The majority of the time the sweetness kicked in first and the saltiness after but every piece is different. It’s extremely addictive. I demolished a whole bag to myself in quite a short period of time. I really wish I’d brought more than one bag! Sod cinema popcorn! You should stock up on Corn Again Popcorn and smuggle a bag into the cinema every time you go.

Their other flavours include; chilli and lime, garlic and herb (which are both alternatives to nibbles such as crisps and nuts) and sweet cinnamon spice (a perfect wintery popcorn to accompany Christmas movies in front of the fire).

Soupie Face:

Soupie Face was another person I started following on Twitter recently. After finding out she had a stall at Tynemouth Food Festival I was looking forward to trying some of her soup. Soup can sometimes get a bit boring but her flavours are a bit different. She’d recommended I tried the Daal so I purchased a tub and had it for my lunch later on in the week. It was really tasty and had a subtle heat to it. They’re healthy and taste deliciously fresh and flavoursome. As she said herself, you should always have a tub of Soupie Face in the freezer for a rainy day! 


Her flavours include; Mediterranean Vegetable and Cheese, Lentil and Tomato, Fiery Dansak Vegetable, Malaysian Butternut Squash, Sweet Chilli Carrot and Lentil and Northumbrian Leek and Lentil. Soupie face is at the Quayside Market most Sundays so get down there and grab a tub!

Cuddy Duck Chocolate:

I’d again, first seen Cuddy Duck Chocolate at Autumn Graze and had been following them on Twitter ever since then. I brought a small bar of their caramel and sea salt chocolate at Tynemouth Food Festival. Put it this way, I wish I’d brought a bigger bar! It ended far too quickly. What gorgeous chocolate. Forget Cadbury or Galaxy, when in need of a chocolate fix you need a bar of Cuddy Duck! I also tasted some of their chilli fudge which was really interesting. You could taste the creaminess of the fudge then all of a sudden you got a little kick from the chilli. They also make fresh cream truffles. I will definitely be stocking up next time I come across them.

The Quayside Market

Lakeland Fudge:

You can find Lakeland Fudge at the Quayside Market on a Sunday. They produce home-made fudge in the Lake District. They have an extensive range of flavours of which I could have bought so many. To name a few, that day they were selling; banoffee, vanilla honeycomb, baileys, amaretto and rocky road and that doesn’t even cover half of the flavours they had on offer! However, I settled on classic Rum and Raisin, a favourite of mine, and something I’d not seen before which was Lemon Meringue. They were £2.25 a slice which I didn’t think was unreasonable as they were decent size slices. My facial expression, along with a huge mmm, said it all when I put a piece of each flavour of fudge in my mouth. I can honestly say it’s the nicest fudge I have ever tasted, especially the Rum and Raisin. It’s smooth and creamy but not sickly. It is just utterly moreish. I was meant to be eating a little piece each day in order to savour it but by the second day I just had to eat the lot because it was just exceptional fudge.