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Cornwall - Angela ParkerContact Angela Parker on 01872 573126Vice-Chairman: Hilary Wood
Success at Royal Cornwall
The Show attracted a record attendance yet again and the walkways of our three big marquees were packed throughout the three days. Twelve new producers were among the sixty Cornish food and drink businesses represented and all reported excellent sales. A new feature this year marking the Year of Food and Farming was an area at the centre of the Pavilion given over to a fun educational display on food and farming in Cornwall. Aimed at adults as well as children, Funsize Food and Farming centred on food preparation demonstrations like butter makingand pasty crimping which called for audience participation and were very popular, each one being linked to a product on sale in the marquees. Children have a go at making cheese.
Princess Anne visited the Show on Friday and during her visit to the Pavilion spent some time chatting to the children trying their hand at pasty making, as well as meeting a number of the producers. She was presented with a hamper of Cornish produce.
Reporting on this year's show, Carol Trewin, Food Editor of the Western Morning News, said:
In June a two-day event at Carruan Farm, Polzeath, gave WFU the chance to work with FWAG and invited parties of schoolchildren, developing projects on wildlife and field use. The children spent the day studying the composition of the farm's hedgerows before returning to school to complete their project. A couple of weeks later they all came back for a grand picnic and the presentation of awards for the best projects. Dancing and singing in warm July sunshine rounded off a day on the farm at Woodland Valley for schoolchildren from the Roseland. As well as taking their own resources along, Jacky, Kath Strang and Gill Lyons helped out with the various activities so that all the children had the chance to look round the farm, meet the livestock, and try their hand at planting vegetables and milking a cow. Despite some horrendous weather conditions on both the Friday and Saturday, the three-day Celebration of Food and Farmers at the Eden Project was a tremendous success. 20th- 22nd June 2008
The event was a joint venture organised by Cornwall Agrifood Council and the Royal Agricultural Society of England working with organisations like WFU and local producers like Riviera Produce and Ginsters, to mark the Year of Food and Farming. It really did celebrate all the fantastic food and drink we produce here in Cornwall. It kicked off on the Friday with a day for schoolchildren, with displays covering the main aspects of farming and food production in Cornwall all round the site. WFU set up and manned a display about dairy production in Cornwall, in conjunction with Dairy Crest and Rodda's. The display centred on an artificial cow which gave hundreds of children the chance to try their hand at milking. Production information from the two main dairy users in the county flagged up the significant contribution of the dairy industry to the county's economy. Working with FACE (Farming and Countryside Education), Jacky Cherry put together a display on the beef and lamb sectors in Cornwall and with the help of a team of WFU volunteers dressed in Beefy and Lamby costumes (from the EBLEX assurance mark advertising campaign) set up a crowd-stopping welcoming party for arriving visitors. fun way. The whole Funsize area was funded by sponsorship and attracted considerable interest from the media.  Jacky and friends greet visitors Friday was also the day for more serious matters, a conference on the future of agriculture and food in Cornwall, in particular land use, climate change and food security. The meeting was address by Sir Don Curry, chairman of the Government's Sustainable Food and Farming Strategy, and Peter Kendall, President of the NFU and was chaired by Catherine Mead, current chairman of the Cornwall Agrifood Council.  Sir Don Curry with some of the hundreds of schoolchildren who enjoyed the day The weekend was the culmination of the Year of Food and Farming in the South West, flagging up its achievements and calling for a durable legacy. Cornwall WFU's current project, a website for children and teachers on farming and food production in the county, will form part of that legacy. Stithians Show
Farmhouse Breakfast Week - January 2008 Seeking volunteers in Cornwall - 26th October 2007
If you’re interested contact Stephanie Pedrick at stephaniep@oakpark.fsbusiness.co.uk Brunch Challenge to kick off the Year of Food and Farming Newsletter - June/July 2007 (pdf file) Real Cornish Food - 27 May 2007
Royal Cornwall Show - 7-9 June 2007 Farmhouse Breakfast Celebration - 24 January 2007 Cornwall branch celebrated Farmhouse Breakfast Week in generous style, giving away free bacon rolls in the centre of Truro, early on a wet and cold Wednesday morning. We procured some lovely local bacon from the Cornish Pork Pantry at Grampound and delicious bread rolls from WC Rowe and Co of Penryn.
Sally Kendall www.wfu.org.uk |
Alongside were a variety of displays, including growing crops and the breakfast cereals produced from them, the ingredients of a pasty from the field to fork, an artificial cow you could milk and day-old chicks.A 'smoothie bike' (cleverly adapted so you're your pedalling powered a liquidiser to produce fruit smoothies) linked the 5-a-day message and healthy exercise in a fun way. The whole Funsize area was funded by sponsorship and attracted considerable interest from the media. 
