Categories: uncategorized
Date: 09 October 2006 10:01:04
So after a not long enough of sleep of 3.5hrs we headed off to the Australian Camp Oven festival. For those of you not in the know but a camp oven is a large cast oven pot which is usually as heavy as a heavy thing. I am not sure why the humple camp oven needs a festival but it was a hoot of a time.
We got out to the farm and had brekky and then ventured out to the festival. There were over 2000 caravans at the event. Which means there was a far crowd of people. At least for these parts it pretty much had double the population of the town overnight.
The festival is much more diverse than just camp ovens and cooking. They have many competitions such as the make a mailbox competition and the apron competition for the ladies as well as a tea cosy competition. There were some competitions which were at the heart of the issue for me and the very reason we had venture out into the wilds to get a glimpse.
There was the cooking competition with about 14 teams in the running. The first things to be judged were sweet things like brownies and then they judged the fritters and the damper. We had a good look at the festival and went hoem for some much needed sleep. We returned a little later than first anticipated because we visited the home of Mrs Lovely One's childhood piano teacher whose garden was on display as part of the festival. Because we were late we missed the chance to register for the damper throwing competition. We did watch for a while. I think I would have held my own but don't think I would have been a contender.
We also checked out the main cooking comp of the weekend the Bush Christmas Lunch. You had to cook from 9 am that morning a roast of your choosing, roast veges, bread (not damper), plum pudding and custard. Most of the teams had been slaving over the pots and fires all day and making damper for the many spectators. But they had some very nice set ups. One of my favs had them all dressed up in historical get up and they also had built a small hut type thing that they cooked from and lots of other things in their set up like old saws and such to give the lived in look. They even had a christmas tree for realism. I am not exactly sure who won as it was time to go home and enjoy the BBQ stylings of Pa Lovely One.
Till Next Time A Lovely Time Had By All And We Can't Wait Till Next Time,
Chops