THE North-East's first garlic festival, featuring local produce, will be held at a hamlet this weekend.

Businessman Ant Pelly has begun growing organic garlic at his smallholding at Snods Edge, on the border of County Durham and Northumberland, near Consett

To celebrate the first harvest, some of the crop will be on show along with a wide range of other food grown locally.

Mr Pelly, 49, imported 4,000 cloves from a supplier in Colorado who had collected garlic from all over the world and began growing in an organic field to see which would thrive the most in the North-East climate.

Nearly all of them flourished, but the best for consistency was a Canadian variety called Music, a large clove with pink skin.

The thirty-seven strains have exotic names such as Nootka Rose, Persian Star, and Mr Pelly's favourite, Jumbo Elephant.

He said: "The festival will be a showcase displaying the range of garlic anyone can grow but it will also be a celebration of the top quality food that is produced in this part of the world.

"We're delighted that the region's top chef, Terry Laybourne, will perform the opening ceremony. I'm hoping this will become an annual event."

The show will also feature organic beef and lamb, wine, fish and produce that can be made using garlic, including cheese, beer and even ice cream.

It will be held in St John's Church Hall, Snods Edge, which is on the B6278 between Shotley Bridge and the A68, between 11am and 5pm on Saturday and Sunday.