HAVE you not tried my sausages? - asked Dennis Spurr a touch accusingly.

I have to confess to Weymouth's most famous sausagemaker that I have not.

Still fairly new to the county, I am on a mission to acquaint myself with some classic Dorset dishes, and what better time to do so than at the beginning of Dorset Food Week?

As for Dennis's sausages, when the week is over, I will have no excuse not to have tried them.

"We're doing tastings outside the shop all week long to let people know what we do," said Dennis. "At the Tourist Information Centre there will be different flavours on offer every day for people to try from the Saturday to the following Friday."

Dennis's shop, the Fantastic Sausage Factory, can be found at 37 St Mary Street, Weymouth.

"All our sausages have got names like Tom Jones, the Beckham Bender and Hell's Angels," he explained. "We're doing one for Halloween called the Vampire Slayer. We sell more than a million sausages a year."

Dennis has spent his whole life making sausages. "I was taught by a Polish man in his 70s, 40 years ago," he said, "so some of the recipes are more than 100 years old. The sausages are made the old-fashioned way, they're all hand-made, not made by machines. We use pork from Somerset and we're very strict about what we're buying. We do not like a lot of fat in the meat; they're fairly lean."

Sausages are among the fare for which Dorset is famous. But what of the Dorset apple or, more potently, cider?

Penny Whatmoor, manager of the Mill House Cider Museum, Owermoigne, revealed: "On Wednesday, October 24 we'll have stalls and we will be making cider by hand and using straw.

"We've got a 19th century crusher; we put whole apples at the top and someone turns the handle, which is quite hard work.

"Then we shovel the pulp into the press with layers of straw. Then that's pressed down by turning the screw and the juice comes out. Then that is put into barrels and ferments into cider.

"This first bit we will do in a day. Then it takes from two to three months to ferment. We also advise people on how to make cider at home with windfalls."

She added: "There will be Dorset apple cake on sale and there will be felt-making demonstrations, face painting and a few little games."

The shop at Mill House sells more than 25 different types of cider, which come from all over the country.

"We do the demonstration once a year for the Dorset Food Week because that is when the apples are ready," said Penny. "For the rest of a year we show a video of the process."

As for the apples themselves, Penny explained: "We use whatever's available. Last year we had a lot of Yarlington Mill and a few Bramley and Cox's apples. Yarlington Mill is a great breed and Kingston Black is a good one too."

The sweet whiff of cider will also pervade, of all places, a bakery in Bridport.

"We will be doing all our Dorset specials for the food week," said Caroline Parkins of Leakers Bakery. "For example, the cheese and cider loaf - the cider is made locally in Chideock. When you go into the bakery when it's being made, it smells of cider.

"We're also doing Jurassic Slice, which is a cake with layers in it. It's a sponge with layers of caramel dotted with bits of apricot, date and chocolate, so they look like stones in among layers of rock, and then we drizzle caramel over it. We're also doing Dorset apple cake with apples from Elwell Fruit Farm, which is just about three miles out of Bridport, and made on the premises by Jo Leaker. Then there's Jurassic foot loaf, which is shaped like a foot and is a malted loaf with dates through it.

"We make lots of our own fillings for pasties such as chestnut and butternut squash and spinach, which is local and organic, and haricot beans with cheese and chilli, and a spicy bean pate and a vegetable curry. We do lots of different pizzas like goats' cheese, spinach and pepper, and cheese and tomato pizza which is particularly popular."

The bakery's forward-thinking approach has certainly made it popular with its customers; Leakers has just won a prize for being the Best Independent Baker in the county at the Dorset Food and Drink Awards.

"Our new range is salads," said Caroline, "I'm just stirring peppers for one of them as I talk to you.

"There's potato and artichoke with mint parsley and lemon dressing and a salad of carrot, Goji berry and orange.

"We have our Vitality Salad with Soya beans, sprouted seeds and French beans and vinaigrette.

"We have a very healthy ethos here.

"It's not all about sticky buns, although we do have a tray of them every day."

It strikes me that Dorset food can not be as easily pigeonholed as one might imagine.

True, the classics like Dorset apple cake, cider or Blue Vinney abound.

But with the Vampire Slayer sausage, Jurassic foot loaf and a salad that features the Goji berry, Dorset food producers, it seems, are not short on fresh ideas.

For listings, visit www.dorsetfoodweek.co.uk