Here we are again! Another buzzing Allergy and FreeFrom Show in the Grand Hall at Olympia.
And here is Catherine Rose – baker of amazing gluten-free Sweetcheeks goodies and FFFood Awards-judging-week-cook – doing a stint for us on the stand on Saturday.
(Catherine, by the way, is keen to share the experienced gained in running a freefrom bakery and café with anyone wanting to do something similar so if you need some advice – ‘consult her’!)
Down the other end of the stand Kirsty Mawhinney, ‘the new face of the FreeFrom Skincare Awards’, was busy talking to show visitors wanting to know all about this years’ FreeFrom Skincare Awards winners, all of whom had been announced on Friday afternoon.
And, if you had really wanted to be there for the presentation but missed it, all is not lost! You can find all the winners on the SkinAwards site here plus a video of the whole presentation. And if you want to learn more about Kirsty and why she was keen to work with us in the FreeFrom Skincare Awards, then you can watch a short video interview with her here on the site.
And the middle of the stand were Cressida and Alex – looking silly…
To be fair, this was late on Sunday afternoon – and they had been working hard all weekend. You can see how hard Cressida had worked from her amazing report of all the new goodies she found. And any of you who Tweet will know that Alex’s fingers were winging it on Friday afternoon as he live-tweeted all of the Skincare Awards winners as they were announced!
Well, so much for us – but what of elsewhere in Olympia?….. Well, a lot of green……. This is the Mobile Massage team who, thank goodness, are to be found at all Allergy Shows – exactly what one needs after a long day slogging it out on the stands!
While this was an irresistible squishy green toy whose eyes popped out at you when you squeezed him – on the Juvela stand.
Juvela were launching a new range of ‘on the go’ snacks – Good’n’Go including a gluten-free Ryvita look-a-like, a cereal bar and some interesting fruit smoothie pouches – similar to the ones that have been such a hit for babies with the Ella’s Kitchen range but these ones for ‘growns’ and bulked up with gluten-free oats so as to be a bit more of a meal. Question is – will you get a squishy toy with each pouch?….
Also lots of green to be seen on this very jolly pea protein stand. Well, actually it was not just protein from peas but from goats and sheep, and cocoa and bananas. Or was that just the flavours? Now I am confused. For more, check in to the Nutristrength site.
And then there was the yellow contingent……..
Oomi’s high proteins noodles made from fish protein, Silver award winners in the 2017 FreeFrom Food Awards Innovation category.
And just across the aisle, the Nomad Health family – makers of those excellent gluten-free seed based pastas. (For the story of how they came to make their pasta see here on the FoodsMatter site.) Marianne and Keith launched their millet, quinoa, sorghum, flaxseed, sesame and green banana flour pasta at the Allergy Show last year and all had been going really well until Keith suffered a major heart attack a few months ago.
So we were delighted to see him at the show, if taking it a bit easy on a stool! However, to help out Marianne and bought her mum and brother from Hungary both of whom, without a word of English, were doing a sterling job handing out leaflets and pasta samples!
So, what else? A blogger’s get-together organised by the Allergy Show’s Robbyn – voted a success by all although they would have like more time to chat. Maybe a breakfast meeting next year?
Lots of on-going activity in the Doves Farm kitchen – doesn’t it look great in the late afternoon sun? Including the morning workout and the regular round the table discussion sessions with Doves Farm founders, Claire and Michael Marriage.
A queue for the freebie goodie bags which stretched half way round the show; some very crowded aisles around 1pm, some pretty well behaved children (and some less than well-behaved adults!!) and a lot of people on wheels of one kind another.
This granny was positively scary as she was not going to be stopped….
Elsewhere, and as always at Allergy and FreeFrom shows, lots of really interesting new products whether in the green freefrom area, the pink Just V veggie section, the peacock Love Natural Love You skincare section or the new, cool, black Eat Smart section. Lots of buzz, lots of very interested visitors.
And – to our huge satisfaction, a great many bright yellow FreeFrom Food Awards roundels gracing the stands. It is great to see how many people from Tesco and Asda down to the smallest start-ups are taking part. Well, we did have over 350 people to the Food Awards party last year!!
Anyhow, another excellent weekend – thank you Allergy Show. Plenty of new contacts, lots of very sore feet, lots of sample to try – and now we can all head for home on the lovely Doves Farm bike! And no – I don’t quite know what it was doing hanging on the wall of their stand either, but it did look cute!!
