You will find a huge diversity of perennials, herbs, fruit trees and wild native plants in our Forest Garden. We will be learning more about the nature of the land throughout the weekend. Bringing you foraging workshops, herbal medicine workshops, inspiration on the magic of dowsing, how to grow a forest garden, film screenings, vegetable plots and vibrant orchards.
COED GARDENS TALK AND TOUR
One third of the communities food consumption is produced within the gardens of Coed on about 1.5 acres of land. Enjoy a tour of the gardens with our one and only Stephen!
Get to know Stephen a little more here.
FORAGING WITH MARTIN & SETONDJI
Familiarize yourself with the land and forage and cook with fresh wild food. This year Martin Bailey from Goforaging and Setondji from Setondji’s Sunshine kitchen will be hosting the foraging sessions. Martin will be leading the foraging, and Setondji will be cooking it up!
STORIES FROM THE LAND with CATH LITTLE
Cath will be bringing stories and songs from the land of Wales to share. She bridges the worlds of land based nature connection with arts and culture, using her skills to weave magic into the land we walk upon. More about Cath little
HEALING HERBS
An interactive workshop with Aimée Lomand. Herbs are all around us. What can they do for us? How do we begin to include them in our lives? How do we use them for preventative medicine? Bring your questions and answers to this open session and get to meet the plants in a new way.
FILM SCREENING OF WOOD FOR THE TREES
We will be screening Charly le Mar’s latest film series Wood for the trees with questions and answers
SEED SAVING WORKSHOP
A seed saving exploration with Sophie Bolton, an interactive workshop. Sophie will share some information on seed saving followed by a general discussion on vegetable growing – particularly salad leaves, bring any questions you might have.
TREES OF HOPE AND EDICULTURE
On Sunday morning join us for a special talk about planting trees in Zimbabwe and Wales.
Tafara Chakanetsa, director of Trees of Hope, was born and raised in rural Zimbabwe and has witnessed the effect of over zealous deforestation for farming, firewood, mining, timber and firing kilns.
At twelve years old Tafara planted his first trees on the family land. 30 years later and those trees are the inspiration for the Trees of Hope project.
Trees of Hope was constituted in 2020 with a broadly representative committee to oversee work in the UK and Zimbabwe.
Trees of Hope and Ediculture are the two charities to which the surplus money of Coed Ffest will be donated. Come and find out more about what we want to support
Honouring the Mother: Connecting with the Sacred Waters of Coed Hills
Gathering at the festival on this Summer Solstice, we are reminded that to spend time on the land we must honour its waters. Coed y Ffynnon is a Spring just below the stone circle. It is a place of inspiration and magic, of quiet contemplation and nourishment.
We have borrowed from many cultures in our quest for re-enchantment with the sacred, and yet the land in the Vale of Glamorgan holds the stories of our own gods and goddesses, the deep replenishing waters of our own legends.
At 3pm each day there will be a guided walk to the Spring, weaving stories and myths of Wales and our history, gathering at Coed y Ffynnon to give thanks, and take rest and replenishment. This workshop will be led by Sarah Raven, one of the original community members of Coed, now living in a remote valley north of Pontadawe.
DOWSING WORKSHOP
Paul Syrett, intuitive healer, dowser and Geomancer, will be sharing his skills in Dowsing.
Dowsing is an innate talent that you may never have known you had!
These workshops will show you how to learn that language and show you the many aspects of how you can apply it to life.
We will show you how to use your body and hands to start your dowsing quest. We will move on to use rods, pendulums and other “tools” and illustrate how you can apply dowsing and these tools to your daily life.
Q&A with John the Beeman
John will be hosting a Q and A in the forest garden on all things bee related. Come by to learn more about beekeeping, honey bees and bumble bees and taste some of our delicious honey. ??
John has over 50 years of beekeeping experience and now has hives in Pembrokeshire and at Coed Hills.
John is a font of knowledge about bees. What he doesn’t know isn’t worth knowing!