I thought Ffarmers, the name of the village we spent a week nearby in the north of Carmarthenshire in Wales, was possibly a bit suspect and sure enough research proved the place was named after a former pub called the Farmers’ Arms, which used to be there and the initial F added to — shall we say? — Welshify the place!
Sermon of the week with Pastor Erasmus Makarimayi
Only about 19% of two-million Welsh folk can actually speak Welsh, but almost everything there is bilingual: place names, signs, government pamphlets, etc.
I picked up a bit while visiting with my family. “Ffenestr”, for instance, is Welsh for “window”, which is rather similar to the French equivalent “fenetre” and, in English, if you chuck someone out of a window you defenestrate them! Private is preifat.
I said nothing to my daughter or her family, but felt rather cynical about the week-long break they’d booked on-line for us, while I was in Scotland, in a converted cottage on a working farm (ffarm?) near Ffarmers, which is near Lampeter. I should also be bilingual and type Llanbedr Pont Steffan (that’s Lampeter Stephen’s Bridge) in English: the smallest university town in Wales or Great Britain. A population of a mere 2 894 souls swells by 1 000 when students and faculty are grafting at what is now the University of Wales, Trinity St David.
Cynicism and reservations were based on in-built prejudices that I’d often found Welsh people insular and distant on meeting them on packaged holiday deals in Europe, certain Welsh folk who lived here in Zimbabwe, and even as a young reporter, on driving out of Wales after being flown in to help cover the 1966 Aberfan Disaster. It also always seems to rain in Welsh Wales and I wanted to play (outdoors) with my grand-children for most of the long British late summer days!
It didn’t rain once, not a single drop, during seven full days there and the ffarmer who ffarmed at Ffarmers (and his lovely wife) were among the most pleasant, affable and generous hosts you’d ever wish to meet.
The nicely appointed, fully furnished random stone cottage with idyllic views over sheep, lamb and pedigree beef cattle-filled lush green pastures was already partly stocked with home-baked cottage loaves and rich fruit scones; there was a 2lb (big) jar of strawberry jam {pity we didn’t go later, hedgerows were filled with plump, tasty, blackberries, mainly not quite ripe for picking}, biscuits, ham, butter from the farm, a bowl of delicious fruit and chilled bottle of white wine.
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Within minutes of us arriving, jugs of tea for three adults, home-made lemonade for the wee’uns and doorstop beef sandwiches, mustard and pickles were sent over from the main farm house. Farmer’s wife, Rowena, was delighted to introduce the children to her two hacking horses and her husband, Eldon, apologised that he’d had to separate ewes from lambs and their pained bleating might keep us awake. Never heard a baah!
Mind you that was after a couple of hours in one of the two local pubs with my son-in-law, Mark. As he was driving, he could only sample a couple of halves of a lager with which he was familiar, whereas I could go fairly potty trying draught lagers, beers and real ales, most of which I’d never before heard of in the almost pronounceable Dolaucothi Arms.
I couldn’t believe my luck that this was one of our two locals (the other The Drovers was within easy walking distance) especially as the day after we arrived they hosted a beer festival in half-an-acre of garden (huge for the UK). The National Trust owns the boozer which overlooks the Cothi River on which it has four miles (about 6,4km) of salmon and sea-trout fishing rights.
This was a great find. A recently re-opened starkly lovely Georgian coaching inn, with roots back to the 16th century, kept by an English couple, David and Esther, who admit to knowing far more about cooking Welsh rarebit than they do of the Welsh language.
They say they’re on their way to creating the ultimate pub and I believe them. We two blokes were made hugely welcome when calling on the Saturday night (it was light until about 9:45pm); on returning the next day, en famille, the kids couldn’t have been spoiled more: bobbing for apples, treasure trails, face painting, bouncing castles, lots of lovely people, children, dogs!
Grub was two large, plump, wonderfully satisfying, roast free-range chickens in quarters, corn-on-the-cob running greasily with farm butter and proper hand-cut chips: crisp on the outside, floury within…and piping hot!
There were 14 draught ales, beers and lagers to try (or quaff merrily!) from 4,2% to 7% alcohol by volume and four draught ciders (Black Rat, Pyder, Dog Dancer and Black Dragon) at 6% and 7,2% ABV. Entertainment was by folk singers and dancers, pop groups and a sound system.
The pub lies among 2 500 acres of rolling woodland and rivers owned by the National Trust, about 15 minutes’ walk from the Dolaucothi Gold Mines (also National Trust.) These were first worked by the ancient Roman conquerors of Britain and operated on-and-off until 1938. Well worth a visit. My son-in-law and grand-son were fascinated.
I had to Google the pub website to check a few facts and felt (space allowing) it may be a good idea to reproduce their mouthwatering Christmas menu for any readers who may find themselves in Welsh Wales for Xmas: smoked fish terrine, celeriac soup with root vegetable crisps; squash, pearl barley and spinach raised pie,; rabbit rilletes with spiced sloe chutney. Those are for starters.
Mains: traditional roast turkey with all the trimmings, roast goose with gingerbread stuffing and cider prunes, steak-and-rock-oyster pie, bream with rosemary and almond stuffing, parsnip and blue cheese roulades.
And for pudding: churros con chocolate, rum-and-ginger crème brulee, home-made plum pudding with brandy sauce, home-made festive ice-cream. That’s all for £22,50 per person (about US$33) and for a £2,50 supplement you can local cheese and pickles. Bed-and-breakfast at the pub is £75 a night per couple, £45 single. More about Wales next week.
Dusty Miller flew to the UK at his own expense with Emirates, but the airline upgraded him to Business Class and put him up in Dubai on the return leg. Nearest Emirates-served airports to Wales are Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham. They also fly to Newcastle, Glasgow and Dublin. [email protected]
