The Waterford Harvest Festival took place 10th – 16th September 2012 to celebrate the food heritage and culture in Waterford. A festival for food lovers everywhere, it was a modern twist on the traditional harvest celebrations and feasting period, with family events, cookery demonstrations, food tours, tastings, taste workshops, restaurants trails, markets, barbeques, street entertainment, live music and the world record attempt to make the biggest bowl of porridge!
All locals and tourists on their Ireland Vacations who were in the area to attend the festival were in for a real treat as Waterford boiled up over a tonne of oats in attempt to beat the previous world record set by the town of Tula in Russia, who cooked 865kg of porridge in 2011.
Organisers of the Waterford Harvest Festival were joined by Waterford City Council and local Irish porridge producers, Flahavan’s as they smashed the current record and cooked 1,380kg of porridge in a specially-made pot, measuring 1.4 metres in height and 1.7 metres in diameter that was heated by three large gas burners on the city’s quayside.
The bid began early and it took almost four hours to bring the water to the boil before the oatlets were added. Working in relay teams of seven, the cooks added 160kg of Flahavan’s Progress Oatlets that was weighed using cranes and scales before adding 50 litres of milk, stirring with huge paddles to create the world record breaking giant pot of porridge!