TRENTHAM'S SPUD FEST

Last Saturday we experienced our first Spud Fest that Trentham holds each year. The area is well known for growing potatoes and each year this small town with a population of 1400 swells with an influx of 4000 people for the day. It's a great family affair with events to suit all. Food and produce stalls are set up where you can buy a variety of potatoes or if peckish, you can buy the cook variety in its  many forms. We wanted to try the spirals however the wait in line was very long.

The local CFA fire truck was used to block of the street.

Potatoes of all kind on sale. Many tried a variety to take home.

We missed out on the potato spirals - the queue was just too long

They even offer advice on what is best suited.

Early potato harvesting machinery - still transported in hessian bags.
We will collect a few of these and have them framed for our Alfresco area of the house.

Accommodation for out in the fields

Some of the workers cottages still exist in the paddocks

The kid's loved moving amongst a special enclosure with baby farm animals.
This area is popular for Alpaca and these little guys were lavished with much patting.
Joining them were lambs, chooks, rabbits and guinea pigs.

Spud Fest is not just about potatoes though. The disused railway station is used for Trentham's monthly food and craft market which on this occasion coincided with Spud Fest. We also have a car club in Trentham known as the Cool Country Car Club and not to be left out of Spud Fest, they put on an exhibition of around 50 cars.

The Austin 1800 Land Crab - the utility model was very popular in Australia

Contrasts in the world of cars

Another attraction was the Tractor Pull competition. Now we have never been to one of these previously but it seems that many of the small towns in the area have them regularly. Once the concept of the competition was explained to us, we became quite interested and found ourselves, clapping and shouting encouragement.

The tank behind the tractor is full of water and as is is pull by the tractor, the tank digs deeper into the earth.
There's a gauge on the tank that is graduated in 5s to 100. The object is to reach 100 before the tractor can pull no longer.

Once the competing tractor finishes, another drags the tank back to the start for the next competitor.
Earth is graded flat prior.

Other than the tractor pull, there were also other exhibits from the days when the train would run from Daylesford to Woodend with Trentham being a major station for transporting potatoes and timber to Melbourne - but that's another story for another day. I need to visit the local historic society for some research on those early days.

I think we will enjoy this Country Life once we have our house built and we settle in Trentham.

Footnote on the house:
It seems that we may finally get to the final stages of signing off plans and the building contract before the end of this week. It has been a slow process to this stage however we have seen a few houses from the same builder in our area and once construction starts, build time seems quick.
Here's hoping.