Out for outing at a rural country fair in Oxfordshire, a muddy track led to this muddy show ground – and we parked near a small blue board that said ‘6’ on it and followed a huge queue(in width and length) of people around in a square shape and were walking behind a toddler (a boy – 4yrs old ish) wearing wellies with cartoon minions all over them, who began shuffling around in the thin layer of gravel over the paths and parking area and saying ‘mummy – I’m a combine harvester!’; I saw a dog wearing a rather official looking blue coat saying ‘Bouncy Boxer in training’ on it, and 2 men wearing kilts.
Past that main entrance was the main event, a big wall of hay bales with small – what I would term – antique tractors next to it, and various food stalls – 1 of which was selling gourmet hotdogs, there were remote cameras (visibly rotating) on poles positioned around the paths, and it began raining at 10.30 – so we went into the nearest tent, which included a Raw Workshop stall selling products (chairs, tables etc) made by disadvantaged people from recycled wood, a stall of pottery items that included statues of cheerful Emperor Penguin chicks and 1 of a seal was next to that…
…and a crafts stall that advertised 1 and 2 day free form workshops with a gingery haired man in his early 30’s. There was a large floppy eared Basset Hound flat out on the floor nearby, as well as an enormous Bull Mastiff; a calligraphy artist selling paintngs, ‘The Mousehole Woolery’ selling products made by needle felting, and monochromes (on wood) being cut by a man – slightly further round. At 11am, a rather violent thundershower began, and we dashed under a rather large – but scaled down – tepee sort of thing with about 70 other people. Outside, a woman was sat on a haybale, wearing wellies with what looked like a West Highland Terrier sheltering under/between them; but 20 minutes later it was easing off and we had just finished our halloumi, so we got up and went to the Food Heroes stage just across the path – where a woman (late 50’s, short brown hair and large) was making polenta (which I looked up later – it’s made by boiling cornmeal in water or milk – and apparently the key to perfectly cooked polenta is constant stirring – but can also be made from instant polenta sachets and also comes in readymade tubes or blocks).
When we got up again and went into the ‘Kitchen’ – via an extremely muddy path; in there, Limpopo Biltong was on sale (£5/100g)(Biltong is a form of dried and cured meat – similar to jerky but typically much less sweet – and the word comes from the Dutch ‘bil’ – meaning rump, and ‘tong’ meaning strip or tongue), The Snack Organisation was selling ‘Ancient Grains rice crackers’, Hansells Yogurts were selling yoghurt making machines, Burren Balsamic’s had bowls of vinegar available to sample by dunking a small bit of bread in 1 of these bowls on the counter, which I did, was rather startled by the strong taste, and the man there really did seem to think I was a journalist (with my notepad and camera – I’ve made people suspicious at times!) – and tried to give me all the leaflets they had and tell me lots and lots of stuff.
Stall CK57 – called ‘Pig In The Middle’ – was selling ‘artisan sausage rolls’ (and they seemed to be incredibly popular), The Handmade Scotch Egg Company were selling varieties such as ‘Old Fart’ (Free-range pork sausage, smoked bacon, egg, baked beans and fried bread) Vegetabularian’ (chickpeas, vegetarian cheeses and sun-dried tomatoes), Beanie’ (Red kidney and white butter beans with brazil nuts, garlic and parsley) and ‘Smokey Joe’ (free range pork and smoked bacon) – and the man on their counter also seemed to think I was a journalist, looked slightly worried and asked if I would like a leaflet; and the last stall we passed in that tent was one with the motto ‘it’s all about the biscuit’ (and a man next to us while we exited the tent had an enormous Golden Retriever – I stroked him and he sniffed me – who was apparently terrified of thunder).
It had stopped raining, and we out and into the pink zone of the map by 11.45am. There were rocking horses (the company was ‘Rocking Horse Works’) next door to a stall called ‘Gifts For Your Girlfriends’; a stall called ‘Tinc’ was selling things such as ‘The Big Gloop Lamps’ and kids rucksacks; a stall called ‘Pepe’ was selling wooden rocking deckchairs and rocking sofa sort of things, another stall was selling duck sculptures ) that were wearing colourful welly boots – and was also selling a 6ft long and 5ft tall bull sculpture made of driftwood branches for £3500.
In the ‘Vintage Fun Fair’ area at 12.20pm, there were trampolines, a helter skelter, a ‘hook a duck’ stall, a dog cleaning and wellie cleaning service, an Ice Rolls stall, a ‘Hooky Bar’ – with the motto ‘Fancy A Crafty Hooky?’; at 12.30pm, there was agility going on in the dog area, with excellent commentary being done over loud speakers; binoculars being sold, a little stall (done by Joules) called ‘Wang This Way’ doing welly wanging, and a company called ‘The Original Muck Boot Company’ were selling wellies. Slightly further up the path, I saw that there would be a ‘Dog and Duck show’ on in the central ring from 2.30->3pm, and saw a lovely welly cleaning station and a lovely dog cleaning station; and in The Big Barn at 1.25pm (it was getting rather windy and seemed to be about to rain), saw some footage of blue whales (and there were a couple of Norfolk terriers snuffling around between the hay bales/seats for people); a the thin Scottish man was talking about his book called ‘Freeze Frame’ and began taking questions – 1 of which was ‘how do you attract Beluga whales?’ – apparently singing down your snorkel works (and he said Happy Birthday worked particularly well), someone else asked about protecting equipment, and after mentioning their book signing, it finished at 1.40pm.
There was a rather smelly tent full of sheep (divided into various metal runs depending on breed), a large Suffolk horse was in a tent next door, and then we came into another small tent of different breeds of pig (the Gloucester Old Spot, the Pietran pig, the Tamworth pig, the British Landrace pig, the Oxford Sandy pig, the British Saddleback pig and the Berkshire pig), followed by a tent of cows – where another woman seemed to think I was a journalist and was very keen to inform me of things, and after I took me some photos, 1 of the men said he would be very happy to answer any questions I might have.
Back on the main avenue (called Baker Street) – the ground had been rather compacted and dried out from the number of people walking on it, and the exodus was beginning at at 4pm; we joined the queue of cars leaving 10 minutes later, after getting back to the car, and were back on the main road about 15 minutes after that.
