As part of the preparations for the Vale of Glamorgan National Eisteddfod, organisers are working with Wales the True Taste and the People’s Collection to appeal for old family recipes from all corners of Wales, in the Blas y Brifwyl (Festival Flavours) campaign.
The campaign, run in May and June, aims to create a bank of Welsh family recipes, collating recipes passed from generation to generation, developing and changing with the times as people add their own touches to the original taste. The campaign reaches a tasty climax during the Eisteddfod itself, when some of the recipes will be prepared in the Wales the True Taste kitchen on the Maes.
We’re encouraging people to load their recipes to the People’s Collection website. The People’s Collection is the national online archive, and we are working in partnership once again this year following a successful campaign at the Wrexham and District Eisteddfod, when hundreds of people shared their Eisteddfod memories as part of our 150th anniversary last year.
Alun Davies AM, the Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Food, Fisheries and European Programmes, said on behalf of Wales the True Taste, “We are looking forward to working together on this campaign over the next few months. There’s a wealth of food producers and ingredients here in Wales, and our aim is to show how people have used these over the years. It will also be interesting to see how recipes for traditional Welsh foods change from region to region and from generation to generation, and we look forward to seeing examples of this.
“Voting is currently open in the People’s Choice Food Awards, and I very much hope that thinking about your favourite place to eat or shop will encourage people to think about the important role food plays in their lives – recipes, preparing food, celebrations and the wonderful produce we have here in Wales – and then send them to us. We will choose the most interesting recipes and will be preparing something different every day on the Maes in Llandow in August.”
Rheinallt Ffoster-Jones of the People’s Collection added, “This is an exciting relationship, and is a chance for us to add content which is relevant to everyone to our national archive. The traditions of preparing and enjoying food vary from place to place and we hope that we’ll be able to bring them all together with this campaign; from making flour to killing a pig in the back garden, collecting cockles in Penclawdd and the difference between cawl in the south and lobsgows in the north, the history of food in Wales is very interesting.
“The fact that we’ll be able to taste some of the recipes on the Eisteddfod Maes this year is an important part of the campaign and links with a discovery by one of the People’s Collection’s main partners, Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales. In the twentieth century, Bronze Age remains were discovered on the Maes, and it appears that people have been feasting, eating and socialising on this Maes three and a half thousand years ago. Something to remember as we enjoy this year’s delicacies, maybe.”
Go to www.peoplescollectionwales.co.uk to load your recipe or you can go through our website – www.eisteddfod.org.uk. You can also send your recipe to the Eisteddfod Office, 40 Parc Ty Glas, Llanishen, Cardiff CF14 5DU.
People across Wales are being encouraged to go online at www.walesthetruetaste.co.uk and vote for their favourite restaurant, café or tearoom, farm shop or deli, butcher and fishmonger, as part of Wales’ first ‘People’s Choice’ food awards.. The public vote will run until 28th May, with everyone who enters automatically going into a draw to win a Michelin-starred dining experience or a hamper of True Taste Award-winning goodies.
The Vale of Glamorgan National Eisteddfod is held on the old airfield at Llandow near Cowbridge and Llantwit Major from 4-11 August. For more information go to www.eisteddfod.org.uk.
