National Folk Festival.

[Rimeriter]

I was fortunate to find this item -

At first glance, a blacksmith working at his forge making miniature Ned Kelly armour that can also be used to keep a bottle of wine cool would seem to be out of place at the National Folk Festival in Canberra.
That is just one of the pieces of work by Gavin Yan, from Adelong in southern New South Wales, which he displays as part of the Camp Kitchen.
Over the past eight years Camp Kitchen has become somewhat of an institution at the festival, staged annually over the Easter weekend in the national capital.
Dave Upton is the man behind the camp kitchen which has various acts ranging from the early Australian folk music with its Irish roots through to people reciting poetry such as Banjo Patterson.
While this is going on, Dave who is from the Riverina and has been a horse breaker, drover and stock worker, has his gang working hard supplying freshly brewed tea, stew, damper and spit-roasted meat to those sitting on plastic chairs under the shade listening to the performers.
"We cook bush tucker, put on a bit of a historical and cultural display. We set it up like an old stock camp from the old days, play a bit of old time music and try and show the city people what old time country life was like," explains Dave.
Part of that early Australian life experience includes Gavin working only metres away from the cooking pit with his forge, hammer, anvil and pieces of steel.
The forge is around 50 centimetres square and approximately six centimetres deep. Air is blown underneath the firebox by a crankcase which is turned by handle.
"The air then comes up through the hot charcoals. The faster you wind it the hotter the fire gets. Once it gets a cherry red colour you put a bit of round steel in. When it is hot enough you take it out hit it a few times with the hammer and then cut it off and work on it,” explains Gavin who during the week works for an agriculture supplies firm.
His grandfather had operated bullock teams in the Snowy Mountains around Kiandra and he had taught himself how to make the gear needed to “keep his wagons on the road” which provided his income.
"I inherited a lot of his gear and I thought I would keep it in the family and keep the name going and it continued on from there,” Gavin explains.
"There are not many blacksmiths around where I live. There are a lot of farriers who shape the steel for the horses they shoe. There are a couple of old timers who sit at the forge and crank it up a couple of times just for maintenance around their farms.”
A number of people stop and lean on the fence to talk with Gavin, asking questions about his works.
The display includes “what I call sheep shoes which are miniature horse shoes. Smaller again is the lizard shoe and then the mosquito shoe which is smaller still. It is something I play around with. You need a good imagination. You have to be able to create something that no-one else has done.”
While this is going on the queue for food at the camp kitchen never seems to thin out.
"We are cooking two sheep on the open fire. We’ve got about 90 litres of beef and vegies stewing at the moment, and two dampers going continually. We make around 70 dampers a day, well over 1,000 cups of tea.
It’s a large camp kitchen but people seem to have heard about it from Grandma and Grandpa and it’s a real taste of Australia I think,” Dave says.
To keep up with demand Dave has turned what was once a beer keg into a food warmer and placed it close to the fire to cope with the demand for the damper which is served with liberal dollops of golden syrup.
“At meal times we can’t cook the dampers quick enough to keep up with demand so we get stuck into it before lunch and breakfast and then keep them warm in the keg... Most of them are expecting blackened hard to eat crusty with ashes all over it but we do ’em in the camp ovens. It’s not quite as light and fluffy as bread from the baker, but it’s pretty bloody good,” Dave proudly states.
Changes in our lifestyle and how we eat compared to the slower days of yesteryear is not just reflected by the food, but also by those wanting a feed.
“We are a slow food service not a fast food service. It’s hard to get that across to people. When the sheep is cooking its obviously raw and it’s got around four hours of cooking.
"People say I’ll have a bit of lamb mate. I tell them to come back at night. They are surprised and say what about in half an hour. I shake my head – but they come back. The sheep gets eaten as fast as we can serve it.”
As for Dave, working from the time the festival gets underway to its close, does he too get stuck into a bit of old Australia?
“I don’t get a chance to see the rest of the festival from when we start on Thursday evening through to Monday. But sitting here cooking the sheep, meat and stew I get sick of the sight of it, and my girlfriend goes and gets me a vegetarian stew from the Hare Krishna food stall!
"You get a bit ‘meated’ out sitting around your own cooking. I think a lot of chefs get like that. They get sick of their own food by the time they finish cooking it!”
For those wondering how a steel miniature Ned Kelly armour can be used as a wine cooler.
First, place the steel Ned Kelly helmet in a freezer. Later after removing it, turn it upside down and the circumference of the helmet allows a wine bottle to be slipped inside, the freezing steel keeping the bottle cold while the fruit of the grape is enjoyed.
***

