TOURISM GROUP CELEBRATE COMING OF AGE

A little known but hard working group of small businesses is celebrating its 21st anniversary.

The Carmarthenshire Farm and County Holidays Group was formed in 1994 as a self-help group, to promote their individual businesses and support each other with marketing and advice. Their members offer a range of facilities including bed and breakfast, self catering cottages as well as camping and caravanning.

The 20 group members are the most active of their kind in Wales. They recently published a collection of recipes called “Carmarthenshire Farmhouse Fayre” which rapidly sold out and is now only available in electronic format on the group’s website www.carmarthenshirefarms.com.

The group will be at the Royal Welsh Show again this year and last year gave cookery demonstrations at Llanelli’s National Eisteddfod.

Group chair Sharon Richards, from Abergwili, said the group prided themselves on the use and promotion of the best of local produce wherever possible, giving advice to visitors on where they may be purchased.

She said: “We help the visitor to sample the culture of the area conveying a sense of place.

“Amongst our members, awards have been achieved for produce, breakfasts, Farm Woman of the Year and Landlady of the Year. There have also been flower arranging, livestock and crop awards.”

Executive board member for tourism Cllr Meryl Gravell said: “This hard working team of small businesses have been proudly boasting Carmarthenshire as ‘the Garden of Wales,’ doing so much for the tourism industry.”

To acknowledge their 21st milestone, the group is holding an evening summer barbecue at 7pm on Friday, July 10 at the home of Joan and Peter Francis, Penlan Isaf Farm, Kidwelly, with invited members of the tourism industry.