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Wild Garlic Festival

@ Llwyn Ffranc Farm On the Slopes of The Skirrid

A Celebration of Woodland and Wild Food

A Wild Garlic Festival in celebration fo woodland and wild food will soon be Wales's latest gift of good eating and unspoilt places. Llwyn Ffranc, a new community forest farm, will launch the festival on Saturday, 16th April 2011. The farm is on the western slopes of the Skirrid and festival- goers will be able to stroll through it's woodland and pick the pungent leaves of allium ursinum, so called because brown bears have a particular liking for the plant. "Of course we don't have brown bears at Llwyn Ffranc," said festival organiser Stephen Powell. "Participants will be able to relax and forage at their leisure."

The festival will be a one- day event and will include a guided tour of the farm. On March 1st Llwyn Ffranc Limited, a community share offer to raise £132, 600. The money will buy 63 acres of land, including 50 acres of woodland, and help Llwyn Ffranc develop as a biodynamic farm. Mr Powell, who is secretary of the society, siad: "We are attracting investors from Monmouthshire to Middlesex, from Milton Keynes to Melbourne. We already have more than 50 investors and more than £14,000 in the bank."

He Believes that community farms, still rather a novelty, will increasingly become a part of the farming mainstream, enabling more and more people to feel a direct financial and emotional link to the land. "Community farms won't just change farming. They will change the whole national mindset by helping more people reconnect with the land," said Mr Powell. "We want our festival to remind people that food provision should ideally be about two things- the crops we plant, of course, AND the food for free that is just out there for the picking, everything from nettles to elderflower, from mushrooms to wild garlic. For me, an awareness of wild food then leads on, among other things, to a deeper sense of connection to woodland."

Llwyn Ffranc asks that anyone wishing to take part in the festival get in touch beforehand by email or by telephone. The email address is Click to email, telephone 01873 890032 or 07791 297014.

The festival organisers will be seeking a £5.00 donation. They ask participants to bring any items which they don't want anymore to sell on the day, with proceeds going to the community forest farm project. For more information on the festival please visit website link and view the events page.