Thursday 5 June 2008




Here we are again 1 year on not knowing what to expect. All of us up at 6.00 a.m. to get all the quizzes printed off and animals into the shed for the display.
New this year “Ask the Farmer” Geoff Thomas (brother in law) from Down to Earth series HTV and Kath Morgan from a neighbouring farm along with Bill Edwards (Grampy) were there to answer any questions in the sheep shed. Russ again did the shearing demo and the quiz had a match the fleece to the breed of Ram which most people got right with a little help from the experts.
We had some stalls from Bridgend farmers market, Glamorgan Women’s Food and farming Union promoting British Cheese with lots of tasters and selling freshly squeezed orange and lemon juice. Our RSPB volunteer John Ramsey was here to give people lots of info and we displayed our map and list of birds from the survey he did last year.
Claire Harris gave some Nordic walking Tasters in the main hall which we were grateful for as the downpour meant the tractor and trailer ride stopped for a few hours and people needed entertaining for.Communities first had a stand showing what regeneration work had been going on in the ward of Blackmill.
The weather held out until 1.30 when the heavens opened and we had a down pour, this made inside very busy and the restaurant was packed with people eating Sunday lunch. The lamb served on the menu was very local!!
The tractor and trailer ride took everyone from Lakeside via the deer pen to the sheep shed where we had a display of sheep & rams, Aberdeen Angus cows our goat kids Millie and Molly with ducks, ducklings, chicks and goslings to be seen. The shearing demo was also there along with our “pen of Farmers.”
Many thanks to everyone who helped and contributed to making this day such a success we couldn’t have done it without you. Please look out for us on the “Down to Earth” programme on ITV Wales between 5.00 & 6.00pm Sundays from 15th June. See you next year!!- June 7th 2009.
Thanks to LEAF and their sponsors for the resources provided and also to our local sponsors FUW, NFU Cymru and Hybu Cig Cymru, Leanne from Garden village post office for the balloon display and John our Chef for the tasters.