Blaenafon Cheddar Company and Easter Bonnets – April meeting

Our speaker at the April meeting was Susan of the Blaenafon Cheddar Company. The company began 2006 and has gradually grown over time. On the day they opened customers were queuing in the street. They completely sold out that Christmas, and Susan laughingly told us that they had had to buy the cheese for their own use from a supermarket!

Locally produced milk is transported to North Wales where it is pasteurised and turned into basic cheddar cheese. This then returns to them in Blaenafon, South Wales and they process it into the varieties of specialist cheeses they produce. All the ingredients that are added to process the cheese are natural. For example, the cheeses that contain alcohol, the beer or sparkling wine come out of a bottle, and apple and strawberry are fresh fruits – they are not synthetic flavourings. After processing, the cheese is extruded into long sausage shapes and chilled. Then it is sliced into the familiar round shape of Blaenafon cheeses, waxed, chilled, given a second layer of wax and hand labelled. Each batch is micro-tested and so far they have had no failures and received no complaints. Their cheeses have won a number of awards.

Blaenafon Cheese generously gave a platter of cheese to each table for members to sample. The samples were: Oak Smoked, 1868 Lion Hotel, Strawberry and Prosceco, Bara Brith, Taffy Apple, Capel Newydd, Cymru Crunch, Pwll Ddu, and Dragon's Breath. It was quite a lot of cheese with a whole range of flavours. After the presentation and sampling, members were able to purchase cheeses.

After the presentation, Susan kindly judged the Easter bonnet competition.

Cwmni Caws Cheddar Blaenafon a Bonedau Pasg – Cyfarfod mis Ebrill

Ein siaradwr yng nghyfarfod mis Ebrill oedd Susan o Gwmni Caws Cheddar Blaenafon. Dechreuodd y cwmni yn 2006 ac mae wedi tyfu'n raddol dros amser. Ar y diwrnod y gwnaethon nhw agor roedd cwsmeriaid yn ciwio yn y stryd. Fe wnaethon nhw werthu'n llwyr y Nadolig hwnnw, a dywedodd Susan wrthym yn chwerthinllyd eu bod wedi gorfod prynu'r caws ar gyfer eu defnydd eu hunain o archfarchnad!

Mae llaeth a gynhyrchir yn lleol yn cael ei gludo i Ogledd Cymru lle caiff ei basteureiddio a'i droi'n gaws cheddar sylfaenol. Yna mae hwn yn dychwelyd atynt ym Mlaenafon, De Cymru ac maent yn ei brosesu i mewn i'r mathau o gawsiau arbenigol maent yn eu cynhyrchu. Mae'r holl gynhwysion sy'n cael eu hychwanegu i brosesu'r caws yn naturiol. Er enghraifft, mae'r cawsiau sy'n cynnwys alcohol, y cwrw neu'r gwin pefriog yn dod allan o botel, ac mae afal a mefus yn ffrwythau ffres – nid blasau synthetig ydynt. Ar ôl prosesu, caiff y caws ei allwthio i siapiau selsig hir a'i oeri. Yna caiff ei sleisio i siâp crwn cyfarwydd cawsiau Blaenafon, ei gwyro, ei oeri, rhoi ail haen o gwyr iddo a'i labelu â llaw. Mae pob swp yn cael ei brofi'n ficro ac hyd yn hyn nid ydynt wedi cael unrhyw fethiannau ac nid ydynt wedi derbyn unrhyw gwynion. Mae eu cawsiau wedi ennill nifer o wobrau.

Rhoddodd Caws Blaenafon blât o gaws i bob bwrdd yn hael i'r aelodau ei flasu. Y samplau oedd: Oak Smoked, 1868 Lion Hotel, Strawberry and Prosceco, Bara Brith, Taffy Apple, Capel Newydd, Cymru Crunch, Pwll Ddu, ac Anadl y Ddraig. Roedd yn dipyn o gaws gydag ystod eang o flasau. Ar ôl y cyflwyniad a'r samplu, roedd yr aelodau'n gallu prynu cawsiau.

Ar ôl y cyflwyniad, bu Susan yn garedig yn beirniadu cystadleuaeth boned y Pasg.

Meeting – April 2025

 The main speaker at the April meeting was Nor'dzin Pamo, talking about pilgrimages to Nepal and Bhutan – please separate post.

Lynette Chappin talked to the group about making small blankets from the squares knitted by WI members. These were originally being sent to help African babies, then to a residential home, but now they are going to Ukraine. She said that she did not receive as many squares as she had in previous years. So this is a call to our members to get knitting! Lynette asks for 6" squares of any colour and design. She then crochets them together to form the blankets. Thank you Lynette for your long-standing commitment to this project and skilled crochet work

The photograph is of a representative receiving a number of the finished blankets to transport to Ukraine.

Also at the April meeting we had an Easter bonnet competition. The entries were judged by Nor'dzin and the winner received an Easter egg. Angela was the winner, third from the left.

Celebrating Wales at the March Meeting – entry details

 

Here are the options for entering the competitions at the March meeting:

1. To be handed in at the MARCH Meeting:

Cakes

• 12 Welsh cakes (to be eaten later) 
• Chocolate cake – not less than 6 ins diameter

2. To be handed in at the FEBRUARY Meeting:

Photographs – 5x7 ins

• daffodils 
• two of a kind

Craft – an item of clothing for a Welsh doll’s costume

Poem – a limerick beginning “A Lady In a Welsh WI..."
(Only one per member) 

(All entries in the above categories to be submitted under a 'nom de plume'.)

3. To be performed at the MARCH meeting: 

Choral speaking (not less than six voices) – an extract from "Under Milk Wood":

“Hush, the babies are sleeping, the farmers, the fishers, the tradesmen and pensioners, cobbler, schoolteacher, postman and publican, the undertaker and the fancy woman, drunkard, dressmaker, preacher, policeman, the webfoot cocklewomen and the tidy wives. Young girls lie bedded soft or glide in their dreams, with rings and trousseaux, bridesmaided by glowworms down the aisles of the organplaying wood. The boys are dreaming wicked or of the bucking ranches of the night and the jollyrodgered sea. And the anthracite statues of the horses sleep in the fields, and the cows in the byres, and the dogs in the wetnosed yards; and the cats nap in the slant corners or lope sly, streaking and needling, on the one cloud of the roofs.

You can hear the dew falling ......... ”