At the Moynalty Steam Threshing Festival

My husband’s father’s family is from Moynalty, County Meath.  It is a lovely, picturesque, quaint village.  And every year, for the past 38 years, they host a Steam Threshing Festival which attracts upwards of 30,000 people.  It is always an enjoyable afternoon, and this year was no exception!

At the Moynalty Steam Threshing Festival

I’m not a farming girl myself, so everything had to be explained to me.  Threshing is the process of beating the stem of the grain to separate the grain from the straw. Long ago, this was done by beating it by hand using a flail, but this graduated to using threshing machines powered by horses, and then later by steam engines.  Today, combines are used.

Threshing demonstration field.

There is a tremendous amount of work involved, no matter which method is used!  It is lovely to be able to see how things were done “in the olden days” (which is really not all that long ago!).

One of the many steam engines.

The Moynalty Steam Threshing festival is a great day for the entire family.  They have vintage cars, antique displays, food, animals, crafts, and rides.  They, of course, have a web site: http://www.moynaltysteamthreshing.ie/

Steam Engine.

For us, we have the added benefit of being able to visit with family.  It is always fun to catch-up with everyone!  I must get pictures of the extended family next time! 🙂

Vintage steam engine.

The kids love to hear the whistles blow!  It’s classic.

Tractors through the ages!

Antique display of radios.

Selling lavender at the festival with my helpers.

Having gone to the festival for years, I decided that it would be a perfect place to sell my lavender.  My lavender display was set up in the vintage car section.  I have to say that really, lavender sells itself!  The scent was enough to get people to come over to me (that’s the hard part!).  I think it worked well with the different variety of items that I had. I sold my lavender wands, mini-bouquets, larger bouquets, and two different sized pouches (sachets).   It was a lovely day!

It is always nice to find a fun festival to visit.

Dana
p.s. I most appreciated my husband taking all of the wonderful pictures in this post while I was busy selling lavender!