The atmosphere was one of joy and smiles all around, learning about the many varieties of potato grown locally from the accommodating Crookwell Potato Association, to bagging a bargain from one of the 60 odd stallholders offering products and produce from the local region and beyond.

Attendance of just over 3,000 rolled through the Memorial Oval gates to enjoy the nonstop entertainment on centre stage and the cooking demonstrations in the Patata Kitchen using local potato as their inspiration.  The blue and white marquee with the matching blue and white gingham tablecloths attracted a full house with each cooking demonstration.  

Kylie Hogan, Head Chef from Madison’s Restaurant in Goulburn added a twist to her demonstration with coconut roughs made from mashed potato that were delicious and almost guilt free.  

Crookwell Potato Festival Committee Chair, Joyce Edwards, commented, “This is exactly what we have been working toward.  

“We are so proud of everyone involved in the Festival and delighted at the results showcasing Crookwell and sharing the history of commercial potato development with the wider community.”

The Market Emporium marquee was styled with pallets framing the walls for each stall holder that underscored the country theme whilst providing the visitor a visual continuity and style not seen previously in Crookwell.

Across Crookwell, street entertainment at five locations lifted the spirits of visitors and locals with brass band, bush poetry and music for all genres.

The main street of Crookwell was buzzing with activity and those businesses participating in the Festival celebrations were rewarded with well above average takings and showing Crookwell at its best.

One of the great successes was the Farm and Eco tours at Gary Kadwell’s property where over 400 visitors experienced the wonder of Bev Hatch’s heavy horses working as they would have done in yesteryear.  The Eco tours demonstrated the ability for dry and wetland development to coexist alongside intensive mixed farming.  The lucky ones to enjoy this were amazed to see habitats that so many species of migratory birds, native animals and flora had returned to and flourished.

This year, statistics were gathered from attendees and it was interesting to note that over 50% came from outside of the local region, including Sydney basin, Central Coast, Hunter, Illawarra, South Coast, Canberra, Cootamundra, Young and Yass.

There were a number of overseas travellers, from USA, UK, Ireland, Japan and NZ.  It was interesting to note that many were first time visitors to Crookwell and the feedback was very positive.

There were 80 motor homes in the Showground and the Caravan Park was full with one guest stating that it was the cleanest he had seen anywhere.

Introducing Facebook has had a profound effect on messaging and the web site was running hot on Saturday causing the Web hosting company to request additional bandwidth to cope with the demand. Blogging of the Festival with photos and stories has gone around the world highlighting some of the unique events.  

The economic injection of funds into Crookwell for accommodation, food, eateries, fuel, general purchases and entertainment has given our community a lift.  

Local charities and not for profit organisations were well represented and gained exposure and much needed funds.

There will be some flow on from this event with possible purchases of land, vehicles and return visits.

The Festival demonstrated the benefits of showcasing Crookwell and our amazing community.  

What we take for granted, others are in awe and wonder that we are privileged to live and enjoy the lifestyle and wonderful community.

It is hoped that our community will support next year’s event and be involved with street scaping, volunteering, participating and spreading the word.

Farm eco-tours proved popular

Organisers were happy with the interest shown in the eco-farm tours to the potato paddock organised on Garry Kadwell property south of Crookwell.

One of the highlights for the tours was to see the heavy horses working like they used to and the roles they played on farms in the past.

As in previous years, 11-year-old ‘WoodBarn Albert’ was a favourite.

In the days before mechanisation, draught horses like Albert were an integral part of the agricultural scene.   

They were the ‘tractors’ used for every activity from ploughing, harrowing, rolling, seeding, weeding with scarifiers, and harvesting with implements that slashed and cut, that raked and turned, reaped and bound, and dug.    

Anything that needed power on a farm used one or several draught horses.

Unlike the horses of yesterday, Albert’s work is intermittent, hence the need to bring him up to working standard.    

Harry Topalidis from the Crown Theatre Café lends a welcome hand to prepare WoodBarn Albert for his big day out.

Junior Australian Poetry competition winners

Upper Lachlan Dame Mary Gilmore Society Judging Team – Elizabeth Egan, Heather Kerr, Christopher Lee, Terry Benbow and Trevene Mattox were once again impressed with the standard of entries.

The competition was held in the Crookwell Wesley Uniting Church during the Potato Festival..

The emcees Chris and Kate Hinton entertained the audience superbly during the marking breaks.

The winners were – High School: first Hannah Stephens, second and third Jessica Wilson.

Primary School – first Lucy Marshall, Bigga Public School, second Zanderlee Reeves, Crookwell Public School,  third Levi Woods, Crookwell Public School and Highly Commended, Abby Woods, Crookwell Public School.

CWA Potato competition winners

CROOKWELL CWA potato competition was a huge success. The children had worked very hard decorating their potato and some efforts paid off.

Winners are as follows:

Infants section - 1st Billy Speer with ‘The Hulk’, 2nd Ruby Perry with ‘Reindeer’, 3rd Bryce Foley with ‘Peppa Pig’, highly commended Lillian Skelly with ‘Green sheep’.

Primary section - 1st Sophie Perry with ‘Bathing Beauty’, 2nd Kirrilly Skelly, 3rd Crookwell 1st Cubs/Scout Group, highly commended Lockie Sharma.

Preschool section - 1st Crookwell Preschool, 2nd Crookwell Mobile Preschool, 3rd SDN Preschool

Special award to Mobile Preschool.

Margaret Williams, President of CWA said, “Thank you to everyone that entered and a big special thank you to Trevene Maddox for judging the entries.”

People’s choice - art

As part of last weekend’s Crookwell Potato Festival, the Crookwell District Art Gallery held an exhibition of the people’s collection of artworks at the Gallery in Denison Street.

Talk about record-breaking attendances!   

At opening night on Friday March 6 and over the weekend nearly 200 people attended.   

Locals and visitors alike dropped in to view the gallery’s permanent collection and voted for their favourite paintings.

1st choice      “Millthorpe” by Doris Kaminski (painting no. 5)

2nd choice      “Dusk – Kangaroo Valley” by John Sharman (painting no. 20)

3rd choice     “Red Dress” by Rowena Dean (painting no. 28)

Our thanks go to the organisers of the Crookwell Potato Festival for a wonderful weekend that brought so many visitors to town and also to the volunteers at the gallery who greeted all those who visited the Crookwell District Art Gallery.

Quilt Show and Book Fair    

A large amount of visitors to the region plus many locals visited the Memorial Hall to view the quilt displays and purchase books from the book fair organised by the Ladies Patchwork Group and the Crookwell Library.

The quilt display was very impressive with the lucky door prize going to Francis Bullbrook from the ACT and the donated quilt for the raffle being won by Pat Anable from Glenerin.

There was over 1000 entries with $1400 of takings to be donated to the Hospital Auxiliary.

The Crookwell Historical Society also had displays in the foyer of photos of unknown persons from around the district.