Out & About

Central Scotland Smallholders' Association

RWAS Smallholder and Garden Festival, Wales, May 2009

(NB: The full photo sets from the event are available to view on Flickr: RWAS show and Centre for Alternative Technology.)

May 2009 saw the first CSSA Annual Study Tour. The fellowship of the (show) ring (well, there were nine of us) headed of to deepest Wales for the Smallholder and Garden Festival at the Royal Welsh Showground at Builth Wells.

Five of us - Carol, Graham, Andrew, Dan and I traveled down to Wales on Friday for the two day show in a hired people carrier (more of that later). It was a long journey but we refrained from singing or mooning at passing motorists. Morag and George drove down separately, with their trailer tent (more of that later too). They arrived before us - except we had the passes for the camping pitches! Thanks goodness for mobile telephony. We pitched our tents in the gathering dusk but Morag and George were settled and had their awning up - this was the gang hut for the weekend and was a godsend.

Saturday morning we were up with the lark - some of us had barely slept, though. The shower block was clean and the showers roasting hot, which set us up for the full Welsh breakfast on the showground. I'm a regular at some of the local agricultural shows and, of course, the Royal Highland Show, but this was better, much better. The Highland is geared towards the big farmer; this event is for folk like us with a few livestock and small acreage. For the first time, having three sheep was normal!

As well as showing classes for sheep, pigs, poultry, rabbits and hamsters (?), there were trade stands selling not £500,000 combine harvesters, but incubators and poultry "stuff", books, craft materials (Carol and I both bought peg looms for the winter nights), local food and crafts.

There was an auction of vintage farm equipment - another man's junk etc etc - where I hankered after horse-drawn potato harrows that really only needed a wee coat of paint to make them like new. There was loads of stuff completely unrecognisable to us including two "Wufflers", which we worked out were for "wuffling" the hay to help it dry. If we're wrong, I'm sure someone will let us know! We were intrigued to see that the folk next to us on the campsite had bought a two furrow plough and had somehow managed to get it on the roof of their Nissan X Trail for the journey home!

The "Green Horizons" exhibition was excellent - there just wasn't enough time to see everything in one day.

We met up with Paul and Karen, Karen's sister and her family, for dinner and live music. By that time the rain was on in earnest and it was time to get back to the tents. It was pretty cold overnight - first time I've slept wearing a wooly hat.

On Sunday, we packed up and headed off to the Centre for Alternative Technology at Machynlech, about 50 miles away. George and Morag were going back to the showground that night, so left the trailer tent there. I was a bit disappointed with CAT. We had paid for a tour, but the chap who took us round was the head gardener and all he showed us was the gardens. Now, he was very nice and the gardens were very interesting but it wasn't what we expected. After lunch and a wander, we piled into the people carrier and headed home, our adventure over. Or was it?

Our driver and navigator decided to take us home through Liverpool, allegedly to show us how close Anfield and Goodison Park are to each other but I think they missed the turning o the to A55. As we headed along the East Lancs Road, we had a puncture. We pulled into a filling station - toilets, tea and newspapers - and Carol and I waited for the blokes to do their stuff. But no - we had no toolkit to remove the spare wheel! So we called the RAC (worth every penny) who had to cut the vehicle to release the spare. All this took about 2 hours, several cups of tea and an impromptu picnic. Fortunately, these things never seem so bad when there's a crowd of you. Tip: if you hire a vehicle, make sure the toolkit with the special spare tyre releasing tool is on the vehicle.

All in all, I think it was a successful event. The show exceeded my expectations, camping wasn't as bad as I expected and the company was great. Irrespective of the Association, I think we'll be going back for two days next year. The best thing about the show, though, was the people. Everyone on the stands was happy to chat with us and discuss their livestock or their food or craft and to offer help and advice - with more time, we'd have learned even more. And maybe the potato harrows will be there next year.

Event reports

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