Meeting Iwan Evans Coedfadre
Talgarreg Vintage Show and Working Day on Iwan Evans Coedfadre’s farm, September 2023
On Saturday 16th, Ash my partner and I went to the Talgarreg Vintage Show and Working Day on Iwan Evans Coedfadre’s farm to witness and record Owen and Iwan threshing Owen’s black oat crop from his field at the Dynyn cooperative, that I helped him harvest a week or so ago. It was such an exciting experience, my adrenaline rushed as the the old 1930’s diesel tractor driven threshing machine noisily and excitedly separated the seed-heads from the seed covering and stalks. Owen cut the binding on the bundles and Iwan fed them into the hopper, I moved carefully around the machine audio recording the drive belts and mechanisms as it clanked and rattled and banged about, Ash photographed it all and a farmer bagged the straw. I also helped catch the straw as it came out of the back of the thresher, and helped Owen bag the the grain as it came out of the bottom, after being winnowed. Wow, what a magnificent and beautiful old machine, I felt so privileged to be up close with the whole process. The little black oat is just becoming more and more evocative as I experience each step of its journey from field to plate.
An audio recording: threshing black oats Cierch Du Bach in a vintage threshing machine at the Talgarreg Vintage Show and Working Day with Owen Shiers and Iwan Evans Coedfadre’s, Ceredigion, West Wales.
Audio recording