May 13, 2009

Donuts and Agfest


Day two: As I was saying yesterday the Korean feast was a huge success. Mum and I got home around 11-pm then of course sat around with dad and talked until midnight (as you do when you haven't really seen each other for the past 5 years!). I was told that it was going to be an early start in the morning so we could come back home at a reasonable time after seeing the sights at Agfest. For those of you not in the know, Agfest is a massive yearly farming event in Tasmania. Thousands so people rock up to see the latest farming goods and to my surprise there are now about 1000 other vendors of all things Tasmanian ranging from food and handmade sweets, to sheepskins and motorbikes.

When we arrived, dad popped on his Rotary cap and wondered off to see how the food caravan was fairing. At this stage I had totally forgotten dad was a Rotarian but didn't think anything of it. Mum and I walked around Agfest wondering what we could do with a new hydro lift or how we could justify buying a flashy fluro horse rug when we didn't have a horse- we were fitting in nicely!
Lunch time was approaching and mum was starting to get a bit anxious "lets go and see if they need a hand at the food stall" Hm mm, pardon? "come on Mil, we should help out a bit" What you want ME to work.....AGAIN??? 
There was a skip in her step and as mum pulled me on she looked back to say "Come on it will be fun". As we pulled up to the Rotary tent the line was long, mum spotted dad in the donut van and whipped in before I could say a word.
You know the smell of frying oil, sugar, cinnamon and dough? well it had me hooked! I bumped dad off the donut machine and started rolling the sweet, crisp donuts in cinnamon sugar while salivating in the process. I think I ate about three before I decided it wouldn't be such a good idea to make lunch an all you can eat donut buffet!
Before I knew it we were churning them out in the 100's. I sent dad off to find more dough while I was left manning the machine. Despite my initial surprise that here I was working (again) on my two day holiday, I met all of my parents friends I'd missed while living in the States and found them to be great fun and full of laughs thus- making a day of donuts and farm stuff pretty cool. However next time I'll make sure there are no up and coming Rotary events or catering gigs so maybe, just maybe we can all relax on the deck sipping sparkling vino and cooking fabulous food for us to eat......well we did do that on my last day, just before heading back to Sydney so all was not lost I mean it wasn't crayfish but fresh flathead and Tassie scallops in a light tempura batter is a pretty delicious runner up!

4 comments:

The Kings said...

You are a good daughter Camilla!!! We love AGFEST! I hadn't been for 9 years and went this year and it was fun.

Camilla Baker said...

I didn't see you! It was a lot of fun, I think the last time I went was about 15 years ago,ha,ha. We must catch up on my next return Lisa.

The Kings said...

We were there on the Friday. Were you there Saturday? So many people there and so many things to look at! I didn't even get a donut, but did try a mango icecream :)
Would love to catch up next time you are in Tassie. Will have to organise something with Bec so we can all get together.

Camilla Baker said...

Yeah, I was there Saturday.....the line was way to long for ice creams so I missed out.
OK we are on, when next in Tas we will reconnect, lets hope it is before the new baby arrives!