Exchange vegetables for beer and visit a Victorian cottage in the village of Llangernyw
I love hearing about off-beat interesting initiatives in Wales. This one’s particularly neat, with customers at The Old Stag pub in Llangernyw bringing in their vegetables for the pub kitchen in exchange for beer!
The pub landlord, Darryl Flynn, started the barter scheme after several locals offered up their spare garden-grown vegetables. It’s a win-win situation as the pub continually has the freshest, local produce for the kitchen, and locals are saving money on their pints!
The village of Llangernyw is set in the Elwy Valley in North Wales, and has a population of just 1,000 people, most of whom speak fluent Welsh. The village boasts one of the oldest living things in the world: a 4,000 year-old ancient Yew tree, located in the church yard next to the pub.
In the village, is the Sir Henry Jones Museum – the childhood home of philosopher and teacher, Sir Henry Jones (1852 – 1922). The museum is a great example of Victorian life in a typical Welsh community, and it features an authentically restored Victorian cottage garden. The museum has also gotten on board with the barter initiative with The Old Stag pub… they provide organic vegetables for the pub kitchen such as potatoes, kale, chard and red drumhead cabbage, in return for donations to the museum.
Volunteer gardener at the Sir Henry Jones Museum, Pamela Harris, said: “We have a cut-off date of 1900 for the veg’ we grow here. I get the seeds from a specialist in heritage seeds who give us the history of each vegetable so we know they’re authentic.” The garden also grows herbs which were very important in the 19th century.
It sounds like Llangernyw would be a great Welsh village to visit, and I’d definitely be sure to drop by both the museum and the pub of course!