Food Festival Maeth o'r Fro Newport Pembrokeshire

 The Menus, the tours, see the Eventbrite site

To book on tours. EMAIL vicky@grwp.wales 

To Book meals contact the venues

Food Fair on Sat 29th, no need to book or pay

Street market Mon 31st, same

THE PROGRAMME SO FAR

PROGRAMME updating regularly

Register to get early booking opportunities.

 To book on farm tours and talks: vicky@grwp.wales unless it says otherwise To book meals, contact the food venue directly PROGRAMME 

Saturday 29th October

 10   -  4 Food Fair Newport Memorial Hall.Free entry, no booking needed Stalls, activities, talks, new products, tasters, 

food art class, apple pressing, childrens acrobatics.

Sunday 30th Oct.

10-1Tour of Beeview FarmBook:matthew@beeview.farm.  Cost £10 Lunch local special at Temple Bar cafe 4pm Newport Boatclub Talk by Derw  of Pasta a ManuBuilding a sustainable food business, how street food can save the planetFree, Book to attend Evening meal local special of Wyld burger at Newport Boat Club

Monday 31st Oct.

9 – 1 Street Market, Market Street, Newport. Free entry, weather dependent lunch Newport Boat Club Cat Rock Cafe 2.30 – 4.30 Tour of Carn Edward farm on Mt. Carningli with Robert Vaughan.  

Tuesday 1st Nov.

Lunch Blas @ Fronlas

Weds 2nd  November

Wholefoods of Newport local luxury take away lunch boxes 12 - 5  (see options below)

Thursday 3 Nov

 7pm Talk with Dylan Roberts,  Carningli Dairy at the Royal Oak A family farm's strides towards a green and local future No booking needed Evening meal: local special at the Royal Oak  (see menu below)

Friday 4th Nov.

 11 - 1 Tour Cilfair farm - hempcrete natural building & mob grazing Book to attend Evening meal: local special at Tides Kitchen and Wine Bar Band and local beer at Llys Meddyg - Burning Moon and Bluestone brewery tap take over 

Sat 5th Nov

10.30 - 12+   Nevern Valley Veg( new market garden) Evening meal after tasters: Llys Meddyg  Book in for the festival dinner and closing party into the night With tastings and talks featuring The Smokeshed, Wines from Carte Blanche and Local Cheesemaker Caerfai from 5pm@ Llys Meddyg

Event organised by Grwp Resilience  www.Grwp.Wales

Maeth o'r Fro - Community nourishment, promotes a new food culture, one that secures our future, honouring nature, purity, climate and community.

THE STORIES BEHIND THE TOURS

Two Livestock farms: Long horns and other animals

Monday 31st October 2.30 - 4.30 Carn Edward

A mountain farm, how the heavy long-horn cattle live with the wild land, the diversity of plants that thrive under their heavy hoofed management.

These hardy beautiful creatures, the traditional cattle of Britain need no protection from the weather other than their shaggy coats. Despite their scary horns they are mild natured. They walk with their farmer through the town to support carnivals.

They are the answer to invasive weeds on the hills, preventing bracken from smothering the wildlife rich sward. Slow growing, needing no imported concentrates, they produce meat of intense flavour, and nutritious value.

The Vaughan family has farmed here above the Gwaun for generations, riding the sea changes in society by reading the waves and flexing with them.

The Gwaun valley below the farm holds one of the oldest cultures in Wales, retaining pre-Gregorian calendar and festivals, while producing new businesses to meet the times. The traditional home brewing of the valley has shaped two micro breweries and Bessy’s pub has remained unchanged since the war, the same pictures still on the wall. It won a best pub award through the owner’s achievement in simply doing nothing to change it.

You will find that the farming family, their animals, soil and its myriad plants, and even their customers are one ecosystem. Craggy tenacious flexible personalities are carved out by the geology and weather. BBC, ITV, S4C, have filmed interviews here with Countryfile, Jamie Oliver and Huw Edwards.

Friday 4th November 11am - 1pm Cilfair farm

Cilfair, formerly St. Mary’s church has been a place of worship for at least 1000 years judging by the celtic cross carved on a rock pillar found in the foundations during renovations recently.

The hillock of giant oaks holds the spirit of antiquity. In the converted church a young family, both parents brought up nearby, have a ‘hobby farm’, a smallholding run to regenerate the soil and give animals the life they were evolved for. Their mob grazing by long horn cattle (bought from the Vaughans), followed by poultry, leads to meadows of diverse species studied with wildflowers. It leads to faster regrowth than grazing to the ground.

They are completing a green build barn, using hempcrete between a sitka spruce frame. Hempcrete combines structural strength, insulation, carbon capture and storage and is a natural product supporting rural employment. The touring hempcrete boys from North Wales stayed two weeks to do the build. Their cooking and singing prowess complementing intense labour.

Talk Thurs Nov 3rd 7pm at Royal Oak pub - Carningli dairy by Dylan Roberts

The Roberts family have been dairy farmers for generations. Dylan has transformed the business using high tech robotic milking where the cows wander in when they fancy being milked. The milk is neither standardised nor homogenised, and you can tell from the taste. It is bottled in glass and delivered to households and businesses in a small area. This venture only two years old, has exceeded expectations  and continues to increase employment on the land. 

Dylan will explain how he uses different terrains on the farm, how the system cares for the soil, its plants and his contented cows.

The talk is followed by a local ingredients meal, book at the Royal Oak for a table.

Market Garden tour

Sat 5th November 10.30 – 12.30 Nevern Valley veg

A new organic market garden set up this year, with locally raised Naomi and her partner Richard, biodiversity professional. Combining passion for nature with graft and a background on the land, they are providing veg for households, shops, restaurants and cafes in the Newport area.

They have installed solar powered irrigation, and their land is a patchwork of insect feeding flowers and human feeding vegetables of all shapes and hues.

They are still waiting for permission to put up poly tunnels. They cannot feed people through the year without them. Regulatory shackles hobble progress – could the regulations turn into useful guidance instead of shackles? Your visit will help show that this matters.

Both these market gardens have scientific carbon reduction plans in action

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photos from Nevern Valley Veg