Food Glorious Food

The 4th Annual Malton Food Festival took place over the 19th and 20th May. 

It was a really good afternoon with lots of fun for all the family. 

First stop for us was The Pizza Farm - fresh stone-baked pizza made in front of your eyes. Littlemiss9 was mesmerised by the whole process - from the lady that took our order, to the guy that made the bases, another that sorted our toppings and finally the gentleman above that cooked our lunch. And it tasted extremely yummy - hope they are able to visit us here one day.

We had a list of products that we needed to re-stock and The Chilli Jam Man was first on this list. We have enjoyed many of the Chilli Jams and the Jammonaise is a family favourite. Click here to visit his website for online ordering or to find out where he will be next.

There was allsorts going on - the Welcome to Yorkshire Taste Trail went down really well with us all - chocolate and ice-cream for the kids, pigeon, beef and crab for the parents. It was also great to see Dee Marshall, Gary Verity, Sarah Barrowby and Janet Deacon from Welcome to Yorkshire and Craig Nattress looked fab in his pinny!

Y12

Seems we've gone through all seasons since I was sat in the garden writing the last blog. Sun, sleet, wind and rain - we've had them all - but thankfully no snow.

Its been a busy few days since my last blog. On Wednesday I attended Welcome to Yorkshire's Y12 conference at the Barbican Centre with over 1100 others wondering what the year had in store for us.

The chat show style event was hosted by Rob Walker (may have to start watching the snooker now) with guests Gary Verity - Chief Exec for Welcome to Yorkshire, John Penrose MP - Minster for Tourism, Mike Finnigan and a couple of llamas.

The day is always very inspiring and this year was no different. Gary and his team have a lot planned for Yorkshire:

• Back le Bid - A bid for the 2016 Tour de France to start in Yorkshire. You can help by backing le bid at www.yorkshire.com/backthebid
• "On Ilkla Moor Bah't'at" Rap
• Product Placement in Emmerdale
• Bronte's Yorkshire Garden at Chelsea

The finale was emotional for everyone attending. The first champions of Yorkshire "The Yorkshire Regiment" were welcomed onto the stage to collect their Y badges with a standing ovation and a few tears from Row B.

 



Disney v. Yorkshire

216 million visits to Yorkshire are made every year, equivalent to the total number of visitors to Walt Disney Attraction Theme Parks worldwide.

(Top 10 Amusement/Theme Park Attraction Chains - World (2008)).

Having listened to Gary Verity, Chief Executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, use a similar quote to the one above at an event at Scarborough Spa I started the think of the comparisons between Yorkshire and Walt Disney World Parks.

The first comparison is that our family love both! We are all very proud Yorkshire folk but are huge Disney fans – as Twitter followers will know – and it has been described as our second home.

So where is Yorkshire’s Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney Studios and Animal Kingdom? We don’t have the weather that WDW Florida has but I’m sure that Disneyland Paris has very similar weather to us – it was absolutely freezing when we went that’s for sure.

There are no theme parks in this country that come close to the magic of Disney yet Flamingoland, 15 minutes drive away from us, has Mumbo Jumbo so those wanting the thrills of fast rides etc can still find them in Yorkshire. Flamingoland still needs an "Its a Small World" ride but if you go close to Little Monster's Den of Mischief you will hear a tune equally as irritable and one which will stay in your head all day.

Epcot's World Showcase shows the diversity of different countries around the world - Yorkshire has just as much diversity within one county - who needs to go right around the world! We have the Dales, the Moors, the Coast, the Cities and alot closer to home, the Howardian Hills - this county has something for everyone.

Free entry into the National Media Museum makes it alot cheaper than Disney Studios and you don't need an aeroplane to get there. And with so many film and television locations dotted around Yorkshire you really could become part of the action. Check out this you-tube clip if you don't believe me!

Yorkshire Wildlife Park doesn't have quite the same "Tree of Life" as Disney's Animal Kingdom has but I'm sure if you looked in some of our forestry's you may find something that comes close.

All Yorkshire needs is Minnie, Mickey, Pluto, Goofy, Donald and some more of the Disney characters........but I'm sure that Gary Verity and his team could slot themselves into some of those roles.

Another finalist placing!

What a week it has been! Firstly the downs - its accounts time again and with two other parks to take in as well its a long process!

However, the huge up of the week came yesterday when we found out we were finalists in the Pride of Malton & Norton Awards for Customer Service - we have improved our customer service procedures massively over the last 12 months and the changes are obviously paying off. Firstly with a nomination in the Visit York Awards and now this, in our local awards. The finalist placings are certainly spurring us into thinking about entering this years White Rose Awards - the elite of the awards for tourism in our county.

Over the winter both of us took a course with Welcome to Yorkshire called Yorkshire Pride. Susie Brindley and Kim Broderick led the course all about welcoming our guests, how we could help ensure our guests had a great time and discussed ways of building lasting relationships with our guests - it was great, superbly delivered and it was great to meet other people within our industry.

The other bonus from the course is that we both received our little green Y badges. The larger Y badges which you may have seen are reserved for the Yorkshire Patrons - a group of approx. 300 influential business leaders and celebrities taking the Yorkshire message to a global audience. We are both immensely proud of being "Yorkshire Folk" so to be able to wear our little badges is a great honour.