Royal Cornwall Show – Champion Exhibit

I’m not sure where to start on our first ever Royal Cornwall Show….

So much work, planning, stress and anxiety went into attending the show as exhibitors. Having never done a show on this scale before or having cooked burgers to sell before we really had absolutely no idea how much beef we would need or what to expect!

So we plumped for 6 bodies of beef spread across fresh beef sales and burgers. Luckily we were pretty much spot on as we came home with next to nothing.

Although we knew the dimensions of our pitch when we saw it in real life our 6m width seemed vast. Will and Kenny had worked so hard to construct the wooden cladding to frame our exhibit and mount the incredibly heavy new display fridges on wheels!

We couldn’t have prepared for the response to our hot food from the second the first piece of bacon went on the grill at 7.30am to the last burger cooked at 6pm (officially) but we served well after 6.30pm the queue never stopped! We were blown away by the feedback with quotes like ‘best burgers at a show ever’!

Our fabulous friend Emma managed to juggle her shifts at her ‘proper’ work to be able to help us for the week of the show. We managed as a trio on Thursday but as the show got busier on Friday we were swamped. Luckily our super hero friend Sarah was buying a burger at lunchtime, clocked the mayhem and jumped in to help for a while which turned into several hours which really saved us. Then on Saturday Emma brought her daughter to work for the day and we had the mini farmers in tow. Charlie worked like a trooper on the grill with Will while Flora was calling out orders. Later in the day they went off with Vikki (our brilliant beef labelling hero) and her family for a few hours.

On Thursday evening there was an awards presentation in the Food and Farming Marquee. As it was our first show and being surrounded by 40 fabulous Cornish food exhibitors we really weren’t expecting anything at all. So we were totally amazed to be crowned the Overall Champion Exhibit!! The competition had been judged through the day and was all about not only the look of the exhibit but the produce on sale and the story behind the product. We were also awarded the Reserve Best Farm Producer award which was won by Colwith Farm Distillery. It was a great day for our fellow Truro Farmer’s Market traders Chris from the Cornish Olive Stall and Sam from Moreish Mushrooms who also won prizes.

We were lucky enough to be featured on BBC Spotlight on Thursday evening with a piece we filmed with them a few weeks ago about our Pastured Beef and work with the Farm Net Zero project. Then on the Friday they asked if they could interview us again, this time about Cornwall Council’s move to support Cornish producers. I did mention that we had only been on the night before! Then both Will and I did interviews with BBC Radio Cornwall, Will had to do his whilst flipping burgers as there was no time to stop.

It is safe to say that we were totally and utterly exhausted but completely exhilarated by the show. We will definitely be back in 2024 and hopefully for many more years to come.

Since returning home Will has been very busy making lots of hay on the farm. The weather has been absolutely perfect for it but now we really need a drop of rain. Let’s just hope that when it does start to rain it will no when to stop!