Fest.

The official opening will be held on Friday at Trentham Mechanics Hall from 7pm and the festival will run for three

days.

The event will include displays at the Mechanics Hall from 10am to 4pm, cooking competitions, tours and other

activities.

There's an event for kids to make-believe they are potato farmers and a bus tour of historic, long-abandoned

potato sheds.

The huts were once used by itinerant workers who followed the spud season, hand-digging the fields by day and

sleeping in rough hand-built shelters at night.

The Cooking with Spud competition will be judged on Saturday afternoon.

June English, 78, will enter her apple pie with potato pastry and a chocolate potato pudding.

Originally from Yorkshire, June came to Trentham just 10 years ago.

"Potatoes have played an essential part in the settlement of this area and it's lovely to see them celebrated with

a festival," she said.

On Saturday night, there is a Neighbourhood House Dinner, where patrons are asked to bring along their favourite

potato dish.

Committee member Bob White said the event could become a yearly event.

"It depends on the success of this weekend. We hope to inject some money into the local economy," he said.

Another organiser, Gail Elliott, said the tastiest potato meal was a typical country slow-cooked meal.

"You steam the whole potatoes and then smash them so they become rough. You then add garlic and cheese and

bake them in a wood-fired oven. "They're called smash potatoes and they're just delicious," she said.

The Trentham area's eight major spud farmers will display and sell their potatoes over the weekend.

And Trentham's food businesses have joined the party and have all come up with a potato-based special for

Spudfest 08.

Details and bookings: Daylesford Information Centre on 5321 6123 business hours or 5424 1203 after hours.