Hands on

The Fishguard Bay Food Festival is in full swing this weekend with dozens of tables displaying enticing  edibles (mostly local-ish), "street food" stalls taking over the outdoor area of the secondary school where the event is taking place, and live demonstrations (with free samples) drawing rapt audiences. The weather's perfect and the event is a raging success.

Here Rosanna (right) and Carwyn (left)  are talking about and demonstrating cooking on a bakestone, the ancient form of griddle that was indeed once an actual stone laid over the fire but later made of cast iron and now even an electric pancake maker can serve the purpose (as here in fact.)

Roseanna is a returnee who's had a career as a chef and restaurateur in the USA - here she's demonstrating making Welsh cakes. Carwyn is a  up-and-coming  Welsh food and farming writer and activist who promotes the value of the local produce and traditional forms of production. He's especially passionate about oats, and of course bakestone cookery (which is energy-light.)

Elsewhere, on our local history stall which involved a  display of by-gone  kitchenware,  we invited people to Guess the Weight of an old-fashioned cast-iron bakestone (or planc as it's called in Welsh). Carwyn's little boy had a go but failed to lift it - hardly surprising as he's only four years old and the planc  weighs 13 kg/28 lb.
 Only one person actually guessed the correct weight and no toes were broken.