In no particular order, those were just a few of the mouthwatering eatables on sale at the farmers' market at Mount Stuart on Saturday which formed the centrepiece of the 'eatBute08' food festival.

On a glorious, sun-kissed day, the tents and tables outside the Mount Stuart visitor centre were thronged with visitors eager to taste and buy the very best food and drink from Bute, Argyll and Arran - and almost all were so successful that they'd sold out and packed up for the journey home long before the event was due to finish.

But 'eatBute08' wasn't just about Saturday's farmers' market. On Friday there were guided tours of three of Bute's most successful food producers, the long-established Rothesay Creamery and the recent sensations that are Henshelwood's Fine Foods and the Green Tree Café; a Bute-only lunchtime menu for pupils and staff at the town's school campus, visited by a team of leading chefs, including TV star Nick Nairn; and a sumptuous dinner in Mount Stuart's marble hall on Friday evening for around 150 invited guests.

Opening the market on Saturday morning, Johnny Bute said: "I welcome everyone and also those of you who came to last night's dinner.

"We want to work with local producers on the island and throughout Argyll so we appreciate your support and we are grateful to primary sponsors First Milk."

Speaking exclusively to The Buteman before he performed the opening ceremony, Johnny said: "I want to safeguard farming on the island and, in order to ensure its long term future, we need to be promoting our produce on the island and to a wider market and to be working with the council to seek inward investment.

"I see today as a really positive event and I can confirm we are looking at an eatBute09. The support from the community has been really encouraging, as has been the support from the island's farmers."

Winding the clock back a bit, to Friday morning, a group of students from London's River Café toured the creamery, Bob and Lynn Henshelwood's Barone Road factory and the Green Tree Café, along with Alison Sykora from the Real Foods Consultancy and Alastair Dobson from A Taste of Arran.

At the creamery - which, as not everyone may realise, is open to visitors every Tuesday and Thursday between 1.30pm and 3.30pm - the party sampled several of the island's cheeses, including the new Isle of Bute Organic Mature, before moving on to the Henshelwoods' factory to see the production processes behind the company's tremendous range of pickles, chutneys, mustards and jams, and to the Green Tree Café for lunch and a final sample of some of Bute's best.

At the same time, primary and secondary pupils and staff at the Townhead campus were sitting down to a delicious all-Bute lunchtime menu, supplied by the Electric Bakery, the Henshelwoods, Loch Fad Fisheries, Ninian and Rhona McAlister, Alexander McIntyre, Robert Macintyre, Ritchie's fishmonger and Rothesay Creamery - all of it inspected approvingly by the team of top chefs whose visit to the school features on this week's front page. We can particularly vouch for the baked Loch Fad trout with pepper topping!

Then, with not a thought for our rapidly expanding waistline, we hot-footed it to Mount Stuart on Friday evening for the eatBute08 gala dinner, produced by three of the top chefs who had visited the campus earlier in the day - Skye Gyngell, Rory O'Connell and Jeremy Lee, with not inconsiderable help from Kenneth Gray and Patrick Clampett.

The assembled company were given a welcome speech by Johnny Bute himself, before guest speakers Hugh Raven of the Soil Association and newspaper editor, columnist, rambler and Gordon Ramsay nemesis Janet Street-Porter provided entertaining and insightful food for thought.

And on Saturday it was back to Mount Stuart for the farmers' market and the opportunity to buy armfuls of 'tucker' produced on and off the island and to hear the thoughts of several of those involved in turning the idea into reality.

Jessica Herriot, whose feasibility study on Bute produce paved the way for the event, said: "It is great to see the local market garden scheme. I'm really happy with the response, and the whole event is a good showcase - and I'm sure the monthly markets at Mill Cottage will keep up the impetus."

Argyll and Bute councillor Robert Macintyre, armed with handfuls of free-range eggs from his farm at Dunallan, summed up the surroundings aptly as "perfect weather in a perfect setting".

For the impartial view of things from someone who was involved but didn't have any food to sell, we spoke to Graeme Fletcher of the Cowal firm Tents and Events, which supplied the marquees for the day.

"In my experience of events I always try to judge the feel of things," Graeme told us, "and this feels just right. Everything seems to click into place."

During the day children and adults alike enjoyed the entertainment provided by wandering pipers Gaita Vadia and dancers Kurents, who gave an eastern European interpretation of mummery and the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

By mid afternoon many of the stall holders had sold out, and we spoke to Brian Hill of the Plan Farm as proceedings drew to a close

"You've already heard all the superlatives," Brian said with a smile. "I'm just looking forward to next year."

And lest anyone involved should be tempted to rest on their laurels and bask in the success of eatBute08, we finish with the challenge issued by Alastair Dobson, who acted as one of the advisers for the event and whose Taste of Arran success has established a blueprint Bute is keen to follow.

"This is a good start but it needs vision to make it work," he said.

"What happens when there is no market? I think Bute and Arran should work together in the future."