Must try and visit sometime.

Has anyone been there ?
Jim.

[Maureen K Clifford]

Haven't been to that one Jim but is sounds similar to the Millmerran Camp Oven festival and that is a great weekend

http://www.australiancampovenfestival.com.au/

Got a poem on site somewhere about that one Well I thought I did - but its there now - A Fair Dinkum Festival

[Zondrae]

Yep,

Been there and had 'Damper' and Cockys Joy with my Billy tea. As with the Lamb, the Damper can't come off the hotplate fast enough. They only charge $1. for a mug of tea. Not sure on the other costs. They put up a great display of horse gear and old photographs, rabbit traps, tools and even a post and rail fence with a saddle thrown over it. Also they encourage 'old timers' to sit round and play mouth organs and spoons, etc. A few years back Wayne took his musical Saw with him and one of the blokes played a few tunes on it. The venue is not really big enough to house the official Yarn Spinning contest as folk sitting outside can't see through the post and rail fence. There are a couple of rough hewn tables and bench seats which are always full of diners. We refer to it as the Stock Camp. They have a 'rocking horse' made from a 44 gal drum that hangs between a couple of trees. Very entertaining experience over all.

[Rimeriter]

Thanks Maureen. I had a quick peep at the Millmerran site.
Drove through Millmerran on my return home a few years back.

Will now read your posting.


"G'day" Zondrae, it woukd be great to be involved with an experience like that again.


"Thank you" ladies.
Jim.

[Zondrae]

G'day Jim,

You had better not leave it too long. The OH&S boys are breathing down the back of the 'Stock Camp's' proverbial neck. I heard last year they would be finished and even this year they told Wayne (my other half) that they were lucky to get through. You can imagine the perceived danger of an open fire (made up of great logs) with a spit roast lamb and boiling kettles of water splashing about and huge camp ovens cooking the veg. The set up is very rustic and there in is the charm of it. If they try putting up safety glass or high fine mesh fences, screening the public away from the fire, the whole thing would lose it's authenticity.

[Bob Pacey]

You are kidding Zondrae you are arn't you ?

I got told the other day that I need to wear a flouro vest while mowing and put out markers for the area I'm going to mow.


Getting out of hand I reckon.



Bob

[Maureen K Clifford]

This H & S is getting over the top - whatever happened to people using their own common sense to stay out of trouble. The Milmerran one is the same set up Zondrae and would hate the think it would go down the gurgler - it is on the Calendars of lots of grey nomads and injects a fair swag of money into a little town and helps the local bushfire brigade no end with fund raising. It is a really beaut weekend.

I suppose one could get hit with a flying damper if you were silly enough to walk in front of it, or you might fall down the loo that's always a worry, then of course the tents are so close together you could garrotte yourself on a fly wire, suffer deafness from the noise of thousands of people gathered together having fun - perhaps they should be offering ear protectors at the gate, and they really should have damper trucks on the go the whole time because inhaling dust from country show-grounds is fraught with lots of medical problems from the accumulated powdered animal manure of years.

One should not leave the confines of their home for fear of danger; and safety markers when you are mowing What the flippin' heck - they can't hear you Bob? You sneaking up on them Mate.

God save us from our own stupidity

[Rimeriter]

I can only add - - - AH! ME.

Jim.