Pictures: A taste of the good life at Ludlow Food Festival

In this its 21st year the festival has come of age, organisers say – but with imitators popping up all over the place in recent years, the weekend still holds its own.

Yesterday saw hotels, car parks and streets fill up as 20,000 visitors are expected through the gates of Ludlow Castle across the three days to sample Shropshire's finest food and drink.

One stalwart is Martin Millington, of Wroxeter Roman Vineyard, near Shrewsbury, who said his business and Hobson's Brewery, near Cleobury Mortimer, had attended every year since the festival began.

He said it gave him an overview, not just of how the festival had developed, but how visitors had become more food and drink-savvy across two decades.

He said: "We've got seven wines here out of the 16 we do and we've been asked some very pertinent questions about the growing of grapes and how the season's been this year. We're not just here to make the numbers up, we're here to educate people." Walter Griffiths, of Fordhall Organic Farm, near Market Drayton, was using the festival to unveil two new pies – a honey and mustard pork pie and a pork and Shropshire Blue cheese pie made with ale from Market Drayton's Joules Brewery.

"We do the festival every year and the pies always go down well," he said.

Meanwhile Aroma Tea and Coffee Merchants were enjoying their own sheltered "room" with a cafe amid the ruins of the castle, also selling loose tea and coffee beans ground to suit.

June Turner, who runs the Shrewsbury-based business with husband Andrew, said: "We're quite well tucked in here so if there is any bad weather we're immune to it."

She said they were supporting Severn Hospice with their pop-up cafe and Andrew had also been running workshops to show how raw coffee became a hot beverage, with those taking part getting to use a cappuccino-making machine.

Books were also being launched at the festival. One, Made in Shropshire, was produced with the input of festival director Beth Heath – with about 90 recipes from chefs and food producers in the county, many of them at the event.

The book has been produced with photographers Rebecca and Simon Wild and food and drink producer Jo Hilditch, who were behind its forerunner Made in Herefordshire.

Ms Heath said: "When I heard they wanted to a Shropshire one, I had to be involved."