Archive: July 2008

Wiggly Wigglers are coming to the festival

The Really Wild Food and Countryside Festival in St Davids on Sat 30 & Sun 31 August is delighted to announce that Heather Gorringe, founder of Wiggly Wigglers is going to be running a series of composting masterclasses throughout the Festival, and if any of you think composting is dull, then wait until you see Heather’s approach. She’s famed for causing quite a reaction wherever she goes!

Heather who has been the British small business champion, Nuffield scholarship winner, and Chelsea Flower Show judge will be bringing with her a host of ideas to deal with all kitchen and household waste, virtually removing the need for any domestic waste to go to landfill. Wiggly Wigglers are famous for their worms, and those worm lovers amongst you will not be disappointed as she will be bringing a supporting cast of tens of thousands of composting worms with her.

Recently Heather has discovered the Bokashi method of composting developed in Japan. This uses Essential Micro-organisms (EM) which have been inoculated into bran. This method effectively ‘pickles’ your waste in a container in your kitchen and can simply be dug into your garden. Bokashi allows you to compost meat and fish scraps which are not suitable for outdoor or worm composting.

As well as the serious issues of composting, Heather will be on hand to talk about all aspects of natural gardening, bird feeding and encouraging beneficial insects and animals to your garden. She’ll even be bringing some free goody bags (biodegradable!) to give out at the talks.

Heather is excited to be coming to St Davids she says ‘I can’t wait to come to the Festival, it sounds brilliant, I’m a great believer that we should all bring a forkful of the country to every back yard. It’s no good beating ourselves up about climate change or biodiversity, with a little bit of effort, rather than talk, we can all make a difference to the spaces that we are taking care of. See you in August!’

Credit Crunch? Rising food prices?

The Really Wild Food and Countryside Festival returns to St Davids (Pembrokeshire) on Sat 30 & Sun 31 August with some exciting new developments. Festival Organiser, Julia Horton-Powdrill has been able to announce that the Festival has a new permanent home by the rugby and football club in the City. She says “Now we don’t have to worry about the location of the Festival we can invest in the infrastructure needed to grow the event into the future”

At a time of economic uncertainty and the credit crunch, the Festival will offer a whole host of ideas and opportunities for people to both source free foods from the wild and learn crafts and skills that may help stretch the household budget just a little bit further. Julia adds “The festival has always been a fun day out for all the family, with plenty of nice things to taste and activities to try, but this year more than ever people may want to seriously take up some of the skills they experience on the day.”

Welsh music icon Cerys Matthews has added her support She says “I love Pembrokeshire, it's where my roots are. The Really Wild Festival is a fun way to celebrate all the great food and unique country skills that we have down here, plus it's a chance to catch up with old mates over a glass of scrummy scrumpy! Iechyd da! Maybe see you there!”

Pembrokeshire Tourism Awards

The Really Wild Festival website was one of the fianlists at the recent Pembrokeshire Tourism Awards evening held at the Cleddau Bridge Hotel in Pembroke Dock. The website has been designed by a local company, Globeorange, St Davids, and has received many compliments for its style and its newsletter is becoming a very popular feature.